Recruitment roundtable 2/25/2016
House tours
Vote to take house tours out of recruitment. Where/when will they go? Preliminary conversations
about having them after PNM orientation. Thoughts?
SK: are we for sure doing them? Or is there an option not to?
Oz: up to you all. Took them out of round two. Under assumption they would happen thinking
chapters wanted them.
SK: did not add a whole lot of value. Saw house when walking through to go to chapter room
SSS: pi chi’s doing tours?
Hershila: would be up to you guys. Along with other details of the tour
AST: adds an element of excitement for a freshmen. Would this only be common area? Or
bedroom?
SSS: only common area needed. Bed rooms are all the same for each house and same as
residence halls
ASA: no point if we do not show bedrooms because they see the common areas walking into
recruitment.
Hershila: are you guys leaning towards not doing them at all? Or still interested in doing them
orientation? Feedback I am hearing is there is no point
during
AST: is this a Panhellenic vote or a vote at the roundtable?
Oz: Panhellenic council vote. Need delegate to bring a motion of when they would occur then
we will go from there.
ASA: if they don’t do tours, they only see what they see when they come through the front door
and go back to chapter room. Does this give members more chance to visit with PNMs instead
of seeing a bedroom?
Oz: if during orientation, the intent would be to show the rooms and not recruit. Because the
tour was during the rounds last year there was recruiting going on during the tour. This would
be just a basic tour.
Rachel: because the tour is no longer during the second round of recruitment it would allow for
more face to face time with PNMs during that round this year. Definitely a bonus.
DZ: agree it adds a level of excitement. The value of the house tour is to see the personality of
each sorority. To put myself in PNMs shoes, I am more comfortable when I have gotten a
feeling of my surroundings and would feel more comfortable going through recruitment if I had
been to the houses already.
SSS: agree. Gives them the comfort of – hey, I have been here, it isn’t as nerve-wracking.
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ASA: are we able to decorate common area if we do not show bedrooms?
Oz: probably no. Your house is as is during a normal day of the week.
AST: maybe add some flowers?
Oz: probably to flowers; will need to discuss more
SK: to find common ground - can we do a virtual house tour and of the village? Like when selling
a house. Post to website and PNMs could view, as well as public.
Hershila: unsure, up to you guys. Housing does but this is a different situation.
SSS: seeing the house yourself is more personal, different feel.
DZ: house tours gives us the opportunity to show off things that were donated. To honor
the people who donated things like our staircase, chandelier. Even if the PNMs don’t remember,
it makes us feel better to be able to share. It tells the story of the sorority.
Hershila: at the post recruitment roundtable, there was a discussion about the patio being shown or not
– thoughts?
ASA: patio was an issue during recruitment rounds. Might not be during orientation. We
polled fall 15 class and majority did not feel it was beneficial. They just wanted to talk to us.
Hershila: if they were to be done during orientation who would you like to be present? Give the tour?
SSS: housing chair or recruitment give tours? Pi chi’s give tours? How do we monitor
members to make sure they don’t recruit?
DZ: we think last year’s tour went smoothly with a group of 10. Having a chapter member in
each room talking and passing them group by group. Kept it moving.
Hershila: so having chapter women stationed throughout the house and Pi Chi’s taking
them/leading them…?
AST: as a pi chi last year, I would not want to show off a house that is not mine.
ASA: would pi chi’s only be leading girls to next room/member?
Hershila: yes. Just walking with them and monitoring to make sure chapter women did not say
anything inappropriate.
DZ: decide on a number of people per chapter, maybe 5 and decide where they will stand in the
house, and chapter choose who they are.
AST and DZ: good to have a couple pi chi groups in a house at once. Not overwhelming number.
SK: if you can’t recruit while touring, what’s the point? What other information do we share? It
sill take such a short amount of time. How do we fill that space?
AST: you can still talk about alumni support, correct? Donations?
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ASA: if you have rooms named after alumnae, etc – can you tell them how much it cost?
Because it shows alumni support and commitment.
SSS: agree with sigma kappa. For tour to be valuable, it needs to be personal. If you are only
going to be talking about the room, you will end up being very basic. For a house tour to
be valuable and make that connection you have to tell more of a story, which you can’t really
do during orientation period when you are not supposed to be recruitment. It will be hard
to stay unbiased. PNMs won’t care how much who donated what, they care about how pretty
the house is. This doesn’t promote a values based recruitment process.
Rachel: any other ideas of where this tour could go? Any other ideas besides orientation?
SK: possibly Welcome Week?
Oz: probably not. Orientation office responsible for programming that week and schedule is
packed.
AST: when is orientation in relation to recruitment?
Oz: Sunday prior to recruitment starting on Thursday. August 21, recruitment starts Aug 25.
ASA: where is orientation? Will the girls have to walk from orientation to the houses?
Oz: ballroom and will look at getting buses to houses if that is when the tour is.
SSS: we shouldn’t do tours if they aren’t personal and don’t have the bedrooms. What about an
open house time to explore and not so structured? Chapter members out and doors are open.
Pi Chi’s be there? Well we would want them to go to all houses.
ASA: saying how much a room costs isn’t to show how flashy we are but to show how supportive
our alumnae are. There should be guidelines for what is allowed to say and not to say.
DZ: is there a reason we can’t say “our alum donated this?” Not that we should say “our alum
donated this and it cost this” because that is not values based, but saying our alum donated this
and they took the time to give money and pick something out and come to the house. That
should be allowed to be shared and we should be able to share the story of our house.
ASA: we need to look at how valuable is this tour to the entire PNM experience? Is it worth it?
The feedback we got is that they didn’t seem to care about it. I see that it could be valuable
but how valuable is it?
Decorations and budgets:
Gabie: Budget changed by 2015 council from $10 to $9 per PNM. 317 starting open house round
Fall 15; 317 x $9= $2,853 budget for Fall 2016 recruitment. Donations/discounts are included in
the budget. Videos are included in the budget. Do not need over-the-top decorations or
decorations on ceiling. We want PNMs to focus on conversation. “No-frills” recruitment is now
changed to “values-based” recruitment.
SSS: food considered in budgets?
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Oz: yes. Look at “Resolved to Educate” handout created by NPC. Look over this to get info on
values based recruitment.
Bid day themes:
Hershila: bid day themes turned in via OrgSync form. Form opens tomorrow (2/26 at 8am and is
due 3/9 by 10am. Themes will be first come first serve. If you did email the theme already, you
will need to complete the form. How do you guys want to address chapters with different
theme but same colors?
DZ: AST, us, and ASA all had same colors but different themes we didn’t care but how did ya’ll
feel?
AST: we did the same look (ASA) – confused the PNMs, we blended together.
ASA: it’s confusing for new girls to see same colors everywhere.
ASA: I don’t think the sorority women minded, but it was confusing to the PNMs.
General agreement in room that PNMs were confused.
Hershila: we will be explaining to the PNMs where sororities will be standing.
SSS: I was confused as a PNM last fall on who everyone was because they looked the same. We
all have the same shirt but each member decorates how they want to. How do we handle?
Hershila: include on form if everyone will be wearing same/similar accessories
DZ: every sorority should have different tshirt color…?
Hershila: if that situation was to occur how do you want us to handle? First come, first serve.
AST: we did have same tanks as ASA. We agree if two sororities give same colors, we should
contact second sorority.
General agreement in the room. (Cannot distinguish voices)
Event planning guide:
Hershila: Last year it was due mid-June. Feedback?
Oz: Last year there was a due date in the summer and then a chance to make changes once
everyone had been in the house for a week in August. Because chapters were not in the house
and did not have a “feel” for the space and flow. Can we make a firm date this year? Small
changes can happen and should be submitted, but not do a secondary deadline? When is a
good timeline for you all for it to be due in the summer? We review those and provide feedback
to make sure decorations are on same field. But we want to make sure you have enough time to
submit it, we provide feedback, and you can have time to buy and make vision happen. We want
to find the happy medium. If it is too early and then you change things or if it’s too late and you
don’t have time to change plan if we say it is too over the top.
SK: mid June is fine
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DZ: July first
AST: mid June give enough time to get feedback.
ASA: mid June. If we turn in mid June, when will we get Panhellenic feedback?
Oz: Panhellenic would set a meeting to review immediately after they are due. Within a few
days they would receive feedback.
Disaster plan!:
Gabie: Last year we had rain during recruitment. Where do you want PNMs if rain occurs? Last
year there was mixed feedback about PNMs in the house. Post-recruitment it seemed there was
agreement on PNMs being in the house.
DZ: will there still be tents walking to house to house?
Gabie: up to you all to discuss
ASA: we need a firm plan. It was confusing and last minute last year.
DZ: could UCA or Panhellenic provide tents so we don’t have to scramble last minute.
Rachel: UCA doesn’t have enough tents to provide for all houses and it isn’t in the Panhellenic
budget to purchase tents.
DZ: if we have to purchase a tent, is that going into budget?
Oz: we would expect you would use the tent you already own. If it does start raining and they
line up in the parlor they would just need an umbrella between the houses, not a tent. Prior to
recruitment last year, chapters did not want the PNMs in the house so we decided on tents.
Then tents didn’t work out so we switched it to the parlor – so we are trying to determine if the
rain plan can be the parlor this year.
ASA: so if the rain plan is the parlor then we don’t need tents
AST: if it rains like it did this year then the tent won’t help anything
General agreement in the room.
ASA: they still get wet under the tent. You just need to put them inside.
SSS: cars splashed PNMs in front of our house last year.
Rachel: we need to make sure everyone is on the same page. Not if sprinkle then tents, if hard
rain then inside. If there is precipitation falling the rain plan will be enacted.
SSS: would that be something that Panhellenic would decide and then they tell the Pi Chi’s and
they tell the houses?
Rachel: yes
DZ: no good way to get to house from the front (DZ and ASA) if it’s rainy because of the ditch.
Can they come from back entrance if it’s raining?
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Rachel: buses drop them off in the parking lot
SSS: our back porch floods.
AST: bus sizes were also an issue because they couldn’t fit into parking lot between houses. They
would stop in front of DZ and ASA and girls would have to jump the ditch/walk in the mud.
ASA: physical plant put something there so they don’t have to walk in the mud? If PNMs are
inside house during rain, will we have more time? If they are in the house we will have less time
to get ready.
Gabie: the door between the parlor and living room should be shut so PNMs cannot see in.
SSS: Pi Chi’s will be there with them too.
PNMs being sick
Gabie: we had an issue with PNMs getting sick and want your feedback on how you want that
handled. Our thought was to have the member take her to the Pi Chi and hand her off to her.
ASA: Members should take the PNM in the Pi Chi and the Pi Chi should know what to do from
there.
SSS: what if they don’t inform us they are feeling ill and they just pass out?
Hershila: that is what we are wanting to discuss
SK: our advisors would step in and handle. We would not let a collegian handle that situation.
AST: agree with SK
SSS: that person’s role is more to go and get the counselor and get her out of the situation in
general. House is hot and she needs to get out of the situation.
ASA: if they do get sick they are missing a round. Can they make up round if this happens?
Oz: part of the question is her going to the counselor so that she is no longer having interactions
with chapter members or advisors so the recruitment process stops. That is an incident we had
last year. If the plan is for her to repeat the round we need to have a definitive point where
those conversations have ended so we can say she did not complete the round. But if she stays
with advisors or collegians to address her health issues it gets gray as to whether she has
actually finished the round or not. No she did not finish the round like every other PNM but
were there recruitment conversations that were happening? There are certain medical
situations that you all might have expertise in, but some of those conversations needs to cease.
ASA: at that junction, her Pi Chi needs to be immediately part of a conversation. If there is an
advisor there that is a nurse, she can help – but the Pi Chi needs to be there as well.
Oz: yes
Gabie: that way it is clear about whether she can go back and redo her round. We want to make
it clear and beneficial for her and you all and no gray areas.
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ASA: can there be a timing marker to determine if she will repeat round if sick?
Rachel: that is something we will have to look into something and address
AST: at some point you (advisor) have to react and you shouldn’t be recruiting during those
situations. I cannot step away from a medical situation. There will be times that you can call a
Pi Chi but there will be times a Pi Chi cannot handle that.
ASA: correct. A Pi Chi cannot handle it all but she still needs to be present.
DZ: as far as redoing the round that decision should be made solely by the PNM in a discussion
with her Pi Chi. We could put a cutoff on it but that is a personal experience for her and she
needs to make that call.
Move in day tanks
Rachel: Last year we did Go Greek tank and received lot of positive feedback. In order to benefit
our community – save money, present ourselves as one unit, and point our similarities instead
of our differences – we have discussed removing the letters from the back of the shirt.
SK: can we have buttons, stickers?
Rachel: absolutely. Other accessories are allowed.
SSS: why would we get same tank if we can jazz it up with our chapter accessories?
Rachel: when there are large groups of women and they are all wearing different colors, we are
isolating ourselves. If we are all in the same color we will look like a unit, like we support each
other. You aren’t going to notice the small buttons, or socks, etc. If they see a wall of the same
tanks they will say, “wow! That’s a community I want to be a part of.”
DZ: as a freshman in the fall, I didn’t notice the letters on their back. If it’s a cost thing, I don’t
think we need letters on back.
AST: agree with DZ. We can all wear same tank but we will all have different personality in
accessorizing.
ASA: like same shirt
Rachel: chapters were able to submit designs last year so we will probably do it similarly this
year.
Tents
Rachel: if you have a tent at move in day it is for refreshment purposes. You can have a tent
(usually has letters on it), table, cooler with water, Panhellenic provided flyers, hair ties in the
past. This is not a PR table because it is not a recruitment event. This is a welcome to UCA event,
we would love it if you would consider going Greek. We will be working on what expectations
we have but it won’t be any different than anything that has happened in the past.
Oz: we didn’t have Conway Daze last year during WW because it was rained out. But do you
have any feedback or thoughts for the rest of the week?
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ASA: battle of the halls? SOS Sponsorships?
Oz: Panhellenic did a SOS sponsorship on behalf of all chapters last year so that all sororities
would have the same PR opportunities. The sponsorship we did last year did not include Battle
of the Halls. We do not have 2016 sponsorship information but will discuss when we do.
SK: what if each water table has a woman from each sorority at the water table? Instead of us
having separate tables. This will help make sure chapters don’t have too many people at their
table. This would make us spread out all around campus and allows girls to meet someone from
every sorority.
Several “agree” and “good idea” from undetermined groups.
DZ: location is also something to consider if we do have chapter tables. Last year some chapters
were in a more public location. We need to consider equal representation.
Rachel: I understand that can be an issue but want to reiterate this is not a recruitment event.
The purpose is to have water and encourage women to go Greek.
SK: back to the point of wanting to look like a one big community, having a representative from
each group at each tent would achieve that goal. And it would minimize recruiting concerns and
hold each other accountable.
DZ: why don’t we do across the board Panhellenic tents? Pi Chi’s there too? That way it isn’t
turned into a recruitment event and have groups of women encouraging to go Greek.
Rachel: Pi Chi’s do have a tent and help with the move in day at the halls
AST: we have more manpower in the chapters. The goal is for families to feel welcome. If we
take it out of our head as a recruitment event then I think we will view it differently. If we use
our tents with our letters on it, it would confuse PNMs thinking everyone under this tent
belongs to that chapter.
SSS: everyone under one tent is a good idea. Wouldn’t it defeat the purpose if we allow them to
wear chapter specific accessories? You are not wanting us to identify as a woman of a sorority,
you want us to identify as a Panhellenic woman – but you are allowing us to identify when we
wear those accessories
Rachel: that is why we are focusing on the tank top; because it is bigger than the fanny pack, a
hat, etc.
Oz: when we came to this idea last year of Panhellenic tanks, we felt that allowing chapters to
accessorize was our best option for the community to get on board with. If we are able to get to
the point where we don’t accessorize, that would be fabulous. But it was more of a where can
we take a step?
Rachel: we can’t ask 500 women to disaffiliate. That is something that is a part of our job
description, but not the entire community. We love that everyone is proud of their letters, but
we also want to display that sense of togetherness. The accessories are small details that don’t
take away from the overall picture because not every member will accessorize.
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ASA: it is about the mindset of the people moving things in. If you are going into this thinking
about advertising your group, then you don’t have the right attitude.
Conway Daze & Banners
Rachel: Conway Daze is your PR table. You can have photos, scrapbooks, etc. All handouts will
be Panhellenic provided flyers along with the hair bands from Panhellenic. With the visitiblty of
the houses we wanted to talk about the idea of Welcome banners on the houses during
Welcome Week. PNMs should NOT be in GV prior to recruitment, but the houses are still very
visible. A welcome banner or “Go Greek, Go Bears” at the front of the house – not the back of
the house. Thoughts?
Several “yes” comments.
SSS: Can we say “Tri Sigma welcomes you to UCA!”?
Rachel: yes
SSS: People like to go big and flashy. Should we place a size restriction?
Oz: use the banner system on the house, which restricts to a certain size.
Spring total readjustment
Rachel: Resolved to Educate total handout. All College Panhellenics should reset total in the
spring semester and fall. During fall recruitment semester, total resets 72 hours after
distribution of bids. For the spring, it should be reset within 7 days of the semester starting (the
day classes start, which is a Thursday for us). We have that window of 7 days to choose from.
We want to achieve parity among all organizations. We want to make sure our smaller
organizations are able to grow to total and that our larger organizations are not forcing total to
be raised so that our smaller organizations can never reach it. By readjusting total in the spring,
we are allowing those smaller organizations to grow. This is from NPC so we will be working on
it this semester and have already started conversations in council meetings.
The handout also talks about membership rosters and who does count in membership totals
and who does not count in membership totals. Every undergraduate woman who is a new or
initiated member, a member who is granted inactive status for only one semester – those would
count in chapter total. Those who wouldn’t count would be any member who is away from
campus for the entire academic year. There has been some confusion about
active/inactive/alumnae status, etc, there is a lot of information on this handout that will help
with that. As well as other information about total and total readjustment.
SK: what are you all leaning towards on the timeline? I like the idea but looking for what you all
are thinking.
Oz: open to anything. Setting it Panhellenic meeting on Tuesday would be an idea; that is within
the 5 days and we are all together. It is up to you all to make a motion so that we can have a
more formal conversation.
SK: is there any interest in structured informal recruitment?
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Oz: probably not. With resetting to median chapter size there will only be 2 chapters eligible to
bid and one of those two might be close enough to total that they could choose not to bid. That
would be my first response but we can talk more.
AST: just verifying: no COBs until that date?
Rachel & Oz: correct
SSS: no cob events, nothing?
Oz: nothing. Total will be a question mark until we set it (according to timeline we vote on) and
you won’t know if you have spaces to extend bids or not. This will be a different experience for
us but it will be good and will prevent situations like what happened with open recruitment this
semester happening again.
SSS: what is last day to give COBs for the fall semester?
Oz: day before Dead Day; the Thursday of Dead Week so they can be signed by Friday, Dead
Day.
To reiterate what Rachel said about membership rosters, total is dependent on chapters
submitting correct rosters. Every chapter has a different process for statuses and what goes
through your local organization and what goes through your national organization, but please
read over the Resolved to Educate and the pages from the Manual of Information regarding who
should/shouldn’t be on the roster so we can make sure everything is accurate.
Nondiscrimination and transgender
Hershila: at AFLV a big topic of discussion was nondiscrimination and transgender inclusion. We
wanted to remind everyone that the university does have a policy for it as well as Panhellenic. If
they identify as a female, they can go through recruitment. From the sessions at AFLV we
understand that each NPC sorority is taking a stance on their own, however, for UCA Panhellenic
recruitment – if they identify as a female they are able to go through the recruitment process.
SSS: I thought UCA has to recognize her as a female.
Oz: it does not have to be on the admissions paperwork. When a student applies to UCA they
select their gender. If at some point during their time as a student they want to change their
gender, they do have to go through a court process to change it in UCA’s records. But they
select their gender identity when they apply and that is when they decide that.
SSS: does UCA documents have to say female? If they enrolled as a male and then a year later
they transition to female, do they have to go and change UCA documents to say they are a
female?
Oz: what it says on UCA’s official system, whether male or female, is not looked at whenever
they are going through recruitment. If they identify as a female, then that is what we accept for
whatever recruitment process they are going through.
Chapter tours:
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Hershila: chapter submitted topic: using the common areas of the house for open house (round
1) of recruitment.
SK: we did this for our COB event and the chapter women really liked it because they felt like the
PNMs got to meet more of the membership. The chapter room is smaller than some of the
event rooms we were in. It was hard for noise purposes. Felt more natural if they were able to
free flow between those rooms. Just using the chapter room and living room; not the foyer.
ASA: how would we monitor this? Where would the Pi Chi’s be because they shouldn’t be in
the conversation? If we are in the living room talking the Pi Chi can’t be standing there listening
to our conversation.
DZ: concern budget wise of having to decorate two different rooms. If we do open house round
in common area and then moving philanthropy and preference to chapter room, which is two
different rooms that have to be decorated.
SK: my understanding is that we wouldn’t do decorations because the living room is already
decorated.
DZ: well flowers, extra seating; if we have something for drinks and snacks. That is just the
problem I saw.
SSS: could this be an optional thing that if you wanted you could use the common area?
Hershila: Everyone being on the same page would be the best.
DZ: just to clarify, this is saying that for the first round instead of the PNMs being in rows of
chairs they would come in and mingle throughout the area?
SK: yes that is what we are referring to. It allows them more natural conversation than you
come in, you sit down, and there is a lot of programming. You actually have more conversation.
SSS: was it hard to hear in the chapter rooms? If you spread out you don’t have as many people
concentrated in the chapter suite so then it wouldn’t be as loud.
SK: yes!
SSS: we usually walk them in with chanting. Would we be able to scream, yell, and chant walk
and then be able to go or is it like they walk through the front door.
Rachel: that is something we would look into if we were to talk about changing the round. That
is a detail we don’t have answers to right now.
AST: cool idea to discuss this. Concern: a PNM might be more easily “cornered” if we use the
common area.
ASA: if the concern is that there is too many people and the round is too loud, could we have
more rounds?
General agreement of no in the audience. Late nights already.
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Oz: encourage you to think about all of your members not being the chapter room for all the
rounds. Many chapters around the country do this. With some of the larger chapters on campus
you could be looking at a 1:4 PNM to chapter member ratio.
Greek 101
Oz: chapter submitted topic: what is talked about in a Greek 101? Done by Office of Student
Life Staff. Panhellenic has no involvement. We cover responsible alcohol use, hazing, academics
as well as UCA Greek community expectations of being a good member, being involved on
campus, getting good grades, participating in community service. We added a video this year
called “You are Always Wearing your Letters” that talks about the importance of representing
your chapter and the community well. We also talk about Greek Village and the fee and living in
the house, which is also on the university forms they sign as PNMs. We also talk about the Greek
Village part with the men.
SK: is this just being told to them or do they have something concrete to take home from this?
Oz: just told to them. The only thing in writing is the Grade Release, Non-Hazing, Greek Village
forms that they sign. If there is an issue with housing and them understanding chapter
requirements, I would encourage you to outline your process and have them sign that when
they join. The majority of drop forms that I receive are about financial concerns. Please make
sure your women are being honest with PNMs about the financial commitment and not
downplaying.
Questions:
Hershila: any other additional questions or topics?
AST: regarding the conversation about house tours... As a fall 15, we were the ones on the
house tours. That was a big deal for us. I think it is kind of being underestimated, being able to
see the house. They really do tell a lot about the houses. Like having board games in the living
room, you picture everyone being together; from different color schemes you can tell the kind
of people they are. That did make an impression on me.
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