Fraternal Inception

[RING OF PHIRE: The Ring of Phire is a team of undergraduate fraternity and sorority members dedicated to delivering the messages of Phired Up Productions to their peers around the country.]

by Steven Cruz (Ring of Phire Member)

What idea do you plant in the minds of future potential members?

“What’s the most resilient parasite? An Idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules.” – Inception

Truer words haven’t been spoken in a movie since “Hakuna Matata” was said in the Lion King, but that’s a story for another day. It all starts with an idea.  An idea planted in someone’s mind by our actions. From my perspective,  in the case of fraternity recruitment, it started with the idea that no man is an island, and it went on to develop into the fact that we need each other to succeed.

What ideas do you plant in the minds of students at your school?  What ideas do you subconsciously tell potential members about through your actions (and your words)?

Do we tell them about our parties or our brotherhood development? Do we tell them about our leadership opportunities and academic standards or the state of our sorority relations? Do we tell them about our love of T-shirts and chanting?  Or do we tell them about our organization’s values?

What is it about our values that makes us love them so much and at the same time be afraid to share them with others? We’re hiding our secret weapon of the subconscious mind, when we should be unleashing it upon unsuspecting potential new members and watch them drop like flies into our lifestyle of fraternal excellence.

Values – sell your product as it is supposed to be and you won’t have a problem attracting the right kind of customer. When you look back as an alumnus of your chapter 2 or 3 years from now think about the type of members that you want to see and then think about what’s going to attract them. Plant the idea of your fraternal values in action and you’ll see the results be out of this world.

So start with the idea:  the values our founders dreamt up almost 200 years ago are still strong and relevant, and move from there. Show one and all what it means to be a brother or sister of your organization and let them make their own decision.  Your behaviors and decisions, both during recruitment and outside of recruitment, plant ideas in non-Greek students’ minds…

Plant the idea of excellence in their head and let it grow – remember recruitment is not just one week, act the way the way you should all the time and let the character of your organization infect your community. Recruit on a reputation that you earn everyday.

To contact Ring of Phire Members, E-mail RingofPhire@PhiredUp.com.