DG GA

How Georgia’s DG Chapter Turned Recruitment Around

The Delta Gamma chapter at the University of Georgia had struggled with membership numbers prior to when I joined the chapter through informal recruitment in the fall of 2007. Chapter Total at the University of Georgia was 175, and with my new member class, the chapter hovered around 100 members, making us the smallest Panhellenic organization (out of 17) on campus.

During my sophomore year at Georgia, I was given the opportunity to serve as vice president: membership for a chapter that now totaled 120 members. Eager to improve the way we recruited, I found “I Heart Recruitment,” and immediately ordered a hard copy for myself and a PDF copy for our elected recruitment team.

Over the next two years, we implemented a new recruitment model for both formal and informal recruitment (COB). Using the tools in “I Heart Recruitment” we empowered more members of the chapter to take ownership of the recruitment process and significantly improved chapter morale. We invested our money and time in things that mattered — chapter bonding, branding, good conversation, values-based selection criteria — and we learned how to translate our success in informal recruitment to UGA’s full-frills formal recruitment process.

Simply put, utilizing “I Heart Recruitment” empowered my chapter to be able to play the formal recruitment game on our own terms. In two years, the chapter grew from 120 to 180 members; a growth of 50%, and we even started to love recruiting.

More impressively, my chapter continues to be successful long after we initially implemented the methods from “I Heart Recruitment.” The year following my graduation from Georgia, my chapter met Formal Recruitment Quota for the first time in 15 years! Three years since implementation, the chapter thrives at over 220 members, and is one of the largest Delta Gamma chapters in the country.

-Submitted by Jen Gilbert