Invite-only parties during informal rush?
 

Is it common to hold invite-only/pref parties during informal rush?

In the past at my school, my sorority has been the only one eligible to do COB. We always held about 3 open events, which we advertised generally as well as specifically inviting some of our unaffiliated friends, then we extended bids.

This year, the school is going to deferred rush, so every sorority is currently under total and holding fall informal rush for upperclasswomen and transfers. I found two sororities' rush schedules online. One sorority is holding 3-4 open events and then extending bids; the other is holding 3 open events, then an invite-only dinner, then pref (also invite-only). I thought this was a great idea - it's a shame that many PNMs going through informal rush never get to see pref ceremonies from the PNM side.

So - do a lot of sororities hold invite-only events during informal? Is everyone invited to pref then offered a bid, or do you invite a couple of extra people if you're near total (i.e. say total is 100 and you have 95 sisters, do you invite 5, or do you invite 7, bid 5, and if one of the 5 declines, you bid one of the other 2)?

Also, for the guys - do fraternities do anything similar, i.e. an invite-only party or dinner for the men you intend to bid?

If it's a structured informal, yes, there are pref parties just like regular formal. If I recall, not everyone invited to pref got a bid.

If I understand correctly what structured informal is, this isn't it - it's 5 sororities all holding informal rush events that happen to be during the same week.

Structured informal is similar to formal, right? You visit each participating sorority and then get invited back, you get a rho chi, Panhel oversees the process, etc?

We haven`t had formal rush in 5 years, so we always have informal recruitment. basically us and the other Npc org set up our own info parties and events that are open to all women.

In my chapter we then invite the women who`ve really shown interest to pref/bid...so yes everyone at pref gets bid. if they all don`t accept and we are not at total then we go on to COB. usually even during cob we try to hold a pref for the women...occasionally that just isn`t possible.

the other npc org, i think, also has a pref night during informal...i do not know if they bid all women who attend or not.

anyway, that`s how we do it.

sorry if I was confusing! yes, structured informal is basically the same as formal except you don't HAVE to go to all the groups. If what you are talking about is everyone having open bid parties - well, I think if you had an invite only after the initial party depends on how good of a turnout you got. I think it is really up to the sorority.