As your chapter’s recruitment chair, it can be a pretty tough job to come up with enough activities to ensure all of your sisters are benefiting from the summer recruitment coaching. You have sisters with no recruitment experience, sisters with a few years under their belt and sisters going on their fourth year of recruiting new sisters. So, how do you keep them all engaged? Here are a few things about each group that you should consider when developing the workshops:
This image is from carrecruitment.com
For the New Members:
It’s important that you don’t overestimate what the new members know about formal recruitment on the initiated side. Remember how lost you felt your first time? Be sure they know all of your school’s Panhellenic rules. You don’t want an infraction due to sheer ignorance.
You also want to push their comfort levels a little bit. Recruitment conversations are very different than your average Friday night hangout convo with friends. You’ve got to push them to grow, while not scaring them. They must practice having conversations with people other than their BFF.
For the Sisters with One or Two Years of Experience:
These are the sisters who will be your biggest allies when asking for help. They have enough experience to make extremely valuable contributions and they aren’t on the verge of a burn out (like some of our senior sisters). Give these sisters something to own. Let them lead an activity, help you plan a workshop or be on a recruitment committee. This is also the group who the next recruitment chair will most likely come from, so make sure you are being a good mentor.
For your Most Experienced Members:
Some of these sisters may actually have more experience with formal sorority recruitment than you, the recruitment chair. Their participation is vital to your chapter’s success. They know what’s been done in the past, what has worked, what failed miserably, and how to get out of a jam quickly. Yet, these are also the women who sometimes feel their attendance at a recruitment workshop is unnecessary. Consider allowing them to arrive late, or leave early if you know you’re covering a topic that is very basic recruitment 101. Use them as examples and pair them with younger members who are struggling. You may even want to consider having them lead an activity or senior panel at each workshop. They have a lot to offer, and it’s your responsibility to give them an outlet to share their knowledge with the chapter.
How do you tailor your recruitment training to all members?
Cheers!
Casey, Kate & Rachel
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