When RFM hurts?
 

Hey all. My last post was a long time ago. Sad to report that my chapter is still struggling.

This was my last formal recruitment, and we had a lot of help from our amazing advisors. Our national/international advisor stepped in on the behalf of our chapter (our reputation has sunk to the level of "the house who never drops anyone, even grade risks") and allowed us to make cuts when our RFM equation allowed for none, or very few. In comparison to years past we dropped a significant number of women from recruitment. It helped us immensely in terms of morale during recruitment because we were no longer faced with women we were not excited to see come back, who were rude to us, and probably would drop anyway. However the downside to this is that our Panhellenic gave us the smallest pledge class on campus by a lot.

There are very knowledgeable members who have been around for a while, what is you opinion on this? And what do you think we can do going forward? We are very pleased with our class and hope that by weeding out some of the people who didn't want to be in our sisterhood we can keep them all focused and excited, as opposed to losing a significant chunk of our new member class, which is what usually happens. As a chapter I believe we are happier with having more ability to choose who we want as sisters. We plan to do COB events as well, and hope to bring our numbers up.

Regardless of what the RFM formula says, if your HQ is ok with it, you can release whomever you want. Panhellenic cannot override an organization's right to select their own members. The thing is that most of the time HQ is in agreement with the "the more people invited back the more possibilities for members" concept, even if those rushees are rude or have crappy grades or haven't bathed in a month.

You guys will do far, far better with a happy and excited smaller class who are all happy to be in YOUR sorority, than a larger group with a significant percentage of women who are only grudgingly there because they want to be in A sorority.

I'm so glad your HQ woke up and smelled the coffee. Their actions are positive in two ways: first, no one can say that you invite back everyone, second, it's been shown that your national has your back and doesn't just think of you as a number.

No they did not GIVE you your pledge class - small, medium or large. So please don't blame them for the size of your pledge class. Your chapter, with permission from your HQ, voted to invite fewer women than allowed. This almost always will result in a smaller pledge class. But the good news is these are women you want and who want you. And there is no better base to start with as everyone will see that in you....and will want to learn more about you. Network with everyone you know to find women to COB. Talking it up with women you know is the best networking there is. Sounds like you are on the right footing - you just need to widen your circle of influence.

2nd what Titchou said so very well.

YES. Earlier this year I sat next to a sister who was a member of a chapter that closed. Nationals (we had different leadership at the time--don't get me started--leadership is wonderful now) put a hard arm on them when they struggled, and they were told by HQ to do numbers and weren't nice about it. This campus, at the time at least--dunno if it's the same way now, that if you didn't have a house you couldn't be competitive. My org had a lot, but couldn't build a house unless we had X amount of members for X amount of time. My org struggled. Instead of taking girls they knew would benefit the group, nationals told them to take warm bodies. Never a good thing. It killed that chapter. I doubt we'll ever be there again since we have been at that campus twice. It was really heartbreaking to hear of a friend's daughter going through rush and hearing that my org was just 'handing out bids.' This is why colonies need to be picky.

My advice: Stay the course. Rush selectively. Celebrate the members you do have. Develop leadership, both within the chapter and on campus. Progress won't be instant but it will happen. Best of luck to you.

Good news. We picked up a large number of women through COB immediately following fall formal, by reaching out to women who didn't like the process/had to drop because of schedule conflicts or who missed the initial deadline. We're so happy, our class is now comparable in size to the others on our campus and there isn't a single woman who we've bidded that we don't like, or who completely doesn't want to be in our chapter. :) Our advisor cried when we confirmed the final number of COB because she was so happy for us. Forcing us to take whoever came through because of numbers did nothing for our sisterhood for like half a decade and drove us to the lowest retention at our school and the lowest retention in our organization as a whole (which was super sad because we're a single letter chapter with a beautiful historic house, not alpha but pretty close). So here's to a turn around hopefully, fingers crossed.

Congratulations! :)

Your chapter has come a long way and it's important to keep doing the positive things that have helped you move forward. ;)

Now take a break and be happy with your current pledge class. Then get ready to take another winning class in the spring!

I'm on the verge of happy tears. :D :D Congrats to your chapter and here's to a successful spring rush!

Congratulations on the addition of new members to your chapter and best wishes for a great spring rush.

FABULOUS!!

I hope every single national councillor and recruitment volunteer of every NPC sorority reads this thread and GETS IT.

So happy to hear this! And as others have said, it's always refreshing when the higher-ups aren't willing to immediately give up on a chapter because of low numbers. Every struggling chapter is different and needs to be dealt with in a different way. It's not a black and white, one-size-fits-all type of situation.

A year or so before I joined my chapter back in 2004, we were down to 4 members. When I was active, we were once at a high of 19. But over the years we've slowly grown, and the chapter just announced that we COB'd 7 new members this semester and actually hit total!

It's tough to be in that struggling chapter, but it's also very rewarding when you see it thrive. Congrats to you and good luck!

Ditto Titchou! Panhellenic doesn't give you a pledge class and your RFM specialist doesn't force you to invite PNMs. The purpose of RFM is to get the needed number or PNMs to each house, based on their historical performance, to allow them to pledge quota. That number differs for each chapter and the RFM specialist manages the numbers all week to have the correct number at each chapter's preference party. If a chapter that is struggling has permission from their nationals and knows that they are not going to follow the invite numbers by a somewhat substantial number, you just need to let panhellenic and the specialist know in advance so they can make adjustments to their projections. This is done as a courtesy to the system but especially to the PNMs because the other responsibility of the RFM specialist is to send the PNMs to chapters where they have the best chance of pledging based on her preferences. Think of it this way, if your chapter knows they are not going to take a large percentage of PNMs, then the RFM specialist, if she knows in advance, can open up space at other chapters to allow these women the opportunity to pledge somewhere else. What you explained is typical of so many chapters that are seriously struggling. Many of those that have turned things around have done exactly what your chapter has, target women in COB that bring the qualities your chapter is looking for in a new member. Congratulations on your success!