1. Candice Wolf, Assistant Director Campus Activities Lindsey Williams, Greek Life Graduate Assistant Northwest Missouri State University Sorority Recruitment On Your Small Campus
2. Data to collect Chapter or council rep? Use RFM? http://textthemob.com/print/3298 http://textthemob.com/print/3299
3. Greek Life at Northwest ~7,000 Students 15% Greek Population 5 NPC Chapters Fully Structured Recruitment Why it works for us…
5. www.goodmarketingideas.com What the experts say… Define your market. Learn about your market. Know the benefits of your product to your market. Advertise to your market. Teach your market about your product. Capture your customers and keep them coming back.
6. What characteristics define your “market”? i.e. What do your “clients” have in common?
10. How do you market recruitment? Advertising to Your Market
11. Tips for good marketing Meet people where they are Facebook Twitter Sidewalk chalk Be NORMAL! Go old-fashioned
12. Teach people about your product Be personal Tell them the benefits of going through recruitment Know your product—“Show me the money!” New member education details Dues New member retention rates GPA information Be realistic
23. Things to consider Recruitment should not be a money-maker Consider a “zero-based” budget to determine your recruitment fee What is your fee providing to PNMs? Use your budget to set sign-up goals
24. What should you be spending money on? (And what not to spend money on)
26. Selection Who will act as your Counselors Application or Appointed Interviews Point Systems
27. What’s the right number for you? How many chapters do you have? How many girls do you have going through recruitment? Location
28. Recruitment Counselor Training Disaffiliation Prepare for common questions: Which sororities are the most popular? Is there a lot of competition among sororities? Will I have to do embarrassing things to join a sorority? Are you really close to every member in your chapter? Why should I pay money just to make friends? Know schedule inside and out Situations
31. Don’t wait for them to come to you Summer registration Move-in Orientation Get information for those interested Admissions Orientation staff Don’t forget upperclassmen!
32. Online recruitment tools to help you succeed Two primary companies: Innova’s “Comput-a-Rush” and Interactive Collegiate Solutions “Recruiter” Cost varies by number of registrants ICS- Innova-$ per person, up to $750 Both provide detailed reports to help your council, chapter, advisors and NPC understand and evaluate your recruitment
34. Do Express the purpose and importance of maximizing options Talk to them about appropriate conversation topics Explain that recruitment is a mutual selection process Try to explain individual chapter ranking process Tell them “everyone goes out—just be yourself!” Say it’s okay to “drop out” if they don’t get the invitation they wanted Explaining recruitment to PNMs Don’t
41. Assessment Who to assess? What to assess? What do you do with the results?
Hinweis der Redaktion
How many people know where Northwest Missouri State University is?Located in MaryvilleApproximately 7000 studentsGive or take a fewWhat’s so great about Northwest is the Close community we have with students Most students live near by (100 miles) Older siblings, friends from homeDoes this maybe sound kind of familiar to any one here, or pretty close to your University?The Greek population counts for about 15% of the student body (1000 students)At northwest we use fully structured recruitment How many of your universities use FSR?This “structure” may not work for everyone but it works for us.And one of our goals here today is provide you with information and ideas that can help everyone here find the best fit for your schools recruitmentWhy it works for us….Our chapters are very close and work very well together Marketing – we sell greek life as a whole Recruitment Counselors are there from day one and really make that one on one connection with PNM’sWe’re not here to talk about quality recruiting. We’re talking about how to get people interested and signed up (i.e. targeting the 80% “maybe joiners”)
AgeGenderHigh school educationAcademic achievementLooking for friendshipActivity: create a circle in the room where the person next to you has something in common with you
Can you (and your recruitment representatives) communicate the benefit of joining a sorority?Candlelight for recruitment counselorsMake it part of your regular conversations during training
Share your best marketing ideas: Prize for winner?
Don’t wait for people to come to you—Don’t expect people to stop at a bulletin board and read a flierDon’t let the “rules” get in the way of having a normal conversation. People don’t join sororities, they join PEOPLE!Talking on the phone is not old-school—personal communication goes a long way
You can still tell your story and leave out your chapterDon’t lie about membership
Priority vs. accept regret (75%-85%)Make a personal connection (do you have enough recruitment counselors?)Make sure they understand the process completely (to come later)Think about your active members’ attitude towards PNMs
First we must realize that all of these “styles” are meant to provide opportunities for the greatest possible number of women to become members.Determining and implementing the appropriate recruitment style does require careful planning.I am sure most councils are in continuous contact with their NPC Area Advisor. These Advisors are great when it comes to figuring out what works best for you. Just a quick overview on the 4 styles of recruitment CR – Really for those campuses with 1 to 3 chapters had quota between 2 and 9 when FSR was used chapters recruit almost as may or more women through COB as FSRMSR – 2 to 5 chapters quota was no more then 10 to 12 Chapters need to engage in continuous open bidding to build chapter and communityPSR – 3 to 5 chapters quota is 15 to 20 community may be losing chapters or has lost themFSR – 4 to 26 chapters quota is 20 or more 10 % of female studetnsusually affiliateLook at the number of potential new members and the size of that pool do you have 40 girls or 250 girlsAlso look at University policies and how they may affect youDoes your college require a highschool GPA or a college GPA Difference between fall and spring recruitment
Example schedule for a campus with 3 NPC chapters
Example schedule for a campus with 7 NPC chapters
Example schedule for a campus with 6 NPC chapters
One thing that is really important is to make sure that Recruitment Counselors and PNM’s are on the same pagePart of that is making sure PNM’s understand what we are talking about.I have up here some common words that are used often during recruitmentGo ahead and go through the list and discuses what each word means and how you would explian it to a PNMAre there any other words that you guys use that may not make sense to other people
Disaffiliation Everyone knows what it is but do we really know why do we do it?Preparing your counselors for common questions. some questions you may encounter include……….Sometimes the best way to prepare recruitment counselors is by addressing this from the beginning talk to past recruitment counselors and see what common questions they have had provide a list of those questions and answers to your recruitment counselors so they have a referenceWhen preparing your recruitment counselors make sure they know the schedule inside and out providing those dates and times at the beginning before training starts can help with problems later onIt might help to Place all this information in a packet so all of the important stuff is together! This may indluced the questions and answers for commno questions outlined schedule for training outlined schedule for recruitment counselor during recruitment As well as a schedule for PNM’s as a quick reference for themSomething that we have started is preparing our recruitment counselors for some of those tougher challenges they may face including situations that may become uncomfortableThis may include: 1. 2.
Not a required event, but something to introduce them to sorority women, the chapters and the recruitment processDo sorority bingo activity
Structure what does each day of your recruitment look like? Themed days, up to the chapter, ect.
WeatherHow many people host outside events? How many of you have an alternative plan?School Conflicts Scholarship core value Set expetations for PNM’sLength parties – important to have chapters involved here consider the PNM’s, how long is to long?
Do you have a budget?Who sets this budget?What events are scheduled on campus?
Talk about important of assessment (“remember your poor transition?”)
Assessment is only good if you utilize the data you obtain!Give samples of our surveys