Bid Matching Question

[BiosVida]

Hello, my name is Heather and I am a newly appointed Recruitment Advisor. One part of my position that I am still really confused on is how the bid matching process works exactly. The reason I ask is because of the following scenario. On my campus there are 3 sororities, we will call them A,B, and C. I am a part of sorority B. At the end of the final round the pnms turn in their preference sheet and we turn in our bid list. It is a rule that generally you have to be invited to a sorority's preference party in order to be on their bid list. So in a specific instance, PNM "Jane" was invited to the preference party of sorority A and B. Jane then ranked the sororities as follows B, C, A. If the quota was to give out 19 bids, and "Jane" was within the top 15 of sorority B's bid list, should it be possible for Jane to get a bid from sorority A, rather than her first choice of sorority B. I guess I'm just really confused about how the bid matching process works.

[irishpipes]

Originally Posted by BiosVida

Hello, my name is Heather and I am a newly appointed Recruitment Advisor. One part of my position that I am still really confused on is how the bid matching process works exactly. The reason I ask is because of the following scenario. On my campus there are 3 sororities, we will call them A,B, and C. I am a part of sorority B. At the end of the final round the pnms turn in their preference sheet and we turn in our bid list. It is a rule that generally you have to be invited to a sorority's preference party in order to be on their bid list. So in a specific instance, PNM "Jane" was invited to the preference party of sorority A and B. Jane then ranked the sororities as follows B, C, A. If the quota was to give out 19 bids, and "Jane" was within the top 15 of sorority B's bid list, should it be possible for Jane to get a bid from sorority A, rather than her first choice of sorority B. I guess I'm just really confused about how the bid matching process works.

If she ranked B first and was on their first bid list, she will match to B.

[AdmiralPerry]

Do many (any?) campuses let PNMs list a chapter to which they were not invited for pref? I've not heard of that, before...

[BraveMaroon]

Originally Posted by AdmiralPerry

Do many (any?) campuses let PNMs list a chapter to which they were not invited for pref? I've not heard of that, before...

I've wondered about this - I assume that if she wasn't invited to pref somewhere, but listed it anyway, it would either throw an error or just ignore the listed/no pref chapter.

When I turned in my list, it was a scantron, and I turned it in to a Rho Chi who didn't know me from Adam - so I guess in theory, I could have tried it. Of course, this was in the dark ages, so it's probably different now.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by BraveMaroon

I've wondered about this - I assume that if she wasn't invited to pref somewhere, but listed it anyway, it would either throw an error or just ignore the listed/no pref chapter.

When I turned in my list, it was a scantron, and I turned it in to a Rho Chi who didn't know me from Adam - so I guess in theory, I could have tried it. Of course, this was in the dark ages, so it's probably different now.

I'm guessing this is Jane making a statement that she would rather be in a chapter that has already cut her than have anything to do with A, & she only listed A because suiciding makes her ineligible for quota additions.

[jenidallas]

As I recall from submitting bid lists in the past, ICS didn't allow the chapter to list anyone who didn't attend pref unless they were specifically excused and therefore still on the party list. That may be campus-specific in the settings however - perhaps a FSA can confirm that.

I was a CA and Panhellenic advisor on a campus that did hand bid matching and per the Green Book process, the PNMs choices always prevail in that a PNM on the first bid list of a chapter will always match to that chapter of they are also her first choice.

When we hand matched, an advisor from each chapter came with their bid list and verbally verified each match as we made it. We'd go through each PNM (alphabetically) and read her first choice. If she was on first list for that chapter, she matched. If not, she got placed in a round two stack and we began matching again. The second run of matching started to get into the second bid list so it required some meticulous attention to where the bar was moving for that pool/batch.

The process confined until everyone was matched who had maximized their options. Women who did not maximize only matched if their choices did not fill before they came up.

[KDCat]

Did you ever have team captain's who picked teams in grade school? It's sort of like that.

We were talking about this a couple of weeks ago, and LABlondeGPhi made a gif to illustrate how bid matching works. It's pretty helpful.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...5&postcount=50

Bid matching is a two-side process. The computer takes the sorority's bid list and matches them to the bid cards. Each sorority has a "first bid list" which is a list of its first choices for a PNM class. The number of women on the first bid list is approximately quota. (Only approximately, because you don't know what quota will be exactly.) The computer tries to match all of the PNM's #1 choice against all of the sororities' first bid lists. Usually you don't fill a whole PNM class on the first match, so it will keep moving down the bid lists to try to match as many PNMs to their first choice as possible. A PNM will only be given her second choice if the PNM class of her first choice is full before the computer gets to her name on the bid list. It will then try to match her name to her second choice and then her third choice...

If she has no match and the campus follows RFM, she should be matched to one sorority or another. There's a lot of discretion in determining where the unmatched PNMs go, but they all should get a bid from somewhere.

Jane preffed at B and A, but not C. She probably isn't anywhere on C's bid list. She will be placed at B if she is high enough on their bid list. If B fills its class before they get to her name, she will be placed in A, if they have space. If both B and A fill up before they get to her name, and the campus follows RFM, she may be placed in B or A.

To make it more complicated, if she didn't match, and C isn't full, someone may see that she listed C second and contact C to see if they would like to offer her a bid anyway. C may decide to do that and no one will know the difference.

[BiosVida]

Originally Posted by KDCat

Did you ever have team captain's who picked teams in grade school? It's sort of like that.

We were talking about this a couple of weeks ago, and LABlondeGPhi made a gif to illustrate how bid matching works. It's pretty helpful.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...5&postcount=50

Bid matching is a two-side process. The computer takes the sorority's bid list and matches them to the bid cards. Each sorority has a "first bid list" which is a list of its first choices for a PNM class. The number of women on the first bid list is approximately quota. (Only approximately, because you don't know what quota will be exactly.) The computer tries to match all of the PNM's #1 choice against all of the sororities' first bid lists. Usually you don't fill a whole PNM class on the first match, so it will keep moving down the bid lists to try to match as many PNMs to their first choice as possible. A PNM will only be given her second choice if the PNM class of her first choice is full before the computer gets to her name on the bid list. It will then try to match her name to her second choice and then her third choice...

If she has no match and the campus follows RFM, she should be matched to one sorority or another. There's a lot of discretion in determining where the unmatched PNMs go, but they all should get a bid from somewhere.

Jane preffed at B and A, but not C. She probably isn't anywhere on C's bid list. She will be placed at B if she is high enough on their bid list. If B fills its class before they get to her name, she will be placed in A, if they have space. If both B and A fill up before they get to her name, and the campus follows RFM, she may be placed in B or A.

To make it more complicated, if she didn't match, and C isn't full, someone may see that she listed C second and contact C to see if they would like to offer her a bid anyway. C may decide to do that and no one will know the difference.

Okay so "Jane" was number 15 on B's list and "Suzy" was number 39. If both Jane and Suzy listed B as their number one choice, is it possible that Suzy would get a bid from B and Jane would not?

[KDCat]

Originally Posted by BiosVida

Okay so "Jane" was number 15 on B's list and "Suzy" was number 39. If both Jane and Suzy listed B as their number one choice, is it possible that Suzy would get a bid from B and Jane would not?

No. Jane is ranked above Suzy and listed B as her first choice. She will get matched before Suzy. Someone else pointed out, though, that Suzy could have gone unmatched and then been placed in B as a quota addition.

[LAblondeGPhi]

Does this help?

Originally Posted by AdmiralPerry

Do many (any?) campuses let PNMs list a chapter to which they were not invited for pref? I've not heard of that, before...

I did, but this was in 2001. When I went to rank after preference (2 houses), my card listed the houses that had invited me to preference (4 houses). I changed my mind during preference, so I ranked one of the houses I didn't attend higher than the other chapter I preffed on my bid card. I have no idea why they even let me do that, I'm sure I wasn't on the other chapter's bid list.

[Loyally Kappa]

Now I may never make my "52 Pickup" recruitment video that I have spent weeks creating. I was about to paint the houses on watercolor paper, and have already painted the Scrabble squares representing the PNMs. I had planned to invite some Ole Miss sorors who sing in the choir with me to be a "Rho Chi" in my fantasy recruitment. I really thought that if folks could understand recruitment at Ole Miss, everything else just gets simpler.

And, actually, I was wondering where I should post my video. Sorority Recruitment or Recruitment Stories?

Originally Posted by LAblondeGPhi

Does this help?




I did, but this was in 2001. When I went to rank after preference (2 houses), my card listed the houses that had invited me to preference (4 houses). I changed my mind during preference, so I ranked one of the houses I didn't attend higher than the other chapter I preffed on my bid card. I have no idea why they even let me do that, I'm sure I wasn't on the other chapter's bid list.

[AXOrushadvisor]

I have found that in 100% of these situations "janes" are telling members they listed them as #1 to save face OR they change their mind after listing chapter in #2 spot and try to get the women to go to bat for them. Jane listed B #2 if she was high enough on B's bid list. You need to look to see what number you filled quota at and where B was in relationship to that number. She is either before or after that fill line. That's how you'll know.

My opinion from doing this for 25+ years.

[navane]

Originally Posted by AZTheta

^^^ but that would be known to the Recruitment Advisor, would it not? If the campus is using computerized bid matching, and the rankings were what she stated they were, this wouldn't happen. I think something's not right.

Originally Posted by AXOrushadvisor

I have found that in 100% of these situations "janes" are telling members they listed them as #1 to save face OR they change their mind after listing chapter in #2 spot and try to get the women to go to bat for them. Jane listed B #2 if she was high enough on B's bid list. You need to look to see what number you filled quota at and where B was in relationship to that number. She is either before or after that fill line. That's how you'll know.

My opinion from doing this for 25+ years.

I'm not sure if the recruitment advisor has access to the post-pref rankings of PNMs. I didn't think the chapters had access to that info - only who matched tge bid list.

I don't have a lot of experience with this but my hunch was what AXOrushadvisor said - the PNM ranked B lower and changed her mind or is just saying that to save face. Otherwise how would a PNM high on B's first list not get the bid if she ranked B #1? It doesn't make sense to me.

[LAblondeGPhi]

Originally Posted by AXOrushadvisor

I have found that in 100% of these situations "janes" are telling members they listed them as #1 to save face OR they change their mind after listing chapter in #2 spot and try to get the women to go to bat for them. Jane listed B #2 if she was high enough on B's bid list. You need to look to see what number you filled quota at and where B was in relationship to that number. She is either before or after that fill line. That's how you'll know.

My opinion from doing this for 25+ years.

Originally Posted by navane

I'm not sure if the recruitment advisor has access to the post-pref rankings of PNMs. I didn't think the chapters had access to that info - only who matched tge bid list.

But a recruitment advisor should have access to their OWN bid list, and can look at who is in their pledge class. I've done this a number of times and can see from the list exactly where we filled quota, without evening knowing the quota number. The list goes from maybe every other girl in the PC to none right away. And then there will be maybe one or two QAs on the list, but the change is dramatic enough to know where the cut-off was.

In my opinion, there's always the *possibility* of a QA situation, or, even more rarely, that there was a snafu in entering her choices into the computers. That said, 99.9% of the time, she probably is just lying to save face.

[Titchou]

No. Jane would have already matched.