Recruitment Skill Building Exercises.

[OhmyHera]

Hi all, I'm the VP of Recruitment for an Alpha Chi Omega chapter, and I have some questions to ask of other sorority members. I'm looking for some small and large group activities to build my chapter's recruitment skills (conversations, memory, scoring, sealing the deal, bumping, etc) My chapter is already pretty solid at recruitment, but during work week, I feel like they get kind of bored of the typical exercise pretending our upperclassmen are PNMs and having our newest members practice mock conversations and mock bumping. I'm looking for some activities that your chapters use before recruitment.
An example that I found, that I plan on using, is having two circles (outer circle is Jrs Srs, inner circle is Sophomores) the inner circle are the pretend recruiters, and the outer the pretend PNMs. Then each person says one thing mocking a recruitment convo and it goes around the circle once or twice. Something like this but for other skills also are what I'm looking for.
Anyone have any games, team building, or recruiting exercises that they've done with their chapter and liked or disliked?
Thanks,
AXO DE 1502

[DubaiSis]

Do you have a fairly panhellenic campus? You might try a mock rush with one of the other chapters on campus. If you have a new or struggling chapter on campus, they might be thrilled for the chance to mock rush with a stronger chapter. It's a change of pace, gets you out of the house for a bit (I'd try to do a beginning to end party at both houses), and really forces you to be real about it.

/ETA AND, you could go home and vote on these girls, really do the whole thing. I don't know how cool it would be to present fake pledge invitations, but if you had the right relationship, it could be really fun!

[lilabelle]

^what DubaiSis said. We do that with fraternities during our work week and it's a lot of fun because 1) we're getting to be social with boys, 2) the boys love it because they get a free meal and a house tour, and 3) it's a lot more effective for truly building conversation skills, because no matter how much you try, pretending your sister is a PNM is way different than actually talking to a PNM. We've also done the circle thing you mentioned, and it was a lot of fun too. Do you have a nearby chapter or younger, local alums? We've also had alums from other chapters come in during work week to "critique" us on pref, our house tours, etc. Basically, what my chapter has found that works best for us is getting us to talk to people other than our chapter sisters, because we all already feel comfortable with each other - and who doesn't love meeting new people?

[WCsweet<3]

The most fun thing my chapter did was have seniors be the most obnoxious PNMs ever. Like one who was in love with another chapter, a "shacker" pnm, party pnm etc. That way we could practice how to handle less than perfect situations. It was always fun to see what costumes the seniors could come up with.

[Titchou]

Doing it with another chapter or even with alumnae both are great. That way you don't really know the other people all that well and it's easier to simulate. Do you have another Alpha Chi chapter close by? That would be good too.

[gatordeltapgh]

Did you check out the Resource Center on our website? There is a section for the VP Recruitment to gain some great ideas. You can also seek out your PCC for help. Her info is online as well.

Good luck!