With the school year quickly coming to an end, spring semester becomes a time filled with responsibilities and if you happen to be in a sorority, recruitment workshops are definitely one of them. But what does it take to be recruitment ready? Recruitment may seem like a pretty straightforward process for people who are not involved, but trust me; it’s not just about what flavor water we serve and what our sorority squats look like! SO much planning goes on behind the scenes for recruitment. Sororities usually have a recruitment chair/committee working behind the scenes to make things happen perfectly, but this is something the whole sorority participates in. Starting as early as spring semester, recruitment workshops take up 3-5 hours, 3-4 days in the spring. This is where the recruitment committee shares all they’ve been working on with the rest of the sorority in order to make everything happen. Chants are taught and practiced over and over during these workshops, as well as tips on how to have the perfect conversation with a PNM (potential new member). Yes, this is also when we decide what flavor water we will be serving.
(Photo Courtesy of Mary Benites)
If you’re not in a sorority, there is no way to understand how detailed this whole process is and how much practicing goes into it. Work week begins a week before formal recruitment and this is when every person does the job they were assigned, for example, some people will be in charge of decorations, others may be in charge of doing research behind the scenes; these days are very long and this is when recruitment really starts to be a reality as we get the house ready. Once recruitment starts, we will all be wearing the outfits as coordinated for each day. Every PNM that walks through the door during recruitment has someone assigned to pick her up at the door, and that person already knows a lot of information about her. The same girl that picks up the PNM at the door already has a group of girls who will be “bumping” her after a couple of minutes; meaning, they will rotate in order to have multiple girls talk to the PNM’s. This process requires a lot of focus because if someone goes to the wrong place or “bumps” with the wrong person, it could result in a PNM sitting alone while in the house. There are specific questions that we plan to ask ahead of time in order to make sure the conversation is meaningful and not awkward.
After each round, the sorority meets in order to talk about which PNM’s seemed like a good fit during that day; PNM’s also get to release sororities from their list as the rounds go on. At the end of this process, if all goes the way it’s supposed to, PNM’s will have their top 3 sororities on preference round and sororities will have narrowed down to a smaller amount of girls. BID DAY! This is when all of the hard work pays off because we will be welcoming new members, a new pledge class, little’s and sisters! This process is stressful and detailed, but the goal is to find girls who have the same values as our sorority and who fit right into our sisterhood. As a freshman, I am thrilled to be able to participate in formal recruitment next fall and to be behind the scenes.