"No Frills" Recruitment - Need advice

[UGAalum94]

I was thinking more about this, and I don't want to give the impression your whole experience rushing is based on family background or being from a small town. It's just that in the rushes that I know about, if a snap or superficial decision is going to be made by either a PNM or a group, it seems to me that it's going to based more on information or lack of information from before rush began. Not what did they wear first round, but what did you hear from your friend's cousin.

I think that at my school, the old hometown network is probably a lot less important than it used to be since more kids attend from big metropolitan areas.

[tunatartare]

Originally Posted by SoCalGirl

Hometowns meant nothing at my school either. Plus, combine my lack of geography skills with my lack of knowledge of cities/towns outside of SD and I didn't really care where the girl was from. I usually just asked to see if I could tie in info about other sisters. The good ole "You're from Calabassas? Megan is from Calabassas too!" I'd quickly switch to a lovely sisterhood story and avoid discussing Calabassas again.

Hijack- one of my friends lives in Calabassas.

[EGAOPi]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

Things like hometowns of members meant nothing at my school, since students came from all over the country to attend. With 7 sororities for about 300 PNMs, women will use all kinds of things to label each chapter, but I never heard geography mentioned as a consideration.

Agreeed. They mean nothing at my school, either. Almost everyone is from south Florida (either coast). There are some people from out-of-state, which is exciting for us (as oppossed to counting against PNMs, as it does in many Southern schools).
There will always be rumors and reputations but each chapter here is constantly changing and evolving. People have good years and they have bad years and oftentimes, the PNMs can see that.
They definitely wouldn't rank a chapter that wore pajamas and didn't put forth an effort #1 here.

[UGAalum94]

Well, I mean, deliberately showing a bad attitude during rush would be a problem, sure. But I meant that as long as the girls were themselves in their interactions with the PNMs, it wouldn't matter very much what they were wearing or how they decorated.

[jadis96]

We had a mix of frills and no frills at my school. We were told it was "no frills" but looking back it was more of a combo. Round 1 was always a Panhellenic shirt, every sorority got the same one, only difference was your color and letters (same logo on back and style of letters). Round 2 was a frills party, but the cap on money spending was low and there was no "matching" outfits, it was the basic "wear white deck shoes, kakhi shorts and a white fitted T type of thing. Round 3 was always "business casual". Pref night was black dresses for everyone.

Round 1 and round 3 you could have your sorority stuff around the suite and you could have fresh flowers, but no food besides finger foods and water. Round 2 you could have food and a drink, but no "meals" and the decoration budget was 500$ and had to be submitted by the end of that night's voting. Pref was a 500$ budget and you could have any food or drinks you wanted.

[tunatartare]

Originally Posted by jadis96

We had a mix of frills and no frills at my school. We were told it was "no frills" but looking back it was more of a combo. Round 1 was always a Panhellenic shirt, every sorority got the same one, only difference was your color and letters (same logo on back and style of letters). Round 2 was a frills party, but the cap on money spending was low and there was no "matching" outfits, it was the basic "wear white deck shoes, kakhi shorts and a white fitted T type of thing. Round 3 was always "business casual". Pref night was black dresses for everyone.

Round 1 and round 3 you could have your sorority stuff around the suite and you could have fresh flowers, but no food besides finger foods and water. Round 2 you could have food and a drink, but no "meals" and the decoration budget was 500$ and had to be submitted by the end of that night's voting. Pref was a 500$ budget and you could have any food or drinks you wanted.

That's generous. At my school it was a $450 maximum budget for all of recruitment- including food for pref!

[jadis96]

Originally Posted by KLPDaisy

That's generous. At my school it was a $450 maximum budget for all of recruitment- including food for pref!

I honestly think that at the time it was a way for the school to say "we are no frills" but still have some frills so no one could complain too much. They kept taking things away as time went on. They took away food at Round 1 by my senior year and they also took away door songs to welcome PNMs my junior year. The whole time I was there we were not allowed to give the PNMs ANYTHING. I remember one sister chasing down a PNM before she left to get her used tissue because we were told even that would have been a fine. I have a feeling there is a LOT less allowed now.

[SigKapSweetie]

Originally Posted by KLPDaisy

That's generous. At my school it was a $450 maximum budget for all of recruitment- including food for pref!

When I read that number, I almost died. Florida's budget for their 'no-frills' recruitment is substantially (think thousands and thousands of dollars) higher.

[tunatartare]

Yes, you end up having to get very creative with a number like that.

[PeppyGPhiB]

We didn't have ANY food at our rush parties. The year I rushed we didn't even have water, and the year after we didn't either. When I was on panhellenic we changed that, because it was ridiculous trying to get through hours of talking and singing without it. I'm guessing that they probably still do not have food.

[MSKKG]

At the Univ. of South Carolina, each house has a cooler of water outside for the PNMs and the rush counselors. Refreshments are still offered inside, but at least the PNMs are not dehydrated!

[viv1967]

Wow, rush with nationals is certainly different from rushing a school that is comprised of all locals!

We (the 5 locals) each have a designated day during open rush week, where the PNMs come visit whatever group they feel the most interested in. You aren't required to attend every group, but you are encouraged to meet all the groups. Generally, it is a meet and greet, with food and drink; the sisters introduce themselves, talk about the group, show off pictures and such; have the PNMs(and we don't even call them that) intro themselves...and every chills and hangs for an hour or two, and then we go off and have a party with the fraternity that we were paired with for Rush.

Definitely less expensive, but still lots of fun.

[AXIDplace4me]

We are no frills but try to be the most frills we can. we have a total recruitment budget of 650, but this doesn't include bid day (thankfully). we have very strict height limits that are placed on everything. For instance, items on a table cannot be taller than six feet, which allows us to put bookcases on tables to increase our size of our brag table. we also have the limit on center pieces (1'). we have very similar outfits for each day. we group order the shirts but say have a blue jean skirt and brown flip-flops to go with the pink polo. we cannot serve any food to the pnms. the only food we can have in our room is water for the sisters between parties. we have a slideshow during philanthropy night, and a skit during theme.

It's kind of funny how the schools are so different. Baylor is definitely NOT a no frills recruitment school, however, we were not allowed to serve food of any kind. We could go all out with everything else, but no food!

[aphidarlin]

Hi there-

I'm the Recruitment Adviser for a chapter with a total of 5 NPC groups, and we just completed our first year of "no frills." Like you, the GA is new, and wanted to make BIG changes that the groups were not ready for. However, she has been incredibly supportive and empowering of each group and their individual concerns.

I came through Formal Recruitment in Spring 2001, when chapters served drinks, did skits, balloon arches, individual stationary invitations for each PNM corresponding to the theme of the next round's party, etc... Basically, the "go big or go home" mentality.

Fast Forward to this past Fall (2006). The GA wanted no skits, chants, decorations, matching shirts, etc... Her purpose in proposing these changes was to give a more realistic view of sisterhood and sorority life to the PNMs. My suggestion was to take a look at what we had been doing in recruitment, and ask ourselves...Do we do this in our respective chapters at any other time, than for recruitment?

i.e. I don't get together with my sisters on a Friday night and perform a skit. However, we do wear matching sets of letters for various events.

We ended up using this as sort of a blue print for the recruitment rules. One of the rules regarding decorations was that everything in the room had to serve a purpose. Nothing could be just a thematic space filler. It forced us to pretty much be limited to table decorations, but to be intentional and creative with what we displayed.

Hope this helps...Let me know how it goes for you!