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Recruitment

Sorority recruitment is a formal process for prospective sorority members to meet women of the sorority chapters at the campus, and for the sorority women to meet the potential members. This is the time to learn about the values, traditions, and programming of the individual sororities. Recruitment is a mutual selection process that takes place over a period of several days. Recruitment is different at every campus. Traditionally, colleges conduct formal recruitment in the fall, but some campuses conduct sorority recruitment in the spring. Contact your campus for more information and to register for recruitment.

Recruitment Counselors
You will be assigned to a recruitment group with a recruitment counselor. Some campuses might call their recruitment counselors “Rho Gammas” or something similar, but recruitment counselors have the same job no matter what the title. Your recruitment counselor is like your guide to recruitment—she can answer any questions you have about the process, and she is also there to listen to how you feel about each chapter. Recruitment counselors disaffiliate from their chapters prior to and during recruitment, so you shouldn’t know what chapter your recruitment counselor is in. This makes her an unbiased resource for you. She is specially trained in guiding potential new members through the recruitment process.

Recruitment Rounds
The recruitment process includes a number of rounds, and each round includes a number of events. Rounds are identified by the theme of the round, i.e. philanthropy, and by the number of events for the round, i.e. six-event round. Each chapter you visit during a round is an event. After each day of recruitment, you will meet with your recruitment counselor to decide how you liked the chapters. You will narrow down the list of chapters you are interested in at the end of each day.

Each round of recruitment has fewer events, and with each round, individual events get longer. For example, at the first round, you may have 45 minutes at each chapter, and during philanthropy round, you may have an hour. The final round of recruitment is preference. This is the longest time period you have with the chapters going into your final selections. On a typical campus, you will attend two or three events during preference.

Bid Day
Bid Day is the final day of the recruitment process! There are several scenarios that can take place on Bid Day:

You receive a bid from your top choice chapter.
You receive a bid from one of the chapters listed on your MRABA.
You do not receive a bid.
You receive a phone call offering you a snap bid.

Obviously, not all of these options are ideal. However, keep an open mind. You may not think that a chapter is the best fit, but you may find that it is your home away from home.

Recruitment Terms

Active: A collegiate, initiated member of a sorority chapter.

Badge: An insignia of fraternity or sorority membership worn by initiated members. Each sorority has its badge.

Bid Day: The last day of recruitment, when potential new members receive bids to join chapters and become new members. Each chapter will usually host a Bid Day activity to help the new members get to know each other and the rest of the chapter, like bowling or roller skating. The Unanimous Agreements state that there is to be no alcohol use or men associated with recruitment or Bid Day.

Big sister: An active member of a chapter who is paired with a new member as a mentor.

College Panhellenic Association: The cooperative campus organization of collegiate members of NPC fraternities

College Panhellenic Council: A council for all of the National Panhellenic Conference sorority chapters on a campus. This council serves as the governing body for all NPC chapters on campus and organizes the recruitment process. Each chapter chooses a delegate to sit on its College Panhellenic council.

Continuous Open Bidding (COB): An opportunity for chapters that do not reach quota during primary recruitment to bid to total and/or quota. The continuous open bidding process is less formal, and not all chapters will participate in continuous open bidding.

Initiation: A traditional ceremony that brings a new member into full membership of a sorority or fraternity. Once you are initiated into an NPC sorority, you are ineligible for membership in any other.

Intentional single preference: When a woman lists only one chapter on her membership recruitment acceptance binding agreement following preference round.

Legacy: A daughter, sister or granddaughter of an initiated member of a sorority. Typically, different groups have different definitions of legacies. Being a legacy does not guarantee a bid to a particular sorority. Each inter/national organization has its own policy for invitations to legacies during recruitment

MRABA: The Membership Recruitment Acceptance Binding Agreement. This is a one-year binding agreement signed by a potential new member when ranking chapters after preference round. A PNM agrees to accept a bid from any chapter she lists on her MRABA. If a PNM receives a bid to a chapter she lists and declines it, she is bound to it for one year or until the next primary recruitment period, meaning she cannot accept a bid to any other organization. If a PNM signs an MRABA and does not receive a bid, she is eligible for continuous open bidding or snap bidding.

New member: A person who has accepted a bid from a sorority but is not yet an active member of that chapter. Chapters will have some sort of new member process during which the new members learn more about the sorority and prepare them for initiation.

“No frills” recruitment: A recruitment style that focuses on quality communication with potential new members as opposed to fancy decorations and matching outfits.

NPC: The National Panhellenic Conference, or the umbrella body for 26 inter/national women’s fraternities and sororities.

Potential new member (PNM): A woman who is eligible to participate in recruitment. On campuses that hold deferred recruitment during second semester, chapters might use the term PNM to refer to any woman eligible for recruitment.

Quota: The number of potential new members to which each chapter can offer bids during formal recruitment. This is determined with a formula involving the number of chapters and the number of women participating in bid matching.

Recommendation: A form completed by an alumna member of a sorority recommending a potential new member for membership. Recommendations may be more important at some campuses than others. Check with your fraternity and sorority life office to find out more information.

Recruitment counselor: A sorority member who is disassociated from her sorority to serve as a recruitment guide. Each PNM will be assigned a recruitment counselor during formal recruitment.

Silence: A period of time after the close of membership recruitment events and prior to the distribution of bids when there is no communication between potential new members and sorority members.

Snap bidding: An option available to chapters that did not fill quota. Chapters may offer bids to potential new members whose preferences were not matched, meaning they would not be extended a bid by chapters they listed on their preference rankings after preference round. This process takes place before bids are distributed, and a potential new member would receive a phone call or other contact by a sorority offering her a snap bid. If she chooses to accept, the new member would participate in normal Bid Day activities.

Total: The allowable chapter size on a campus, as determined by the College Panhellenic, including new and active members. Chapters that fall under total may be allowed to participate in continuous open bidding until they reach total.

Unanimous Agreements: Agreements between the 26 NPC member groups that provide for fairness and equality between the groups. Several of these agreements have to do with recruitment procedures.