Search results for "values-based"

Delta Sigma Phi Becomes Full Adoption ChapterBuilder Partner (Blog Header)

Delta Sigma Phi Becomes Full-Adoption ChapterBuilder Partner

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Matt Farrell

Carmel, Ind. — The Phired Up and TechniPhi team is proud to announce another headquarters as a full-adoption partner of ChapterBuilder.

Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity and Phired Up have been partners for more than 10 years. During this time, the Fraternity has grown to the largest membership size in its history. Delta Sigma Phi has used ChapterBuilder specifically for new chapter developments, but beginning this month, the tool will be available to every chapter throughout the country.

“Delta Sigma Phi is committed to delivering the best membership experience possible. This new resource is an investment in the members and advisors who are working every day to attract the highest caliber student leaders on their campuses,” said Executive Director Phillip Rodriguez. “We know that utilizing ChapterBuilder will ensure our members have the tools necessary to implement a true values-based growth strategy.”

As the higher education landscape continues to change, Generation Z is producing new recruitment challenges for all organizations. CRM technology has rapidly emerged in other industries to not only manage such challenges, but serve as growth systems for organizations to flourish.

“For 10 years, we have had the fortunate opportunity to work with Delta Sigma Phi. They have a proven track record of supporting their undergraduate brothers, alumni and higher education partners,” said Matt Mattson, co-Founder of Phired Up and TechniPhi. “I am remarkably proud to see their commitment in choosing to utilize data, a standardized growth system, and advanced analytics that ChapterBuilder provides to engineer the future of their fraternity.

Delta Sigma Phi is the 11th headquarters to utilize ChapterBuilder fully for all chapters.

TechniPhi’s description of ChapterBuilder reads, “ChapterBuilder brings potential new members to you, alerts you when it’s time to follow up, gets all your members and advisors involved, keeps recruitment organized, and even provides real-time analytics to make your recruitment process smarter than ever!”

 In an era where undergraduates are seeking resources and support to meet demanding recruitment goals, TechniPhi is thrilled to offer these tools to our partners nationally. Learn more about Delta Sigma Phi at deltasig.org

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About TechniPhi: TechniPhi (a sister company of Phired Up Productions) helps fraternities and sororities grow. The company’s products, services, and brands are creating the future of fraternities and sororities by transforming the way people join. The company delivers relationship-focused, data-driven, results-producing TECHNOLOGY solutions for every aspect of the pre-member experience from first-impression through initiation.

Recruiting Through the Storm

Recruiting Through the Storm

by Matt Farrell

IMG_5748Ansley Martin is the Panhellenic President at UNC Wilmington and sister of Alpha Gamma Delta. She helped the community navigate through TWO hurricanes during the past two recruitments. I had a chance to catch up and hear about Ansley’s experiences and the future of Panhellenic recruitment from an undergraduate perspective. 

Check it out in Ansley’s words (transcribed from our call)!

How I Joined Panhellenic

Before my first recruitment even began, I knew I wanted to be a part of Panhellenic. Honestly, I would have happily accepted a bid from any sorority. Maybe that makes me different from the normal PNM but hey, it’s the truth. Even during my own recruitment experience, I would counsel other potential new members. No joke. I’d be like, “Hey, it’s ok that chapter didn’t go so well, this next one is gonna be all you!”. My recruitment counselors later told me that they could tell from the start that I would have Panhellenic Exec or recruitment counselor experience in the future.

The main reason I joined my sorority was that personal connection, like Phired Up says “people join people,” and Kendyl was that person for me. Honestly, there were great personal connections and role models in all of the chapters, so I was just excited to start being a Panhellenic woman.

The UNCW community

We have our fair share of challenges in our UNCW community, but more than anything, we’re resilient. That’s what I’m most proud of in this community. Right after Bid Day in 2018, Hurricane Florence hit Wilmington, causing so much damage to the city and campus that we were out of school for an entire month. When we heard that Hurricane Dorian was headed our way mid-recruitment 2019, there was a lot of uncertainty about just how long we would be evacuated. Being a beach town, we sadly are pretty used to these hurricanes. Unfortunately, since we hold recruitment on Labor Day weekend, we really have to be flexible and resilient since it is prime Hurricane season. The uncertainty definitely makes things tougher, so that resiliency is everything for us.

Taking on the Panhellenic President Challenge

When I stepped into the Presidency, I knew I was pretty much starting from scratch. Before I was president, I served on Panhellenic Exec in 2018 as Vice President Programs. Nothing was really wrong with how we ran things, but we were definitely in need of some serious upgrades. We didn’t program much, everyone stuck to their own job, and overall just didn’t have a presence outside of hosting recruitment. Outside of that, it was really every chapter for themselves. My exec team and I spent a lot of time this year not only restructuring our leadership roles, but also what it means to work as a team, to serve our entire community, and elevate the experience of all of our Panhellenic sisters.

Phired Up’s visit in August was the first time in 4 years that anyone came to our community to talk specifically about recruitment. What our women really needed is to deeply discuss why recruitment matters, and why Panhellenic matters.

Our Day with Phired Up 

Our Phired Up day was split into three different parts: a whole-community keynote, a Recruitment Counselor training, and individual programs with three of our chapters.

There was different content prepared for the three different chapters, which I loved. In all three chapters, women cried. No matter what chapter they belonged to, Phired Up so quickly created an environment where sisters felt so comfortable sharing their feelings. It was just incredible and something I’ll remember forever. Never have I understood so clearly how bad women were hurting from the stereotypes in our community, and also my ability to do something about it. I felt empowered and brought that back to our recruitment counselors for more training on protecting the integrity of all of our Panhellenic sisters. Phired Up really helped us bond as an entire Panhellenic team- I still have women talking about how great that day was!

A More Authentic Recruitment

A quick story that I think sums up the difference this year- Our VP of Recruitment, Megan, was set to address all of the potential new members in the auditorium to kick everything off. She had this whole speech she had been working on, but she gets up there, and she couldn’t find her papers. When she realized it, she just acknowledged her nerves and kept going off-script in front of all of these people. It was so authentic. She came up to me after and was so embarrassed, but I told her that it was such an authentic way to make the first impression of sorority for the PNMs. I think it helped the PNMs to see the Vice President of Recruitment make a mistake, because it showed the women that the “perfect” image we portray isn’t really the case, and that she showed herself as a human instead of a highly-rehearsed Panhellenic officer. It definitely set the tone for the rest of recruitment!

Why Recruitment Is Our Top Priority

Recruitment is a top priority because if we can’t get recruitment right, we aren’t able to get anything right. We can’t have a loving and empowering sisterhood if we don’t recruit members who value that. We can’t have risk management and safety conversations if we don’t recruit members who are ready for those standards. Panhellenic also switched to CampusDirector this year, which was great because we were able to see everything we needed in such an organized and easy to use format. We loved adding iValU on as well- we used it on everyone’s name tags as conversation-starters. We actually had all of Panhel Exec and the Recruitment Counselors put their Championship value on their nametag, just like the PNMs. That simple addition really made a difference in the kinds of conversations we had with our PNMs. I tried really hard to push values-based conversations for chapter recruitment directors as well- it didn’t really happen this year, but we’ll get there eventually.

What’s Next For Sorority Recruitment

Honestly, I’ve been spending so much time thinking about this. We’ve gotten SO many questions from potential members about the worth of Panhellenic membership. A big one is:“Why should I join Panhel when I could join a lot of these clubs?”

Many Panhellenic women are shook by that question and stumble to come to terms with the real worth of Panhellenic membership. Honestly, we need a cheese grater for Recruitment. If Recruitment is the cheese block, we need to grate it down to what we are really trying to do here. What are we doing in recruitment, really? How do we talk to potential new members not just to talk, but to connect as potential sisters? How do we decide, as a community and as a chapter, what it means to be a Panhellenic woman?

A lot of people like to brand Panhellenic as what they would like it to be, without really doing anything to actually get there. Too often, people sugar-coat membership when deep down, they know that’s not the real deal. Don’t get me wrong, I’m the first person to advocate for Sorority, but I am very aware a lot needs to change. In order for Panhellenic recruitment to remain relevant, we have to find a way to both accurately represent what we do, while also internally acknowledging the problems we face and make intentional steps to get better. I think potential members would honestly appreciate the more authentic representation, and frankly, they deserve that.

What’s Next For Us and Phired Up 

It was a great start, but there’s so much more we can do. For our next steps, we need to turn back to the chapter women and make sure they’re getting this individual support. Sometimes, I felt we did such a great job with PNMs outside the doors, but it didn’t always match the experience they got inside. We could talk to the PNMs about valuable conversations, Panhellenic unity, and authenticity until their ears fall off, but if that’s not what is happening behind the doors, Panhellenic and the RCs lose credibility. In order to truly elevate the PNM experience, we must operate as a whole team of Panhellenic sisters. The whole recruitment experience and beyond is about learning to love people, and I am very excited about the future of UNCW Panhellenic and Phired Up.

3 Week Open Recruitment Plan

A Simple, Detailed, and Effective 3 (or 4) Week “Open Recruitment” Plan

by Matt Mattson

IMPORTANT UPDATE: This link goes to a version of this blog that offers insights if you’re including some virtual/digital elements in your recruitment approach. It’s a great idea to read both.

If you are in charge of recruitment, it can be easy to get confused and overwhelmed. There are so many options and variables. Especially if you’re doing “open recruitment” (where there is no significant council support and no “rounds” or “schedule” already in place). Sure, you could look at what the person in charge of recruitment last year did, but sometimes it is helpful to start with a blank piece of paper and make your own plan.

This post is meant as an example. Before you dive in, I recommend you read this (everyone), and this (if you’re an IFC chapter), this (if you’re a Panhellenic chapter), or this (if you’re a member of a culturally-based fraternity or sorority). Then, be sure to also pay attention to the links below.

Here is a simple and effective 3 (or 4) week “open recruitment” plan.

Week 1: “You Can’t Recruit Who You Don’t Know.”
The goal of week one is simple: Put as many names on your names list as possible.

Sunday: Do a Mind Joggers exercise with your whole chapter during your chapter meeting to make sure you start with a strong Names List. Ask everyone in the chapter to text 5 of the names they put on the list to invite them to have coffee, lunch, or to “hang out” at some point in the next 3 days (try one of these Small Activities). GREAT START!

Monday: Do a Names Driving activity (pick 1 of these 60 ideas) for 2-3 hours during the day. Update your Names List.

Tuesday: Do a different Names Driving activity (pick 1 of these 60 ideas) for 2-3 hours during the day. Update your Names List. Between 8pm and 10pm get 5-10 of your most reliable members together in a single room (let’s call these members your “workhorses”). Open up your Names List on everyone’s computer. Send individual text messages to everyone on your list inviting them to upcoming events, activities, and/or 1-on-1 meetings. Update your Names List.

Wednesday: Fun group activity on campus: spend a couple hours in the afternoon doing something fun and inviting on campus. Try pick-up sports, a fun philanthropic fundraiser, a hike nearby, a study group, etc. Not a big “recruitment event,” but something simple and easy for anyone to participate in. Throughout the day invite as many strangers, friends, people from your names list, and passersby to join you. Throughout the day, hopefully your “workhorses” are doing two to three 1-on-1 meetings or small activities with people on your names list each. Update your Names List.

Thursday: Do a different Names Driving activity (pick 1 of these 60 ideas) for 2-3 hours during the day. Update your Names List. You might consider holding a formal “informational meeting” on campus for about 45 minutes in the early evening. Between 8pm and 10pm get your “workhorses” together in a single room. Open up your Names List on everyone’s computer. Send individual text messages to everyone on your list inviting them to upcoming events, activities, and/or 1-on-1 meetings. Update your Names List.

Friday: Fun group activity on campus: spend a couple hours in the afternoon doing something fun and inviting on campus. Try pick-up sports, a fun philanthropic fundraiser, a hike nearby, a study group, etc. Not a big “recruitment event,” but something simple and easy for anyone to participate in. Throughout the day invite as many strangers, friends, people from your names list, and passersby to join you. Throughout the day, hopefully your “workhorses” are doing two to three 1-on-1 meetings or small activities with people on your names list each. Update your Names List.

Saturday: Keep churning with text messages, small activities, and 1-on-1 meetings… or just chill. Your call.

 

Week 2: “People don’t join organizations. People join people.”
The goal of week two: Keep growing your names list and move potential members up your list.

Sunday: Give an update to your chapter. You should have added hundreds of new names to your list last week. You should be able to report how many points of contact you had with potential members last week. You should have moved a bunch of people from “D’s” to “C’s” (if you’re using ChapterBuilder). You’re doing great! Ask the chapter to take 10 minutes to make sure they’ve logged all the information about their interactions with potential members on your Names List. Ask each chapter member to identify their target list of 10 potential members that they’re going to give extra attention to this week (it’s o.k. if there is overlap). Teach chapter members how to do “chunking” in all of their interactions with potential members this week. Keep spirits high and show appreciation to everyone for their contribution.

Monday: Do a Names Driving activity (pick 1 of these 60 ideas) for 2-3 hours during the day. Throughout the day, hopefully your “workhorses” are doing two to three 1-on-1 meetings or small activities with people on your names list each. Update your Names List.

Tuesday: Do a different Names Driving activity (pick 1 of these 60 ideas) for 2-3 hours during the day. Update your Names List. Between 8pm and 10pm get your “workhorses” together in a single room. Open up your Names List on everyone’s computer. Send individual text messages to everyone on your list inviting them to upcoming events, activities, and/or 1-on-1 meetings. Update your Names List.

Wednesday: Event #1! Your first “recruitment event” should be really low-key. Keep it on “neutral turf” (away from the house). The success of the event rarely is determined by the event itself — success depends on how well you do getting people to the event. Send texts and make calls in the 2 hours right before the event. Go over to key areas of campus where you can find potential members in the 45 minutes prior to the event and physically invite people right there in person to attend. Have a blast. Make sure you’re “chunking” people at your event. Throughout the day, hopefully your “workhorses” are doing two to three 1-on-1 meetings or small activities with people on your names list each. Update your Names List.

Thursday: Event #2! Your second “recruitment event” should be really low-key too. Keep it on “neutral turf” (away from the house). The success of the event rarely is determined by the event itself — success depends on how well you do getting people to the event. Send texts and make calls in the 2 hours right before the event. Go over to key areas of campus where you can find potential members in the 45 minutes prior to the event and physically invite people right there in person to attend. Have a blast. Make sure you’re “chunking” people at your event. Throughout the day, hopefully your “workhorses” are doing two to three 1-on-1 meetings or small activities with people on your names list each. Update your Names List.

Friday: Do a Names Driving activity (pick 1 of these 60 ideas) for 2-3 hours during the day. Throughout the day, hopefully your “workhorses” are doing two to three 1-on-1 meetings or small activities with people on your names list each.  You might consider holding a formal “informational meeting” on campus for about 45 minutes in the early evening. Update your Names List.

Saturday: Keep churning with text messages, small activities, and 1-on-1 meetings… or just chill. Your call. *Note: you probably have some potential members you’re getting close with. This is a good time to start “pre-closing” those prospects. Take them out to brunch, coffee, lunch, dinner… or ask them to watch some sports with you… or do whatever as long as it creates an opportunity for a meaningful one-on-one conversation. Update your Names List.

 

Week 3: “Recruitment is a relationship business.”
Week 3 is a big week with a lot happening. Be ready for some major results this week!

Sunday: Give an update to your chapter. You should have added hundreds more new names to your list last week. You should be able to report how many points of contact you had with potential members last week (it was probably a ton). You have likely moved a lot of people from “D’s” to “C’s” to “B’s” and maybe even to “A’s” this past week. Congratulate your members for their great work! This is a great day to start making some decisions. Use a smart selection process (read this and this) to identify prospects you’re ready to give a “bid” to. Text those prospects right away to set up a time to meet and give them their bid (be sure to “pre-close” them if you haven’t already). Spend 20-30 minutes texting “C’s” and “B’s” on your Names List to invite them to small activities on Monday and Tuesday. Update your Names List.

Monday: Fun group activity on campus: spend a couple hours in the afternoon doing something fun and inviting on campus. Try pick-up sports, a fun philanthropic fundraiser, a hike nearby, a study group, etc. Not a big “recruitment event,” but something simple and easy for anyone to participate in. Throughout the day invite as many strangers, friends, people from your names list, and passersby to join you. Throughout the day, hopefully your “workhorses” are doing a lot of 1-on-1 meetings or small activities with people on your names list each. This is the week where many of these meetings are really important conversations about membership.  Update your Names List.

Tuesday: Event #3! If you have a house, feel free to have your event there (if not, obviously that’s o.k. too). This event should be built for people with real interest in the chapter (like “B’s” and “A’s”). Make sure all prospects who attend are interacting with a wide variety of current members. You’ll have to actively host them, and facilitate the connections between the prospects and the members.  The success of the event rarely is determined by the event itself — success depends on how well you do getting people to the event. Send texts and make calls in the 2 hours right before the event. Go over to key areas of campus where you can find potential members in the 45 minutes prior to the event and physically invite people right there in person to attend. Have a blast. Make sure you’re “chunking” people at your event. Throughout the day, hopefully your “workhorses” are doing two to three 1-on-1 meetings or small activities with people on your names list each. After the event, gather your chapter (or just your “workhorses”) and decide on additional people you’re ready to invite to join your chapter. Text them to meet up tomorrow! Update your Names List.

Wednesday: Give out “invitations to join!” Spend a big part of your day asking people to join. Then between 8pm and 10pm get your “workhorses” together in a single room. Open up your Names List on everyone’s computer. Send individual text messages to everyone on your list inviting them to upcoming events, activities, and/or 1-on-1 meetings. Update your Names List.

Thursday: Event #4!  If you have a house, feel free to have your event there (if not, obviously that’s o.k. too). This event should be built for people with real interest in the chapter (like “B’s” and “A’s”). Make sure all prospects who attend are interacting with a wide variety of current members. You’ll have to actively host them, and facilitate the connections between the prospects and the members.  The success of the event rarely is determined by the event itself — success depends on how well you do getting people to the event. Send texts and make calls in the 2 hours right before the event. Go over to key areas of campus where you can find potential members in the 45 minutes prior to the event and physically invite people right there in person to attend. Have a blast. Make sure you’re “chunking” people at your event. Throughout the day, hopefully your “workhorses” are doing two to three 1-on-1 meetings or small activities with people on your names list each. After the event, gather your chapter (or just your “workhorses”) and decide on additional people you’re ready to invite to join your chapter. Text them to meet up tomorrow! Update your Names List.

Friday: Event #5! But first… Give out “invitations to join!” Spend a big part of your day asking people to join. Then in the evening have an event or do an activity focused on building connections between all the people who have accepted invitations to join so far. Great work! Update your Names List.

Saturday: Breathe. Relax. Celebrate (but make smart choices).

 

Week 3: “Keep growing!”
Week 4 is about taking all the work you’ve done so far, and turning it from a “victory” into an “unbelievable success story!”

Sunday/Monday: Do a Mind Joggers exercise with all of your newest members. Ask them to send a text message to everyone they added to the Names List inviting them to the activities and events happening over the next couple of days.

Tuesday: Fun group activity on campus: spend a couple hours in the afternoon doing something fun and inviting on campus. Try pick-up sports, a fun philanthropic fundraiser, a hike nearby, a study group, etc. Not a big “recruitment event,” but something simple and easy for anyone to participate in. Throughout the day invite as many strangers, friends, people from your names list, and passersby to join you. Throughout the day, hopefully your “workhorses” are doing two to three 1-on-1 meetings or small activities with people on your names list each. Update your Names List.

Wednesday: Event #6! But first… Give out “invitations to join!” Spend a big part of your day “pre-closing” people and asking people to join. Then in the evening have an event or do an activity focused on building connections between all the people who have accepted invitations with any new prospects you can get there. Try to do something in an easily accessible venue that is welcoming to anyone (and not a “house”). Great work! Update your Names List.

Thursday: Fun group activity on campus: spend a couple hours in the afternoon doing something fun and inviting on campus. Try pick-up sports, a fun philanthropic fundraiser, a hike nearby, a study group, etc. Not a big “recruitment event,” but something simple and easy for anyone to participate in. Throughout the day invite as many strangers, friends, people from your names list, and passersby to join you. Throughout the day, hopefully your “workhorses” are doing a lot of 1-on-1 meetings or small activities with people on your names list each. This is another week where many of these meetings are really important conversations about membership.  Update your Names List.

Friday: Event #7! But first… Give out “invitations to join!” Spend a big part of your day asking people to join. Then in the evening have an event or do an activity focused on building connections between all the people who have accepted invitations to join so far. Great work! Update your Names List.

_I believe sorority starts with how we choose to treat any person we interact with at any given time. It extends beyond just our sorority experience, but rather, truly thinking about how we choose to engage wit (12)

Drone Shots & Glitter

by Matt Mattson

For the past few years I’ve been presenting a program titled, “Drone Shots & Glitter: The best and worst sorority recruitment videos and what we can learn from them” on campuses and at conferences around North America (want me to present to your community? E-mail matt@phiredup.com).

This program has become one of my favorite things to present. And every year, a whole new batch of sorority recruitment videos is ready for review and reflection.

Let’s start with a new video from Delta Zeta at The University of Indiana released recently, and then one other from Chi Omega at the University of Washnigton… Watch and enjoy. As you’re watching, consider the two questions I ask all my audiences to consider as they’re watching these videos…

  1. In what ways does this meet the needs of a results-focused MARKETER? Will it help the chapter succeed at recruiting (based on their audience and chapter values)?
  2. In what ways does this meet the needs of a values-focused PANHELLENIC LEADER? If you watched this right after a sisterhood retreat or ritual ceremony, would you feel proud?

 

Before I move on, let me say this clearly… I LOVE ALL OF THESE VIDEOS. As a marketer and as a values-based fraternity/sorority professional, I think these videos are truly amazing. There are three big reasons why I love these videos.

  1. IT TAKES GUTS TO MAKE THEM. Each of these videos was created by a college sorority woman (or one led in the execution of the production). Each of these videos was shared publicly on the internet. Each of these videos will almost certainly be ridiculed by someone — internet trolls, other chapters, and probably some shallow sisters who don’t appreciate the guts it took to lead this project and bring these videos to life. So, to you women who created these… YOU ARE AMAZING! I admire your courage and your art.
  2. SORORITY (AND SORORITY RECRUITMENT) IS COMPLEX. It is incredibly difficult to balance the voices of your Greek Advisor, senior members, recruitment advisor, and the group of members who want there to be more bikini shots. It is incredibly difficult to tell a story about the integrity, heart, kindness, honor, and beauty of sorority and sorority women, while competing with the chapter down the street who has a hot air balloon and the captain of the football team in their video. It is incredibly difficult to make a high quality 2-minute video that gets lots of views while also showing the depth and nuance of your members.
  3. THESE ARE TRUE EXPRESSIONS OF VALUES & WINDOWS INTO INSECURITIES. The idea of sorority is recreated everyday in the real lives of its members. Today’s undergraduate women are different from those who have come before them. They care about different things, they live in a different world, and they have new ways of living out their values. These videos are real, they are today, they are now. These videos are also excellent windows into the insecurities and struggles of modern women — and there’s nothing wrong with that. As college-aged women struggle with body-image concerns, mysogynistic cultural norms, a desire to fit-in and be liked juxtaposed against a desire to be authentic and true to themselves, and all sorts of other incredible challenges in today’s world, they’re trying there best to demonstrate confidence, pride, and passion for their organization. These videos truly are amazing works of art if you know and understand sororities like we do.

With all that said, check out a handful of our other past and present favorite sorority recruitment videos. Ask yourself the two questions we listed at the beginning of the blog as you enjoy each of these videos. We’ll even include a couple non-Panhellenic videos in here too just for fun.

After you’ve watched these, scroll down for our top 5 tips to make your sorority recruitment video great!

TOP 5 TIPS TO MAKE YOUR PERFECT SORORITY RECRUITMENT VIDEO

  1. MAKE IT ABOUT THEM, MORE THAN IT IS ABOUT YOU. Great marketing is about the audience. Viewers (especially the ones you care about most) should see themselves in the video. This isn’t a video to make you feel good about yourself and your chapter, it is a video to inspire PNMs to be curious about your chapter and your members. The viewer should feel right in the middle of the video — not like they’re watching a show about you, but like they’re immersed in their future reality.
  2. SAY WHAT YOU’RE ABOUT, NOT WHAT YOU’RE NOT. You know all those videos with sorority women writing “I am not a stereotype” on their hands, and then showing it to the camera? Don’t do that. It just reinforces the stereotype. Instead, be about something. Make the video clearly communicate who you are, not who you’re not.
  3. EMOTIONS MATTER MORE THAN LOGIC. Do not try to bullet-point your way through the video with stats about how great your chapter is, how many philanthropy dollars you’ve raised, and how many service hours you’ve given. Joining a sorority is not a logical decision, it is an emotional one. PNMs decide to join a sorority because the women in it make them feel safe, loved, and like they matter.
  4. DON’T BE A REAL ESTATE AGENT OR EVENT PROMOTER. Cool house. Neat party. Move on. Seriously. You have more to offer than nice real estate or a great event.
  5. BE REAL. SERIOUSLY. STOP FAKING IT. We can see right through our in-authenticity. If you’re not the coolest, hottest, richest, flashiest chapter on campus (and you’re probably not), don’t try to sell that. Show you. People join people. People don’t join perfection (they’re intimidated by it), they join real people. Just like you did. Just like you hope every PNM will. Make your video overflow with authenticity.
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How We Use “the Buzzwords”

by Jason Allen

In fraternity and sorority, we often fall victim to “the buzzwords”. Our intent gets lost in our word choices, and becomes diluted into random phrases instead of powerful messages. What if we rethink the way we use buzzwords, and use them as they are intended rather than hashtags on Instagram? Here are a few of my favorite buzzwords, and what they mean to me:

Intentionality: I think what we mean when we use this is to show that we want to be having direct and focused conversations. When I say I am being intentional, I mean my mind and heart are in the right place, and I would love to really focus my energy on this one thing at this time. I want to be intentional on my word choice, because words matter. I am making the choice to be mindful about how I am approaching a person, a topic, or a boundary. Intentionality.

Leaning in: I think what we mean when we say this is that we are being present and diving into something rather than turning away. We are making the choice to opt-in, instead of opting-out. It could be during an intense conversation or during a chaotic moment, but we know being present and offering of ourselves is more important than ignoring it. Sometimes, we need to opt-out for self-preservation and keeping ourselves emotionally, mentally, and sometimes even physically safe. But, we lean in when we know it counts, and when we know it matters. Leaning in.

Vulnerable: As one of the most overused buzzwords, I think we mean to say we are being open and truly transparent and sharing things we normally wouldn’t. We are making the choice to put ourselves out there, when we know we could be judged. We are showing people a side of us that might not always be seen, and are allowing people to see a little deeper into who we are. And when we ask for someone to be vulnerable with us, we are inviting them in to make a choice to pull down their barriers and be truly present with us. Vulnerable.

Challenge & Support: This one is often tossed around with advisors and mentors (mentor, another fancy buzzword), but shows up in our chapters as well. We are trying to say that we hear and see and understand what you are attempting, but please allow me to have you think differently. And while you are trying to reframe and rethink, we are going to love you through it and to it. We are making a choice to engage and care enough to push back a little, and then take care of you while we push. We often times need to use challenge and support when discussing more delicate and serious matters, and again, are choosing to take the journey with you. Challenge & Support.

This is only four of the many we use, including, but not limited to: mentor, sisterhood/brotherhood, authenticity, values-based, accountability, and dialogue. What I want to challenge us to do (and I will support you through it) is to use the buzzwords as enhancers, not as words we hide behind. During recruitment, let’s use these words to truly talk about the experience, not about the script we use that has the words flowing through it.  In our meetings, lets actually be present instead of using a buzzword to tell everyone how present you are. What I’m saying is, let’s make better choices around our words.

How will you use your favorite buzzword differently today?

STATIC

Are You Practicing Dynamic or Static Recruitment?

by Erin Chatten

For several years, brothers and sisters of fraternal organizations have taken our free, online Dynamic Recruitment Assessment to receive a score to better understand how their chapter is currently recruiting. With a potential of 95 possible points, chapters are rated as Static (29 or under), More Static than Dynamic (30-54 points), More Dynamic than Static (55-80 points), or Dynamic (81 and above).

Before you keep reading, pause for a moment and take the assessment above to see how your organization is doing…

Well, how’d you do? Better than you thought? Worse? Don’t worry if your score is lower than you pictured, you are not alone. We are here to provide you resources to make sure your recruitment practices can be in tip top shape by the start of this next school year. Check out some of the key areas we’ve learned that chapters struggle with the most, and find resources you can use to help lead your chapter to recruitment success!

 

Membership Selection

Our fellow fraternal friends most commonly struggle with how membership selections are made. The majority (58%) said that they make selections using phrases like “they’re cool” or “they seem like they will benefit the organization”.

We need to be utilizing written, official criteria for selection that evaluates all potential members on an even playing field where we truly challenge if they are right for membership. Our members should be familiar and have a part in the conversation for the selection criteria. Check out these two resources for an example of criteria for men’s and women’s organizations.

Values Based Selection- Men

Values Based Selection- Women

 

Connecting to unaffiliated individuals 

You can’t recruit who you don’t know. 86.5% of respondents said the average member in their chapter only has 1-5 close friends outside the organization and 72% said their average members only would know 1-5 individuals to consider for membership. Too often, I believe that we take the first group of people who knock on our door looking for membership rather than getting to know as many people as possible on our campus. This results in us taking in some questionable members, and coming across as exclusive and unapproachable to unaffiliated members. Check out this blog for how we can make more strangers become members.

3 Steps to Turn Strangers Into Members

 

Names Lists 

Do you have a names list for your chapter of potential candidates for membership? 75% said they do. This is great! However, most of our organizations struggle with how many names are on that list. Whether you are in a men’s, women’s, or co-ed organization, you should always be keeping a list of names (formal recruitment registration doesn’t count!) of potential members you could recruit from. 63% of our names lists only have 1-50 names on it! Using data from ChapterBuilder, we know that only about 10% of our names list will actually join our organizations. This means if we are looking to fill ten new member spots, we need at least a names list of 100 individuals to make that happen.

Panhellenic sororities struggle with this the most. We rely so heavily on formal recruitment, if new members drop or total is not met, we spend chapter resources (members time, chapter money) to hold informal events in the hopes to meet our recruiting goals. If more time was spent creating relationships with non-members and growing our names list, there would be no need to host events. Instead, we could deepen already existing friendships and transform those relationships into new members.

How do you grow your names list? To start, ask each member to write down the names of non-affiliated members who they would consider for membership. Need help? Check out these name joggers for sorority and fraternity. (*Hint* This activity should be done with every new member to see if they have any friends who could be interested.) From there we simply have to be more normal. Make friends outside of your organization, get involved across campus, and develop acquaintances and friends.

Mind Joggers- Sorority

Mind Joggers- Fraternity

 

Recruitment Preparation

Recruitment preparation is important so that our members understand how to identify quality members, can practice their pre-close, address responses to concerns, have stronger conversations, and so much more. We recommend doing this preparation multiple times over the year to alleviate some of the stress that often gets attached to recruiting. Currently, only 4% of chapters have numerous, year-round trainings and is completely prepared to recruit. Most chapters are either somewhat prepared with one training a year (39%), or are a little prepared and have only mentioned recruitment without any training (34%).

Check out these resources for pre-closing for men and women.

Pre-Close- Men

Pre-Close- Women

Check out this blog on the fundamentals of a pre-close.

Need more help preparing for recruitment, or want to take your assessment a step deeper? Contact me at erin@phiredup.com to chat more about your Dynamic Recruitment Assessment results!

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Fraternity Recruitment By The Numbers

by Matt Mattson

This academic year more than 100,000 men will join one of the 6,100+ fraternity chapters that thrive on more than 800 campuses across North America. At Phired Up, TechniPhi, and Innova, we are passionate about helping more responsible, thoughtful, high-performing gentlemen experience the positive life-changing gift of college fraternities.

We know that only about 10% of students that attend colleges and universities in the U.S. where Greek Life exists end up joining. We can do better than that. There are hundreds and sometimes thousands of men on college campuses who deserve and desire the benefits of fraternity in their life, but our recruitment processes and our marketing work isn’t reaching them.

The great news, though, is that non-Greek students are as interested in joining fraternities as they’ve ever been. Data from Innova Marketing shows that less than 1/4 of non-Greeks surveyed held a negative view of Greek Life, while over 75% of non-Greeks are positive or neutral in their opinions of fraternities and sororities. In fact, when asked directly about their interest level in joining Greek Life, about 40% said they had a neutral to very high interest in joining.

So why don’t more people join? And more importantly, what do the numbers tell us about how we can get more high QUALITY men to join our fraternity chapters?

Our team recently looked at fraternity recruitment data from ChapterBuilder (the primary names list tool used by over 6000 chapters on 690 different campuses — currently managing 1.7 million PNM profiles!). We also looked at recent raw data from our Phired Up Dynamic Recruitment Assessment (take it for free here). We combined those findings with past findings by Phired Up, Innova, The NIC, and more (see our references at the bottom of this page). Here’s what we found.

A names list is vital to fraternity recruitment. 80% of men’s chapters have a names list (yikes! this means that 20% still don’t). The average size names list of a chapter is 402. Ten percent of chapters have names lists over 1000. At Phired Up we teach fraternity leaders that “Quantity Drives Quality” and that “You can’t recruit who you don’t know.” We want chapters to be more selective and thoughtful about the quality of men they’re recruiting, and we know that one of the best ways to do that is to increase the size of the pool of men from which you’re recruiting so that you can choose only the best of the best.

Here’s an important little nugget of information: 6.9% of prospects on a chapter’s names list end up joining the chapter. That’s about 7 out of every 100 on the names list. In other words, if you want a new member class of 30, you should aim for a names list of around 430 (or a 14:1 ratio). We’ve seen from past ChapterBuilder data that over 1/2 of the names that are added to a fraternity’s names list are never contacted again, so here’s an important tip — don’t just put the names on the list… follow up! How many times do you need to follow up? Well, of course that varies depending on the needs and relationship of the potential member, but past ChapterBuilder data has shown that potential members who end up joining a fraternity experience about 8 “points of contact” (times they hang out with or connect with a member) on average before they join.

Fraternities have a major opportunity to grow and improve their reputation simply by being more… SOCIAL. The recent Dynamic Recruitment Assessment data suggests that 58% of fraternity members can’t name more than 20 non-Greek men they might encounter walking around campus. 31% can’t name more than 10. When our marketing researchers asked non-Greeks, the responses were similar — 50% of non-Greeks can’t name more than 5 Greek members. We know that most people don’t hate fraternities. We also know that most people don’t ever actually reject becoming a member of a fraternity (over 70% of non-Greeks report never being recruited). The facts say that non-Greeks don’t hate us, they just don’t know us. We don’t have a recruitment problem — we have a friendship problem.

We know that many fraternity chapter leaders care deeply about recruiting higher QUALITY men into their chapters. We already mentioned the importance of having a big names list, but chapters should also have a written official criteria for membership, and not just a “He’s a Good Guy” approach. Unfortunately, the data shows that 65.7% of men’s chapters select members using phrases like “they’re cool” or “they seem like they’ll benefit the organization” to choose their new members. While less than 1/4 use a written official membership criteria. Phired Up teaches the importance of a Values-Based Selection Process. Here’s an example of what we teach.

Another tactic employed by high performing fraternity chapters to ensure the men who join are the right men for the chapter is the “Pre-Close.” This is the gentleman-to-gentleman conversation that happens before offering a “bid” that allows potential members to discuss concerns, and that allows the chapter members to clarify the responsibilities and expectations of membership. We have work to do because the numbers tell us that only 54.3% of men’s chapters have a conversation to address concerns with potential candidates prior to inviting them to join. Asking someone to join an organization for the rest of their life (and making sure we want them to join for the rest of our lives) deserves a serious thoughtful conversation.

Here are two other important and disturbing numbers that we discovered from the Dynamic Recruitment Assessment submissions: 75% of chapters admit that at least 25% of their members don’t regularly exhibit their organization’s values. 70% of chapters admit that at least 25% of their recruitment process does not reflect their organization’s values. Your recruitment events, marketing, conversations, and activities will determine the quality of men you attract. High quality people are attracted to high quality stuff.

One final number that is important to the quality of members we’re recruiting: Alcohol is a factor in recruitment. As recently as a few years ago, a Phired Up research study showed that 53% of campus-based fraternity/sorority professionals were aware that alcohol is being used to some degree during the recruitment processes on their campus. Mostly in IFC recruitment.

The entire college world is changing. It has been well-documented that while overall enrollment numbers in four-year colleges and universities has been on a steady increase over the past couple of decades (corresponding with similar growth in fraternities), those enrollment numbers are flattening. In fall 2016, overall postsecondary enrollments decreased 1.4 percent from the previous fall. Spring 2017 shows another 1 percent decrease compared to the previous spring in public sector institutions. Four-year public institution enrollment hit a plateau two and a half years ago and has decreased year over year since then. Now consider that there are almost 3 million more women enrolled in college than men. Making sure our fraternity chapters know how to recruit a high quantity of high quality gentlemen is more important now than it has ever been.

These numbers can be overwhelming and confusing. But unsurprisingly they reinforce the truths that great recruiting chapters have known for a long time. These are the same truths we’ve been teaching for a long time too…

  • You can’t recruit who you don’t know.
  • People join people.
  • Quantity drives quality.
  • “He’s a Good Guy” shouldn’t qualify him for membership.
  • Asking someone to be your brother deserves a man-to-man conversation.
  • Recruitment is a relationship business.
  • A names list is the most important tool for recruitment.
  • There are thousands of men who deserve and desire the life-changing gift of fraternity. It’s our responsibility to be generous enough to give them that gift.

And one more note. Of all the numbers that matter, remember that Dynamic Recruitment (the style of recruitment the best recruiting chapters in the country use) is all about the 1 PNM — each INDIVIDUAL potential member. Build a recruitment system that is about his experience (not the chapter’s experience).

 

SOURCES

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Fraternity Gets Creative; Recruits 70 Men in 25 Days

This spring, something extraordinary happened at Georgia College!

The average size of a college fraternity in the United States is approximately 45 members.  On average, those members use 52 weeks to recruit and initiate fewer than 20 new members into their chapter.

In March 2016, two men — Bo Hunter and Zach Vasseur — were sent to GC by Alpha Tau Omega’s national fraternity on a mission: to recruit the school’s highest quality non-Greek men and start a new chapter of ATO.  They were given one month!

Approximately 2500 undergraduate men represent 45% of the Georgia College student body. There were already six fraternities on campus (average size of 65 members).  ATO wanted to become the 7th.  ATO partnered with the Interfraternity Council (IFC) and Fraternity & Sorority Life to determine that there may be interest on campus from non-Greek men to start a new fraternity.  On March 11th, just 25 days after arriving on campus, Bo & Zach announced that Alpha Tau Omega had 70 accepted bids!

I had an opportunity to interview Zach and his supervisor, RJ Taylor.  (Transcript below)  The recruitment results are exceptional, but I am most impressed with how they did it.

The professionalism of ATO’s team and deep partnership with the school provide a shining example of a new era of fraternity recruitment; an overhauled business model; a system and philosophy that may become the new normal.  Stacey Milner, Assistant Director for Fraternity and Sorority Life, told me ATO executed the textbook example of how a fraternity should partner with a host institution.  And, they were rewarded with 70 new members who she verified “are amazing guys, having an amazing experience.”

Warning:  if you’re looking for “event ideas” or techniques to “get your name out there” then you’ll be wildly disappointed.  You also won’t read about Rush Week calendars, off-campus parties, cool t-shirts, yard signs, frat castles, over-produced rush videos, giveaway swag, or booze.  Just the opposite!  ATO’s success is another example of the evolving professionalization of fraternity recruitment.

There is a fraternity-done-right story happening around the country that has gotten almost no press coverage even though it is happening on hundreds of college campuses every year.  Select fraternity expansion teams and undergraduate chapters are choosing a relationship-focused, values-based, Dynamic Recruitment system that counters frat-star culture and public expectations of “going Greek.”  The results are often exceptional in both quantity and quality – just like ATO at GC.  Results that exceed what anyone thought might be possible.  These groups represent the future of fraternity.  They are the business model to replicate.

Here’s what Zach & RJ had to say about Alpha Tau Omega’s success at Georgia College.

Phired Up: Two men recruited 70 new members in less than 1 month.  That’s impressive.
ATO:  Thanks.  We’re proud of Bo and Zach.  They did a great job of executing ATO’s recruitment system.

Phired Up:  Some people may read those numbers and question the quality of your new members or the selectivity of ATO.
ATO: We gave bids to 70 men and initiated all 70 of them.  We interviewed and turned down 82 men who we didn’t think were ready for ATO.  The new ATO group has a 3.29 GPA compared to the 3.05 all-fraternity GPA.  We are proud of every single man in our group.  They each exceeded our values-based selection criteria.

Phired Up: Good answer.
ATO:  Thanks.

ATO:  We got close to these guys.  They’re friends – brothers.  They really are some of the best men on campus.  Our men represent leaders across all parts of campus.  Student org officers, student government Chief of Staff, President of business fraternity, guys from Campus Outreach, Bible Study leaders, Intramural Reps….

Phired Up:  People reading this will want to know how you did it.  The details. Tactics.  ATO has a strong expansion recruitment system, but what made this project so explosive in such a short amount of time?
ATO:  (smiling) There was definitely some luck involved.  The school was uncommonly supportive.  We did lots of prep work and worked long days while we were on campus.

Phired Up:  What does “uncommonly supportive” mean?
ATO:  From the very first conversation we were in a real partnership with the school.  We shared the same goal.  Campus officials and even the IFC went out of their way to support us.  The communication between our staff and the school was constant.  Everyone was transparent.  There was so much trust and mutual respect.  I think we all [school, ATO, IFC, new members, alumni] worked together so well that we felt like we succeeded together as a team.

Phired Up:  Will you share some of those tactics … the stuff you did different at GC that really worked?
ATO:  Sure.

Below are 10 recruitment tactics ATO did at GC that few recruitment teams are doing well – or not at all.  They credit each of these with making a significant impact toward the results achieved:

1.    INSTAGRAM – We planned on using Facebook and Twitter.  At the last minute Zach threw together an Instagram account just to see what would happen.  It blew up!

2.    UNIVERSITY EMAIL – The campus administration was so supportive!  Especially Stacey Hurt-Milner.  The school emailed every incoming freshman with information about ATO.  34 guys showed up to our first interest meeting during the pre-site visit.

3.    CHAPTERBUILDER – ATO uses recruitment technology called ChapterBuilder. However, this time we didn’t wait until the end of recruitment to invite all the new members into the system and train them.  Instead, we invited about 15 of the guys who expressed early interest to use the technology with us.  They went crazy with it and recruited 20+ of their friends using the tool.

4.    SHAMROCK WEEK – The guys we recruited during the 1st week got involved right away and met a lot of sorority women.  They won Kappa Delta sorority’s Shamrock Week before they were even a recognized group.  That got people’s attention and built their confidence.

5.    PRE-SITE VISIT – Our mantra is that ‘day one on campus is never day one of recruitment.’  We visited GC a few months before we started recruiting.  That’s when we met the 34 guys from the campus generated email.  We also built relationships with campus administrators, faculty, student leaders, sorority presidents, etc.

6.    INTRAMURALS – We learned during the pre-site visit that up to 85% of GC students participate in IM’s.  So we did, too.  It paid off.

7.    TAYLOR DEER – A recruitment specialist from Phired Up visited the project to coach the ATO team for a few days and help us refine our process.  Taylor is the real deal.

8.    CHUNKING – We never talked to a student without asking for referrals of quality Non-Greek men.  Chunking is an art form.  It takes practice.  Our team got really good at it.

9.    DEVOTIONAL – ATO is unique in that our top 3 officer positions are President, Vice-President, then Chaplain.  ATO is the first fraternity founded on Christian values.  The “ATO Devotional” is a book written by ATO’s for ATO’s talking about the bigger issues of life.  We carried that book everywhere we went.  Literally.  It was a constant conversation piece.

10.    SERVICE/OUTREACH – ATO is not a “frat.” One way we demonstrate that is putting service at the heart of our recruitment.  We partnered with the GC Give Center to establish a partnership of giving between ATO and school to do community outreach.

Phired Up:  You didn’t mention any rush events or a rush calendar.
ATO:  Nah.  If you mean traditional “big events,” we didn’t do that.  We’ve found that large rush events send the wrong message, often attract the wrong guys, take too much time and money, and deliver too little return of quality members.

Phired Up:  Alcohol?
ATO:  If you’re asking us to have a beer with you after this interview, sure.  If you’re asking if we used alcohol during recruitment, absolutely not!  That would have undermined everything we were trying to build.

Phired Up:  What did a typical day of recruitment look like?
ATO:  There was no “typical” day.  Hang on a sec.  Here’s an example from Zach & Bo’s calendar.

7:30am wake up
9:00am arrive on campus (Einstein Bagel in Student Union)
9:30am – 4:30pm coffee meetings (typically 20+ meetings, 15-30 minutes each)
5:00pm dinner on campus
5:30pm be present on campus (slack line, IM sports, campus events, chill, etc)
7:00pm ATO information session
8:30pm arrive home, follow up calls, texts, & emails
10:00pm administrative work. Plan next day together.
11:00pm talk to friends/family, read news, etc
12:00am sleep

Phired Up:  That’s intense.
ATO:  It’s worth it.

Phired Up:  Congratulations on your success at Georgia College & State University.
ATO:  Thanks!

Bravo to Alpha Tau Omega for doing recruitment right.  Thank you for sharing the Georgia College story.

While nearly every national fraternity in the country is enjoying unprecedented membership growth, some – like ATO – are using this moment in time to elevate the caliber of men they are recruiting and putting new, sustainable business systems in place that may make success stories like this the new normal.  Now, that would be extraordinary.

Interview Date:  May 12, 2016
Interviewer:  Josh Orendi, Josh@PhiredUp.com / Josh@TechniPhi.com
Interviewing:
Zach Vasseur, Senior Leadership Consultant, zvasseur@ato.org
RJ Taylor, Director of Growth, rtaylor@ato.org

Other Dynamic Recruitment Spotlight Articles:

philanthropy

Why “Philanthropy” Is My Favorite Word

By Vince Fabra

Recently, I was asked, “What is your favorite word?” My response was “Philanthropy.”

I know what some of your are thinking. “C’mon. The guy that teaches values-based recruitment says his favorite word is ‘philanthropy?!’” It’s a little cliché, but I can honestly say that of all the words I know, ‘philanthropy’ is my favorite.

First of all, the phonetics of the word are beautiful. It is wonderfully constructed, rolls off the tongue perfectly and hits the ear nicely. Say it out loud… “Philanthropy.” It’s so beautiful!

Then, after adding meaning and context, the word maintains its beauty and also becomes powerful.

philanthropy:  goodwill to fellow members of the human race; especially: active effort to promote human welfare

Fraternities and sororities were created to be philanthropic organizations — to actively “promote human welfare” and spread “goodwill to fellow members of the human race.”

Both as an undergrad and as a fraternity professional, I have witnessed organizations work very hard to change the meaning of my favorite word. ‘Philanthropy’ on some campuses is now synonymous with ‘competition, bitterness, drama’. With the constant flow of embarrassing news stories in the media, we can add ‘inappropriate’ and ‘misogynistic’ to the list of twisted synonyms too.

To all of my philanthropy chairs across the country, allow me to share a message with you. This is the same message I’m trying to get across to your recruitment chairs.

Philanthropy does not equal event. (and Recruitment does not equal event.)

It is fine to host philanthropy events, but the act of spreading “goodwill to fellow members of the human race” is not exclusive to dance competitions and food events. It can be done every single day with a budget of $0.00. You don’t need to reserve rooms on campus, “get the word out there”, or drive fellow organizations into a competitive frenzy over a trophy THAT DOES NOT MATTER!

All you need to do is actively promote human welfare and spread goodwill to fellow members of the human race.

However, if you feel like an event in necessary to your philanthropic efforts, by all means, I hope you plan and execute an immaculate one. But during the planning process, please continue to ask yourself and your members…

  • Does this event promote human welfare?
  • Does this event spread goodwill to fellow members of the human race?
  • Or does this event exist to serve our chapter’s ego (and oh yeah, we raised some money for the kids— Philanthropy, right)?

Philanthropy is still my favorite word. It still sounds beautiful. I want to thank the thousands of fraternity and sorority members that work towards preserving and restoring its true meaning —also, in the process, thanks for spreading goodwill to fellow members of the human race.

big chapter red

I’m Not Impressed By Size Anymore

by Matt Mattson

I’ll be honest. Size used to impress me. Not so much any more.

Fraternity chapters that were huge used to make me giddy. I used to get so excited about a 75, 90, 120 man chapter. After all, I own three companies focused on growing fraternities and sororities. And I came from a college experience where 60 dudes in a chapter seemed like a massive horde.

But I’m so bored by it now.

Don’t get me wrong. If you have 75 amazing, talented, driven, focused, hard-working men, I will take notice. But it’s the “amazing, talented, driven, focused, hard-working” part that I get excited about anymore. If you have EVIDENCE (not just claims) that your members are exceptional, that’s exciting.

The last decade or so has seen AMAZING fraternal growth. Almost all inter/national organizations are seeing dramatic growth right now. Despite the negative media. Despite the rising costs of college. Despite all the other options available to college students. Our organizations are huge right now. Many (me included) would argue that much of that growth is due to the surge of college students our universities have seen during the same time period. While fraternity membership is higher overall, the percentage of collegiate men who are Greek seems to be staying about the same. Which means that when the population bubble pops (as it is will soon), our shiny chapter houses might have a bunch of empty beds and angry alumni.

But still, I care far more about quality than quantity. I know that’s a cliche line, but it’s true. For me now more than ever. Our fraternal movement must focus more on the quality of men we’re attracting and selecting. We don’t all need MORE people. But we do all need BETTER people.

There are a few key ways to impact quality.

1. Have a lot of people to choose from. The more prospects you know, the more choosy you can be. Build your organization with quality parts, don’t toss together whoever shows up and expect it to be excellent. Quantity Drives Quality.

2. If you do marketing, don’t shout at everyone, whisper to the right people. I’ve been doing a lot of work in our marketing company (www.InnovaGreek.com), and the vast majority of what we’re focused on is helping fraternities and sororities talk to the RIGHT people in the RIGHT way.

3. The process you use to select new members is the most important variable for any chapter. If you use the “Good Guy” approach, you’re doomed. If you use a Values-Based Selection Criteria and can offer objective measures of quality that each man must meet upon selection and maintain throughout membership — well, that’s exciting. We’re working to make that easier in tools like ChapterBuilder (by TechniPhi), and by increasing the focus of our education on member selection and values-based recruitment.

Being big is good. Don’t get me wrong. In fact, I think I’m bored by “size” lately because it seems like every chapter should be at least 50-60 guys at this point. The education, tools, and resources are all available. And most importantly, the arithmetic tells us that the men are just waiting for you to recruit them. There’s really no reason for small chapters in today’s fraternal world. And bigger chapters have more potential to impact the world in positive ways — I’m a fan of big. But does your chapter have top notch quality control measures in place? If not, you’re behind the curve.

 

*Photo credit goes to whatever Pi Kappa Phi chapter popped up on Google Image search when I put “Big Fraternity Chapter” into the search bar. They looked sharp. I turned them red.

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