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If you’re going to take on the responsibility of managing a fraternity or sorority, membership is among the most important factors to consider. New members are the lifeblood of your organization; they are the ones who will keep the sorority or frat alive once you’ve graduated from college and moved on. You need to make sure they’re the kind of people you want in charge when you’re gone, and that’s something that begins right in the recruitment phase.
Today, we’re going to take you through what’s involved in managing bids, bringing in new members, handling rush week and hosting a bid ceremony. Let’s dive right in.
What Exactly Is A Sorority or Fraternity Bid?
Simply put, a bid is an official invitation to join a Greek chapter. It can take many different forms – a formal invitation on paper, a verbal agreement or even an email. The important thing is that it’s generally sent out at the end of the recruitment process, which signifies that the recipient is to become a part of a frat’s brotherhood or a sorority’s sisterhood. If accepted, a celebration will take place that can range from modest to lively. The bid ceremony is also known as a fraternity or sorority bid day, and we’ll go into planning this out later.
Recruitment Techniques
First thing’s first, you need to figure out how you’re going to handle the recruitment process on campus. Organizing your fraternity or sorority rush week plans starts with defining your strategy and standards for rushees. How are you going to send out bids to prospective members? Will you be a closed organization that only offers bids to select students, or an open frat or sorority that accepts membership requests from anyone and extends bids to any who wish to join?
Depending on what your answer was, your Greek community’s going to look very different. You might get a reputation as a highly exclusive sisterhood or brotherhood that accepts only the best, or a welcoming house that anyone can join. On the other hand, you might get your sorority featured in a hazing documentary or end up with Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s reputation as the deadliest frat in America. Look at the anti-hazing and -harassment policies of other organizations to protect your members from these tragedies.
Once you’ve worked out what kind of recruitment you want to promote and have protective policies in place, it’s time to get the word out on campus. Help make people want to join you and be excited to get that bid for fraternity or sorority membership. Demand Media’s Chris Blake recommends the following tactics:
- Work as a team: Most major fraternities divide each chapter of their organization into diverse teams in order to cover the most ground and recruit the best potential new members (or PNM for short). You should do the same for your frat rushing.
- Don’t be afraid to get serious: Most people, when they hear the word ‘sorority’ or ‘fraternity,’ immediately associate it with one thing – partying. If you want your Panhellenic group to be looked on as more than a party house, invite potential pledges to an information session detailing what it’s actually about – show them that you’re a college-level social club.
- Get potential sisters and brothers involved before they join: Invite prospective members to some of your group functions or philanthropy round events. That way, they’ll see what your house is about, and you’ll be able to work out if someone’s a fit for your sisterhood or brotherhood based on how they mesh with everyone at your events.
- Exercise diversity: Don’t just host a recruitment drive on campus for a single day during rush week. Look in a wide range of locations and attend different events to maximize your visibility. The more brothers and sisters you’ve got out there, the more prospective pledges they’ll pull in.
Sorority recruitment is very similar, with finer details that align with the organization’s values (just like a frat would). With your sorority and fraternity rush ideas organized in advance, all your activities can support the recruitment effort much easier during rush week.
The All-Important Bid Ceremony
Once you’ve invited someone to join and received their acceptance, the next step in the recruitment process is the bid ceremony (or bid day/night). But what is bid day?
“On Bid Day, each fraternity on campus will gather in celebration to accept bids as new members. If someone accepts a bid, Bid Day is the day they officially become an associate member of their chosen fraternity,” reads a post on Seattle Pi. “Most bid days take place on the weekend and fraternities celebrate the entire weekend to celebrate new membership. These celebrations can range from cookouts to full-fledged parties.”
Sorority bid days are much like that, varying in scope and size, and offering you a chance to meet your new sisters. After the celebration – and a brief membership period – the formal initiation ceremony takes place, and pledges are fully inducted into their chosen frat or sorority.
Embracing Greek Life and Community
And remember that at the end of the day, being a fraternity or sorority member is about being part of something bigger than yourself. It’s about being personally involved in an organization that’ll change your life and the lives of everyone involved for the better. So long as you keep that concept in mind throughout your recruitment process, you’ll bring in a crop of pledges that will make your chapter a better place.
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