Sorority Recruitment Ideas for new sorority

[Ky2786]

i seriously...did not want this to be a huge debate...i apologized for not wording the questions correctly, and reposted the question. i didn't get defensive at all i just didn't understand how i was supposed to ask something i didn't know. i did search through the threads and found nothing that would be useful for my size school...it's small. I could have noted that in the question now that i read back and realize that.

[Ky2786]

the thing about our sorority is we dont have houses, its 16 girls including myself trying to get this up and running smoothly which will take a while. we want to rush the week or possibly the week after we come back for the spring semester. we have a small school compared to other schools, also very very diverse population. im really just trying to find ideas that will benefit the interests of the population. we are not affiliated with any national sorority we are our own, local one. this may sound not so fun to larger sororities im not really sure, but for one thing during rush week we were going to give PNM's a 10 or 15 question quiz on the founding sisters, we don't really know specifics yet but that's something we have been thinking about. we plan on making posters for the school, banners, ordering rush shirts. ( we already have our initial shirts)

i also had a question about Rho Chi counseler? i was told that rho chi is a sorority...but the way i've seen it used on this site leads me to believe that it's used in all sororities as what they refer to the rush officer as? am i correct? Being the Rush officer, i don't know if i should or should not have that title of rho chi, or if there is other names for it or not.

Originally Posted by Ky2786

i also had a question about Rho Chi counseler? i was told that rho chi is a sorority...but the way i've seen it used on this site leads me to believe that it's used in all sororities as what they refer to the rush officer as? am i correct? Being the Rush officer, i don't know if i should or should not have that title of rho chi, or if there is other names for it or not.

Recruitment Chairs are not the same as Recruitment Counselors (aka Rho Chi, Rho Gamma, Pi Chi, etc.). Recruitment Chairs plan the events for their sorority. Recruitment Counselors are members of NPC sororities who disaffiliate from her sorority for the duration of Formal Recruitment. She will assist the PNMs during the process of Recruitment, answering questions and running a Recruitment Group. They cannot reveal their sorority, so they remain neutral and don't influence their PNMs.

A lot of the terminology you will see here in this forum are NPC based, and if you want to brush up on some Greek terms, here's a neat list.

Again, there's a lot of good ideas (over 6 years worth) on GreekChat that'll help you with rush ideas. Please take the time to read the threads as this will probably be the best way for you to get help for your new sorority.

[seussN10]

So here are some idea about holding rush.

First, make sure you know how you are going to do your rush. Is it just going to be a week of informal activites or will it be some informal activities and then an interview/application process. I've seen both processes being used. I would not ask new girls questions about the founding members but instead focus on getting girls interested in your sorority and finding out about who they are.

For the informal events:
-Make sure they are close to population of people that you are interested in. If your trying to get people who live in dorms, make sure the events are convient to them.
-Schedule them when people can come. Don't have evening events if people have night classes. Class is more important and they wont come to your events.
-Advertise like crazy. Put up posters and wear letters on campus. Tell people that you know about your orgnization.
-some fun events, eating (almost anything as long as free people will come out) chocolate or pie or making sundays, doing some sort of small service project, game night, bowling, things of that nature. Make sure the events that you plan have.

For the interview part:
-have standard questions (ask about them, not what they know about you. you have a new member period to tell them about your sorrority)
-let people know what they need to wear to the event
-keep it short (15 to 30 min)

Also if your looking for more ideas, search for COR (continious open recruitment) and informal recruitment.

[Ky2786]

that was extremely helpful thank you so much...i will look back for more rush ideas, this is all very confusing right now but im hoping it comes into perspective soon enough. the hard part about it is, we dont have sorority houses it's only us 16 girls so inviting them to come to the house isn't really something that can happen. but i'll figure something out though.

Originally Posted by Ky2786

the hard part about it is, we dont have sorority houses it's only us 16 girls so inviting them to come to the house isn't really something that can happen. but i'll figure something out though.

A lot of sororities don't have chapter houses either, including mine.

You shouldn't let that stop you from having a great rush event.

[Ky2786]

oh i definitely wasn't planning on letting that stop anything. at least i hope not. i should be in the campus apartments next semester so im thinking maybe there's a way i could make that a place of refuge for the sorority in a way.

but anyway, im looking back into the threads for rush...finding some good stuff but, im really just finding ways on how to treat the rushees...

[PenguinTrax]

Originally Posted by Ky2786

that was extremely helpful thank you so much...i will look back for more rush ideas, this is all very confusing right now but im hoping it comes into perspective soon enough. the hard part about it is, we dont have sorority houses it's only us 16 girls so inviting them to come to the house isn't really something that can happen. but i'll figure something out though.

At my campus we were able to use rooms in the Student Union (for free). You can also do casual events at local coffeeshops, bookstores, etc. Just ask if they have an 'away' area where you can talk and not disturb other patrons.

[FSUZeta]

i was going to suggest that you try to reserve a room on campus(in the student union if possible) to hold your events-it will be much easier for girls with no means of transportation to get there if your events are held on campus. good advice, barb.

you threw me when you said that you will give the prospective new members(pnms) a quiz to answer about your founders during rush week. why would you do that? that is something that you should save for the new member education period. you need to entertain pnms.

first, if you have not already done so, decide how many new members you want to take. decide how your group will go about choosing the new members, but think carefully-if you want to offer membership to 12 girls and 13 girls come out, be willing to be flexible and bend your rules, if you think that they would all fit in. imagine being the 13th girl and not being offered membership, just because the chapter decided that 12 was the magic number. DO NOT tell the pnms how many girls you hope to extend bids to.

decide if your parties will be open to all, or if later in the week you will be inviting back only those girls who you are really interested in. maybe have two events where anyone can come and then for the third night extend invitations to those girls you are most interested in. if you will be extending invitations later in the week, be sure to say so at each of your open events, so that the pnms understand how it works. in fact, typing up a schedule and giving it out at the first party would be really helpful to the pnms.

you need to have a list of girls who attend your events-make sure you get contact information-full name, local address, phone # and email.

decide what the sisters will wear each night-will you wear slacks and sweaters one night-will they all be the same color? will they be different?what will you wear on the other nights?

at your first party, plan some kind of ice breaker or maybe more than one. in addition,you could have one of your sisters share some information about your sorority in a short speech-things like the date you were founded, your purpose, explain how the rest of the week will work, , gpa requirements. have her write down what she is going to say and practice it before hand. no ad libbing!!keep it fun and brief. serve a snack-chips and dips/salsa, veggie tray, water and lemonade.

for the 2nd night you could do some sort of craft or activity that would benefit a local charity. you could then have a member give a short speech about the charity(ies) your group plans to support and how you will be supporting those charities. serve something to eat-maybe make your own sundae-you could call this b.y.o.b. night-bring your own banana-you would supply the ice creams and toppings. serve water to drink.

for the 3rd night you could present a skit based on a movie or tv show-approx. 10 minutes long. have a sister write a script that models the show, but that is catered to your sorority and its sisterhood,or have a movie or board game night. rewrite some popular songs to incorporate your sorority and sing them to the pnms. on this night you could talk about the fun things your group will be doing on campus and within the chapter. maybe serve pizza and soft drinks tonight.

on the 4th night you could have the sisters dress up(church type dresses) and ask the pnms to do the same. serve something a little fancy-cheesecake, or iced cupcakes with the pnms name written in icing on it. present a short,solemn ceremony that does not divulge your ritual, but is just as serious. this would be like an npc sorority's pref. night. you could ask a few sisters to share what your sorority means to them-again, have them write it down and rehearse it!!

pair a sister with a pnm-sisters may have to play hostess to groups of pnms depending on how many come to your first party.have the sisters form a line by the door to pick up the pnms as they come in. have your president or another sister welcome them into the room. it is each sisters job to learn the name of each pnm in her group and engage them in conversation.at the end of each party, thank the pnms for coming. if there are sisters without pnms, they should try to visit with each group-the more members who meet pnms, the better the decision will be whether to offer them membership or not.

assign tasks to each sister- someone needs to make sure that snacks are replenished, someone will need to buy paper goods, name tags(or someone creative can make them out of card stock-maybe a different themed nametag for each night?). you could make enough for the pnms to have the same as you, or you could just get plain nametags for the pnms.

if you can, make all these decisions before everyone goes home at the end of the semester. make sure all your sisters understand how the new members will be selected and try to hold a dry run of each night so that you are all comfortable with the procedures. if you are going to do a skit, it should be written so that sisters can practice their parts over the break and then rehersals should be held when school starts up again.

is this the kind of advice you were looking for?

[UGAalum94]

FSUZeta, you are awesome. I bet that's exactly the kind of advice she are looking for. And it was nice of you participate in a new conversation about rush in response to this new poster's questions.

I agree that it is important for the OP to remember that the groups should try to entertain the girls. Although the group may only choose some of the girls who rush as members, you want all the girls who participate in your activities to have a good time, feel welcome, and feel as positively about the group as they can. Don't do anything that makes it feel like a try-out for them, even if on some level, it is. Make it seem like a party that honors them at the same time that it promotes your sisterhood.

You aren't only getting new members; you are also doing public relations on your campus. What do you want to be known for? When girls tell their friends about the experience, what kind of stories do you want them to tell?

So you want to make sure that everyone in the group understands the themes and goals of each activity. You may want to do some sisterhood bonding kind of stuff before rush starts. (Although with the size of the group you are talking about, you probably all know each other really well and have strong bounds already).

OP, I may have missed this in your post, but did you say that there are fraternities at your school? Is there any group on your campus that has done a greek rush before, so at least you would know how they did their invitations and activities?

[pdcmtu]

I am the new recruitment chair for a local sorority on a small campus (6000) and only 25% women. It can be tough sometimes. We do not have formal recruitment within my organization, though i might try to talk them into trying it next year, and they might kill me. We have been estabolished for 20 years, never considered going national, and are not part of panhell. Mostly we do craft rushes, activities with fraternities, or other things that don't work out.

Are there any ideas or activities that you have found really attract PNM to you, or any traits of each event that make you stand out in their minds?

thank you.

[AChiOhSnap]

Originally Posted by pdcmtu

I am the new recruitment chair for a local sorority on a small campus (6000) and only 25% women. It can be tough sometimes. We do not have formal recruitment within my organization, though i might try to talk them into trying it next year, and they might kill me. We have been estabolished for 20 years, never considered going national, and are not part of panhell. Mostly we do craft rushes, activities with fraternities, or other things that don't work out.

Are there any ideas or activities that you have found really attract PNM to you, or any traits of each event that make you stand out in their minds?

If you're the only GLO on campus that doesn't participate in FR, I would think that puts your group at a significant disadvantage. Formal recruitment is good because it "forces" women to imagine themselves in sororities that they may have never considered otherwise.

I think, in terms of activities, you should emphasize SISTERHOOD and how awesome it is to be part of your org. This goes above and beyond recruitment activities. Make sure you all wear your letters as much as possible, do lots of stuff on campus as a group, just generally let everyone know how much fun it is to be a sister of your sorority.

If you're going to do informal recruitment stuff, my advice is still the same. I don't know what kind of activities with fraternities you're talking about, but try to emphasize fun social stuff for PNMs and sisters only. Mocktail night, luau night, ice skating party, pizza party, Grey's Anatomy night... all of these things allow the new members to just hang out with the sisters of your org in a relaxed setting. Craft/philanthropy parties are fine during FR, and even during informal recruitment if the activity doesn't dominate the whole party, but those sort of events can kind of get boring for the PNM and limit socializing with the sisters.

My final piece of advice is to cater to your niche. If you're known as the chill sorority, have really relaxed and informal events. If your sorority has a lot of athletes, attend sporting events with PNMs. The more you can appeal to women who would feel absolutely at home within your org, the better.

[Denise_DPhiE]

Originally Posted by Ky2786

im sorry that my question wasn't specific enough for you. but this is a brand new sorority i have no idea what to ask and i thought my question was pretty specific based on the fact that i've never done this before.

Please just use the search function, grab a hot cup of coffee and read them. Even in recruitment threads girls have talked about the rounds (i.e. they did a philahtropy part and makde a XYZ to give to the groups charity - the childrens hospital or something.

If you are new, how about a birth announcement party - pink and blue baby pins on name tags and girls dress in pink and blue and talk about how the sorority was BORN. Favors (if allowed) could be candy or bath salts or confetti in a baby bottle.

Denise

[FSUZeta]

denise, what a great idea for a party!!