Fraternity Recruitment

Recruitment is one the most important aspects to maintaining and growing a fraternity or sorority.  Different schools recruit differently and fraternities and sororities also recruit differently.  This post will just focus on fraternity recruitment.  You can also find a post about sorority recruitment in our earlier blog post too. 

Now because different schools have certain rules when recruiting, we will not just focus on fraternities, but on school too.  We will focus on Sacred Heart University. 

Fraternities at Sacred Heart University are run by the InterFraternal Council (IFC) and are currently using a Deferred Recruitment system.  The IFC oversees, regulates, and mandates rules to all the fraternities on campus.  It is to ensure everything is fair between the fraternities and provide help to them when needed.  Also, a deferred recruitment simply means that these fraternities are allowed to recruit new members each semester.  Some schools only allow a Spring Recruitment and more less commonly in fraternities, other schools actually have formal recruitment. 

Typically for fraternities that do a deferred recruitment, the biggest recruiting events will be early in the fall.  So naturally, this is more focused on recruiting freshmen.  While these new faces are on campus and beginning to acclimate, this is the perfect time for fraternities to make an impression on these Possible New Members (PNM).  Events can include anything from sporting events being held, concerts sponsored by the fraternity, a barbecue/outing with the brothers, games, contests, and many more.  Another great recruiting tool that fraternities use in the fall is to wear their letters and/or rush t-shirts and help freshmen move into their dorms on the first day of school.  Once the fraternity has gained interest, whether it be by attending fraternity sponsored events or word of mouth, these new PNM's will receive bids from the fraternities that showed interest in him.  Bids are a way of showing that a fraternity will allow u to join them, if you accept.  Once a PNM accepts a bid from a fraternity, he will then beginning his new member process, or more commonly known as Rush.  Rushing is a whole new topic for a different day.  The spring semester in the deferred recruitment process is primarily the same as the fall semester except it is not as a big of an event as the fall.  It is also targeted less towards freshmen and basically targeted towards men from any class.  Since it is not as big of an event as the fall, there are not as much new members in the spring semester either. 

Recruiting is truly a cruicial time for a fraternity because they need to get more men that they lost the previous semester due to graduation.  If done correctly though, it can be a great, fun time for a fraternity!