Rho Chi Stories

[AlphaChiCutie]

I'm going to be a Rho Chi at UGA in August for sorority recruitment. Just wondered if anyone had advice/funny stories from their experiences.

[aephi alum]

Congrats on being chosen as a rho chi. I had a lot of fun as a PX (except that I missed not being able to attend my sorority's pref party and nobody in my group went AEPhi )

Let's see... I have a zillion stories

During campus preview weekend, when accepted students are invited to spend a few days on campus, IFC took out an ad in the student paper to promote rush. Sororities were part of IFC (as well as Panhel) at the time. So IFC decided to be helpful and print lists of the IFC and Panhel officers, so PNMs could contact them about rush. Trouble was, they included everyone's affiliations... so the PNMs knew the affiliations of the Panhel president, VP-rush, rush chair, and at least one rho chi.

During PX training, we did some role-playing to practice counseling PNMs in different situations. One of my fellow PXs had to play the role of a PNM who wanted to suicide - only she misinterpreted "suicide" and started talking about jumping off bridges

My fellow PXs tended to hang out in bunches by sorority. (bad idea) I was the only PX from AEPhi, so I tried to mix things up a bit and chat with PXs from different sororities, but wound up spending a lot of time with the PXs from one particular sorority. By the end of rush, most of my rush group had me pegged for being in that sorority... oops.

My roughest situation: I had to deal with a situation where a PNM was accidentally dropped by a group because her nickname was the same as the real name of a girl who did not rush, and they shared the same last name, so this sorority dropped the wrong PNM because she "didn't show up" to round 1. The situation didn't get straightened out until after round 2, and the round after that is pref. The sorority's rush chair told me they really liked the PNM and were inviting her to pref - then I had to talk to the PNM and reassure her that she wasn't out of the running, while not being allowed to tell her that she was going to be invited back (b/c invitations hadn't gone out yet). That was a tough conversation... but she ended up joining that sorority, so everything worked out well.

[lionlove]

Advice:
Be available. I held "office hours" for an hour or two every day during rush when I told my girls I would be in my room if they wanted to IM me or stop by to chat or get approval on an outfit.

Be available to those not in your group. Unfortunatly, not every PX at my school took her job seriously - some were just doing it cause it was easier than doing all the work involved in rush. If I saw a PNM in tears, I would take the time to talk to her even if she wasn't in my group.

Keep your group informed. Every day during rush, my group received an email from me reminding them what to expect from rush that night, how to dress, when and where to show up etc.

Learn the warning signs of depression and know when to refer someone to professional counseling when you are over your head.

Carry tampons, aspirin, bandaids and breathmints for those quick emergencies.

Act professionally, these girls are looking up to you.

Good luck!

[annice22]

This is my first time as being a Rho Chi so I'm just learning the ropes. I'm taking this very seriously because I want to make sure that these girls are informed with all of the information that they should know. But I also so know that the girls should be having fun too. The hardest thing is trying to keep other people from different organiation from telling what sorority that I'm in.

I do miss wearing my letters.

But it will be so worth it when I can say what sorority I am in at the end.

Bye
Annice

[Aprylel21]

Food for thought: If someone in your group is bashing your sorority, don't take it personal. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but also ask her to be respectful about the comments she says without her censoring her real feelings. She could have been treated like crap at that sorority, who knows?
Always let the PNM know that you are available to talk and there is no such thing as a stupid question. Also after Pref. last year me and my group and other rho chis went out to eat at this cool trendy restaurant downtown. We had a great time. It was a nice way to end a hectic week! Hope that this helps ya out some. By the way, you are going to have a blast!

Panhellenic love,

April

[ilovemyglo]

Let me tell you about MY RHO CHI-
She was an XY and I was a sophomore. I thought I knew which group she was in, and i was right, but I didnt tell anyone else.

Well the first night after orientation she sits down with us and states that she doesn't want us to know what org she is in, she only joined it because her Rho Chi was in it, and as soon as rush is over she planned on turning her pin in... WOW! So I of course knew she hated her sorority by then.

So anyway, we went to her house on the 1st night and afterwards she asked us what we had thought. I was honest and told her I didn't have a problem with the group, but that the girl I spoke with had really bad body odor. Well the other girls in the group didn't have anything nice to say about them. ANyway, after rush was over she turned in her pin.
I found out later she went to the other Rho Chis telling them I started an XY bashing and she hated me and how all I did was bad mouth her sorority and what not. That was such bull... i even went back to them for the 2nd round! Anyway, later on I found out from the other Rho Chis what she had said....

she sucked, needless to say.

[aephi alum]

Forgot to tell you about my evil rho chi from hell!

It was very plain from the get-go that my PX was only doing it to get out of rush. She was never available for anyone in her group. She wouldn't give advice on outfits or anything. When I told her I was dropping out of rush, she didn't do anything to try to convince me to continue - she acted relieved - one less PNM to worry about.

At my school you weren't given advance warning if you were cut from all sororities - you showed up for your invites (or bid!) and instead your PX sat you down and told you you'd been cut. There was a girl in my group who got cut from every sorority before pref. She came away from her meeting with our PX bawling her eyes out. The PX made no effort to console her or anything, didn't even give her the chance to pull herself together, it was like "You didn't get any invites - NEXT!"

When I was a PX I swore I wouldn't make any of the same mistakes. I think I did pretty well

So, I second the advice of being available and approachable to all PNMs, not just those in your group, and if someone is cut from her favorite sorority, or all sororities, take the time to console her. Rush is very stressful and people overreact, and getting cut can seem like the end of the world.

[JohnsDGsweethrt]

Originally posted by lionlove
Advice:
Be available. I held "office hours" for an hour or two every day during rush when I told my girls I would be in my room if they wanted to IM me or stop by to chat or get approval on an outfit.

Be available to those not in your group. Unfortunatly, not every PX at my school took her job seriously - some were just doing it cause it was easier than doing all the work involved in rush. If I saw a PNM in tears, I would take the time to talk to her even if she wasn't in my group.

Keep your group informed. Every day during rush, my group received an email from me reminding them what to expect from rush that night, how to dress, when and where to show up etc.

Learn the warning signs of depression and know when to refer someone to professional counseling when you are over your head.

Carry tampons, aspirin, bandaids and breathmints for those quick emergencies.

Act professionally, these girls are looking up to you.

Good luck!

Wow what a wonderful Rho Chi!!!!!!!!! I am so impressed! You're girls were lucky to have you!

[dzsaigirl]

I had so much fun as a PX! I loved all of my fellow Rho Chis. We went places together, went on a trip together before school started, poked fun at one another Talked about our rush experiences, tried to predict where the PNM'S would end up before we met them as their apps came in (just for kicks...).
It was kinda sad on bid day when we had Rho Chi Revealing and left being a PX, but also awesome because we were going back to our own chapters again!

My group was a really good group and for the most part, had the usual "oh, I don't want to cut down to four 'cause two I am sure of but the others are all equal, how do I decide?"

I did have however:

1) A total pervert who was our limo-bus driver to the pref that I was in charge of taking girls to. While the girls were in the house (an alum residence...mansion) I had to sit in the limo-bus and he asked if I wouldn't mind going to his apartment with him and picking out a nicer tie for him to wear so that he could look good for the girls...um...I don't THINK so! I totally turned him in when we got back to the school.

2) The girl who was an in-house legacy who was mad that everyone except her legacy had cut her after she went around telling everyone that she was going "XYZ".

3) The girl who looked STELLAR on paper and then proceeded to lie down on the floor during a rush party and make the girls rush her while on the floor...she is the one who got (somehow) invited to a pref and then got no bid. We called her to tell her that she did not need to come to bid night and she freaked out and showed up anyway face puffed, crying yelling, demanding to speak with the sorority she had preffed...I saw her come in the door and I wanted to disappear, I knew by the way she looked that it would NOT be pretty...

Other than that girl, my group had a successful rush. One girl dropped because of sports and then there was the no-bid "bobo" girl.

It was fun when the girls wanted to guess what chapter we were all in. A few of them already knew me from before though and managed to stay quiet

[DGMarie]

Originally posted by dzsaigirl
3) The girl who looked STELLAR on paper and then proceeded to lie down on the floor during a rush party and make the girls rush her while on the floor...she is the one who got (somehow) invited to a pref and then got no bid. We called her to tell her that she did not need to come to bid night and she freaked out and showed up anyway face puffed, crying yelling, demanding to speak with the sorority she had preffed...I saw her come in the door and I wanted to disappear, I knew by the way she looked that it would NOT be pretty...

Holy cow! Why did she say she needed to lay down on the floor and did she act particularly whacko prior to this? Maybe she was on drugs!

Marie

[KappaKittyCat]

Originally posted by lionlove
Carry tampons, aspirin, bandaids and breathmints for those quick emergencies.

Don't forget kleenex and coffee filters!

[DolphinChicaDDD]

Originally posted by KappaKittyCat
Don't forget kleenex and coffee filters!

why coffee filters?

[sugar and spice]

Coffee filters are really good at blotting sweat without smearing makeup -- a godsend when your rush is in August and you're running from house to house in the 90 degree heat.

(Just one example of "things you didn't even NEED to know that you learned from GC. )

[MTSUGURL]

Thank you for sharing such a sweet story. I actually teared up. I know - I'm a dork.

Originally posted by BrownEyedGirl
I had the most amazing time as a Recruitment Counselor last fall! I started out with nineteen amazing freshman girls (three were in-house legacies, three more were legacies whose relatives had graduated from CU sororities), had seventeen PNM's go all the way through recruitment and fifteen matched with a sorority. I had so much fun with them - after the first two days of parties, I had a cookie cake made for them that read "One Round Down!". I hung out with them on their hall, watched movies, picked out clothes, looked at hometown boyfriend pictures, and chatted about what they looked for in a chapter. We called our group ("Group Twelve") a mini-sorority and got really close.

At the end of the ten days of recruitment, I had been living in a hotel away from my sisters and most friends for two weeks. They had been voting and visiting and stressing about where they would end up and were a group of teary, panicked, insecure young ladies. So the night before Pref round, as we passed my "candy bucket" around for the third time, I gave them one of many pep talks. I can hardly remember this but I know that I told them how wonderful they all were, how I had truly enjoyed getting to know them, and that in order for these chapters to see the amazing young women I'd gotten to experience, they had to believe in themselves and put out a confident, enthusiastic face to the world. I told them the truth, that I'd be proud to call any of them my sisters and wished I could bring all of them home with me or at least put them in a little Ziploc bag and carry them around in my pocket 24/7. Well the next night we went to a post-pref dinner out and, over pasta, one of the girls stood up and tapped her plastic glass with a spoon. She told me, while the other girls got all teary-eyed, that now I really *could* carry them around in a Ziploc bag - she handed me a bag filled with letters and pictures from each of them, telling me what a wonderful friend and role model I'd been and how much they'd loved having me as their Rho Chi. I came back to the hotel that night a teary mess and all the other recruitment counselors and I read and reread those letters to remind us that the sleep deprivation, sisterhood withdrawal, and total stress overload was all worth it.

On Bid Day, I handed each girl her bid in a sealed envelope and asked them to wait until each girl had hers to open theirs. After the jumping, squealing, and tears that followed the one-two-three-OPEN routine, they stopped and looked at me. I wondered what they were doing - out in the rain, sororities waiting for them on campus...wasn't this the moment I thought we'd all drop everything and run home to our chapters? They pulled out a Rho Chi t-shirt of mine (somehow stolen from my suitcase with the help of a Rho Chi roommate they suckered into their plot!) that they had all signed with sweet notes. That t-shirt stayed in a corner of my room displayed on the wall, and whenever I had a horrible day or felt tired or cranky or a little fed up, rereading what they wrote and remembering that moment - the thoughtfulness they showed getting these elaborate gifts ready for me - always makes my day. I love my Group Twelve girls and was so proud to bring three back to ZTA with me on Bid Day!! I experienced some tremendous highs and lows with those girls, and we really bonded - I love seeing them on campus or with their new sisters. They're such precious girls and although I never thought I could tear myself away from my chapter for all that time (no letters on my car or shirt or in my life at all for five months!) it was more than worth it - it was the best Panhellenic experience I could have asked for! (Sorry to rant, but I'm a proud former Rho Chi and a very emotional gal to boot!)

[carnation]

I am so moved at these Rho Chi stories...the preparation, the love you've put into your job. I've seen some good Rho Chis over the years. I've seen some that were awful--whose sororities probably nominated them for Rho Chis to make sure they weren't rushing.

Some have gone to extra lengths to see that their girls get placed. Others have pushed or even bullied girls into groups that were all wrong for them. Some have done a stellar job in teaching PNMs to have an open mind. Others have left PNMs who have been released alone in their rooms for the rest of rush--far from home--with nothing to do.

God bless you, Rho Chis! Y'all please make a positive impression on these rushees!