A Canadian '02 Retro Recruitment Story

[Fallen_Angel]

Hi all,

I have posted on here before but as it was a couple of years ago I have lost all my information so hence the new account. Apparently now that I am no longer in university I can't remember any of the emails I used back then!

This is a story about your neighbours to the North, while we may not have Recruitment like the US, and we tend to have only a few NPC's compared to the half dozen or more at US campuses, we still face the trials and tribulations of recruitment.

This is my story of how I joined Greek life after thinking I would never be a sorority girl.

There are 2 NPC sororities on my campus and 2 locals. This has since changed and there are now 2 NPCs and 3 locals. We are also close to another university that has 1 NPC and 1 other local (which is now 2 locals), and a college that has a brother/sister fraternit that is neither NPC nor local... not sure what they are exactly but more on them later. All 5 locals will recruit from both universities and the college in this city.

Fall Recruitment on my campus starts the 3rd week of September, 3 weeks after classes start. Our university does not allow any wearing of letters for any sorority or fraternity during Frosh week for any Frosh week facilitator or any student who is on campus during orientation week. Recruitment events cannot be spoke of, mentioned or advertised during this week. Obviously this is why Recruitment starts the 3rd week rather than the second as everyone needs a chance to advertise once Orientation is over. (No my campus was not Greek friendly, despite that most of their student leaders were Greek, this has since gotten much better.)

For the sake of my story I shall give code names just to leave you all in suspense. My theme is going to be the men of Buffy because I miss that show!

NPCs:
Angel
Spike

Local:
Xander
Giles
Oz

During Orientation week many of us frosh heard whispers of Greek Life but it was quickly quelled if we asked questions above it. No one had heard anything about Greek Life before than and we were all super curious but noone could answer our questions.

The first day after Orientation had ended our dorms were swarmed (Dorm Storming) by Angel and Spike members dropping off flyers to advertise their Formal Recruitment period. My suitemates were all very anti-Greek and threw out the flyer before I saw it.

The next day walking through the main student centre building I saw booths set up by Angel, Spike, Xander and Giles. I stopped at each booth and talked to the girls to see what it was all about.

At Angel the girls seemed super gorgeous and there were always a ton of girls and guys talking to the girls at the booth. They had a gorgeous display and seemed very put together.

At Spike the girls seemed kind of disorganized and they never had as many people around their booth. For the most part they were very sweet and were very good at answering my questions about what it meant to be greek.

Xander didn't have very much stuff on their table, just a sign with their letters and a photo album. Where at Spike and Angel I got to see them doing philanthropies and NPC friendly events, at Xander the pictures were taken in bars, during Greek Week and showed no community/philanthropy activity although I know now that they do have them. As a girl raised pretty sheltered on a farm in the middle of nowhere I was very drawn to how much partying and fun it looked like these girls had.

I don't remember much about Giles, except that I thought they looked extremly bored at their table.

Oz didn't have a strong prescence on my campus, more so on the other campus but their letters could be seen around.

Xander and Giles had a list of events you could attend for them by signing up and leaving your number, Angel and Spike had a schedule of 3 party nights, pref and a bid night that were held together as what I know now to be called Patially-Structured Formal Recruitment.

I wasn't sure yet if I wanted to be part of this or not so I didn't sign up at any of the tables that day.

[danke shoen]

Yay for a canadian story:d

[Fallen_Angel]

I was close with one of my Frosh week Facilitators who was in a Fraternity on campus. One night as we were lounging around and I mentioned that I was curious about Greek life, being younger than most Freshman and in a highly competitive program I wanted to know what he thought about the different GLOs and if he thought I fit in.

Keep in mind these are his perceptions not mine.

He said that he wanted me to be an Angel. That the Angels were the hot girls that were super involved, dated all the "best" fraternity guys and members of the sports teams and were generally the most recognized on campus.

He said that if I didn't like Angel I should be an Oz because they were on two campuses even though they were local and that they were "crazy fun" and had some really gorgeous girls he thought I would get along well with.

In his opinion Giles was the third best sorority, and that they knew how to drink and have a good time but that they didn't have many younger girls and was mostly made up of seniors and a couple of juniors right now after a huge graduating class the year before.

He ranked Spike only slightly above Xander because they were NPC and Xander wasn't. But he told me some of the cruel things that were said about both organizations, namely that one was the "fat girl" sorority and the other was for "lesbians" and girls who didn't fit in anywhere else.

This whole conversation put me off quite a lot, I had hated highschool drama and theatrics and when he talked about what the sororities thought of themselves and each other it all sounded like a world I didn't really want to be a part of. He reassured me that I would make a wicked sorority girl and that it would be so much easier to hang out if I was in a sorority and not just a GDI (God Damn Independant) which is what the GLOs on campus tend to call non-members due to the way the school stigmitizes Greek life.

[Fallen_Angel]

Oh geez I just realized my screen name has Angel in it *Face Palm* I never even thought about that when I picked the code names and I assure you it has zero to do with it, it's kind of a joke based on my old user name.

[Fallen_Angel]

I went to a frat party with my facilitator friend from Frosh week and noticed that there were Oz, Giles and Xander girls at the party wearing their letters, drinking and generally being the life of the party.

He pointed out some Angel girls to me as well but they were not wearing letters, but they seemed to be the centre of attention and while not rowdy and drinking heavily like some of the local girls they did seem to be having a great time.

My friend kept telling me to go mingle and talk to them but be very careful not to drink since I was underage at the time (legal age is only 19 in Canada!)

The Angel girls made me very nervous, they would say hello and then snub me completely and go back to talking amongst themselves, the Oz girls kept bringing up boys and booze and trying to get me to do shots with them. The Giles and Xander girls were also very friendly and all three groups were trying very hard to recruit me to come out to their parties. The common theme was "oh you're dating (facilitators name) he's an XYZ and they are like the coolest frat we hang out with them all the time" etc etc. I had just broken up with a longterm highschool boyfriend and them bringing up my facilitator friend constantly and asking me super personal questions about him made me pretty uncomfortable although after the frosty response from Angel I was flattered by their interest.

Recruitment for the NPCs Angel and Spike started that week with an information night, the locals had no information not just parties with frats, bar nights and movie nights before they gave bids. Bids for everything was about the same time at the end of September.

I went to information night and had a great feel about the Spike girls. Being in a very competitive program that cut 3/4 of the first year entrants before the start of second year, I really felt like Spike would be great since the girls seemed very active in their community but also very grounded and into getting good grades. Because of their looks (horrible to judged based on that I know) and their reputation on campus I figured they probably had the highest GPA, whereas the Angel girls seemed to care a lot about their looks and their reputation. They were very nvolved in the community and philanthropy, but I felt like they would never accept someone who was a sporty tomboy farm girl like I was.

I went to a fraternity/sororiy mixer with the Giles girls but I felt really uncomfortable when they again asked a ton of questions about my relationship with XYZ fraternity boy who had been my frosh week facilitator.

I was going to do formal recruitment with the NPC but instead I decided to do a pageant because I heard it offered scholarship money which I really needed in my more expensive program. At the time I figured that was a big enough step outside of my tomboy shell and so decided to wait before thinking more about Greek Life.

Two weeks later a gorgeous tall, skinny blonde in my sophmore french class (her and I were the only freshmen in this class) showed up wearing a pledge pin for Angel and chattering excitedly to anyone who would listen about how she was so excited to get a bid from the top sorority on campus, and arguably in the city. I stopped listening I found her annoying and thought that if that was the kind of girl who got sorority bods then I was glad I hadn't decided to go through recruitment.

[twinkle555]

Im hooked!

[Fallen_Angel]

Thanksgiving (remember in Canada this is in October) came and went and soon it was Greek Olympics. All over campus there was friendly trash talking between the frats and sororities, letters and special Greek Olympic shirts getting ready for the weekend of activities.

I felt left out, I was a member of all that sort of stuff in highschool and really wished that I had given Greek life more of a chance during recruitment. It was about that time that me and annoying Angel NM got paired up in French class. Classics (Mythology and Philosophy) was my minor to my super competitive program so I already knew my greek alphabet and asked her some questions about her letters in regards to what I know from mythology and ancient studies. She was super impressed and mentioned that she was also in super competitive program.

In my history class I noticed a girl who had been at the Spike and Angel information session with me but had not decided to pledge during the fall. Her and I started talking alot about Greek Life and both of us regretted our decision not to go through with it. Meanwhile Fraternity/Facilitator Friend kept inviting me to fraternity parties and I saw alot of the local girls (Giles, Oz and Xander) as well as the NPC from the other universiyt and the other locals, every so often I saw some Angel girls but I still got the frosty feeling from them except when I saw the NM I had French with. Bit by bit my opinion of Greek Life started to change.

[Fallen_Angel]

Originally Posted by twinkle555

Im hooked!

Thanks :-) I was a little nervous about postingmy story Canadian Greek Life is so different and I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested.

It's hard to believe this was all 7 years ago now, it seems like yesterday. (It also helps that I just recently found my diary from first year and most of this is in it)

I'm sure most people have no idea the NPCs or the school I go to since Canadian is very seperate alot of the time, but I will post all the codes at the end and tell the school. There is noone left active from my time and despite being brutally honest about my feelings I'm not worried about offending anyone as you will soon find out why! LOL

[Fallen_Angel]

Spring semester (even though it starts in January) rolled around. I had gotten a lead role in the Universiy's very prestigious theatre shows spring show and as the only Freshman in it I was feeling incredibly overwhelmed and felt like none of my suitemates understood me. We never hung out anymore, and aside from my new roomate (my previous one had dropped out) I felt like I didn't have any girl friends, just all the guys I had met in classes and bonded with. (I always got along better with guys than girls, part of being a tomboy)

It was during this time that a NM Spike came up to my residence floor and went door to door telling girls about spring informal recruitment and the events that would soon be taking place. She left flyers and was super sweet when I talked to her. She was also in my very competitive program (I promise I will say what it is in the end just it isn't a very common program and if I tell know you will all know the school if you are Canadaian, also the members who know me by my other name will immediately guess who I am an my affiliation LOL)

In my French class NM Angel started to try and convince me to give recruitment another shot as their informal rounds were also coming up. I had told her about the frosty reception I had received from the Angels at parties over the past semester and she explained about how they weren't allowed to talk to me during recruitment because of Panhellenic rules and that after recruitment an Oz had told them I was planning on pledging them in the spring semester so they were being standoffish since they did not have good relations with Oz at all. (I have no idea why the Oz would have said this except that her boyfriend and farternity/facilitator frat friend were housemates and her and I ended up hanging out quite a bit because of it.)

I decided that I should give it all another chance, after all I was feeling like I didn't have many girl friends and maybe these super involved sorority girls would be able to understand how overwhelmed I was feeling right now.

[Fallen_Angel]

There was no events until the next week so I spent the weekend thinking about. During that time I ran into Spikes and Angels almost everywhere I went. Maybe I always had seen these girls, but they were all wearing letters this time in hopes to get more girls interested in informal recruitment.

I stopped and talked to them and asked questions whenever I could. Because of my busy rehearsal schedule for the play that was soon going to open, my program and extracurriculars I decided that I only had time to do Informal parties with a couple of groups. By the end of the weekend, from running into them so many times I had decided that an NPC was the place for me and so decided to do informal recruitment with Spike and Angel.

Parties started the next week, much more relaxed than during Formal and most of the time it was held off campus. (During Formal all parties except one are held on campus because none of the groups have "officially" houses.) There was also a lot of food at them which was great since I was usually going to them in between studying and play rehearsals and was often starving! The first event was open to anyone, after that it was invites to the rest of the parties.

My first party at Spike was alot of fun. It was at a house were alot of their girls lived together. They had Fondue and a slideshow of pictures of their sisters. They also had everyone drop questions into a hat about random things they had heard about sororities or Greek life and pulled them out one by one to answer them so noone felt like they had asked a dumb question. I had a great time at the party but I could see where they had gotten some of their campus reputation. There was one girl though who was recruitment chair but clearly did not fit in with the Spikes she was a gorgeous red head but came off as a total snob and bitch to any of the PNMs that weren't pretty or dressed as nicely as she was. She acted like her and I were best friends, although I had never met her before and talked about her and my fraternity friend (now boyfriend) were so close. This threw me off because he had told me he wasn't tight with any of the Spikes which is why he was rooting for the locals or Angel. Aside from the awkwardness with her I had a great time at the party and thought I could be happy here.

A couple of days later was the first Angel party. It was at their unofficial house were the president and alot of the other executive all lived together. I thought their house was super cool. The girls obviously had a strong bond with one another, but they also seemed to be a couple of groups that were closer with one another. Kind of cliquey. They did similar things to Spike, but during the "weird things you heard baout Greek life" I told the story about the annoying Angel in my French class and how I thought she was so shallow and how I had been so wrong and she was actually really sweet. Maybe not the best thing to say though! LOL Every conversation I had in the bumping portion was really relaxed and fun. I remember walking out being absolutely shocked that I had had such a good time since this was the top sorority and they all looked like "typical" barbie doll sorority girls. The other PNMs at the party seemed to already know lots of the Angels, although I was presently surprised to see the girl from my Canadian History class first semester who had also decided not to go through Formal in the fall. Turns out even she had good friends in the sorority. I definately didn't feel like these girls would invite me back.

[Fallen_Angel]

The next day I got a phone call inviting me back to attend parties for Angel, I was shocked since I thought me blurting out my story about how i thought the Angel in my class was annoying and shallow would have cut me from them then and there. That afternoon I also ran into a Spike who mentioned that there next event was the next evening (the same night as Angel but at a different time) and if I needed I ride she would pick me up from residence. I was really excited about this and started to plan my schedule to fit in both second rounds of parties with both groups around my classes and play rehearsal, opening night was only two weeks away!

That night me and my fraternity boyfriend broke up, I was devestated. To make it even more complicated I broke up with him because of something I found out that day during about him and a member of a sorority on campus (although he didn't at the time tell me which one) who had been hooking up for the last three weeks while I had been so busy with play rehearsals. It really turned my feelings off about joining a sorority, but I had already quit once and I vowed not to let a stupid boy ruin a chance to make new friends for me.

The next day as I was getting ready for the parties, my roomate asked what I was doing and I explained to her about Spike and Angel. We hadn't been roomates long and I knew she had been forced out of another suite do to huge conflicts with her roomates but I had no idea until that moment that it was because of 3 girls who were a member of one of the sororities. She was almost in tears as she was telling me all the things that had been done and said and told me that she hated the group and hoped that I wouldn't truly consider joining a "cult" like them.

I was definately feeling really bad about the whole Greek life thing at this point, I had to sit down and think about it all and in the process missed the first of the two recruitment parties. I collected myself and went to the second party but I was very distracted for the first half of it. Several girls made a huge effort to draw me out of my shell and at one point I burst into tears and spilled the story about what had happened that day and the night before. They were so great and sympathetic and a few of them exchanged knowing glances. The girls sang a cute song to cheer me up and then as a group the party talked baout how sisters could be there to help you through anything and that the best part of being an XYZ was that no matter what you knew that your sisters could be there for you. I was almost in tears again, but this time because I knew that this was were I wanted to be and I wanted these girls to be my sisters.

[Fallen_Angel]

Sorry it's taking so long to write this all I am sitting going through my diary as I do and getting caught up in that year all over again. Looking back I was incredibly over dramatic in first year, I'm not sure if the drama was really as bad as my 18 year old self made it out to be at the time, but it seems like my favourite word was "crushed" since I think almost every week I have an entry referring to how crushed I was about one thing or another.

I really should write a novel about first year, I'm sure it would be a big hit with the teen reading crowd! LOL

[Fallen_Angel]

That weekend I got a call from the sorority whose party I had attended inviting me to Pref party. I was so excited! I knew that Pref pretty much meant you got a bid so I was thrilled to know that soon these girls would be my sisters for real. My heart sank when the recruitment chair told me the date of the Pref Party, it was on January 24, my 19th birthday! My parents were driving up to my university's city to take me out for dinner and it seemed like there was no way I would be able to do both. Stupid me instead of explaining the conflict to the recruitment chair I assured her I would met up with her in the lobby wth the other girls at the required time to go to the ceremony. (The room was not given out since it was an invite only private party.) I did tell her it was my birthday though and she had said that it was too bad because none of the sisters would be able to go out to celebrate with me since 24 hours silence had to be preserved before bids.

Right after I hung up with her I called my parents and begged them to come in for dinner earlier so I could still do my birthday dinner but not miss preference party either. My mom wasn't thrilled about the idea of me joining a sorority but since my dad is a Mason he completly understood and supported me. Dinner was set for 5 and Preference party for 7.

The day of my birthday arrived, my roomate was still not crazy about me joining a sorority after her experience with the same sorority in her former suite, but she had met some other girls when they had stopped by to pick me up for previous parties and was starting to grudgingly admit that they weren't all bad. She helped me pick out my dress for preference and bought it for me as a birthday present. She even helpe dme curl my hair and get ready for dinner since I would be going straight to Pref after that.

Dinner with my family was at a chain called Kelsey's which I usually love, but tonight I was all nerves and it felt like the waitress was taking forever in getting our food. at 6:45 I started freaking out and begged my dad to drive me back to the university so I wouldn't be late for preference. My mom was upset since they had drove in to have dinner with me and we hadn't had cake yet, but my dad gave me a hug and said it was my birthday so we would do what I wanted. My mom and the rest of my family stayed at the restaurant and my dad and I drove back to the university.

We would have made it back just in time except that a car decided to run a red light and clipped the car in front of us causing it to brake suddenly and our van to plow into the back of it. We ended up having to wiat for the police to file reports and I was crying because not only had I jammed my leg against the dashboard and cut it, but I could also see I was going to miss preference and not get a bid.

By the time everything was settled and I was back at the university it was 7:45, in my total emotional meltdown I decided I should just walk through all of the campus building and hope to find the party and explain why I was late. My roomate was trying to talk me out of it, my leg was swelling up and she was worried that I was in shock. I insisted and spent the next hour frantically searching any campus buildings that were open trying to find the party. I eventually gave up and went back to my room where I called the cell of every XYZ I knew leaving frantic messages explainig what had happened and how I was so so sorry and please call me back as soon as possible.

Around 11 when I hadn't heard anything from anyoe in XYZ I resigned myself to not going Greek this semester and decided I might as well just make the most of my night and go out with my roomate and friends. (Which is a whole other story LOL)

The next day the recruitment chair called me back and expressed sympathy for what had happened but told me that since I did not attend preference I was ineligible for a bid. She was very sweet and explained that I could still be a COB since if all bids were accepted they would still be 1 away from Chapter Total and I could potentially fill that spot. She said she would let me know if they decided to do COB.

[Fallen_Angel]

The last week of January came and went with no word from XYZ about COB. I began to give up hope and threw all my energy into the play which would be opening the week before Valentine's day. I saw the new members of XYZ around campus and they would come up and talk to me and asked what had happened at preference that I hadn't come. It was really hard and I was so jealous of their pins.

The first week of February came and the recruitment chair called me to say that they had decided to do COB but she warned me that there were about 4 girls coming out and they could probably only take one more girl since they had more than filled quota in first semester, and were only one away from campus total.

The first event was on the same night as dress rehearsal for a play and my heart sank but this time I decided to be honest with her and explained the scheduling ocnflict. She understood and assured me that XYZ was very involved in school activities and that they would drive me back to the school from the party in time for the dress rehearsal.

The party was great! Everyone was in comfy clothes and they were melting chocolate to make lollipops for their valentine's booth that would sell them to benefit their national charity. It was messy, it was chocolate and it was tons of fun! One of the seniors who was also the social chair sat with me all night and introduced me to all of the NM and the executive board. I felt so welcome and was sorry to have to go when I did, expecially since the other COB PNM got to stay. The social chair drove me back to the theatre in time for dress rehearsal and gave me abig hug and told me to break a leg.

The next day was Friday opening night! I had a call from the recruitment chair telling me that the next event would be that Monday night, and double checking that the play would be done by then. I assured her that final performance was Sunday night, she wished me luck and said she would see me Monday and to please dress formal.

That night as I came out on stage for the final scene I glimpsed in the audience a couple of the XYZ girls. It made me so nervous but I managed to keep it together and finish. At curtain call I saw them standing up and clapping for me and was thrilled. They even sent a card to the dressing rooms signed by all the memebers of the chapter telling me that they knew I would be a star and that they couldn't wait to see me again.

Monday night rolled around and I was so nervous! I got to the appointed classroom and was waiting in the hallway outside it wondering where everyone else was and thinking I got the wrong place since it was super quiet and it didn't seem that there were any lights on. All of a sudden the door opened and out stepped the recruitment chair. She was very serious and told me she was glad I made it in time and to please follow her in. Well I walked in the room, beautifully lit by candles and saw the entire chapter and NM waiting for me. I felt extremly nervous, why was everyone staring? What was going on? The president looked at me and said they had a series of questions to ask me and to please answer as honestly as possible. Noone had told me there would be an interview!

Turns out there was only one question: Would you accept a bid from XYZ? I almost cried I was so excited! Everyone started laughing and the lights were turned on and I was enveloped in a huge hug from the social chair who informed me that she was my big sister. The recruitment chair apologized for scaring me and told me that the chapter had thought it would be a good joke to play on me since it had taken so much drama and weird stuff to get to that day.

I joined my new member class 2 weeks behind them, but we quickly bonded. One of the girls remains one of my best friends, we even moved across the country together after school to pursue our respective careers. So many other girls are stilll close friends and women whom I know I can go to no matter what. I may not have had the most conventional route into the sorority, but it was defintely one that is remembered. I hear that they still tell the story of me wandering the hallways looking for the preference party after a car accident! LOL

Can anyone guess whether I went to Spike or Angel?

[DoctorD]

major kudos to you for posting your story so quickly! And I have absolutely NO IDEA whether it is Spike or Angel!