Before You Move On: What Recruitment Just Taught You

Your recruitment or intake season just wrapped up. You’re tired. You’ve earned that. So take a breath. Sleep in if you can. And then come sit with me for a minute, because I want to tell you something.

It’s not really over.

The season is still going. Good teams don’t win a big game and stop practicing. They watch the film together. They talk about what worked and what didn’t. Then they roll right into the next phase of the season.

Your chapter is no different. Whether your council does formal recruitment, continuous open bidding, membership intake, or something all its own, growth doesn’t stop when the last event ends. It just changes shape. Thenext phase always starts with looking back.

Right now, your chapter knows more about how you grow than it will at any other point this year. You remember why you changed that one event. You remember the person who seemed so interested and then went quiet. You remember someone saying, “Let’s never do it that way again.”

In a few weeks, most of that will fade. The group chat will get quiet. Midterms will take over. And next time, a new team will ask, “Why do we do it like this?”  I’d love for them to have an answer.

Most chapters capture what happened. How many people showed interest. How many events. How many new members. Those numbers matter but what matters more is the why.Why did you make the choices you made? What were you noticing? What surprised you?

Numbers tell the next team what happened. Your reasons tell them what to do about it.

I’ve walked alongside chapters from every kind of council, and the ones that grow year after year aren’t always the biggest or the flashiest. They’re the ones that stop and learn.

If you only have time for one conversation, make it this one: where did we miss the mark? 

Your new members can tell you what worked. Ask them now, while it’s fresh. It’s usually not an event that won them over. It’s a person, a conversation, or a moment when they felt truly seen. The people who chose another group can tell you what they were looking for. And the ones who drifted away quietly? They’re often the biggest lesson of all. Most chapters don’t lose people because someone said no. They lose them because nobody reached back out.

A few questions to sit with:

Gather your membership team, your advisor, and a couple of new members. Give it an hour.

• Where did our new members first get to know us?

• Who did we lose track of, and when?

• What decision do we want the next team to understand?

• What are we doing just because we always have?

• If we could change one thing, what would it be?

Then write it down somewhere it won’t disappear when officers change. Not a group chat. Somewhere the next team can find it.

To the advisors, campus professionals, and HQ staff: you hold the memory of this community. Students come and go, but you stay.

That means you can see patterns they can’t. So ask the question out loud: “What did we learn?” Then make room for students to answer in a way that fits how their council and organization welcome new members. Reflection shouldn’t be the thing we skip when everyone’s worn out. It’s part of the season.

Sustainable growth doesn’t come from one great season. It comes from learning a little more each time, so the next one is stronger.

That’s why Phired Up cares so much about growth data, growth coaching, and technology that helps chapters keep track of relationships over time. Data shows you what really happened. Coaching helps you turn that into a plan you’ll actually follow.

So before you move on, watch the film. Write down what you learned. Then get back to practice. Your future chapter will be so glad you did.

Written by Dr. Colleen Coffey-Melchiorre, Growth Consultant