Recruiting Year Round
Josh Hodnichak, Case Western Reserve ’10, Chapter Services Director-West
Our best chapters actively recruit new members all year long. This can range from constantly adding men to your potential new member list all year, to offering bids to men mid-semester, to running an additional round of formalized recruitment events. Use continuous recruitment on your campus to identify those all-star recruits who aren’t participating in formal rush.
Don’t fall into the “rush” trap
Recruitment is when we actively seek out men to join the Fraternity—don’t wait for potential new members to come to you! Recruitment can take place during a formal period at the beginning of the school year, or at any point during the semester. Continuous recruitment allows you a couple of key advantages over other fraternities on campus. Few other chapters actively pursue recruitment beyond the traditional rush periods. Being the only chapter recruiting mid-semester has great advantages when it comes to selecting the best recruits.
You can actively seek out the students who may have the wrong impressions of Greek life. You can focus on recruiting varsity athletes or executive leaders of other clubs or organizations. Use your SigEp network to connect with athletes and student leaders and invite them to play a pick-up game of basketball, attend a member development event or just hang out and watch Monday night football.
Maintain your Potential New Member list
The most important component of successful recruitment any time of year is maintaining your PNM list. You’ve used it during rush to add names of Balanced Man Scholarship applicants and those you met before and during the formal recruitment period. Don’t let it die after bid day. Drive continuous recruitment through building your potential new member list. Add the remaining candidates who didn’t receive bids during the formal rush process. You can also build your list by taking recommendations from your new members. Have your new members gather five recommendations each from their dorm, and add them to your list.
Sorority presentations are another way to get more names, as well as leave a good impression of SigEp on sororities. Give a presentation to a group of sorority new members. Put on a suit, a smile, and bring some flowers. Be prepared to talk about SigEp, the experience we provide, and the type of men we’re looking to have join our organization. Sorority presentations can add 50 or 100 names to a potential new member list. The bigger our potential new member list, the more selective we can be with recruitment.
Continuous recruitment isn’t hard. Identify your best recruits, invite them to regularly scheduled chapter events, and manage your list.
For more information: Recruitment
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