by Vince Fabra

[Be sure to check out the videos linked at the bottom of this blog]

Every fraternity/sorority tabling effort (tables on the campus quad, in the student union, or at an activties fair) has used the same impassionate, uncreative and borderline creepy method dating back to when our founders put on their Fall Rush bowler hats and manned a mahogany drop leaf table. We gather together every piece of Greek memorabilia and put it on display as best we can. Our members man the table, wearing their favorite rush shirt or letter shirt, and the topics of conversation range from our awesome fraternity to our awesome fraternity.  I have coined a phrase for this method – FRATuration (saturated with fraternity).

There is a new method that I have had plenty success using. Not only has it been proven effective on expansions, but my recruitment partners and I had a blast meeting people, making friends, and getting names and numbers at an impressive rate.

Setup:
1 Table.
NO FRATERNITY MERCHANDISE.
1 Sign that reads – Rock, Paper, Scissors Challenge.

Terms:
Let people know what happens when they choose to accept the challenge by writing on the sign…

YOU WIN: High 5 + Candy
YOU LOSE: Hear Our Pitch (30 secs)

With this sign on a blank table, people are going to ask to themselves or ask you, “What is this for?” (How many people were asking that question with FRATuration? It was pretty obvious why you were tabling).

Getting people to your table will not be difficult because who doesn’t enjoy a quick game of RPS? However, they aren’t going to just give you their information. These are five tips to get names and numbers after your rock beats their scissors.

1. Give them a High Five and candy just for playing. Whatever your reward is for winning, it becomes your reward for participating. This gesture is a “thank you” for playing, and will further drop a guard.
2. Honor their time. If your sign says 30 seconds, then get your pitch down to 30 seconds.
3. Give them a takeaway. This should be a professional and informative handout. I recommend something that is 1/3 of a page.
4. Include your information on the takeaway. THIS IS KEY. If point out that you have given them your information then they will be much more likely to give you their info in return.
5. Challenge anyone and everyone. Greek, Non Greek, Male, Female, Student, Professor. A tour rolling through the center of campus (Make a tournament). This is a great way to create a buzz on campus. Approach every RPS matchup as a potential new friend and not a potential new member, and people will sense your authenticity and be willing to help.

I am not saying that playing RPS will be the key to your recruitment success. However, this method of tabling is much more effective than a using a display that looks like your organization threw up on a table.

After you RPS, feel free to try some other suggestions.

• Putt Putt Challenge (Go get a $12 putting green at Wal-Mart)
• Lawn Dart Challenge (Set - $15)
• B-Ball Challenge (Kiddie Goal - $20)
• World Cup Challenge (Soccer Goal - $25)
• Trivia Challenge (Question – Free)

Here are some links to VIDEO of some of the creative methods in action (from my days at Pi Kappa Phi last year):

• RPS 1
• RPS 2
• High Five World Record 1
• High Five World Record 2
• High Five World Record 3

by Matt Mattson

Imagine yourself lying in your dorm room during your first year of college. It’s your second day of school.   It is early in the morning [college time], around 9:30 a.m.  You’re just starting to stir and your roommate is passed out for another few hours at least. 

Suddenly you hear a commotion outside your window.  A rumbling of feet.  Like a small stampede, and there are loud cheerful voices accompanying the increasingly loud stomping?  Is it a riot?  A fire drill?  Free french toast sticks at the dining hall?  What could be going on?

You stand up and look out your window and you see first 20, then 40, then at least 100 happy, laughing students rounding a corner in a job and heading right for your dorm.  You notice they’re poking their heads in open windows and encouraging people to join them.  They’re joy and fun-ness seems contagious.  They’re grabbing all sorts of people from dorms, from sidewalks, from “designated smoking areas,” and they seem to be convincing these innocent people to join them in a medium-paced jog .  The group seems to be growing by the second.  People are jogging in their pajamas and there is a dude in his boxers (bad decision).

Suddenly a small group of about 5 students walks through the front door of your building, and you hear them heading upstairs toward your hall.  You guessed it… there is a knock at your door.  You’re too curious to not answer.

“Hey buddy,” says the cheerful fraternity guy (you assume because of the weird letters on his shirt) at the door who is surrounded by 3 laughing sorority women and one other fella.  “We’re the fitness brigade.  I know it sounds weird, but our organizations believe in living a healthy balanced life.  This is an ‘Anti-Freshman-15 Alert.’  We’re grabbing people for a quick 20 minute jog followed by a big ass game of ultimate frisbee.  Put your shoes on.  We’re going to go down the rest of your hall to find at least 5 other people, we’ll be right back by your door in 30 seconds, get ready!”

You’re not sure what to do, so you just follow instructions and put on your shoes (you’re a first-year student, remember).  After all, that one girl standing there was kind of cute, they seemed to be having fun, and you were an athlete in high scool, and you’ve never played ultimate frisbee, and you want college to be more than your classes.  What the heck, you think.  Looks like a fun group… 

Provide a service to your fellow classmates this fall.  Make their day.  Surprise them.  Do stuff for them.  Partner with another group and be the fitness brigade that comes through campus and brightens people’s mornings every Friday.  Or come up with a better idea.  Just be excellent.

by Matt Mattson

We deeply respect Beta Theta Pi Fraternity.  I know many colleagues in our fraternity/sorority field share that sentiment.  We look to Beta as an organization that consistently leads with integrity and continually delivers fraternity with excellence. 

Our partners at the NIC just posted a blog on how Beta has adapted the NIC’s proven 5 Step Recruitment Process by adding a sixth step, and I had to immediately look into it.  As expected, some great stuff on recruitment can be found if you read what I read.

Here is the blog post from the NIC.  Here is the magazine article from Beta Theta Pi (pgs. 14-17).

You should read those.

Below are some highlights from what I read…

• First, here are the NIC’s 5 Steps plus the new one from Beta: 1) Meet him. 2) Make him a friend. 3) Introduce him to your friends. 4) Evaluate him against standards. 5) Introduce him to the fraternity. 6) Ask him to join.
• The new “6th Step” Beta is teaching is “Evaluate Him Against Standards.”  Love it.  Sounds like a Values-Based Selection Process to me.  I absolutely love when organizations and people I respect are teaching messages that are consistent to ours and doing it in their own way.  Here are some other areas of agreement.
• Quantity Drives Quality. From the article, “The phrase we should be embracing is ‘Quantity Drives Quality’ which simply means the more people we meet in a meaningful, quality way, the more selective we can be.”
• From the article, “People join people.  Not brochures, not T-shirts, not parties, and certainly not websites. People join people. Period.”
• The way Phil Fernandez and Allen Hardin (authors) open the article about wasted money is beautiful.  Makes me want to high five them the next time we see each other (by the way, the project Phil’s doing at University of Michigan this year is worth watching if you’re interested in cutting edge expansion — actually all of Beta’s projects are worth watching).

There are more highlights throughout… mostly I wanted to give some props to our friends over at Beta Theta Pi.  They’re good.

by Matt Mattson

When is recruitment on your campus?

…wait  …wait  …wait for it… [DRAMATIC PAUSE]

O.K., how did you answer that question? 

Did you give a list of dates?  Did you say “the fall” or “the spring”?  Did you start explaining your deferred/delayed recruitment process?  Did you say it starts with when “online sign-up” opens?  Did you explain the difference between formal recruitment and C.O.B./C.O.R.?  Did you start searching for your calendar?  Did you say, “Uh, I don’t know”?  Did you start explaining the rules set up by “the university” or your Greek Council?  Did you feel like you had to ask your chapter president or recruitment chair?

Did you say “Recruitment is 24/7/365″?

Did you say “Now”?

Did you realize that the question is sort of ridiculous to begin with?

If you agree with us that recruitment is NOT about convincing enough people to join your organization, but instead recruitment IS about giving the life-changing gift of your organizazition away to people who deserve it…  then you probably think that the question, “WHEN IS RECRUITMENT?” is pretty ridiculuous.

If recruitment is about changing someone’s life for the better by giving them the gift of your organization, then recruitment should happen whenever that opportunity arises.  Whenever you and your organization know someone well enough to know that a) they measurably, objectively, and demonstrably represent your organization’s values, and b) if you offer them membership, their life and your group will forever be changed for the better — whenever that happens, GIVE THE GIFT.

Don’t wait for the 1 week out of the year when you think it is allowed.  Do it.  Make it happen. Now.

The highest performing groups we work with are open to…

• weekly votes on potential members,
• multiple community “bid days” per semester,
• open recruitment policies for all groups,
• “rush week” or “formal recruitment” as a time to get a few extra members that the chapter hasn’t had the opportunity to meet yet,
• 24/7/365 Social Excellence + Recruitment whenever the opportunity to GIVE THE GIFT of membership arises,
• summer recruitment,
• recruitment policies built in the interests of the potential members, not just the chapters,
• standing up strongly against policies that prevent the “simple beauty of recruitment.”

What is the “simple beauty of recruitment”? 

It is simple: a person wants to join a values-based, cause-oriented group it believes in + a group wants a person to join them because they believe in him/her, and they believe that that person can help them make the world a better place through the power of the group. 

It is beautiful: a person’s life is changed forever + a group receives the gifts that a unique new member has to offer. 

Should anything stand in the way of that?  Ever?

So, when is recruitment on your campus?