PNM Registration -- How does it go at your school?

[AnonAlumna]

I've recently become an advisor at a large northern school with a medium to large sized sorority system. I attended my first meeting and got to talk to some of the recruitment officers, and I found out something very surprising: they don't get anything but a name before parties start!

I couldn't believe it. At my school, we were given the registration form (which was pretty detailed) as well as a color picture of every girl. This allows the girls to pair with someone who might have a common interest for the first parties, and on down. It seems this system is wasting a lot of time by not giving these GLO's any information prior. The other advisor told me they only get details if the receive a sponsorship form for a PNM.

Also, girls enter the houses in a random order. (We had a list of the order they were coming in.) The chapter sizes are 3 times the size of what mine was, and I'm just trying to see how other schools do this. I want to go to the Panhell office to present some changes, but I want to see what you guys think.

It just seems to me that with so many girls (500+) going through recruitment they would make it easier for these GLO's and PNM's to find each other more easily. What do you think?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AnonAlumna

I couldn't believe it. At my school, we were given the registration form (which was pretty detailed) as well as a color picture of every girl. This allows the girls to pair with someone who might have a common interest for the first parties, and on down. It seems this system is wasting a lot of time by not giving these GLO's any information prior.

Yes, they certainly are wasting time by getting to know the girl on her own merits, rather than memorizing a list of her activities and who her parents are and pigeonholing her because she was on (example) model legislature in high school. (Maybe she hated model leg and did it only as a extracurricular requirement and never wants to talk about it ever again. I'm sure she'll be jazzed to get stuck with the sister who LOOOOVED it and can't talk about anything else.)

Stick around and watch the system in action for a while before you suggest making changes. We do manage to keep a couple of chapters open in the North, even though we do operate in complete chaos.

[ForeverRoses]

I went to a school in "the north" and all we would recieve was a copy of their registration sheet- which was very basic- name, dorm, legacies (if they chose to list it), hometown. It didn't list interests, extra curriculars or anything.

We did have the PNMs come into the house is alphabetical order, but that was it. And we still managed to have a great rush with pledge classes that averaged 40 women (unfortunately greek life is on a downturn and quota now is around 25 - with 2 less sororities on campus).

I agree to see what rush is actually like at the school before you suggest changes. What worked at your school won't necessarily work at another.

[LoggerTheta]

Let me first say that we have Deferred Recruitment. There are registration forms involved with our recruitment process, however, PNMs can show up to the first day of recruitment not having filled one out too, so really it's all just a surprise for us. We go to a small school though (~3000 undergrads with about 60% of those being women), so chances are that we already know something about these ladies before they go through recruitment just from being in classes together and such. Our situation is much different from a lot of other schools, and every school is different, so I agree with what the other ladies have said: Go with the flow. I hope recruitment is sucessful for you!

[AnonAlumna]

Geez...excuse the heck out of me. I guess I should have given more details. I've been involved with the chapter for a couple of years. I've just now taken on an advisor roll, as I had the time to commit. I have assited with rush, and chapter preparations. I'm not trying to overthrow the government and make it 'like my chapter'...they are VERY different schools. THUS, why I asked how others do it.

We've all been through recruitment processes at different schools, and the chapter itself and the long-time advisors have been trying to get the school to take pictures at least of all the PNM's so that there is ANYTHING to go by for the GLO's. All they MIGHT get in advance is a sponsorship form. The fewer the surprises during rush the better, right?

33girl: I wasn't trying to imply anything any of the 'heaven forbid' actions that you suggest. When we are talking about women trying to get to know someone in 15 minutes does it not help to perhaps have something to start talking about? Couldn't these help those ridiculous: What's your major? Where are you from? questions. Haven't we all been talking for years about making the process easier for everyone involved.

[SthrnZeta]

I believe at GMU we got names and photos and a basic info sheet, and the girls entered in a alphabetical order. But I wouldn't say we as actives knew a huge amount about any girl, just enough to start things off and be able to refer to her later during MS. I guess we had a happy medium between what Anon's school did and what her advisory chapter does now. I can see 33girl's point though, but I agree that making things a little easier may be a good idea also.

Anon- have you observed a few recruitments while being in this AA or is this your first? If it's your first, I recommend sticking out 1 or 2 more to see if this system works for this school. Every campus is different and what works at one may not work at another. If you've seen several and really feel that a few changes may help, then make kind suggestions (otherwise you may be seen as a pushy alum). Hope that helps!

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AnonAlumna

Geez...excuse the heck out of me. I guess I should have given more details. I've been involved with the chapter for a couple of years.

Well then, perhaps you could have avoided sounding like you were watching animals eat their young.

Lots of women here (of course, this depends on the school) don't sign up for rush until the last minute and don't have recs or anything like that and would balk at a request to fill out something that from your description sounds like the equivalent of a resume. "For a SORORITY? You gotta be kidding."

Where are you from and what's your major take a big 30 seconds to ask. You should follow up with something like "so what movie have you seen lately? (and the rushee answers...)"American Gangster." "OMG, our sister Susie is the biggest Russell Crowe fan. Let me introduce you to her." Now you've got an opening for the rushee to meet more sisters, and so on, rather than being stuck with the same sister (who she may not click with at all) for the whole party. I just don't like the sound of "pairing" up people. If I had been "paired" with someone from my high school, my rush would have probably been a disaster. I had no idea when people talked about it all these years that they actually matched you on interests - I thought it was random.

If your chapter wants to take photos at the parties go for it, or if you want to bring it up to Panhel, but if it's something new to the school it could be perceived by administrators or the campus as picking who you want on appearance only (everyone's seen the photo scene from Animal House). I know that's not what it's for, but it can come across that way.

I mean, are several chapters (other than yours) complaining that MS takes too long or something? Are they not getting the pledges they want? Is this really an issue?

[KSUViolet06]

At my school, we use ICS Recruiter so all we had was the basic registration form with name, hometown, GPA info, legacies, extracurriculars, etc. We didn't ask for photos or resumes. All we had was the info on the sheet.

On the first day of parties, the PNMs entered the rooms in alphabetical order so there was no strategic pairing of PNMs with sisters. You got whomever was in the doorway when your turn came. Now for the later rounds like Pref, we would put sisters with certain girls that they had rushed before, just so that they didn't end up with someone they'd never met preffing them.

[SthrnZeta]

KSU, come to think of it, I think my school was pretty similar except that our PNMs were in pics with their Rho Chi groups to aid in MS later (along with notes we made ourselves between parties).

[APhi Sailorgirl]

It know that at my school it varied from year to year. I do know that year I was Panhel Recruitment Director we handed out a photobook of ladies.

But nowadays, between facebook and myspace, all you need is a list of names and you can create your own book of information, without having to wait on Panhel to supply it.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Well then, perhaps you could have avoided sounding like you were watching animals eat their young.

Lots of women here (of course, this depends on the school) don't sign up for rush until the last minute and don't have recs or anything like that and would balk at a request to fill out something that from your description sounds like the equivalent of a resume. "For a SORORITY? You gotta be kidding."

Where are you from and what's your major take a big 30 seconds to ask. You should follow up with something like "so what movie have you seen lately? (and the rushee answers...)"American Gangster." "OMG, our sister Susie is the biggest Russell Crowe fan. Let me introduce you to her." Now you've got an opening for the rushee to meet more sisters, and so on, rather than being stuck with the same sister (who she may not click with at all) for the whole party. I just don't like the sound of "pairing" up people. If I had been "paired" with someone from my high school, my rush would have probably been a disaster. I had no idea when people talked about it all these years that they actually matched you on interests - I thought it was random.

If your chapter wants to take photos at the parties go for it, or if you want to bring it up to Panhel, but if it's something new to the school it could be perceived by administrators or the campus as picking who you want on appearance only (everyone's seen the photo scene from Animal House). I know that's not what it's for, but it can come across that way.

I mean, are several chapters (other than yours) complaining that MS takes too long or something? Are they not getting the pledges they want? Is this really an issue?

33girl, your tone and aire of superiority on this topic is offensive. Implying that chapters that do use pictures and women's biographical information are shallow and care only about what the parent's professions are is offensive in the extreme. Maybe since you didn't experience recruitment with these aides you just don't understand how helpful they are. Last time I participated in rush, we didn't have any rushers talk only about something a girl had indicated on her recruitment info form. In the old days when you had unlimited time to do MS, the pictures and info weren't as important, but from what I have witnessed at my current advisee chapter, MS is limited to two hours after the party. Since we don't get pictures for these girls, the majority of this two hour period is spent describing the PNM being discussed because otherwise no one knows who the girl is! At some schools, you have recruitments with more than 100 women going through so this actually does help. Don't be so quick to assign malignant intentions to everyone that posts on this site! Anon is clearly interested in helping her sisters streamline the process...not weed out the "undersireables" before they ever get to recruitment.

[FSUZeta]

having a little background information on a pnm before you meet them can be a tremendous help, especially when you might have 3 tiffany smiths coming thru recruitment. having their info. committed to paper is a great reference when 2 of the tiffany's show up for the same party and the chapter is trying to keep themselves from being confused.

you could host a meeting with the recruitment advisors of the other chapters and have a "meeting of the minds", so that everyone is on the same page and has contributed to the newly designed registration form. i always feel that if the advisors work in concert with each other, the greek life advisor is more apt to listen.

the form used at florida gulf coast university asks for the first and last names and the middle initial. i would suggest that you include a blank for nickname. this past recruitment we discovered some girls had put one name on their registration form and a totally different one on their nametag. talk about confusing!!

anyway, back to the form: date of birth
age
home address
email
local/cell phone
local address
emergency/parent/guardian name
high school attended
hs gpa on what scale(if 1st year freshman)
college gpa if not freshman
are they a transfer? where transferring from?
total # of college hours completed? major?
ever pledged?been initiated into a npc sorority?
legacy information
activities(high school or college)
community involvement
honors/awards

the greek life office verifies the gpa or corrects it if needed.(there is a place for the pnm to sign in agreement that the info. will be used for recruitment purposes only and they grant the office of greek life permission to verify their academic status and gpa. they also acknowledge that greek life will take a photo of them that will be distributed to the sororities to use for recruitment purposes only. we get copies of each enrollment form.

panhellenic takes a "mug shot" of each pnm-a head shot with the girl holding a dry erase board which has her name written on it. the chapters receive a file with the photos that they use to help jog memories.

greek life gives us a computer generated list which is arranged alphabetically. on the list is each pnms name, year(freshman, soph, etc.) hometown address,hs, gpa and legacy(if any)

before the parties begin, we get a list of pnms divided per rush group and which party each group will be attending. the pnms are lined up in alpha. order and each girl presents the greeter at the door with an index card on which they have written their name. the greeter(the chapter president in our case) takes the cards and after the last pnm has entered, sends the cards back to the alumnae so that we can check the cards against the list to make sure that everyone who is supposed to be attending that party is there.we return the cards to the chapter president who in turn, gives them back to the rho gamma. it seemed to work pretty well.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

Implying that chapters that do use pictures and women's biographical information are shallow and care only about what the parent's professions are is offensive in the extreme.

Please reread my post that you quoted. I didn't say I thought that about pictures, rather that it might be perceived that way by administrators or other people that weren't familiar with it. I even said "I know that's not what it's for."

If these chapters at the OP's school are doing fine without detailed forms and pictures - why change it? Why make it harder for women who might be on the fence anyway to participate in the rush process?

Perhaps I came off a little bitchy, but when there's an implication in someone's post that everyone north of the Mason Dixon is an uncouth bumpkin who will never know how to run a proper rush, trust me, I ain't the only one thinking what I said.

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Please reread my post that you quoted. I didn't say I thought that about pictures, rather that it might be perceived that way by administrators or other people that weren't familiar with it. I even said "I know that's not what it's for."

If these chapters at the OP's school are doing fine without detailed forms and pictures - why change it? Why make it harder for women who might be on the fence anyway to participate in the rush process?

Perhaps I came off a little bitchy, but when there's an implication in someone's post that everyone north of the Mason Dixon is an uncouth bumpkin who will never know how to run a proper rush, trust me, I ain't the only one thinking what I said.

Why indeed you aren't! In fact, back in the dark ages when I went through recruitment, before these new-fangled iPod things came out, we had no idea who was coming to our recruitment parties, or how many girls, until they rang the doorbell! Mercy me, we managed to muddle through despite that by saying such colloquial phrases as:

Hi Martha Washington, nice to meet you!

Oh, you're a political science major? You simply MUST meet Eleanor, she's very involved with the model UN!

<bump!>

What's that Susan B? You're majoring in Women's Studies? Do you know that our founders blah blah blah women blah blah feminism...

Elizabeth Cady over here is very interested in get out the vote drives, let's go meet her!


Now I know, having to make small talk spontaneously can be very difficult and is certainly not a skill necessary later in life, but I do think it gives we sorority women that little extra edge.

[SthrnZeta]

It sounds like we have some very good bumpers on here