Minimally Structured Recruitment

SassyPantsAGD · #1 01-11-2009, 11:53 PM

I'm one confused Recruitment Advisor right now. Panhellenic voted to move to Minimally Structured Recruitment for our Formal Recruitment held next week. We also have deferred recruitment. They call this Minimally Structured but I think it is a combination of Minimally/Partially.

I am even more confused than I was to start with. Hopefully someone may be able to make more sense of this with me because I'm having an incredibly hard time wrapping my mind about it.

- Move to Minimally Structured Recruitment
- PNMs are not required to visit all of the houses on any given day
- Two organizations are shorted by one round as parties will take place in the evenings (ie: Sisterhood Day- Day 1: 3 Organizations, Day 2: 2 Organizations)
- They are supposedly still having quota and we will still be using the bid matching system. But how does that work if they aren't even required to attend all houses and they won't be cutting a sorority each day?
- We won't know who is coming to our first two days of rounds but we will know who is coming to our Preference.
- Our Recruitment Rules do not even detail any of this information out. The only details include the "No Frills" details and that the PNMs will only be encouraged to visit all houses but not required.

I haven't seen much on here at this structure after searching...I'm hoping some other fans of the Greek Community can tell me their experiences with it!

Kappamd · #2 01-12-2009, 12:04 AM

We have minimally structured recruitment at my University as of Fall 2008. Basically, recruitment begins with three "Open House" days. The PNMs are required to visit every house at least once during these three days and are given a "passport" that they must have stamped at each visit. Those who do not visit every house are dropped from recruitment before Philanthropy. Cuts are made at the end of these three rounds, and the PNMs are allowed to visit up to three houses for Philanthropy round, and then two for Preference. It is similar to what you described in that we don't know who is going to be showing up until the fourth day (which, in my opinion, was rough).

Like I said, we have only been structured like this for one semester and there were definitely kinks that will need to be worked out. It seemed to be a lot less stressful for the PNM's, but moreso for the actives. I don't really have any strong opinions for or against.

AGDee · #3 01-12-2009, 06:02 AM

You need to get in touch with your Recruitment Specialist ASAP. She can help you through the nuances of this structure. The real advantage is that the women who come to your events are women who truly want to be there, since they aren't required to be there. Not knowing who is coming in advance can be challenging though.

33girl · #4 01-12-2009, 11:52 PM

Is there a Meet the Greeks day or something that everyone has to attend? If so, have a guest book out for the rushees to sign - include columns for address, Phone #, activities and GPA if that's OK with your Greek advisor. It's not as good as an application but it will give you info to help you jog your memory during membership selection. If there's not a Meet The Greeks day just have the guest book out at all the parties before pref.

They will be able to do quota by seeing how many girls are still registered before Pref. Even if they can skip visiting chapters if they want to, they apparently still need to tell the GA if they're dropping out of recruitment.

Be sure you have a list of women who may have attended COB events or who are personal friends of members - if you don't hit quota, you may still be able to bid women who haven't gone through rush. Check w/ your GA and your Panhel area advisor. And of course, if you are under total, you can bid any eligible women up to total, quota notwithstanding.

Like Dee said - the nice thing about this is not having to put up with the "I'm just here because Panhel is making me come" type girls who bring down the whole party.

APhiAnna · #5 01-13-2009, 03:25 AM

The one huge problem with the passport system I can see is that a) women that a chapter really wants can easily be pressured into staying at certain chapters for ridiculous amounts of time, effectively creating a new way to dirty rush and b) it could promote the petty attitude of, "I have to spend enough time to get my stamp, which could only be a minute, and then I can move on to chapter ABC for 3 hours".

Merci11 · #6 01-14-2009, 12:29 PM

My school has a similar system. Though the first day is a 'round robin' where you spend 20 minutes with each organization and get your card signed by the panhel rep. After that, you can go to opens at any organization you choose. So if you really don't want to go to certain chapters, you don't have to. In the end, we do rank our top three, but we can only be given a bid if we turned in our round robin card.
However, by doing recruitment this way, more people listen to the stereotypes and don't go to certain organizations because they wouldn't want to be considered someone who fit that group's stereotype. Because of that, many organizations get low numbers every year because people aren't willing to give them a chance.
It also is really hard for the organizations to plan because they never know how many girls will show up to their event.

SassyPantsAGD · #7 01-14-2009, 05:18 PM

Thank you all for your input thus far.

I think the most frustrating about this recruitment is the fact that we do have a deferred recruitment so the stereotyping is going to be a huge thing.

Also there is not a night where they visit all of the houses. The closest is a "Kickoff Party" where all 5 organizations will have a table. I'm really worried about the direction of all of this.

When I was a collegiate we had Fully Structured...recruitment had phenomenal numbers. Even with the first year of Partially Structured (which had no near differences to Fully in the first year) it was successful. We had over 120 women go through Recruitment.

Now with the last few years of going to such a loose system we are lucky to have 40 women go through. Its such a let down to put so much work into Recruitment with a 1/3 of the amount that we used to have.

They said if this Recruitment doesn't go well that the next year we will be going to a completely informal structure.

Oy. I'm waiting for my Green Book and to hear back from some of our Recruitment Specialists.

gatordeltapgh · #8 01-14-2009, 05:39 PM

Often times the CPH will move toward MRS and PSR when fully structured has not been successful for a few years, most groups not making quota, or the campus has lost a chapter or two in recent years. Maybe you can try finding out what happened to make the CPH move from the FSR to PSR.

Now that they are moving to MSR something is not working. Maybe it is the PR? I am sure your recruitment specialist will help.

Good luck!

33girl · #9 01-14-2009, 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SassyPantsAGD

I think the most frustrating about this recruitment is the fact that we do have a deferred recruitment so the stereotyping is going to be a huge thing.

Always look on the bright side of life. Women who join the "struggling" or "farm animal" or "nerd" chapters AFTER hearing all the stereotypes are doing so because they truly love the sorority and the girls - and they aren't gong to drop out 3 weeks into pledging because the sorority is so different from how they came across at rush and OMG they have this awful stereotype. They already know that and don't care, or at least have decided the friendships are worth putting up with the silly gossip.

With this kind of rush, impress upon the women that rush really is 24/7/365. They (and the Greek community as a whole) need to put across a positive image (no dirty rushing or trash talking or overall antisocial behavior) and get more women interested in rushing. This is far more important than practicing skits or bumping or decorations.

The "loose system" isn't what is making fewer women go through. My school had a similar "loose system" in the 1980s and we had quotas of 10-15 (with 7 sororities). More than likely it's the overall image of Greeks on the campus or an anti-Greek attitude being advanced by the school's administration.

sceniczip · #10 01-15-2009, 11:52 AM

our school went to partially structured because a lot of girls couldn't make some of the required parties so they had to drop out. With the passport they still have to visit every house before they can be invited back to any philanthropy parties but they can do it on their own time. All chapters had the same hours for the parties and the PNMs had three days to go to each house. It worked out well for us this year, we took the most new members so that was exciting

I know I had to drop formal because I couldn't attend a couple of the parties. We have a lot of people who work or take night classes so I think it works out better.

To know who was there we gave each girl a name tag and then collected it when she left and stuck it in a book. Also, each active was given a notebook to write down what they could about the PNMs they had talked to because there were some who came to the first party on Sunday but we didn't know who was going to be continuing until Thursday I think it was so it was helpful to remember who was there and what they were like and such.