Rush in a small college

BDPDTD · #1 04-12-2010, 04:48 PM

I am a rush chairman in Delta Tau Delta fraternity in a very small East Texas school. In a large campus, men say they want to rush and the fraternities get to pick from the best based on IFC rules, etc. In our school, however, we have a dying greek system. Getting people to rush is like pulling teeth. I have taken up on signing us up for freshman move in and every other event opening on campus. We also have many musically talented members so we play various school events and bars. I have given seminars on rush and visited many myself. The typical phire it up rush equation does not apply well to our university. Does anyone who has been in a similar predicament have any ideas or suggestions?
Heres to a good rush semester this fall.
Fraternally,
DTDBDP

Gusteau · #2 04-12-2010, 04:59 PM

I would disagree that Phired Up doesn't apply to your Greek Community, in fact I would argue that it is even more relevant to your situation because you need to apply non-traditional recruitment tactics. Give their free resources a try - really read into them and see what its all about. If Phired Up hasn't been working for you I would guess that you tried the "methods" but you weren't living the lifestyle. Dynamic recruitment and "Social Excellence" aren't always easy to change to, but they're the only way to really implement the tactics Phired Up gives.

Example: Freshman move-in - great idea! Have a raffle and give out a ticket to every new freshman you move in. Then have a barbecue in the freshman housing area where you announce the winners. You instantly have hundreds of names and phone numbers from the raffle tickets and you get all of those guys to come out to another event so they can win. Just make sure you do something with your names list - call those guys up and invite them to lunch, or to play basketball, or whatever. Phired Up can work for you, but your chapter needs to commit to a lifestyle change for it to succeed!

Fatal1913 · #3 04-12-2010, 05:06 PM

Agreed. Just sounds like you are need to do more with the students... its all about being visible

BDPDTD · #4 04-12-2010, 05:08 PM

Oh phire it up is a great program. I was merely refering to the equation where you take how many men are on your campus and subtract the number of men that are already in fraternities and etc. I do have a rush cook off contest actually where we charge two dollars to eat all you want and sororities judge our food. I've also got three different seminars planned for the current and following semester. Our biggerst killer is the fact that some of our members would prefer never to leave the house. I can only tell the, to be more social, I cant physically force them to do anything. Any suggestions for that? BTW it would be ingenious to give out those tickets for freshman move in at the bar b q because I wanted potentials to get in free. If you have any other suggestions feel free to chat because I am trying to teach an old dog new tricks.

Gusteau · #5 04-12-2010, 05:16 PM

Ahh, gotcha.

OK - try making a list with three categories: Strong Recruiters, Adequate Recruiters, and Poor Recruiters. Make each strong recruiter a group leader and pair him up with guys from the other two groups. Make sure to pair people up so they compliment each other without being too much alike (For example, if one of your strong recruiters is not a sports fan, pair him with a big sports fan to strengthen the team's recruitment potential). Have your teams work on their names lists together and have them work together to set up meetings with potentials. To offer an incentive let the most successful team get first choice at little brothers, or reduced dues, or anything to give positive reinforcement to good recruiting. Ideally the team leaders will be able to encourage the weaker recruiters in their groups to be more active recruiters.

BDPDTD · #6 04-12-2010, 05:30 PM

Excellent thinking. Have you ever put on a rush seminar? We are starting to get bigger each semester but with our current spring semester the old rush chairman was a flop. He only managed to get three people on board. The following fall we had a twenty man pledge class. I want their minds wiped clean of whatever our rush plan was for spring and carry on for an even stronger fall than last year. Any suggestions. I am a JI and this is my first exec position.

33girl · #7 04-12-2010, 07:03 PM

It sounds simple but...go out and make friends. Introduce them to your brothers, and if they seem to get along, ask them to join your fraternity. Some will, some will not. You can still stay friends with the ones who do not. Don't look at every single encounter with a guy as "OMG HE MIGHT PLEDGE US!!" It'll have the same effect as it did when you were looking at girls going "OMG SHE MIGHT BE THE ONE WHO LETS ME TOUCH BOOB!!"

If men aren't pulling their weight, they need to be disciplined or terminated. Better 15 guys who put their all into everything (including rush) than 40 guys, half of which can't drag their butts off the couch.

ebdelt · #8 04-12-2010, 08:32 PM

Always nice to see another Delt on the boards. I'm from the Epsilon Beta Chapter (TCU). You said East Texas? I'm guessing SFA or SHSU?

Do you have a deferred rush or can you do summer rush? We begin rushing guys in early June all the way through formal rush in mid August. Getting a jump start on the competition is a good way to get going in the right direction. We take a lot of rushees out to lunch and have other dry social events so we can really get to know them. But I feel your pains as a Rush Chair. Our chapter is on some good momentum so we really need a good fall pledge class of about 30 to get to where we want to be. Best of luck!

BDPDTD · #9 04-13-2010, 02:11 AM

ebdelt. How are you brother? No I am a Delt of Ole Et (Texas A&M Commerce). We don't have the most funding and definetely aren't the most progressive chapter. It is very hard being the rush chairman here but I have some innovative ideas. I joined because I really liked what Delta Tau Delta stands for, even though sometimes it is a struggle for funding. I'm just stuck between a rock and a hard place because I want to do so much and its a tough move towards it. Any ideas Delt to Delt?

ebdelt · #10 04-13-2010, 02:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BDPDTD

ebdelt. How are you brother? No I am a Delt of Ole Et (Texas A&M Commerce). We don't have the most funding and definetely aren't the most progressive chapter. It is very hard being the rush chairman here but I have some innovative ideas. I joined because I really liked what Delta Tau Delta stands for, even though sometimes it is a struggle for funding. I'm just stuck between a rock and a hard place because I want to do so much and its a tough move towards it. Any ideas Delt to Delt?

Believe me I feel your pains in the progression. Much of the chapter here still holds on to a lot of meaningless traditions and are resistant to changing our mentality. Our exec has done a pretty good job of kind of probing the fraternity into the direction it needs to go with strong support from the younger pledge classes (I'm a sophomore). We nearly lost our charter 4-5 years ago but have managed to turn it around when it began with just a few guys who got on exec and did what they needed to do.

Funding can be a hard milestone to come by. Perhaps you could talk to executive about raising dues to promote a more successful rush and also have more socials. Perhaps if you can mix with some of the top sororities you can attract guys wanting to meet girls, but at the same make sure you emphasize the strong brotherhood because that ultimately is the most important element of DTD. We recently raised dues from 650 to 850 and while it pissed off a lot of our older brothers, it has helped us out tremendously financially and makes the future extremely promising.

Also try and emphasize having a really successful philanthropy. Unfortunately it seems most frat boys these days don't really give two cents about philanthropy...but if you can create an event that raises a lot of money to a good cause to where it draws campus-wide attention, this all creates publicity for the fraternity which can spark interests of the kind of guys you want to recruit.

Also if you have an Alumni Relations Chair, see if he can go about updating lists of alumni and asking for donations. The worse they can say is no. A fraternity really is a business and we need the $$$ to survive.

BDPDTD · #11 04-13-2010, 02:35 AM

Now I know you are a bit larger than us, but when you say 850 you mean semesterly right? We pretty much do 500 a semester, but being that I have no problem paying my dues I think it would be a great idea. It would light a fire under the ass of the people who do not pay. We could be like pay or hit the road. Let me throw some of my ideas by you for rush and you could critique them.

Preston327 · #12 04-13-2010, 03:20 AM

Greetings brothers, nice to see other Delts around GC. I'm from the FAU Crescent Colony (soon to be Iota Nu, April 24th

) and I can relate a bit to some of the things you guys have mentioned, and hopefully offer some advice.

First, rush. Now, I'm not Rush Chair (although I did apply) but I've been through Phired Up and generally like to think I know what I'm doing. You mention funding for recruitment; I ask, why does recruitment need a big budget? I did a budget for two weeks of recruitment on less than $1k. Big events and big spending aren't going to get you more attention, active involvement in recruiting people from everyone in the chapter will. Recruitment is one of the Obligations of a Delt; remember this and emphasize it at chapter. Tell every brother that they need to become acquainted with and get contact info for (appropriate number goes here) people before Recruitment kicks off. Circulate flyers. Wear your letters around the first few weeks of the semester (and all semester long) If there's a main walkway or artery of campus (like our Breezeway at FAU), set up a table and make yourselves visible. Market the hell out of your recruitment; everyone should know that Delt is having rush at X Location on Y Day at Z Time. Newly arrived freshers with nothing else to do will flock to these things; I know I did. Get to know them, call them the next day to invite them back, genuinely become their friends and they'll want to be your brother.

As far as events go, you don't need big ones. KISS Principle works excellently here; before you plan something ask yourself "is this the sort of thing I do with my fraternity regularly during the semester?" Cookouts, pickup football/basketball/soccer, tailgating at sporting events, to name a few.

For Philanthropy, I'm currently Philanthropy co-chair, and I've got a few ideas for how to boost chapter involvement on that. Ask around at Chapter for causes that brothers genuinely care about. Everyone has something that's touched them, you're likely to get some form of response from everyone. Get in contact with groups or causes the brothers throw out and ask how you can get involved. Then, plan an event and blow it up all over campus and the community. A sorority here did a brunch for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and raised nearly $5k. Big events here are a good thing, if you can find ways to keep overhead down to max out the money you raise. If you do something that's near and dear to your brothers, and enjoyable for them to take part in, you're bound to have them show up. If they still don't, remind them that they have an obligation to philanthropic events and bring the Honor Board in if need be.

Feel free to PM me about recruitment or philanthropy stuff.

BDPDTD · #13 04-13-2010, 03:45 PM

Congratulation Preston327. It is always wonderful to hear Delta Tau Delta is doing well nation wide. We are coming up on our 50th here at Epsilon Eta chapter. That will be in 2011.

deepsouth · #14 04-14-2010, 10:54 PM

Book a band. Call everyone on your rush list invite them to the band party. Have all of the brothers call all of the girls they know and invite them to the band party. Buy a ton of beer, about 20 per rushee. Put said beer in a cooler and leave it somewhere out of the way(closet near by, bed of your truck) and make sure that its only for rushees. You will find that rush will no longer be difficult.

ASTalumna06 · #15 04-14-2010, 11:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gusteau

Ahh, gotcha.

OK - try making a list with three categories: Strong Recruiters, Adequate Recruiters, and Poor Recruiters. Make each strong recruiter a group leader and pair him up with guys from the other two groups. Make sure to pair people up so they compliment each other without being too much alike (For example, if one of your strong recruiters is not a sports fan, pair him with a big sports fan to strengthen the team's recruitment potential). Have your teams work on their names lists together and have them work together to set up meetings with potentials. To offer an incentive let the most successful team get first choice at little brothers, or reduced dues, or anything to give positive reinforcement to good recruiting. Ideally the team leaders will be able to encourage the weaker recruiters in their groups to be more active recruiters.

A couple of years ago, I would have agreed with this and thought it was a great idea. However, a lot of times, it doesn't work. I've seen it first-hand. The best recruiters, because they're in a group filled with "mules", end up doing all of the work on their own.. which isn't effective.

There are going to be people in the chapter who are apathetic, especially when it comes to recruitment. I would suggest asking the entire chapter who would like to be on a recruitment committee. And before you have people sign up, explain to them what you're looking for... those brothers who are outgoing, who are willing to really work to get new members into the fraternity. The brothers who sign up will probably be your strongest recruiters.

From there, take those guys and plan recruitment strategies. Do things that will make your chapter stand out. Not VISIBLE, but STAND OUT. Do something different. These are a few of my favorite examples from Phired Up...

Door Holding Campaign: http://www.phiredup.com/index.php?op...p=424&Itemid=2

Be Nice to People (at least for a Week): http://www.phiredup.com/index.php?op...p=418&Itemid=2

And this video was included in one of their blog entries... The Free Compliment Guys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QShPNcjgtfs

As Phired Up says... put your HORSES to work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 33girl

Don't look at every single encounter with a guy as "OMG HE MIGHT PLEDGE US!!" It'll have the same effect as it did when you were looking at girls going "OMG SHE MIGHT BE THE ONE WHO LETS ME TOUCH BOOB!!"

This made me literally LOL