Recruiting is always an intense process. You’re meeting tons of new faces, as well as trying to remember everyone’s names. You’re making sure you put your chapter’s best foot forward and that your letters are well represented. Then there’s the bidding process. Finally, once you have your potential new members ready to go, you have to get them ready for initiation and everything that comes after. It’s a lot for young women who’re already in classes and have other responsibilities to take on. And here’s the thing: Every sorority chapter manages things a little bit differently to get through rush week and beyond, and that’s okay. Some decisions may be made based on the size of your chapter or your specific recruiting goals. However, much is the same regardless of which sorority chapter you call home.
One of the main aspects of recruiting for a sorority is managing the bigger picture. What do we mean? Let us give you a scenario. Your membership numbers have been declining the past few semesters, enough so that sisters see a trend. Things were going so well, but the sorority got into some trouble. The chapter’s GPA dropped significantly. One former sister in particular got into some trouble for underage drinking. Now your letters have been tarnished on campus, and you can’t seem to match the numbers of other sororities during the recruiting process. You’re all hanging your heads, caught by surprise. All this seemed to come out of nowhere. But it didn’t, not really. What happened was mismanaged recruiting that led to sub-par membership in the chapter, and this in turn led to poor decisions that hurt the chapter’s good name. But it all could have been avoided. How? Let OmegaFi tell you a story about Recruiting: Are You off Track? This Sorority Management Software Can Help.
Sororities use software for pretty much everything these days, from managing their chapter membership and budget management to planning the catering for a formal. Recruiting is no different, and there are a few steps you can take with the help of sorority management software to ensure successful recruitment for semesters to come.
Step 1: Know Where You Come from
Your nationals and other advisors and Greek governing bodies are aware of not only how recruiting and chapter growth has gone for you and your sisters, but for other chapters of your organization as well.
You may be able to glean some information regarding membership trends using OmegaFi’s Compass, software that can help sororities track and manage membership information, such as disciplinary history, GPA, positions held and other particulars. This software also includes built-in reporting on membership data across chapters and even by region, to check your growth versus your sisters on other campuses. But of course you’re also your own organization with your own goals, and the key is to have the kind of growth that contributes to your chapter’s goals, right?
So you’ll want to be able to check the membership records from when things were going well--who was in charge of academics, recruitment, who was president, what was the budget, what goals were accomplished? How did the recruitment numbers differ from the semesters when things went awry?
Step 2: Know Where You Are
The next step is to compare past recruiting with where you are now. Take a good hard look at your membership. How did the girl who got in trouble for drinking get through the bid process? Was it a one-time thing, or a trend that could have been seen a mile away, if the chapter had taken a good hard look at its values and to whom they were offering bids? Have you listened to the opinions of alumnae in the recruitment process? Are you asking potential new members the right kinds of questions, based on these opinions and intuitions?
We know how hard it is to manage recruitment and track every sister’s take on each prospective pledge, and we have a solution.
Imagine a piece of smart software that could level up your recruiting efforts by helping you better screen candidates and the chances that new members will share the values of the chapter, as well as esteemed alumnae. Using sorority software such as OmegaRecruit to track quotas, voting criteria, scoring and reporting during the bid process, and using this software in conjunction with communication software such as OmegaOne could put you on track to master all the details of recruitment today and into the future. Imagine effectively weighing each vote by tracking sisters’ takes on each PNM. It could be simple with an easy-to-use piece of sorority software such as OmegaRecruit.
Step 3: Know Where You’re Going
The ultimate goal of using this sorority management software is to create positive trends in recruiting, in conjunction with the goals on the chapter level and the national level. This software is a way to produce information on recruiting, good or bad, that can be useful in making your chapter as successful as it can be.
Earlier we gave you a scenario. Let us give you another one.
A little cheerier this time.
An alumna discovers one of the potential new members seeking a bid had a DUI on her record. When you press her about it she says she’s sober now and no longer drinks and drives, that it was all a big mistake, that she was immature. But she can’t meet your eyes, and something seems off. Using the sorority management software we talked about, you see a lot of the other sisters like her personality, but have heard rumors about her partying. One sister has a class with her that she’s seen the potential new member skip all but once or twice. Your chapter goes with its gut. It’s a no.
Rinse, repeat. Not all recruitment issues are manageable at the chapter level, but some are. It’s up to you to use the best software available to help you recruit your hearts out and build a sisterhood you’re proud of.
What’s been your experience with using sorority software for managing recruitment? Let us know how it’s helped in the comments below.O
