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  #1  
Old 06-30-2010, 11:38 AM
Miriverite Miriverite is offline
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Professional/service fraternity recruitment

For those who are actively involved in a professional or service fraternity (ex. Delta Sigma Pi, Alpha Phi Omega, etc.)

How do you recruit? Since it is possible for a person to hold membership in both a social + a professional/service fraternity, how do you arrange events such that PNMs have the time to attend yours? How does pledging work for them, since if they choose to pledge two they would arguably have to go through TWO pledge periods, which is a bit harsh depending on the culture of GLO's at the school. What interesting events have you held that set you apart from the social GLO's?
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  #2  
Old 06-30-2010, 11:44 AM
Senusret I Senusret I is offline
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I did not attend a college with social greek life, so I will defer to others.

However, I must say that I have never heard of an APO chapter which conducted its rush week during the same time as social sorority/fraternity recruitment.
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  #3  
Old 06-30-2010, 12:41 PM
Psi U MC Vito Psi U MC Vito is offline
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I was an APO pledge. That close enough? On my campus APO did rush the same week as the rest of the fraternities and sororities. However they made sure to have events scattered throughout the night and day, while most of the social orgs focused on night. And as for the other, I think it's encouraged not to pledge 2 types of org the same time. Honestly though a lot of Greek at my school were not involved with APO. Part of the problem is that the founders wanted a social org and couldn't get it, so they tried to model APO on one. They even went as far to have chapter meetings the same times as the majority of the social fraternities.
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  #4  
Old 06-30-2010, 01:48 PM
Pingyang Pingyang is offline
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Speaking from the APO perspective...

The chapter where I go to grad school has quite a few people in social GLOs, most have jobs, and nearly everyone is involved in multiple student organizations. They try to balance the time commitments a few different ways. The most successful, I think, has been through planning events to support those other GLOs and organizations. The chapter takes this approach often with fellowships/friendship-type events, e.g. attending a philanthropy event another GLO is hosting as an APO fellowship. The chapter intentionally tries to avoid holding rush events at the same time as other GLOs and have set up their pledge program to accommodate students with complicated schedules as best as possible. This is somewhat particular to our campus, so I'll spare the details here--but if you want more info, you can PM me.

The chapter I pledged was much larger and had a fixed schedule for meetings. If it didn't work with your GLO, tough luck. It was on a different night than most social GLOs, however, and there were several people in social GLOs as well. Because they were a large chapter, they were able to have a huge number of events, usually several events per day, so it wasn't hard to schedule around other commitments as long as you kept Tuesday nights from 7pm to 10pm-ish open.

Both chapters discourage students from pledging another GLO (or any other organization with a pledging-type process) while pledging APO, and both try to host as many events as they can feasibly support so that even students with complicated schedules can join or otherwise participate. In both chapters, too, anyone can organize a fellowship event or service project, including pledges, so if nothing is working for someone schedule-wise, they can set something up themselves or with the help of the appropriate chapter officer, if they're not sure how to go about it.

As far as recruitment, both chapters go about it similarly, so I'll lump them both together.

We start by getting the word out about APO. We table as much as possible, whether it's at the start of the school year, at new student orientations, before and during big events like blood drives or National Service Week projects, or on any beautiful day. Chalking works well, if it's allowed on campus. Making short presentations at the beginning of classes and passing around a sign-up sheet, if professors allow it. Handing out fliers and talking to people. Setting up visible events to get our name known on campus. We reach out to everyone, from freshman to seniors and even interested grad students. We tell our friends. We make new friends so we can tell them, too. :P

Rush might be one week or two weeks, and we invite those interested people to events. Usually there's a couple nights that are info-oriented, one or two nights that are friendship-oriented (like pizza nights and game nights), and at least one service project during rush (usually more if rush is two weeks long).

Our service projects tend to be more "hands on" than what most social GLOs seemed to do or promote, rather than fundraising-type events, but that varies so much from campus to campus that I don't think you can generalize it. But the chapters I'm most familiar with tend to work directly with affected populations when possible, whether it's regularly cooking for and serving meals to the homeless, tutoring and mentoring students, or walking dogs at the animal shelter. Many members also like building or helping with maintenance, projects with visible physical results. Both chapters are weak in the sense that they don't have a "signature event" right now, something highly visible that APO does every year or every semester on or around campus, but I think both chapters are also working to change that.
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  #5  
Old 06-30-2010, 07:25 PM
33girl 33girl is offline
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My APO chapter always held rush 1-2 weeks after NPC/IFC rush.

As for weekly meetings, we were small enough that we could get together at the beginning of the semester and eliminate days that didn't work for someone. Inevitably over your college career, there are going to be times that there are events for both your groups at the same time. I never had a problem with telling one I had to miss it for the other, though. I did try to divide it equally.

We didn't forbid someone pledging both at the same time - again, we were a small chapter and every Greek group on campus had different programs. If you could swing it, more power to you.
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  #6  
Old 06-30-2010, 09:30 PM
AOEforme AOEforme is offline
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*** I'm not sure if this helps, because women cannot join both our sorority and another social sorority****

My chapter does two recruitments: one, during Formal Panhellenic Recruitment, to recruit women who are more interested in a social sorority. We then do a second round of informal recruitment (about 1 week long) afterwards, to recruit women who weren't initially interested in a sorority. This works really well for us, but this is also because you can't join two groups.....

I hope this was helpful!
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  #7  
Old 06-30-2010, 10:02 PM
naraht naraht is offline
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With my Alpha Phi Omega chapter, we tended to start pledging a little later than the social fraternities and sororities and tried to avoid the couple of days that were the heart of the NPC process. We often had service projects on the weekend that were on/close to campus that served as sort of rush events. We *greatly* discouraged people from trying to pledge both a social and APO at the same time.

The interesting events tend to be service projects that the social greeks are either unwilling or unable to pull off. At least at my campus, the service projects done by the Social Greeks (this was 20 years ago) were either trying to get people to donate at the traffic lights or answering phones at the pledge breaks for the local PBS station. My Alpha Phi Omega chapter certainly did the second, but we did a lot of other things as well. (the PBS station was close to one of the dorms than the Library was).
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  #8  
Old 07-01-2010, 11:56 AM
Miriverite Miriverite is offline
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Thanks for all the advice, everyone! If you have any more, keep 'em coming =)
I'm especially interested in hearing from someone in a professional fraternity as well.
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  #9  
Old 07-12-2010, 02:55 AM
OPhiAGinger OPhiAGinger is offline
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The biggest challenge OPhiA faced on my campus was that few college students had ever heard of a service sorority before they stumbled across us. So our starting point was just basic PR to introduce the concept of a service sorority. We posted fliers, hung hand-painted banners, put ads in the school newspaper and (in more recent years) used electronic media like Facebook, etc. to raise awareness of who we are.

I discovered OPhiA quite by accident when I was donating blood at the semesterly campus blood drive. The girl assigned to chat with me while I was donating (to keep my mind off the needle) and escort me to the cookie / juice table afterward was an OPA sister. They co-sponsored this big event every semester, which impressed me. The next semester I kept an eye out for their rush advertisements and I joined then.

The chapter where I pledged had a long-standing tradition of a casual rush where they served ice cream. They called it "Banana Splits and Blue Jeans". I think they were deliberately emphasizing the laid back personality of OPA to contrast it with a perception on our campus that sororities were very pearls-and-high-heels. That's the only event I remember, but I think they held it two different days during the same week. PNMs could come to either day, but weren't expected to come to both. I seriously don't remember a single incidence of a pledge juggling our pledge program and that of another GLO. It just didn't happen. But social Greeks were not very prominent on that campus at that time.

Later, I was a member of another chapter and we were much more aware of the social sororities. We never scheduled our rush at the same time as theirs! We advertised in the same way as my first chapter but had several rush events, one of which was always a hands-on service project. Although we had some members who held dual memberships, they almost always joined the social first (as first semester freshmen) and then joined us later. I remember only one time when there was a conflict: a PNM tried to pledge us and APO at the same time. We tried to discourage her, but she was adament that she could handle both. She wound up dropping from both. So sad!
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  #10  
Old 07-12-2010, 08:30 AM
naraht naraht is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OPhiAGinger View Post
Although we had some members who held dual memberships, they almost always joined the social first (as first semester freshmen) and then joined us later. I remember only one time when there was a conflict: a PNM tried to pledge us and APO at the same time. We tried to discourage her, but she was adament that she could handle both. She wound up dropping from both. So sad!
Anything I've said about trying to pledge Alpha Phi Omega and a social in the same semester also applies to Alpha Phi Omega and service greeks with a pledge process like Omega Phi Alpha and Gamma Sigma Sigma.
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  #11  
Old 07-12-2010, 08:38 AM
ForeverRoses ForeverRoses is offline
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My dorm neighbor was/is a Delta Sigma Pi and was in our (social) sorority. For Delta Sig at least, they would hold rush both in the fall and winter/spring. So she went through formal recruitment/new memeber period in the fall for AOII and then winter rush for Delta Sig. yes she did go through two pledge periods- but based on what I saw, they were completely different.

There were a number of things she was required to do as a business fraternity pledge that would have been considered hazing as an AOII (having actives sign her pledge book, wearing the pledge pin at all times, etc).

I think the only conflict she ever had was with formal- both her formals were on the same night, so she had to chose which one to go to.
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  #12  
Old 07-12-2010, 01:29 PM
ThetaPrincess24 ThetaPrincess24 is offline
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Originally Posted by Miriverite View Post
Thanks for all the advice, everyone! If you have any more, keep 'em coming =)
I'm especially interested in hearing from someone in a professional fraternity as well.
I am also a member of Alpha Kappa Psi. We held our recruitment about 1-2 weeks after sorority/fraternity recruitments were over. We did not accept first semester freshman, so traditional sorority/fraternity members didnt have two pledge periods to worry about atleast not in the Fall for incoming freshman. My chapter would also encourage their members to be involved in other groups on campus including social sororities & fraternities.

As far as activities for rush parties went, most of those have been stated here already--attending informational meetings, pizza parties (everyone loves free food!), bowling, etc. We also had tables set up on new student days, club days, and during summer orientation sessions. In addition during rush week we also had a manned info. table set up in the College of Business & Economics building in a high traffic area.

Hope this helps!
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  #13  
Old 07-12-2010, 02:17 PM
AlwaysSAI AlwaysSAI is offline
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I am in what is often mistaken for a professional sorority and an honor fraternity during my undergrad days (& still contribute to both, ehem)

I'm not sure if what I have to offer is much different from anything already said and admittedly, SAI as I experienced it, operates as close to an NPC as possible without actually being an NPC.

Alpha Kappa Psi is a business fraternity, correct? Are there any other business fraternities on your campus? We had Phi Mu Alpha, Mu Phi Epsilon, and Sigma Alpha Iota and because of the multiple orgs, our HQ required us to form a Music Inter-Fraternity Council which included the President & VPM of each org who met monthly to plan events, discuss issues, etc. At my school, MIFC recruitment was structured much like NPC recruitment & took place a couple weeks after NPC recruitment. It took place over a week, usually 4 days. On day one, it was a "Meet the Members" night with groups from all music orgs meeting the PNMs all together in the same room. We always ordered in pizza, socialized, and played icebreakers. Nights 2 & 3 were individual nights that the chapters themed and planned themselves. BUT, in order to eligible to pledge any organization, a PNM had to attend events for all the orgs they were eligible for. Women had to attend MPhiE & SAI and men had to attend MPhiE & Phi Mu Alpha. This made PNMs that were sure they wanted one group go meet the other and possibly change their mind. Now, I don't know how the other two orgs did it, but in SAI, after night 3 we voted and gave out invites to the event, called Formal Rush, which is pretty much NPC pref night. We do a pretty ceremony for the girls to display sisterhood and at the end of the ceremony we delivered bids.

Could you do something like this if there are other business orgs at your school? It works really well for us and we have actually had some girls change their mind about being SAI or MPhiE because of the way we do it. It keeps the girls/guys from being completely close minded.

Phi Sig was done completely differently because we don't have any kind of umbrella organization to operate under. We usually had two weeks of recruitment events. Some were business casual and others were casual. The final event was interview night, the most important night. After that night is when MS took place and people were invited to pledge.

But, in both my orgs, we always had info tables in the Student Center, always had a booth at the "Student Org Preview Day", and nominated ourselves for campus awards because then we would be featured in the student newspaper, get a plaque, etc. Something else the I found to be enterprisingly effective was dragging along that reluctant friend that had no intention of pledging anything. I saw this happen in both my orgs and they went on to become the most dedicated members. Also, having brotherhood events were non-member can come as guests--it lets people see the relationship of the members and makes them want to join.
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  #14  
Old 07-12-2010, 03:53 PM
gammaowl gammaowl is offline
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The rush schedule for professional organizations on my campus varied from organization to organization. Last fall was my first rush as an active in 2 organizations. IFC rush started the week before school starts and goes into the first week, while my APO chapter started rush in the middle of the first week and went into the second. That totaled to 3 weeks for recruitment for me, talk about being burnt out. Anyways, the point was that professional organizations did have rush after IFC and Panhellenic rush but sometimes they overlapped.
My APO chapter has attracted pledge classes of 80-100 per term, so we've actually had to make requirements to become a pledge. Rushees had to attend the first night, Info Night, and 2 other rush events (we had 2 fellowships and 2 service events per rush) in order to be invited to the pinning ceremony and become a pledge. If a rushee couldn't attend Info Night, an exception was made by requiring them to attend an additional rush event.
Rush fellowships are traditionally a beach bonfire, hike up to suicide hill, or picnic in the park. While services are making baskets for mother's day in the spring, making card quilts for the children's hospital, or a beach clean up. We also did flyering during the first half of week 1 so that potentials would know to attend Info Night later that week.
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  #15  
Old 07-14-2010, 06:38 PM
SmartBlondeGPhB SmartBlondeGPhB is offline
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I advise the Alpha Kappa Psi chapter at the University of WA and we have a number of members who are also in social sororities and fraternities (our past Treasurer is also in AXO). We have Rush after they do (sorority recruitment is before school starts) and most have already been initiated into their social group by the time they pledge AKPsi.

They seem to make it work out and remain active in both groups.
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