Recruitment Questions

[spencerjh]

Hi, all! Sorry if this is not the right board to be posting this on. I have a few questions about recruitment.

I just went through formal recruitment as a second semester freshman. My school is relatively small (less than 10,000 total undergrads), with only 4 sororities on campus. Of those, three are NPC and one is local.

Please bear with me, I'm new to all of this so I don't know if recruitment varies majorly from school to school or if it's generally the same!

After the first three nights of recruitment, all the PNMs found out if they were invited to a preference party. I thought I had done really well at recruitment--I talked to a lot of girls from all four chapters, had some really nice conversations, and walked away feeling pretty confident about everything! But yesterday, when preference invites came out, I found out that I was only invited to one party (the local sorority). I was completely heartbroken and have no idea what I could have done, or was supposed to do differently.

Please do not read this wrong--I was not upset because it was a local sorority! For me, I couldn't see myself fitting in there, and didn't think it was a group I could really picture myself becoming a part of. I was not going to attend a preference party and potentially take someone else's spot just to go to a preference party.

So this is why I'm here: I have a few questions about what to do next.

1. Do any other schools do "open bids?" My college holds open bids, but I'm not sure what determines whether or not one will be held for a sorority. If so...what can I expect? Is it like formal recruitment in one day?
2. Is it a "thing" to send thank you notes to sororities you turned down? I did not accept a preference party invitation to the sorority for which I received an invite, but was wondering if I should reach out to them and thank them for the opportunity anyways. I don't know if this is a faux pas, or if it's something anyone actually does, but I kind of want to let them know that I appreciated their invitation.
3. Would rushing be pointless after this semester? I am not planning to be on campus for both Spring 2017 and Spring 2018. I don't want this to hurt my chances in the future, but I have wanted to be in a sorority for a really long time and don't want to end up disappointed again.

Sorry this is so long...it kind of turned into me just dumping everything into one post. And I apologize if any of these questions get asked a lot. There's a lot happening in my brain right now after this past week and I needed to put all my questions into one place!

[Titchou]

Not stupid questions at all.

#1: Yes, all school have continuous open bidding but ONLY IF there are open spots in any group. Everyone does it differently as it is not structured. Your best bet is to talk to the Greek Adviser about how to sign up,who may be participating, etc. Not knowing your campus for sure, we can't say.

#2: No, that is not normally done. Not knowing your campus, I can't say whether you should or not.

#3: If you let the groups know you aren't going to be on campus - or that's what happens with your major, then that didn't help your chances at all. They need women who will be around for all 3 plus years.It's another question you could ask the Greek Adviser.

[spencerjh]

Thanks so much for replying so quickly! I will definitely be sure to get in touch with the right people and ask them. I didn't think I had to say anything, because I'm sure they don't expect everyone to accept, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't being rude!

And yes, I definitely understand that. I did talk about wanting to study abroad, which is what I know a lot of sisters in each sorority do, but I'm afraid that might have hurt me in the long run. The other semester would be an internship that would require me to be out of state, but I didn't say anything about that because I thought it wouldn't help. I guess I'll never know why specifically I wasn't invited back, but that's okay... it just wasn't meant to happen right now, I guess.

[spencerjh]

One more question- my school, and I'm sure many others, have the "one calendar year" rule, whereby if you accept a bid, it's binding for a year. If you were not offered a bid, would a PNM be able to try to rush the following semester?

My school's PNM Packet says:
"A signed Preference Card or a Continuous Open Bidding Acceptance Card is binding. If the potential member receives a bid under the preference system, she is ineligible to be a new member in any other national fraternity on the same campus for one calendar year. If the potential member does not receive a bid under the preference system, she is eligible for continuous open bidding. If the potential member transfers to another campus during the year, she is eligible for pledging on that campus, at the earliest possible opportunity.
4. A student who has had her pledge broken by a sorority or has broken her pledge to a sorority may not be asked to join another sorority for one calendar year from the date she was originally pledged. However, she may be given a bid by the same sorority at any time within that calendar."

If I am not bound to any sorority and did not receive a bid, that shouldn't be a problem, right?

Sorry if these are very specific to my campus. I'm just interested in some outside opinions from anyone who's been through it!

[navane]

Originally Posted by spencerjh

If I am not bound to any sorority and did not receive a bid, that shouldn't be a problem, right?

Correct!

[Titchou]

Correct. If you did not receive a bid in formal recruitment from a group you listed on your bid card nor you did not sign a COB acceptance card, you are free to pledge any group at any time on your campus or any campus where you are enrolled.