[Guest Blogger Keith Collier, an undergraduate from Grand Valley State University's Delta Sigma Phi chapter, was inspired to write this blog for Phired Up to, in his words, "pay it forward."]

ABOUT KEITH COLLIER: I am currently the Recruitment Director for the Epsilon Tau chapter of Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity at Grand Valley State University. I have one semester left as an active member and will be graduating in December 2010.  I am extremely passionate about recruitment and our Grand Valley Fraternity and Sorority community and am interested in bettering our community in every way possible. I have been learning from Phired Up on a daily basis, especially from their recruitment book, Good Guys and now I want to give back and explain what has worked for me by paying it forward, here, now.

Classes are done, finals have been successfully completed (hopefully), and summer has started shining upon us all.

Time for “Summer vacation”. Right?

Well for some, summer vacation consists of laying out by the pool with friends; for others, it’s working a summer job and might not seem like much of a vacation-however, it’s all about perspective. I am blessed to have one of the best summer jobs imaginable.

Currently I work as a summer orientation assistant for the Grand Valley State University Admissions office. Every weekday during the summer a new group of 100+ incoming freshman are eagerly and nervously awaiting their first taste of college life. While it might be my 40th day on the job going through the same process over and over again, it’s their first day, and a very important one. It’s crucial to make a lasting impression on every student possible-especially those men and women, who show potential in becoming a rock star within Fraternity and Sorority life.

Going into this summer, I knew I was going to meet a lot of new students but I never knew how beneficial it could become for Grand Valley Greek life and more specifically a names list. Men and women alike are very interested in Fraternities and Sororities here at Grand Valley and with this job I am able to put them in touch with the right people, dispel any stereotypes, and “plant the seed” in their minds before they step onto campus in the Fall. This aspect is extremely rewarding.

In addition to Greek life as a whole, summer recruitment and the idea of Social Excellence is alive here at Grand Valley State University. On any given day my two other brothers/co-workers and I meet at least 10-15 quality men and women who are saying to us, “Yes, I am very interested in your Greek community and will be checking it out in the Fall.” If you add it up throughout the summer, it easily totals 700+ quality men and women. Numbers like that would almost double our Greek life here at Grand Valley and bring in new and vibrant members/ideas/enthusiasm.

Having this job exposes you to every incoming freshman, BUT with any job, the job title alone doesn’t mean work is getting done. It’s almost the same thing as wearing your letters around campus and waiting for someone to ask you about Fraternity and Sorority life. Here’s the trick with a job such as this - hard work. Crazy concept, right?

You have to be willing to work, hard, everyday. Yes, it is the summer, but despite popular belief even today, recruitment never ends. Day in and day out, you need to bring your “A” game because with this job, you have one day to genuinely capture their attention and interest in order to follow up in the Fall. You have to strive to be Socially Excellent and be ready to make the extra effort to remember their names, get their contact information, add them on Facebook, and then take the time to follow up with these potential members throughout the summer and into the Fall.

The most important thing to remember with summer orientation is to make every student feel as comfortable as possible with his or her first real college experience. As mentioned earlier, first impressions are everything and incoming students will remember you for years, if not a lifetime and when the formal recruitment process rolls around, get ready, because its just that, very formal (for the most part).  Summer, however, is not. I would recommend using the relaxed environment of summer to your advantage and grow the bond through casual meetings, lunch, summer events, really anything you can think of. More than likely you will have more time in the summer, so grow a deeper connection now because it will make the “formal” portion of recruitment that much easier.

Make them your friend, introduce them to your friends, introduce them to your Fraternity and Sorority community, invite them to join and become an actively engaged member.  All it takes is hard work (Dynamic Recruitment), being Socially Excellent on a daily basis, and the “right” summer job to boost your names list and your Fraternity and Sorority community.

[Guest Post by Nick Gilly, Director of Extension for Chi Psi Fraternity]

I run a lot, but have not spent much time in the gym lately.  The other day my roommate was out for the evening so, instead of going for my usual run, I opted to test out the P90X workout system that he and a few other friends had been using.  I assumed it would be easy for me; I consider myself a pretty fit person.  I was sorely mistaken.  Half way through the first workout I wanted to quit; however, the man on screen, Tony Horton, would not allow it.  Without even being present, he and his team pushed me through the entire workout.  Three days later I’m still painfully sore, but am also excited to continue with the program.  Why? I can tell that it works.  I also noticed along the way a lot of similarities between exercise programs and recruitment programs.  Your skills as a recruitment leader are like muscles: to grow them, you must work them.  Dynamic Recruitment, then, represents to recruitment what P90X is to exercise regimens.

Tony Horton is a dynamic leader on the exercise floor.  He leads by example, always putting in the effort to lift more weight and do more repetitions than the people around him.  He does not, however, simply focus on his own routine and assume that everyone else behind him is following along and working as hard.  He challenges each team member to set individual goals for themselves for every workout.  He works with them to meet or exceed their goals.  Once each team member achieves those goals, he challenges them to set higher ones.  A great recruiter, or any other chapter leader, challenges the members around him the same way.  They have to take the first step to participate, but once they are in you, as a leader, can push them and help to hone their abilities.

There is a constant stream of new products and infomercials in the media offering a quick solution to physical fitness that “will give you the body you’ve always dreamed of in only 3 minutes a day!”  These products come and go, however, but P90X has been a top 10 bestselling infomercial product for over 4 years.  Why?  Because it delivers results!  P90X doesn’t offer a cheap fix; Tony acknowledges up front that this is a particularly difficult workout system.  Like a great recruiting chapter makes clear the obligations and commitments associated with membership up front, P90X recognizes that it is not for everyone.  In fact, the makers even provide a fitness test that prospective users should be able to pass before beginning the program.  (Values-Based Selection, anyone?)

There is no cheap and easy fix to consistently excellent recruitment results year after year.  It takes work.  You cannot expect that sitting on the couch eating potato chips will help you achieve the level of fitness that you desire.  Neither will sitting on that same couch waiting for recruits to walk in the door help your organization recruit high quality members into your organization.  While sometimes uncomfortable and difficult at first (the first workout is always the hardest), time will make you and you’re your team more comfortable, stronger, and more effective relationship builders and recruiters.  Take a lesson from Tony Horton and P90X.  Be a leader, take the challenge, and put some sweat into it.  Time to bring it.

by Kevin Uland
[Occassionally Phired Up comes across an outstanding proactive undergraduate fraternity man that wants to share his recruitment wisdom with the world. We're happy to provide that opportunity to people like Kevin Uland, a Delta Chi from Ohio State. Kevin made a terrific first impression at a conference Matt met him at in Michigan last year. He offers some great advice in this blog! If you'd like to be a guest Phired Up blogger, E-mail Matt@PhiredUp.com]

As a top recruiter on your campus, it is important to always be aware of how to utilize every method to follow up with potentials you've already met and meet new potential members. Many fraternities fall into the static ideals of hosting big events such as a barbeque, poker tournaments, parties, and many other events that literally rack up thousands of dollars a year to support. What is being underutilized on many campuses for recruitment is the use of campus-sponsored events. These events are great recruitment tools for many reasons. Here are some of them:

1) The events are FREE! ‐ A majority of campus events share two similar themes; free food and an engaging activity. Freshmen are especially drawn to these types of events because of the "free food" aspect, and a chance to meet new friends. Whether the activity is human bingo, a movie night, involvement fairs, or an event hosted by another club/organization, hundreds of students gather and partake in these activities whether you're there or not! So why not take advantage of something free!?

2) Neutral ‐ Instead of inviting a potential member to your "big scary fraternity house" who has possibly only known you for a few days, consider the idea of making it a little more comfortable for them by meeting on campus. What a lot of recruiters have trouble with understanding, is that we tend to make the event easier for ourselves to attend instead of the potential member. A neutral event on campus is key to making both sides feel comfortable, even if that means your members must go a little further than just walking downstairs for a recruitment event!

3) Lots of people ‐ Referrals, referrals, referrals. One of the major components to driving more quality names onto your names list is social networking through referrals. Cluster recruiting with campus events is huge. Don't be afraid to ask your potential member, "Hey man, bring you a roommate or floor mate, afterwards we're going to play football on the quad." Or, "Hey man, nice to see you again, who are your friends you brought along!?" Identifying a point man in a dorm that is social and extroverted can do wonders for the amount of names your names list contains.

Before the campus events happen, make sure your members are enthusiastic about the event. If it is something they are excited about, many of them will be more willing to call up potentials and transfer enthusiasm to the recruits! Also, when calling, use strong verbiage. Don't say "hey man, there is X event going on and it'd be cool if you could make it"" DO SAY, "Josh! There is a paper rock scissors tournament going on today at the quad, you need to be there!" By saying you need to be there' you're implying "I'm going to be there, and you should be too" which, is a lot more compelling to get a potential new member out to an event! 

I hope this helps your chapter with recruitment. We're all in this together as Greeks and need to support each other! Thanks to Matt and Josh, the two most incredible men I know, for giving me a minute to share my thoughts!

Kevin Uland
Ohio State 10
The Delta Chi Fraternity

Three Technology Tools Every Fraternity Should Use
Chapter Website
Every fraternity should have a chapter website. The website should have some basic information about their history and what they stand for. It should also have a clear way for potential new members to request more information about the Brotherhood. For those chapters without any website experience, Google Sites offers an extremely simple free website building service. http://sites.google.com

Facebook Events
Facebook is a great tool for any fraternity. Most fraternities use Facebook to organize events. Almost 95% of students on college campuses use Facebook. It's great for communication related to recruitment and philanthropic events. http://www.facebook.com
 

Mass Texting Program
Most fraternities have issues with passing a message to each member. With a utility like Tatango, all you do is push one button and every member of the fraternity will receive a text message at the same time. This makes mass communication of changed meeting times and locations extremely easy. There are a few websites that do this service, but I recommend Tatango.com http://tatango.com
 

The Two Best Ways For a Fraternity to Use Facebook

Promoting Philanthropy and Recruitment Events

Reminders
1.) By creating an event listing on Facebook, it gives you the
opportunity to send reminders to event attendees. You should be
careful not to take a person's “RSVP” too literal. In my experiences,
if a guest RSVP's, he will only come to the event 80% of the time. In
a similar respect, if a person says he is a “maybe”, you should only
expect him to show up approximately 10% of the time (or less).

Special Guests Require Special Attention
2.) Always give important guests special attention by sending a Facebook message
after you send the event invitation - it goes a long way. Make sure the note is
from your personal face book account (you can also send a group
message - this is not personalized and defeats the purpose).�
Make sure to address the individual by name so he knows it is
not a mass message. This is particularly important for
recruitment events. You should send personalized messages to all
potential new members.

General Follow Up Guidelines
3.) Always Follow Up three days and one day before an event.�
You can do this by sending a mass message to the entire
group. A group message will go to all members of the group who are�
listed as “Maybe Attending”, “Attending”, and “Waiting
for Reply”. A reminder three three days prior to the event makes
it likely they will not make other plans. A reminder the day before
the event will make sure the doesn't slip the student's mind. We all know
that it is easy to forget an event every now and then.

Screening Potential New Members

Quick Judgments
According to psychologist Samuel Gosling and author Malcolm Gladwell,
it is possible for someone who has never met you to have a better
understanding of you than your closest friends. Gosling
conducted experiments where individuals browsed students' bedrooms and
were able to judge the students as accurately as friends they have
known for years. A student's face book page is similar to their
bedroom in the sense that they leave a footprint of their
personality on their Facebook page. These footprints can be blatant
(music tastes, favorite books) or subtle (pictures, Facebook groups).

What Really Matters to Potential New Members
These footprints can be very important in judging an individual's
character. They can help show what particular students really care
about. Are they in groups such as “Legalize It” and “Thirsty
Thursdays” or are they in student government and the community service club? Do
their profile pictures show them doing keg stands or accepting an
award? In my experience, students with professional Facebook profiles tend to be
more likely to be fraternity workhorses.�
 

Values Based Recruiting
You may or may not choose to use Facebook as a screening tool. If you choose to not use Facebook, you should have a screening system in place. The Phired Up Blog promotes a values-based selection process. If your fraternity does not have a values-based selection process in place, you should have a meeting with your chapter advisor or university advisor to help create one. Here is a Sample Values Based Selection Plan (link to http://www.phiredup.com/files/admin/Values-Based_Selection_Process_Example.pdf)

Phired Up recently met a fraternity man named Robert Cavezza. Robert graduated in December of 2008 and has a recruitment success story to share. In a series of guest blog posts over the coming weeks, Robert will share his unique point of view on recruitment. Phired Up welcomes partnerships of this kind, and hopes to share other people's recruitment perspectives in the future. Even if we don't agree 100%, we're open to sharing this forum to ensure that anyone with a great recruitment idea can share it with the world.

Here's Robert.

My name is Robert Cavezza and I recently graduated. I was a four year fraternity undergraduate and used technology in recruiting to "save" my fraternity. Here is my story.

The Situation
It was the Spring of 2009. We had just lost our fraternity house and there were only five of us left. Four of us were graduating either in May or next December. We NEEDED a large new member class. It wasn't an option.

It wasn't as if our fraternity didn't have anything to offer. We had one of the highest GPAs on campus and we all knew how to have a good time. We attended two different Phired Up Recruiting seminars and national headquarters recruiting seminars. For some reason, we were not able to connect the dots. 

Two Weeks Into Recruitment"
We were two weeks into recruitment period and we had no potential new members and no leads. We were brainstorming possible ways to get new members at a meeting and someone mentioned the idea of a mass email. Our fraternity office supplies a list of student emails and the list can be segmented by GPA. We had nothing else to lose, so we decided to try sending the mass email. 

The announcement of the sale of our fraternity house would be in the school newspaper the next day. We thought this would be a great time to send out the emails. 

The Email and The Response
That night, I spent eight hours learning how to use and format mail merges. A mail merge is a way to use Microsoft Word to send out personalized emails to a large number of people. The email was sent a little before 3am that night. It was sent to a few more than 3,000 students and the mail merge allowed me to personalize each email using each student's first name. Before I woke up the next day, there were 60 emails in my inbox. 

We planned three information sessions at different locations on campus over the course of the next two weeks. We emphasized the benefits of the fraternity and how it changed our lives. After the third information session, we had a pledge class larger than the Brotherhood. Our membership grew by 400% that semester. 

The Future of Fraternity Recruitment
The internet is going to become increasingly important in fraternity recruitment. Josh and Matt have asked me to answer questions that some of you may have about using technology in recruiting. If you have a specific technology related question, email it to rcavezza@gmail.com and it might be featured on this blog in the coming weeks.