"Sitting on a bid"
 

I recently participated in spring rush because I did not rush in the fall. I got a bid from a house I really like, but since I can't afford it this semester, I opted to pledge in the fall.
Now I don't know if I made the right choice waiting because I feel like they dropped me and I don't know what to do.

Are you keeping in touch with the sisters? Are they keeping in touch with you? They shouldn't just lock you down and then forget about you.

Ummm...I'm not aware that they can do this. You either accept it or you don't. I wouldn't count on it being there in the fall. Personnel can change and it's possible no one will remember.

This sounds like a recipe for failure. If you hang out too much, members may resent you getting for free what they are paying for. If you don't hang out, they will forget about you.

What did they say to you when you asked to put off pledging until the fall semester? I have not heard of an NPC sorority holding a spot open in a pledge class like this. Not to say it never happens, but it is pretty uncommon.

Are you absolutely, without a doubt, positively certain that you will be able to afford the cost of sorority membership next semester and for the rest of your college career?

I'm sorry...I'm not as well versed as I should be in NPC bidding rules, but I thought every bid was good for one year. When I was in college, you could accept a bid in the fall and start pledging in the spring. Or pledge in the spring and join the pledge class in the fall.

Am I am totally misremembering? Maybe things changed in the last 10-15 years?

NPC bids are good for as long as the chapter wants it to be good. NPC has nothing to do with how long a bid is open. It's how long your acceptance of said bid lasts. In NPC, the acceptance is binding for one year OR until the next formal recruitment period. So if you accept a COB bid in February and formal recruitment is in August, you can terminate your pledgeship any time between Feb and Aug and participate in fall formal recruitment. However, if you accept a bid during fall formal recruitment, you are bound to it for a year. Understand?

The way I read it, she has already signed a bid. This used to be done a lot more when there were issues with totals not being realistic - it padded numbers and kept the national off your case. The RM factor wasn't as big a deal either. But at a school like Florida State (where I assume she is) I don't know why a chapter would do this unless she was, like, Dakota Fanning making a movie the same semester as formal rush.

Tangent: I thought I remembered something like, in informal recruitment, the PNM has 24 hours to make a decision, but I'm assuming that was just a campus rule. It makes a TON of sense to me, because it stops chapters from pulling any sort of "sign this instant" nonsense, but the MOI has nothing about this, right? It kinda seems like it would be a nice addition.

PH can't really track COB bids as they are handed out, unless it's a partially structured COB. So putting a time limit on them to be accepted really wouldn't work. How would it be tracked? But generally speaking, groups need an answer so that they can give that bid to someone else if that PNM doesn't take it.

And the OP said she opted to wait till fall to pledge so I interpret that as she did not accept it/sign the card because she would be accepting it if she did.

Why would the chapter agree to hold a bid open for her all the way to the fall? Doesn't that mess with their quota/total numbers? Unless they're REALLY under total, how can they be sure to have space for her after formal recruitment?

Sorry you aren't reading between my lines....I don't think she's really "sitting on a bid." I think she told them she couldn't accept right now but wants to in the fall and they said "Sure! Come thru fall recruitment and we'll have a spot for you." Which is all well and good except that 1/4 of the chapter won't be there any more and the rest probably aren't going to remember or care. I think she's in for a rude awakening. But that's just my 2 cents worth....

Gotcha! Thanks. :)

Accepting a bid and beginning pledging are two different things. Let's ask the OP and see. Babynolegirl - did you actually SIGN a bid or just tell them you were interested but couldn't pledge until fall?

Sorry, I meant it the other way...PNM's got AT LEAST 24 hours to make a decision, i.e. the group could not take a PNM into a room and say "decide right this second or the bid is gone." It's a minor thing, but it's akin to preventing "hotboxing" during formal rush.