[Hartofsec]

All great points – I agree (greekdee) that lack of a rec is probably an easy way to sort invites for an upcoming round in some of these massive recruitments.

Which overlaps IndianaSigKap’s point about the difficulty some girls from small communities may have obtaining several recs for every chapter -- a PNM could even become a “rush crush” of an active who takes her through, but if there are no alum contacts in her community who the busy chapter advisors or membership chair can locate quickly (before decisions are made), then she may fall through the cracks.

Just thinking out loud – when my daughter registered for recruitment, part of the registration involved completion of an online form that included some of the information that was also on her resume (likely the most important items). I think that GPAs may have been verified via university admission records. So I was wondering if some system developed in this vein might be as useful, and potentially easier and more equitable to PNMs, than the same info submitted by alums. (I realize this is probably SEC heresy)

And like DubaiSis indicated, if the rec is coming from the dentist’s sister’s hairdresser, then it really isn’t any more meaningful than what the PNMs could just submit themselves.

I guess this really wouldn’t do much to manage the numbers, but it might help reduce and organize the mountain of paper that the membership chairs receive, and render the information easier to compare (every PNM submits info on the same form).

And this would be a lot less stressful for the PNMs (and their moms). A friend who is originally from Boston thought I was kidding, and then crazy, when I explained what her daughter likely needed to gather before rush at LSU.