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Phired Up Welcomes Three Growth Consultants

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Branden Stewart

Carmel, Ind. – The Phired Up team has grown this week with the addition of three new part-time Growth Consultants to the team. Seneca Crump, Colleen Kelty, and Elena Pastore joined the Phired Up Training Team on May 1st, and will work with organizations and communities across North America to deliver Phired Up trainings and consultations.

“Seneca, Colleen, and Elena represent the future of our training team,” said RJ Taylor, Phired Up’s CEO. “Like most elements of our industry, students are asking for training to evolve. They are asking for less ‘talking at them’ and more ‘side-by-side hands-on learning’. They want to learn practical skills from professionals with recruiting experience and to use technology that helps get them results. I’m confident that Elena, Seneca, and Colleen bring the relatable experience students are craving to our growing team of organizational growth experts.”

Seneca Crump earned his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Mississippi, where he joined his fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. After earning his Master’s Degree from Western Kentucky University in Student Affairs and Higher Education, he became the Coordinator for Fraternity and Sorority Life at The Ohio State University. Currently, he is the Assistant Director for Fraternity and Sorority Leadership Development at the University of Southern California.

“Seneca is passionate about moving the needle in our fraternal community. He brings forth a strategic mindset that helps students broaden their perspectives and approaches to growth,” said Tenea McGhee, Phired Up’s Director of Growth (CBFO Specialist).” I look forward to seeing how his talents will allow us to broaden outreach efforts for CBFO and collective communities”

Seneca has also served as the former Great Lakes Regional Director of Collegiate Affairs for Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. and enjoys musical forms of art, road tripping, cooking and grilling, directing and teaching choirs, playing card games, and college football. When asked about joining the Phired Up team, Seneca said, “I am so Phired Up about joining this team, so I can be a part of elevating the purpose and value of the fraternity and sorority experience through my own personal growth story! I am more excited about impacting and driving growth for our fraternal partners nationwide!  #LetsGoLetsGrow #MomentsWithSen.”

Seneca can be reached via email at Seneca@PhiredUp.com.

Colleen Kelty joins the Phired Up team having earned her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of New Hampshire (UNH) in Human Development and Family Studies, and her Master’s Degree from George Washington University in Education and Human Development. She currently serves as the Student Organizations and Leadership Coordinator at UNH, working with student organizations and leadership programming for the campus community.

“We are excited to welcome Colleen to our team! What I appreciate most is her ability to look at the larger perspective. She is passionate about learning who students are in the moment and identifying that everyone is changing,” said Colleen Blevins, Senior Director of Training for Phired Up. “Colleen [Kelty] seeks to understand and adapt her work to those she supports. It’s because of this that we know she will hit the ground running and truly make an impact supporting fraternity and sorority members as a Growth Consultant with us!”

While a student at UNH, Colleen joined Alpha Xi Delta. She recently concluded a three-year tenure at Alpha Xi Delta Fraternity Headquarters as an Associate Director of Area Development and led their nationwide officer training program. Colleen also serves as a contracted Chapter Advisor for Alpha Sigma Phi. In her spare time, she likes to waterski, explore local businesses in and around New Hampshire, and go for walks with her yellow lab, Waffles. She also unabashedly loves all Real Housewives franchises and would be happy to chat with you about the cultural implications of them. “I’m excited to join the team to encourage fraternity and sorority members to challenge the process and make positive change!” said Colleen of joining the Phired Up team.

Colleen can be reached via email at Kelty@PhiredUp.com.

Elena Pastore joins the Phired Up team as a two-time graduate of the University of Florida, having earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and her Master’s Degree in International Business. She founded Allenatore, where she currently serves as a Leadership and Career Coach in addition to working with Panhellenic sororities and other non-profit organizations on leadership development.

“We are thrilled to have Elena join our team as a Growth Consultant! Elena brings a unique perspective of being an entrepreneur and business owner. She seeks to coach, support, and challenge fraternity and sorority members in a healthy way – a way that allows them to grow both professionally and personally,” said Colleen Blevins. “Elena has a passion to establish congruency on expectations and vision for what the fraternity and sorority experience will be – a passion that will help the partners she works with grow and thrive!”

Elena is a volunteer Education Trainer for her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, and also serves her alma mater as a volunteer Gator Career Consultant. She also serves as a volunteer  Career Coach at the University of Pennsylvania Experience Lab. Outside of work and volunteering, Elena enjoys cooking and baking Italian food, trying different coffee and wine shops, going to the beach, and enjoying nature and walks. “I am motivated by the energy of the Phired Up team and look forward to empowering young college students to build authentic, genuine, and sustainable organizations,” said Elena when asked why she wanted to join the Phired Up team.

Elena can be reached via email at Elena@PhiredUp.com.

Phired Up is still seeking a highly qualified individual who holds membership in a traditionally IFC-affiliated fraternity that could become part of our training team. Interested candidates should reach out to Branden Stewart, Phired Up’s COO, at Branden@PhiredUp.com to learn more or visit www.phiredup.com/careers.

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About Phired Up & TechniPhi: We are on a mission to create the future of fraternity and sorority life by transforming the way people join. We provide Education, Technology, and Strategy Solutions to help fraternities and sororities with marketing, recruitment, pre-intake, and retention. We believe the best way to create healthier, safer, and more inclusive fraternities and sororities is to transform the joining process. Phired Up serves all councils, chapters, and umbrella organizations. We are committed to serving 100% of fraternities and sororities.  Our technology and education work together to help headquarters, campuses, councils, and chapters implement a holistic growth system that drives results. Watch our videos on YouTube, follow us on Instagram at @phired.up, and visit our website at http://www.phiredup.com.

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RJ TAYLOR NAMED CEO OF PHIRED UP & TECHNIPHI

For Immediate Release

Contact: Branden Stewart, COO

 

Carmel, Ind. — Phired Up & TechniPhi named RJ Taylor Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on April 7th, 2022. RJ received this promotion after serving the company as Vice President (and previously, Assistant Vice President of Education & Strategy).

RJ will lead the company, which is in its 20th year, alongside Chief Operating Officer Branden Stewart. The company has aggressively accelerated its work focused on holistic fraternity/sorority growth systems. The company is doubling down on its mission to create the future of fraternity and sorority life by transforming the way people join. Read more about Phired Up & TechniPhi’s mission and vision below.

“RJ exudes the values and spirit of our company,” said Phired Up & TechniPhi’s Co-Founder Josh Orendi. “He has been a part of our ‘phamily’ for more than a decade — since he was a student recruiter and then a staff member at ATO — and today, he’s deeply committed to serving 100% of the sorority and fraternity world.”

“RJ led our education and training team through the pandemic,” added Matt Mattson, Phired Up’s President & Co-Founder. “His first day was in March of 2020, and he was the brains behind our efforts to not just ‘make it through’ the last couple of years. Because of his leadership, we found fresh and effective ways to contribute generously to the industry and innovate our business in the process.” RJ will continue to lead partner development and product innovation as CEO.

Taylor joined the Phired Up team after leading operations and business development for Wanderlust Outfitters in Southwest Michigan and brought over five years of recruitment and new chapter start-up experience as part of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity senior management team. Between his time at ATO and Wanderlust, RJ led an 11-month, 11-country service trip around the world with his wife, Kayla. His family (which includes his daughter Ada and a newborn son named Amos) is on a mission to visit every country in the world. As of this release, they have visited 39 of 196ish. You can follow RJ at @rjexcited on Instagram and connect with him via email at rj@phiredup.com.

Branden Stewart, COO, will serve alongside RJ in the daily leadership of Phired Up and TechniPhi. Stewart has served on the company leadership team for more than six years and as a leader within the industry for more than a decade. “Branden makes us better”, said Taylor. “He helps make our products better for members, our processes better for partners, and our systems better for team members.” Stewart’s specific responsibilities focus on internal process improvements, team culture, and overall business operations.

 

ADDITIONAL STAFFING CHANGES

In addition to Taylor’s promotion into the CEO seat, several other staffing changes have taken place to set up Phired Up & TechniPhi for the next 20+ years.

Woody Woodcock, one of Phired Up’s longest-tenured members (and someone who has contributed to the recruitment of more fraternity/sorority members than anyone in history), remains a Vice President for the company and will lead a new team focused entirely on Customer Success and partner growth results.

Colleen Blevins has been named Senior Director of Training. With this promotion, she will lead a team of educators charged with delivering the industry’s most transformational fraternity/sorority growth training and strategy services.

Chris Buck has been named Senior Director of Technology. Buck leads a team of internal and external engineers who are building the future of fraternity/sorority growth technology every day.

Megan Moffett, another of Phired Up’s long-time team members, now serves as Senior Director of Operations.

Co-Founders Matt Mattson and Josh Orendi are focusing their daily energies and attention on a new brand to serve additional verticals related to organizational growth. More on that announcement to come in the coming months.

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ABOUT PHIRED UP & TECHNIPHI

We are on a mission to create the future of fraternity and sorority life by transforming the way people join. We provide Education, Technology, and Strategy Solutions to help fraternities and sororities with marketing, recruitment, pre-intake, and retention. We believe the best way to create healthier, safer, and more inclusive fraternities and sororities is to transform the joining process. Phired Up serves all councils, chapters, and umbrella organizations. We are committed to serving 100% of fraternities and sororities.

Our team is made up of about 25 professionals who believe in fraternity and sorority members. Our technology and education work together to help headquarters, campuses, councils, and chapters implement a holistic growth system that drives results. Watch our videos on YouTube, follow us on Instagram at @phired.up, and visit our website at http://www.phiredup.com.

 

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Lambda Chi Alpha at RPI Shares Dynamic Recruitment Success

We are excited to share the success story that Jonah from Rensselaer Polytechnic University’s Lambda Chi Alpha Chapter experienced while using Dynamic Recruitment earlier this Spring! Read our interview with Jonah below.

Tell us about yourself and how/why you became the recruitment leader of your chapter? + How did you first learn about Dynamic Recruiting? How did you get connected with Phired Up?

My name is Jonah Mudse, I’m a rising senior at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York. In the fall of my first year, I became a brother of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

I first served as my chapter’s alumni relations chairmen where I planned and hosted our ‘SuperReunion’, essentially an alumni weekend that gathered record numbers of our brothers throughout the decades at the same place. This was before I understood why gathering matters, but this became an experience that I knew I wanted to share with more people.

Literally two weeks later, Matt Mattson was speaking at a two-day ‘Greek Forum’ event on campus. He was launching a three-year relationship with my university with the intention of transforming how fraternities and sororities on campus grew. My chapter’s recruitment chairmen didn’t want to go but the school required the attendance of two, so my chapter president asked if I would go and he would excuse me from activities I would rather not be at. I decided to go and, little did I know at the time, this forum ended up leading me to now two years of being knee deep in fraternity recruitment.

At this forum, Matt shared with us the data, the stories, and the tactics of how incredible organizations fundamentally share their excellence. It made sense that sharing excellence requires excellent relationships. It further made sense that a recruitment plan centered on these relationships (aka Dynamic Recruiting) was a more-than-solid way to go. The mindset  Matt shared with those Greek leaders during those two days planted itself in my heart. Matt’s perspective really shaped my view of this whole organization thing and how powerful those organizations can be.

What had your chapter tried in the past? What wasn’t working?

In the past, we’ve been great closers!  We’ve always been a group that naturally had the best selling points: GPA, chapter house, low dues, high awards, etcetera. Our best recruitment strategies were the ones that got the most people in the door. This worked really well when we planned the right events that happened to be advertised to the right people.

As long as a student came to most of our rush events and especially as long as the loudest guys in the room liked the PNM, then they got a bid. We voted on them on Sunday (eh),  gave it to them personally on a Tuesday (good), then we would find out if they signed on Friday (not so good). When event attendance was high, there happened to be enough personal interaction that the process somewhat worked. Where we really were lacking, and didn’t know, was that recruitment could be so much more than just getting people in the door; recruitment could actually propel the chapter to levels of success we couldn’t imagine at the time.

image0What result were you looking for?

When I took over as director of recruitment, I was looking for a class of PNMs who:

1. Understood the expectations of membership, and

2. Who were excited to take ownership of the chapter’s accomplishments.

I felt it was really important for retention and buy-in that there were zero surprises for a PNM after they signed their bid, so we laid everything out before they even got a bid. I also felt like setting the expectation that this class would be able to take ownership of the chapter’s future successes was not only attractive to the average Gen-Z mindset, but was also a fundamental cultural characteristic that if manifested, would revive my chapter and set it on a path to success full steam ahead.

Tell us about your process! How did you build your team? How did you secure buy-in with your team?

I was elected in December of 2020, and recruitment started in the last week of January, so we had to move fast. In the past, committees were formed by sending out a Google Form. I did that, but only expected 1-2 where I wanted a committee of 5-7. So I put together a list of 10 brothers I thought would be solid recruiters. I just called each one with an old fashioned phone call and asked about their spring plans. After 10 calls, I had my committee of 7 committed to a successful spring recruitment.

To encourage buy-in and to really level-set the committee, I bought them all access to Phired Up’s Digital Classroom for the IFC Fraternity Recruitment training modules. I had the team formed before Christmas and gave them until the week after New Years to complete the course. This got everyone on the same page and allowed us to get to work almost right away.

Shifting a chapter from static recruitment to dynamic recruiting is difficult. It takes real culture change! What was hard? How did you secure buy in with your chapter and other community stakeholders?

Dynamic Recruitment tactics had somewhat been informally used in the past, but a full on dynamic recruiting system was foreign to my chapter. I was facilitating our recruitment plan remotely and never allocated enough resources towards communicating the new system and progress updates to the chapter. This built up tension throughout recruitment between some members of the general chapter and the recruitment committee. I was unaware of this tension until it exploded with two weeks of recruitment left.

At that point, I specifically made an effort to keep the general chapter up-to-date with the recruitment committee’s actions. I opened up our plan and discussed each tactic with anyone who was curious. I had to be careful when discussing the “why” behind Dynamic Recruitment and instead had to focus on the “what”. The why seemed to spark friction where the what seemed to get people excited. Interestingly enough, the feedback I was getting from brothers was more negative while the feedback I was getting from PNMs and alumni was generally positive. That was a difficult path to navigate, but knowing that I was recruiting based on and with the values that I pledged my oath to most definitely helped me through it.

You’ve talked about using dynamic recruiting to help grow other groups you’re involved with at RPI! Can you share more about your thoughts on how a dynamic recruiting strategy works for all types of organizations?

I use Dynamic Recruitment to grow everything. I’ve used it to grow Lambda Chi committees that involve brothers from different chapters, to grow church small groups, to grow the track and field team, to find more employees for my employer, and I plan to use Dynamic Recruitment to launch a new organization on campus in the fall of 2021.

The power behind Dynamic Recruitment, and why it works for all types of organizations, is the authentic trust that forms between PNM and recruiter. In the fraternity process, the PNM trusts the recruiter enough to sign that bid of membership. In the church small groups, my friend trusts me enough to spend his Tuesday night with a bunch of strangers. For the track and field team, my friend trusts me enough to start coming to practice and hitting the gym. For my employer, potential employees trust me enough to discuss the viability of a hefty commitment on top of classes. For this new organization I’m launching, new members will have to trust me enough to get on board and be founding partners of something risky, something that might fail. Dynamic Recruitment facilitates interactions that build relationships founded on trust, trust that can be leveraged to grow your organizations.

Brag on your team! Talk about your results (qualitative and quantitative).

My recruitment committee were a bunch of rock star brothers. These guys:

… put 250 names on our list,

… sent over 200 openers,

… hosted over 100 1-on-1 or 2-on-1 virtual meetings,

… showed up to 7 bid vote meetings,

… offered 21 bids,

… and built strong enough relationships that 19 signed their bids.

This was transformational for us. In the past, we’d give 20-25 bids out of the 60-70 guys we met at events and 10-15 would sign. The best part of our spring recruitment wasn’t even the 19 for 21 sign rate, it was the 2-to-1 new member to brother ratio we had at our first few events post-recruitment. These new guys were excited to join and committed to becoming brothers. This excitement really gave our chapter a fresh look after a difficult year navigating the pandemic.

It’s May – Fall 2021 recruiting starts now! How are you continuing to press into dynamic recruiting? What’s your plan for this summer? Talk about some of your goals!

I stepped down as recruitment chair this May. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to continue Dynamic Recruitment but rather because it made more sense (with deferred recruitment) to elect our recruitment chair for an academic year term, rather than a calendar year term (like how we elect all other officers). That being said, I used Dynamic Recruitment yet again to recruit the next recruitment chair, then I shared absolutely everything I had learned with him and committed to being on his committee.

My favorite part about who replaced me is that he’s one of the 19 who signed their bid this last spring. He’s only ever been exposed to Dynamic Recruitment and has never seen our event based recruitment of the past.

Fall recruitment is limited to sophomores, juniors and seniors. Our focus is on recruiting the friends of our 19 new brothers. Using them to build a list of friends and then chunking those friends to meet their friends should give us enough exposure and interactions to build a solid class of 10-15. The main focus of this fall’s recruitment plan is building a list of freshmen to recruit in the spring. We are planning several campus-wide events throughout the semester where our brothers can interact with anyone and everyone.

This summer is about getting those 19 new brothers up to speed with our recruitment plan. Chunking their friends will be more powerful if RJ does the chunking rather than Jonah sending the text that says “Hey Matt! Got your number from RJ. My name is…” and you know how the story goes. It’s doable, but we’re going to try to set a precedent where the spring recruitment class becomes the fall recruitment team.

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Phired Up and TechniPhi Welcome Four New Team Members in June

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Branden Stewart

Carmel, Ind. – Phired Up and TechniPhi are delighted to announce the recent addition of four new team members this June. Each new team member brings unique and dynamic skills to the table that will help Phired Up and TechniPhi continue their mission to serve 100% of fraternities and sororities. Read below to learn more about each new team member and how they’ll help contribute to helping fraternity and sorority grow.

“I’m thrilled to see Mary, Colin, Casey, and Rob joining our team this summer and I know that they’ll continue to elevate the level of service and results our clients have come to expect from Phired Up and TechniPhi,” said Branden Stewart, Chief Operating Officer of Phired Up. “This new team of incredibly talented professionals each bring unique perspectives and experiences to our team that I’m confident will help our clients and our industry continue to achieve their growth goals.”

Mary Lark joins the TechniPhi team as a software engineer. Throughout Mary’s education, she has earned her BSCS from San Francisco State University, her PMP from the Project Management Institute, and her CSM from Scrum Alliance. Mary has also completed AppAcademy’s six month immersive Full Stack Engineering Bootcamp.

“Mary is going to make a great addition to the team, I am excited to get to know her and for the experience she brings,” said Gerrit VanderLugt, Director of Software Engineering. “I know that having Mary’s skill set on our team will help us to continue developing software that will help fraternities and sororities meet their growth goals.”

During her career, she has served as a Knowledge Engineer Associate at one of the first Stanford University Artificial Intelligence startups, spent time in enterprise development on ING’s optical character recognition system, and later worked on a bleeding edge radiation oncology therapeutic control system that revolutionized cancer treatment.  Most recently, Mary worked with an educational learning system delivering customized Citrix virtualized desktops through the web browser for for-profit higher education schools like Capella, Kaplan, and University of Phoenix.

“Besides the fact that your team is awesome, supportive, and all seem to really enjoy working there, I love the growth opportunities and management’s philosophy of expanding your toolset!” said Mary when asked about why she’s excited to join the team. “React Native and developing mobile apps is the icing on the cake!”

In her spare time, Mary enjoys outdoor activities like water-skiing, long distance bicycle riding, and riding horses in either Dressage or Western trails. She also plays the flute and piano as her go-to relaxation devices. Mary’s first day is June 21 and she can be reached at mary@techniphi.com.

Colin Nelson-Pinkston joins the TechniPhi team as an Account Executive.  He earned his BA in Spanish and International Studies from the University of Iowa where he joined his fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha. Following his undergraduate experience, Colin spent time working for his fraternity before attending graduate school at Southern Methodist University where he earned his M.Ed. in Higher Education Administration.

“Every single interaction matters when it comes to building the future joining experience for fraternities and sororities. Colin joining our team will only elevate the current client experience we already offer,” said Ellen Chesnut, Vice President of Technology. “His understanding of stakeholders from both an organizational and campus level will strategically allow our team to better understand our clients and our users, and bring them end-to-end solutions to meet their growth goals.”

Throughout his professional and volunteer experiences, Colin has worked with fraternity and sorority members on 60 campuses across North America. In his most recent professional role, he served as the fraternity and sorority advisor at Sewanee: The University of the South, advising 12 national and 10 local organizations. In January 2021, Colin worked with Sewanee’s Intersorority Council to change its bid matching structure. The changes led nine out of ten sororities to their largest fall-to-spring growth in the last three years. Additionally, under Colin’s professional leadership, Sewanee saw their 2020-21 academic year fall-to-spring growth for their entire community reach the largest levels in the last three years.

“My purpose is to coach people and organizations to help them gain awareness of their values so they can improve the world around them,” said Colin. “Emerging from the pandemic, there is a tremendous opportunity to strengthen recruitment and retention processes so organizations can find more like-minded people to amplify their positive impact on the world.”

When outside of work, Colin enjoys weightlifting, exploring new restaurants and cooking great meals, investing in stocks, and is an avid reader and podcast listener. Colin’s first day on the TechniPhi team was June 14, and he can be reached at colin@techniphi.com.

Casey Richard joins the Phired Up team as a Growth Systems Coach. She earned her BA in Psychology and Law, Societies, & Justice from the University of Washington in Seattle, where she joined her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma.

“We are very fortunate to be adding Casey to our coaching team. She brings wisdom and excitement from her time as a Kappa Kappa Gamma staff member, and adds incredible new insights from her time with Ernst and Young,” said Woody Woodcock, Vice President of Coaching. “Our coaching team is excited for Casey to be leading multiple coaching community partners.”

Casey’s professional career began when she served as a Leadership Consultant for Kappa Kappa Gamma, during which time she visited over 52 campuses and helped establish four of six new chapters for her organization. Most recently, Casey worked for Ernst & Young in the Bay Area for a little under two years as a campus recruiter. At EY, she owned headcount for multiple markets and led the summer internship efforts for the San Francisco office.

“It only takes one conversation to have an outsize impact on others, and I am so excited to join a team that not only advocates for new ideas but also encourages innovation in this space,” said Casey. “I believe the organizations that partner with Phired Up have tremendous potential for being changemakers not only on college campuses, but beyond, and I cannot wait to dive right in!”

Outside of work you can find her spending time with friends, going to the beach, finding any excuse to get outside, or scouting out the next best local coffee shop! Casey is such a huge coffee drinker that she has an entire Instagram account dedicated to the craft Additionally, Casey is a huge football fan during Football season you can always find her checking scores and making sure she has her game-viewing schedule for the weekend. Casey’s first day at Phired Up was June 14, and she can be reached at casey@phiredup.com.

Robert Webb joined the Phired Up team June 1 as an Adjunct Organizational Growth Consultant. Rob earned his BA from the University of Arkansas – Monticello in General Studies before going on to earn his MS in College Student Personnel from Arkansas Tech University. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated.

“I am truly excited to have Rob on our team!” said Tenea McGhee, Phired Up’s Director of Growth. “With the passion and talent Rob brings, he will help us move the needle forward to support the holistic growth development of our cultural based fraternal organizations. Most importantly, I look forward to seeing the outcomes of combining our Phire with his ice cold skills, to impact positive changes across all councils.”

Rob currently serves as the Coordinator of Fraternity and Sorority Life at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, where he advises the National PanHellenic Council and the Multicultural Greek Council. Previously, he served as an Area Director of the District of Arkansas for Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated where he oversaw chapter/member development, growth, and membership intake. Rob also volunteers annually at the Greek Cultural Leadership Conference (CGLC).

 “It is an honor to be joining the Phired Up team and I’m Phired Up about helping them continue their mission of helping fraternities and sororities grow, more specifically our culturally-based organizations,” Rob said when asked about his excitement for joining the Phired Up team. “I believe Phired Up has the tools that will help these historical organizations thrive and develop. I’m excited about joining a phenomenal group of individuals who are passionate about serving and helping students evolve. As I say often, ‘Until we become what we desire, we will continue to attract what we currently are’. This is truly an incredible opportunity to be a part of the change I want to see.”

When he’s not at work, Rob enjoys traveling, playing piano, singing, reading, and working out. He also enjoys spending time with friends and family, especially his two beautiful daughters Princess Grace Elisabeth Webb and Princess Hannah Jack Webb. Rob can be reached at robert@phiredup.com

Phired Up and TechniPhi look forward to welcoming Mary, Colin, Casey, and Rob this month!

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About Phired Up and TechniPhi: Phired Up & TechniPhi help 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, EDUCATION, and STRATEGY solutions for every aspect of the pre-member experience from first-impression through initiation.

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Sigma Beta Rho Becomes ChapterBuilder™ Full Adoption Partner, Begins New Growth System

Contact: Matt Mattson

Effective immediately, Sigma Beta Rho will be supplying upgraded ChapterBuilder accounts to 32 chapters nationwide, supplemented by customized Phired Up education.

“Systemic Growth begins with the infrastructure,” says Executive Vice President Hakeem Swindle. “This gives our organization a unique opportunity to utilize our existing resources to streamline the efficacy of our operations. Additionally, Phired Up provides training and management to aid in chapter development, retention and recruitment. These benefits are essential to the growth and sustainability of Sigma Beta Rho for years to come.”

The partnership is designed with undergraduates specifically in mind. National President Aman Kundlas adds, “Our members can obtain best in class resources that will align them with modern practices to ensure chapter success.”

The Phired Up team was thrilled to customize every detail of this partnership. “Sigma Beta Rho is consistently positioning itself as a leader in the fraternity/sorority industry,” said Phired Up’s President, Matt Mattson. “They’re innovating, leading, and modernizing the way they share their brotherhood. I’ve been so impressed with the chapter members and national leadership as we’ve crafted a partnership together.”

ChapterBuilder is the premier Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for fraternities and sororities, used by thousands of chapters nationwide. Sigma Beta Rho’s upgraded accounts come with personalized mass texting and unlimited access for all members.

“It’s an exciting time to work with Sigma Beta Rho,” says TechniPhi’s Lindsay Wolf. “Their executive leadership is committed to the growth and meaningful support of their chapters, and I can’t wait to help that vision come to life through our technology.

“We want to make sure our chapters are equipped to be successful,” says Vice President of Operations Elijah Newsome. “All of the tools, training, and support from Phired Up and TechniPhi is going to go a long way in setting up our chapters for success.”

In closing, Mattson references the founders of Sig Rho envisioning a nationwide network of ‘brothers beyond barriers.’ “The current leadership is taking bold steps to make that vision a reality in even greater ways than it already is!”

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About Phired Up and TechniPhi: Phired Up & TechniPhi help 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, EDUCATION, and STRATEGY solutions for every aspect of the pre-member experience from first-impression through initiation.

About Sigma Beta Rho: Sigma Beta Rho (www.sigmabetarho.com) is a national multicultural fraternity. Our pillars of Society, Brotherhood, and Remembrance were established upon the formation of the Alpha chapter at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, on August 16, 1996. Our founders realized the unique promise of a Greek-lettered organization that instills positive values among its members, provides an avenue for leadership, and promotes self-betterment.

In the nascent stages, the founders understood that they must maintain a constant and growing nationwide network in order to truly manifest their organizational vision. Modern day Sigma Beta Rho has grown substantially since its inception. Sigma Beta Rho has founded chapters at over 70 colleges and institutions across the country, and currently maintains 35 active undergraduate chapters. This growth stems from a reputation of excellence, values-based programming, diversity among our brotherhood, and alignment with the ideals of many students who strive for a competitive edge before entering a post-globalized working world.

Phired Up Hires Growth Directors

Phired Up Hires Two Directors of Growth

Contact: Branden Stewart

Carmel, Ind. – Phired Up is excited to share the recent hires of Tenea McGhee and Colleen Blevins to join our Education and Strategy team as Directors of Growth. Both new team members began their roles in early January and bring to Phired Up and TechniPhi years of varied experiences impacting campuses, councils, and students across the country.

“We are honored to welcome Tenea and Colleen to the Phamily. Their joining the team represents the future of Phired Up and our commitment to developing products and services that best support clients in creating the future of sorority and fraternity!” said RJ Taylor, Vice President of Phired Up.

Tenea McGhee earned her BA in Sociology with a minor in Ethnic Studies from the University of North Texas and went on to earn her MA in Sociology from Clark Atlanta University. Most recently, Tenea served as an advisor to 8 NPHC organizations and 6 MGC organizations at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

A member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. for 21 years, Tenea has spent 14 years in higher education working in various capacities; all of which have connections to working with culturally-based fraternities and sororities at a variety of institution types, including Private-HBCU, public, land-grant, and large flagship state universities. She’s served as a council advisor for organizations belonging to NPHC, NAPA, NALFO, and NMGC, and has been the campus liaison for seven charters and reactivations of culturally-based organizations. Tenea has also overseen incredible council membership growth, seeing 500% growth within four years (31 members to 187 members). As the Director of Growth, CBFO Specialist for Phired Up, Tenea will continue developing new tools, skills, and strategies that will help the organizations she’s most passionate about achieve their growth goals.

“I hope every professional, volunteer, and student in our industry get to spend at least 30 minutes talking with Tenea. There’s no doubt you’ll leave the conversation with a smile and a plan. Tenea is a gatherer, restorer, and a leading industry expert in culturally-based sorority and fraternity growth,” said RJ Taylor.

Outside of work, Tenea enjoys spending time with her family and friends, Line Dancing, playing Phase 10, and hanging out at the beach.

“Working with Phired Up will give me the opportunity to enhance and form relationships with individuals and organizations who seek to elevate culturally-based fraternal organization’s growth development experiences,” said Tenea. “Having the opportunity to align my skills and talents with a team of people who genuinely want to see ALL areas of our fraternal communities grow truly ignites my Phire!”

Colleen Blevins is a graduate of the University of Kansas where she earned her BS in Journalism and joined her sorority, Alpha Delta Pi. She went on to earn her Master’s in Higher Education and Student Affairs from the University of South Carolina. Most recently, Colleen spent six years supporting the Miami University Fraternity and Sorority community.

For nearly 15 years, Colleen has spent her time working with Panhellenic organizations to strengthen foundations, enhance member experiences, and create healthy and sustainable opportunities for the future. She has a strong understanding of the needs of Panhellenic sororities and sorority women – from those at small, private colleges to those at large, public state institutions. As the Director of Growth, Panhellenic Specialist for Phired Up, Colleen will help women’s organizations embrace recruitment from a strategic perspective, adopt healthy retention initiatives, and utilize technology in ways they’ve never before considered.

“Panhellenic sorority, relationship building, and Colleen Blevins are synonymous. She is one of the most experienced Panhellenic experts we have ever welcomed to our team,” said RJ Taylor. “I can’t wait for chapter members, council leaders, advisors, and Headquarters teams to be both inspired and challenged by Colleen’s passion for systems-thinking.”

Colleen loves spending time with her husband, Scott, and their two daughters, Sloane and Reagan. Together they love traveling and planning family vacations. In her spare time, Colleen enjoys reading, music (and musicals), history, and connecting with friends near and far.

“I love the passion, authenticity, and genuine care that every member of the Phired Up ‘Phamily’ embodies,” said Colleen. “Being able to come to work every day inspired by your colleagues is exciting, and working with others who care so deeply about the benefits and potential within the fraternal movement is energizing.”

Tenea McGhee serves as Director of Growth, specifically focusing on serving the needs of Culturally-Based Fraternities and Sororities, and can be reached via email at tenea@phiredup.com. Colleen Blevins serves as Director of Growth, specifically focusing on serving the needs of Panhellenic sororities, and can be reached via email at blevins@phiredup.com.

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A Survey About The Impact of COVID-19 on Fraternity/Sorority Growth in Fall 2020

by Colleen Coffey-Melchiorre

Phired Up and TechniPhi are committed to helping sororities and fraternities attract, select, secure and retain the right members for their organizations.

Our team launched a survey of the industry late fall 2020 to assess the impact of COVID-19 on overall fraternity/sorority growth. Two survey tools were put into circulation: one aimed at campus-based professionals and one aimed at current members (including those who had just joined during that term). Below is a report of the results.

In total 82 campus-based professionals and 218 students participated in the surveys. This report should not be viewed as a full analysis of the entire industry, but instead a sample snapshot that provides some meaningful insights. We offer this freely as a contribution to the overall data gathering and sharing that is happening throughout the sorority and fraternity world right now.

SURVEY RESULTS

We want to provide the industry (you) direct access to our survey results. You’ll find links to “dashboards” that are produced by our survey tool below.

PROFESSIONAL SURVEY: Introduction and IFC Results | MGC and NPHC Results | Panhellenic Results and Conclusion

STUDENT SURVEY: Introduction and New Member Responses | General Members and Leadership Responses

KEY INSIGHTS

Decreased Joining

It is clear (and we didn’t need this survey to tell us) that fewer people joined the fraternities and sororities that are reflected in this survey. Professionals reported significantly fewer members joined the chapters on their campuses during fall 2020.

  • 90% of professionals reported that fewer people joined IFC chapters.

  • 100% of professionals reported that fewer people joined their MGC chapters.

  • 94% of professionals reported that fewer people joined their NPHC chapters.

  • 86% of professionals reported that fewer people joined their Panhellenic chapters.

Virtual Recruitment/Intake

Fall 2020 saw a major shift to virtual/digital/on-line joining processes. With a variance based on the council, between 74% and 96% of professionals reported that the joining processes on their campus were conducted mostly or completely on-line during the fall 2020 term. 96% of the students who completed the survey indicated that their chapter’s joining process was conducted either mostly or completely on-line.

Delayed Joining

There is definitely a pool of students who might have joined a sorority or fraternity but chose not to because of COVID-19. 61% of new members who joined during the fall 2020 term reported that they knew at least some other students who chose to wait to join because of COVID-19.

Mixed Feelings

Chapter leadership was the group that reported the lowest satisfaction with digital recruitment. Many professionals highlighted the beauty of online recruitment as simpler, more cost effective, and more authentic than the usual in-person processes and felt more favorably about it. In general students felt OK about a digital recruitment experience (some hated it and some loved it but most just indicated mixed feelings). Notably, when reporting about Panhellenic chapters, 60% of campus-based professionals like virtual recruitment better. This way of recruiting should have the most positive yield for this council.  For all other councils there was a sense of it being “pretty good” or “just OK”.

Craving Connection

Of the new members who joined during fall 2020 who responded to the survey, 67% indicated that they joined because they were “craving connection.” This was by far the top reason indicated for people choosing to join. Another notable point is that 50% of the new member who joined during this fall 2020 term indicated that they “saw something on social media” and that was a primary factor in their decision to pursue membership.

Retention Concerns

About 2/3 of our respondents, whether students or professionals were concerned to a greater degree about chapters being able to retain their membership.

  • 72% of professionals reported some higher level of concern about their IFC chapters ability to retain members that joined in fall 2020 compared to the previous year.

  • 59% of professionals reported some higher level of concern about their MGC chapters ability to retain members that joined in fall 2020 compared to the previous year.

  • 43% of professionals reported some higher level of concern about their NPHC chapters ability to retain members that joined in fall 2020 compared to the previous year.

  • 66% of professionals reported some higher level of concern about their Panhellenic chapters ability to retain members that joined in fall 2020 compared to the previous year.

A Call For Inclusivity

A number of comments from student participants in the survey related to inclusivity are very important to pull out and consider. It should be no surprise to any reader that today’s students are demanding a more inclusive and equitable fraternity and sorority experience, and we firmly believe that building a more inclusive and equitable joining process is one of the most important tactics to move forward in this area.

  • “Membership policies need to be more clear and inclusive of trans folx”

  • “Give an equal promotion to the other sororities, not just promoting the Panhellenic sororities that have hundred of girls. As an MGC sorority, historically we are smaller and a lot more close knit, therefore we do not get a lot of exposure by the universities and greek life as a whole because we are overlooked by Panhellenic.”

  • “We need clearer policies for LGBTQ potential members and POC who are less likely or intimidated by joining Greek life.”

IFC Lacked Adaptability

Take a moment to read through the responses to this question posed to professionals related to IFC recruitment, “How did this council change their recruitment efforts in terms of attracting new members this year?” You’ll see a high level of responses indicating disappointment or an overall assessment that the IFC chapters lacked adaptability. On a positive note, professionals reported that some IFCs improved their social media utilization and extended their recruitment periods with positive results. Here are some examples indicating a heavy theme of a lack of adaptability.

  • “They attempted to do more council-based recruitment, but it wasn’t [sic] highly effective (mostly due to a lack of marketing on their part)”

  • “Because we were 100% remote (campus closed) the fraternities didn’t really do anything to attract new members. One or two may have connected with a few people online, but nothing significant.”

  •  “They had plans to promote recruitment as a whole this year and get students registered, but ultimately did not execute well.”

  • “They were resistant and refused to plan until last moment. They did Zoom and took advice from Panhellenic women. They struggled to connect with PNMs without traditional pre events.”

  • “That’s the problem, the individual chapters didn’t change much.”

Many MGC Chapters Did Not Take New Members

Take a moment to read through the responses to this question posed to professionals related to MGC chapter joining processes, “How did the chapters in this council change the way they attracted and secured new members this fall?” Professionals noted the impact of individual chapters (and more likely their inter/national organizations) putting a hold on new members joining during the fall 2020 term.

  • “Many of the chapters chose not to recruit at all this semester.”

  • “Very little effort put in; many national orgs for culturally based groups did not allow chapters to recruit virtually.”

  • “Nationally/regionally a number of chapter chose to not host intake this semester.”

  • “Some national orgs have a pause placed on intake….we can’t change that, but are disappointed.”

NPHC Chapters Might Feel Long-term Impact

Take a moment to read through the responses to this question posed to professionals related to NPHC chapter joining processes, “How did the chapters in this council change the way they attracted and secured new members this fall?” Professionals noted the fact that many NPHC chapters did not adapt to a new joining process, did not conduct intake at all, and might experience long-term negative impact related to visibility on campus.

  • “they did nothing different.”

  • “NPHC organizations were not permitted to host any in-person events, and it dramatically impacted their visibility and opportunities on campus, particularly during a time where they would typically have “shown up” for voter registration, social justice activities, etc.”

  • “NPHC chose not to do any intake in Fall 2020 virtually. They were recommended to do this by their local volunteer teams.”

  • “Strict rules from national/HQ about what they could or could not do, which may have impacted their ability or willingness to recruit.”

A Mixed Bag of Panhellenic Adjustments

Take a moment to read through the responses to this question posed to professionals related to Panhellenic chapter joining processes, “How did this council change their recruitment efforts in terms of attracting new members this year?” There was a wide range of responses from professionals. Some indicating positive adjustments that the Panhellenic community was able to make, and others indicating a lack of adaptability that created negative results. The following comments give a good snapshot of that mixed bag of feelings.

  • “We struggled to recruit a lot this year…our recruitment team was not invested and more upset that it wasn’t a “normal recruitment” we had a hard time getting them to actually recruit girls and focus. This was a rough year, and a lot of the new members have already dropped.”

  • “Panhellenic had to dramatically pivot on their plans multiple times throughout the summer, ultimately needing to change their dates in light of a campus moratorium. This dramatically negatively impacted registration numbers, and they also had to follow the new NPC guidelines re: total. We have organizations that still have double-digit numbers of spaces in total to fill, but are struggling to get there when they are also burned out and trying to still be successful students.”

  • “Panhellenic did a great job pivoting to 100% virtual sorority recruitment. They utilized instagram for most of their advertising and each chapter did their part in getting women excited and registered.”

  • “The council leaned into social media and virtual presentations which forced them to really think about their messages and how they will be viewed not just by PNMs, but the broader world. They moved into much more meaningful reasons to join a sorority as their message.”

Special Inclusion | Data Points from Panhellenic CampusDirector and ChapterBuilder Users

Phired Up’s sister company, TechniPhi, owns the CampusDirector formal recruitment tool used by the majority of the industry’s Panhellenic communities (and other councils as well). We thought it would be helpful to provide comparative data from within that tool about Panhellenic recruitment in fall 2020 when compared to the previous fall. Here are a handful of notable statistics.

We compared 166 schools on total PNMS registered, active in round 1, total matched, and total matched to first choice.

In 2019, this subset of schools registered 70,785 potential members. In 2020, that number fell to 60,812, a decrease of 9,973 (14%) total registrations.

When we look at those that were active in the first round comparatively, 2019 saw 63,725 (90%) total PNMs active in the first round of recruitment (those that showed up after registering) and 2020 saw 55,530 (91%) .

The story here gets pretty fascinating. As it turns out, these communities are only down in aggregate by 2,773 total members. In 2019, 79% of those active in round one matched to a sorority chapter. In 2020 that number was 86%. This means a net increase of 7% from round 1 to matched.

In both 2019 and 2020, 88% of potential new members were matched to their first choice organization.

COB efforts were on the rise this year. Our ChapterBuilder relationship management tool (built to serve an unstructured, year-round, relationship-based approach to recruitment) went from hosting 41 Panhellenic chapter accounts in 2019 to 165 in just the Fall of 2020. Total number of Panhellenic potential members recorded in our ChapterBuilder system in 2019 was 9,789. In the fall of 2020 alone that number has increased to a record 38,346.

The total number of potential members with recorded active contact through this medium this Fall was 21,171 (up from 2019′s number of 6,149). This tells us the pool is just different but it is there. If the deficit in formal recruitment looks like a few thousand women and the small subsection of chapters that we know of with recorded continuous recruitment efforts has generated a pool of 30,000 potential members there is a great deal of hope.

High Stress

58% of professional survey respondents indicated that they felt much more stress than last year related to the recruitment/intake process on their campus. 96% of general members that took the survey reported feeling at least somewhat stressed. 56% of council leaders said this year’s recruitment was much more stressful than years past.

Powerful Comments

The qualitative results from these surveys include so many powerful comments that are full of wisdom and tell the story of this incredibly challenging term for our industry. We want to highlight some of the comments that we found most compelling.

Comments from Professionals

“My budget and staff has been cut, but we are expected to output the same amount of work while navigating a complete unknown (all while suddenly being public health experts). It’s exhausting – and we all just need a break!”

“I think there have been great conversations about how changing recruitment this year has caused a re-evaluation of how we do recruitment and what things are important for recruitment. Some aspects that our students felt were incredibly important to recruitment (that couldn’t happen this year) turned out to not impact their recruitment at hardly all and recruitment methods they had never thought about turned out to be highly impactful.”

“We cannot play around with Panhellenic frills any longer. No more nudge, nudge, wink, wink that we don’t do frill recruitment. It is time to force the movement to actual conversations. For the IFC, it is a complete eye opener that they have nothing substantial to offer other than a party. The groups that were successful in recruitment could actually identify why new members should join other than a party. Unfortunately, that was not the mainstream and most fraternities just sat on their hands for the fall because they didn’t know how to recruit without a party and alcohol. MGC/NPHC had a little more luxury to sit out for a semester and not conduct intake, but that will not be the case moving forward. The national organizations are going to have to learn how to help their chapters recruit in a pandemic both virtually and in-person.”

“Covid didn’t cause the problem/challenges we are seeing, but it sure has revealed them. Chapters that are strong in this area remain strong because of many factors (student leader ability to pivot, creativity, support from hq and advisors, good track record of recruitment) those that didn’t do well did so because of previous deficiencies (see list above)”

“I don’t know what to tell my chapters or how to help them. They are resistant to change and don’t take input from me (or even Phired Up who we hosted in August). I think it will be “adapt or die” but I don’t know where that leaves me as an FSA.”

“I fear that some culturally based orgs might die off…the global pandemic represents an existential threat for MGC/NPHC in ways that it doesn’t for IFC & PHC.”

Comments from Students

“FSL doesn’t need all the pomp and circumstance to recruit good members. In fact, the quality of members we have this year are better than previous years because we removed all the superficial things like the house and the food and the decorations – it was purely about values and character and personality. FSL has to adapt in regards to COVID, but also in regards to the growing cultural discouragement of greek life. Removing all those superficial things and focusing more on philanthropy and sisterhood and character is one way to do that.”

“You can’t keep people when things are virtual. It’s not fun or interesting.”

“people are going to go out for these organizations no matter what. people are realizing the values of these organizations in a pandemic. we don’t need to be perfectly made/dressed up at 7 am for girls to want to join.”

“Hard to get to know guys online. Not as many guys came out to rush (I think fun events get more people to come out and give it a chance). We did the best with what we had to work with, but I hope this is not a pattern for next year/future recruitments.”

“I was a Rho Gamma this year, and I felt that leading these girls through recruitment like this was a bit misleading because we are selling them on a dream of a sorority or an experience that we know they can’t have because of the restrictions of Covid. A lot of girls dropped out of the process because they didn’t feel they could really get connected to the chapters and they didn’t like the idea of shelling out thousands of dollars to not have the proper experience of a sorority and I agree. Had I been entering as a freshman this year in the same position there is no way I would have joined a chapter.”

“I liked not having to stand in heels all day, worry about picking up and handing off girls, and scream at them as they entered the house. This felt like more of a real connection-style recruitment because everything else was stripped away.”

“The size of recruitment was depressing. Being online takes all the personal connection out of it. No one wants to join FSL when it’s shut down.”

Limitations

The results of this survey should be viewed as helpful insights, but through a critical lens. A larger sample of the industry should be sought to gain a more thorough picture of the overall impact of COVID-19 on the joining process. The data set related to the student-focused survey is weighted heavily (69% of respondents) toward members of Panhellenic sororities. There is also some indication that there may have been confusion among student respondents between the labeling of Panhellenic sororities and NPHC organizations. The results from the survey of professionals should be viewed, in our opinion, as significantly more valid than the results from the survey of students.

Conclusion

These surveys are meant to provide a snapshot of fall 2020 fraternity/sorority recruitment and intake experience. We offer no particular advocacy for what should remain or what should change in the process based solely on these results.

As our industry seeks to move forward from the fall 2020 term, there is an opportunity to learn important lessons that will likely shape our future. Adaptability matters. True human connection remains forever paramount to the experience of college students. The level of stress felt from COVID-19’s impact on our industry is significant, unsustainable, and can not be ignored. There are aspects of the recruitment/intake process that happened in fall 2020 that should be kept and built upon as lasting innovations, and there are aspects that many hope they will never have to experience again. Undoubtedly, significantly fewer students received the potentially life changing gift of sorority and fraternity during fall 2020 and it is likely that the impact of that fact will be felt for years to come by chapters, campus communities, inter/national organizations, and the students themselves.

VP of Recruitment Header

Your Guide to Being the IFC Vice President of Recruitment

by Matt Mattson and Kenny White

Congratulations!

You’ve taken on the role of IFC Vice President of Recruitment (or some title like that). That’s awesome. This is a big job. And truth be told, most people who end up in this position have no idea what they’ve gotten themselves into. We wanted to provide a simple guide to help you understand your job.

Before we dive into our guidance, please check out this complete manual for your position from the NIC here. The NIC has done a great job of detailing your position. We have a great partnership with the NIC, and sometimes they ask us to help guys in your position understand this job in a clear and simple way. So take this blog and add it to that NIC manual to set yourself up for success.

And one more thing before we dive into the job description. Have you done these 5 things?

  1. Set up a personal one-on-one meeting with your Greek Advisor to figure out a regular plan for collaboration and planning together. This person is your new best friend! They can help you make plans, reserve space, gain access to data, build partnerships, think strategically, navigate politics, and more.

  2. Familiarize yourself with your recruitment technology. Your council likely has a ChapterBuilder or CampusDirector account that you need to be an expert at using.

  3. Identify your goals for the year. Recruitment isn’t just about “getting more members” (though that’s a perfectly good objective). The way you build and manage your IFC recruitment system can impact the quality of members in your community, the culture of the community, and the level of inclusivity and equity in the community. Write down and share publicly how you’ll measure your success over the course of your term.

  4. Check in with the NIC. Some of the best support for IFC officers can be found at the NIC’s website.

  5. Assess Your Current Growth System. Too often people with your job take a “tactics-first” approach to what is really a complex and interwoven system. This free assessment is a really smart place to start as you think about your growth system.

WHAT IS YOUR JOB?

The job of an IFC VP Recruitment includes five key tasks.

  • Build Pipelines to More of the Right PNMs

  • Collect Data on PNMs

  • Create Opportunities for Human Connection

  • Collaborate to Manage the Story of Fraternity

  • Provide Growth Education to Chapters

Build Pipelines

The most important value-add the IFC can provide back to its member chapters is… leads. Funneling names and contact information of potential new members (PNMs) to chapter recruitment teams is your most tangible, measurable, and important task.

Put simply… give your chapters people to recruit.

Of course this isn’t solely your responsibility. Every chapter should take responsibility for its own pipelines of prospective members. But if the IFC can feed leads to its chapters, the chapters will respect the IFC more, the chapters will have a higher likelihood of finding the right members for them, competition can be decreased (because of a larger pool of potential members), and every other aspect of recruitment gets easier.

So, what does this actually look like? Here are five important tactics (we have ideas for a lot more) for executing this part of your job.

  • Make it really easy for potential members to indicate interest in fraternities and for chapter recruitment teams to see their contact info. Make sure there is an always-available “Sign Up” or “I’m Interested” link on your website and social media platforms that connects to a form. You can use ChapterBuilder or CampusDirector to make this easier.

  • Collaborate with your IFC VP of Public Relations to execute multiple “Inbound Marketing” campaigns. We want to get contact information more than we give facts about ourselves.

  • Organize a calling campaign (in partnership with the university) to incoming students (or a texting campaign).

  • Put together a “Street Team” and lead them into action with names-driving work.

  • Work with the university to ensure leads-generating presence at summer orientation events for incoming students.

Collect Data on PNMs

Providing leads to your chapters is great. Providing qualified leads to your chapters is even better! The more information your chapters have about potential new members, the easier it will be for them to build relationships with them, to consider their qualifications for membership in their chapter, and to determine whether or not any given PNM is in alignment with the chapter’s values and expectations. Data will also allow us to better understand what our major pipelines are and where we need to target our efforts to continue to seek out the highest caliber students on campus. Having information on how students learn about us, what other organizations they represent, their interests, etc. can allow us to specifically create a leads generation plan that will maximize our efforts on reaching student populations that we haven’t been able to reach before.

The information you can collect on potential members and feed to chapters is an incredibly important way to improve the overall quality of your fraternity community. Whether you use CampusDirector, ChapterBuilder, Google Forms, or the classic pen and paper to collect information about potential members, you can infuse better questions into your registration process to learn more about a potential member and teach them about membership. Please read this for specific examples.

Create Opportunities for Human Connection

Recruitment is a relationship business. Nobody will join a flier, a social media post, a video, or an IFC table. People join people and one of the most important parts of your job is to create opportunities for human connection between members and non-members.

An important principle to keep in mind with everything you do in this role is to… always cultivate connection. You (and the IFC) won’t recruit people into chapters. You won’t close the deal. But if you’re constantly looking to create opportunities for members and non-members to engage with one another in authentic ways to deepen trust, you’re doing your job!

Use your “street team” to do informational interviews, small activities, and events with potential members. Plan “serve first” experiences for non-members — in other words plan events or activities that serve non-members (i.e. instead of an “All-Greek BBQ” which is obviously for Greeks, have a “First Year Cookout” which is for first year students.) Plan webinars about college success for incoming and current students. Provide open study tables, present educational programs that would benefit non-affiliated men, hold regular informational events about fraternity life, survey non-Greek students and engage them in focus groups about their perceptions of fraternity life, etc. Be creative in your planning, just be sure every opportunity for connection is aimed at creating authentic connection and trust between members and non-members. Your job is to connect people, not to just promote organizations.

You might be on a campus that has a formal or structured IFC recruitment process. Here are a handful of resources that are must-reads for you. But remember, organizing a week (or so) of structured recruitment is absolutely not your only job. Recruitment is a verb, not a noun. It is something your community should consistently do, not a series of events on a calendar.

Special Note: Are you trying to figure out how to manage a virtual recruitment experience? All of our best resources on virtual recruitment can be found here.

Collaborate To Manage The Story of Fraternity

The reputation of fraternities on your campus has a direct impact on your ability to succeed. An important part of your job is to collaborate with other IFC officers (i.e. President, VP Public Relations, etc.) to proactively promote a positive story of fraternity to your community.

Schedule a series of meetings with your IFC VP of Public Relations to review the following resources related to creating, communicating, and managing the “story” of fraternity on your campus. In fact, text the person in this role right now and set up a meeting together. If we don’t tell our story, someone else will.

OK, we have a lot more we’d love to share with you. Our team at Phired Up and TechniPhi is literally a big group of people who have dedicated their careers to helping people in your job. We’ve been doing this work, studying recruitment, visiting and partnering with campuses like yours (we’ve almost certainly done work with your campus), for nearly two decades. We want to help. There’s never a charge for you to call or email and ask questions. We’re ready to support you.

Provide Growth Education To Chapters

Training chapter leaders and chapter members on the skills, mindsets, systems, and nuance of marketing, recruitment, and retention is a vital part of your job. Your are the organizer of education and the facilitator of chapters building their recruitment plans.

Phired Up is ready to help. We are the only group on Earth that is 100% focused on helping fraternities grow. We have professional educators, digital classrooms, experienced strategists, free videos, and tons of resources to help you. Just email info@phiredup.com to get something arranged. Each year we work with campuses just like yours to help IFC men know how to have a great recruitment. We might already have a partnership with your IFC or your campus. Just email us to find out.

Yes! YOU should absolutely host training and planning sessions for your chapters. Yes! YOU should absolutely show our videos to your chapters’ recruitment chairs. Yes! YOU should absolutely help chapters build a recruitment plan so they know the answers to these five questions…

  1. How will you drive names onto your Names List (meet more non-Greek men)?

  2. How will you build trust-filled relationships with your potential members?

  3. How will you ensure you select only the right members for your chapter?

  4. How will you pre-close potential members and close the deal?

  5. How will you ensure everything you do reflects the values of your organization?

Note: You probably want to make sure you and as many fraternity members on your campus as possible are “Certified Recruiters.” This is a designation that you can earn by completing a short and engaging educational experience found at that link.

Now What

Now What?

by Haley Cahill-Teubert

You did it! You successfully navigated your first virtual recruitment and you’ve got fantastic new members! So…. now what?

What do we do with all these members? How do we integrate them into the chapter and give them a great new member experience over Zoom? And what about our current members? It was easy to engage them during recruitment prep, but now what?

It’s natural that we direct so much of our time and resources to recruitment, but that’s all for naught if we can’t keep our members as well. To keep people, it’s important to understand why they disengage and leave so we can be more proactive than reactive in retaining our members. Too often, though, we wait to talk about retention until it’s really too late–when members have already mentally checked and have a foot out the door.

There’s a popular Chinese proverb that says: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

The same can be said about our retention strategies.

First, let’s break down what the research says about why people leave:

  1. Misaligned Expectations
    Simply put, we sold them one thing and gave them something else. This is likely something your current membership is feeling, especially the members who joined last year. You sold them a spring formal, a member retreat, weekly dinners at the house not realizing a pandemic would make all of that impossible. And that’s no one’s fault–we just have to understand the experience we can provide now likely looks very different than what most members signed up for.

  2. Lack of Connection
    This one is fairly self-explanatory–members are disconnected from others in the chapter. We’ve seen this rise this year as the school year was cut short, people were sent home, and gatherings were moved to Zoom or canceled altogether. It’s easy to understand how we become disconnected from people when we don’t spend any quality time together.

  3. Discord
    In other words: Drama in the chapter that strains relationships and causes people to leave.

  4. Competing Interests
    External factors such as the return on investment of membership, perceived value of the experiences, and competing interests make up the last reason why members leave fraternity and sorority. This is where members often assess the worth of membership in an organization.

(For a more in-depth look at our research, check out this resource.)

With consideration of how a virtual membership experience (or even a partially virtual experience) could impact members’ decisions to stay involved, focusing on aligning members’ expectations for the year ahead, providing value, and keeping members connected will likely be your three top priorities for keeping members engaged (and in the chapter).

Align Expectations

Have you asked your members what they expect from your organization this semester or quarter? Have you talked about what’s realistic this year? If not, this is a good place to start. Open dialogue about what your chapter can provide right now and what plans are in place is important in aligning members’ expectations for the coming months.

If you’ve already recruited, hopefully you were honest (but optimistic) with prospective members about what your chapter plans to offer this year. If you think there’s a chance some of your new members think that full chapter retreat in the mountains is still happening, but you know it isn’t, schedule time to share with them how your chapter will pivot those plans this year in light of Covid-19.

If you haven’t recruited yet, be sure to discuss how you and your members will share what PNMs can look forward to this year. (See the “Provide Value” section for more information.)

When everyone has aligned expectations, they’re less likely to leave because you can’t give them what you sold them.

Create & Strengthen Connections

What we often forget about joining a fraternity or sorority is that it doesn’t give you instant best friends; it gives you opportunities and spaces to create friendships, but those waters become a little muddy when those spaces and opportunities are virtual. Consider the following strategies for helping new and current members create and strengthen connections in your chapter and community.

  • Bring back the OG facetime. At this point, there aren’t many campuses that come to mind that have banned one on one interactions. And while we’re used to doing things as a herd, this is the perfect time for us to bring back the original facetime dates. Grabbing coffee, studying, making dinner, going for a walk are small group activities you can safely do with members of your organization. That intentional one on one time allows individuals to build rock-solid relationships with others, which makes them feel more connected. Encourage chapter members to pursue that route or even partner them up with someone they don’t know well who they can build a friendship with and stay connected. Here’s a list of 101 small activities you can do to build those relationships and keep people connected.

  • Create small groups. Many large clubs and organizations, religious and spiritual groups, for example, rely on small groups to create spaces for more intimate gatherings. Feeling closely connected to an organization of 100-200+ can be intimidating and challenging. Bridge that gap by creating small groups of people who may not typically spend time together and let them choose how they want to gather, whether that’s for a weekly dinner at their favorite local restaurant or for a monthly book club or movie night.

  • Partner with other organizations in your community. When you join a fraternity or sorority, you don’t just join a chapter, you join a community, but that’s probably easy to forget when you’re just trying to navigate virtual connection with your own chapter. Collaborate with other chapters to help build relationships within your community. Consider having study groups for fraternity and sorority members of any council for various majors or dinner groups for members who live in the same building or areas of town.

  • Reimagine chapter meetings. Most chapter meetings suck… And probably suck even more on Zoom. Keep announcements brief and incorporate games or trivia into the meeting. (Check out Kahoot! and Jackbox Games. ) Maybe you can create a challenge or competition with a prize. Mandatory time together can (and should) still be fun time together

Create More Value

This is a time where many members, new members, and potential new members alike question what the value is of being in an organization right now. Without parties, chapter events, and big gatherings, what’s the point of a social organization right now? Can you think of five to ten things of value your chapter can provide this semester? If not, let’s start there. Create a list of five to ten things of value your organization can provide right now. Can’t come up with that many? Consider these things:

  • Over-program, under-expect. Nothing sucks the fun out of an event faster by requiring attendance. Fill your calendars with fun events, but don’t expect or require attendance. It’s important to note, this is an opportunity to involve the whole chapter. It’s not realistic (or fair) to expect one officer to fill the chapter calendar with 100 events and activities. Involve your members and let them shine in their own gifts by allowing them to plan and lead an event of their choosing. Ideally, this shouldn’t require a significant amount of time or energy on their part–it should be part of their daily life that others can join in on. For example, if you have a member who loves to hike, they may choose a date to host a small group hike. Whoever shows up, great. If people don’t, that’s fine because that member was probably going to go for a hike anyway. Or maybe you have a member who loves to bake. They may choose to host a virtual baking class one evening and share a grocery list for “No Bake Peanut Butter Cookies” and a Zoom link for anyone who wants to join. And if no one shows up? No worries–that member can still make their own cookies and go about their business. Encouraging members to lead an activity gives them purpose and recognition, allows chapter members to learn about them and the things that matter to them, and it gives people unlimited opportunities to connect on their own terms. Maybe they don’t want to come to today’s event because they’ve been on Zoom for lectures for the last six hours, but they’re totally free tomorrow and would be more apt to show up for something then. Having a ton of options gives people flexibility and countless opportunities for fun. Let your new members in on the fun too – it gives them a cool space for members to learn about them and what they like to do. (Here’s a list of 44 ways to foster brotherhood and sisterhood virtually to get you started.)

  • Establish an alumni mentor program. With the help of your alumni, you could create a really incredible mentor program where members of certain majors could connect with alumni working in that field. Maybe they would be willing to let members shadow them virtually for a day or hop on a call and share tips for making your resume stand out or give advice on what they wish they had done before graduating to set them up for success. This would be such a valuable offering to your members and a fun way to connect with alumni.

  • Serve your community. Each of our organizations value service, but sometimes we rely too much on large scale, flashy barbecue dinners and kickball tournaments to contribute to our respective causes. There is more than one way to have an impact, especially when it comes to the community where you live. Local businesses and organizations may need your help now more than ever before to continue operating. Create a list of business and organizations in your college community who you could donate time, money and resources to. Create a list of projects individuals or small groups of members could do to help people in your community in need. Large events that raise impressive funds are great, but there are plenty of other ways to serve those around you in an equally impactful way.

  • Repurpose chapter funds. If you haven’t slashed your budget, you likely have plenty of funds to work with, especially if your over-the-top Bid Day or big cookout interest meeting couldn’t happen. Get creative and use those funds in other ways. What if you purchased a resume review service for seniors? What if you bought everyone something super practical like a Hydroflask? Or what if you delivered a box of snacks and candy to each member ahead of your Netflix streaming party? Or use your surplus of funds to support members impacted by Covid-19. There are plenty of ways to repurpose chapter funds to support members and continue providing value.

Fraternity and sorority life obviously looks different this year. But it’s as important as ever. And it still provides significant value.

Adopting a proactive mindset and creating a plan to retain members is as important as your strategy to attract them to your organization in the first place. By focusing on aligning expectations, building and strengthening connections and creating more value than ever before, your organization won’t just continue to exist but will thrive.

zach scott blog header

Your Growth Story: Zach Scott

by Matt Farrell

Zach Scott is a native of Tampa, brother of Tau Kappa Epsilon, and currently serves as the Director of Growth at TKE HQ. As Tau Kappa Epsilon has shifted to a major focus on internal chapter growth, Zach has assumed the challenge of building and executing this position. 

Personally I have enjoyed Zach’s growth mindset, focus on action, and ability to energize undergraduates on a topic that can be as exciting as it is urgent.

Whether you are a TKE or any individual passionate about growth, you will learn from Zach’s story. Here is an excerpt of our recent conversation, with my prompts in bold and Zach’s story as told in his own words. 

My Joining Story

It starts back in high school for me. I went to an all male Jesuit high school in Tampa, the same city I went to college. Because of that I initially had zero interest in fraternity – my mom even tried to get me to join but I felt I already had everything I needed. My intention was all cross country and track. So I was very involved with sports and school, and it took an injury for me to open my eyes a little more.

I remember hanging with a couple friends in another fraternity, and saw their flag up on the wall. It meant nothing to me.

Then a guy came up, looked me in the eye and said “I’m Jay, nice to meet you.” The kind of first impression you’ll always remember. Turns out he was a Tau Kappa Epsilon member, and the flag was a different fraternity.

I kind of got a little hoodwinked and bamboozled from there. TKE was smaller than I thought and there were only 22 members. So those doubts creeped in during the next few weeks.

Why do I want to do this? Is it worth the effort?

We took it upon ourselves to build upwards, and began recruiting some of my best friends who are still my best friends to this day.

We recruited the type of people to build it even better than what we imagined. The chapter is now 90 men strong. Whether I knew it or not, growth has been a big piece of my life. And it started with that handshake with Jay.

Starting on Staff

I definitely thought I knew everything at the beginning. After a few visits, I realized the world is a lot different than my undergrad bubble. After a few more, I picked up that chapters are different but they tend to rhyme.

Each year you gain a little bit more experience, more knowledge, more relationships. That all comes back to create more stories to connect with people. That doesn’t just go for membership growth. That is the growth of what we can do for St. Jude, helping people across the nation, anything positive we do is growth.

We’ve started to realize we can’t solve our problem just by expanding as fast as possible. We want to focus on growing the groups we have and I love getting to do that every day.

A Memorable Recruitment Moment

One that comes to mind was myself, Nick Kimble and Victor Casanova going into the University of Texas last summer. If anyone has been, they know there’s a ton of potential with the student body size but it’s not always easy to recruit.

I wanna say our group had about 25 men, and we went during the summer tabling season. I loved showing that headquarters is here to help, and showing how we could do better.

We got to the event and all the chapters were at tables, set up, looking good. There’s pizza so everyone’s happy, but nothing was really happening in terms of PNMs walking in. Typical IFC event.

So we took the guys outside and started going up to random people walking on campus. The energy changed right away. Another fraternity noticed and it ramped up the competition in a good way. Before we knew it we were all funneling men into the main room, not just to talk to TKE but to be able to see all of their options for lifelong brothers.

It was fun to embrace the tension in the moment, but then to realize everyone was thankful for the friendly competition to be created.

The ChapterBuilder Difference

The referral form is “major key”. Being able to go into any presentation type setting, having an interest form is the only way we can measure results. It also lets us focus on crushing the actual presentation, and we can resend the form before and after. It’s worth its weight in gold when it comes to that.

Sure you could find other ways to do it, but we love it integrated into the system. There are plenty of situations where people are going to complain about disadvantages, school won’t let me do this, others won’t let me do that. So I try to emphasize, let’s just collect hundreds of names and meet new people. ChapterBuilder even merges the overlaps for you. There’s so many ways you can use that to drive leads and start a conversation.

It should pain you when you lose that blue chip recruit you love, it should grind your gears to no end because you didn’t work as hard as possible to create the relationship.

If you target the best possible people at the right time, you’ll create something that all the best people are attracted to.

What I Want Current Fraternity Undergraduates to Know

As an undergraduate, I was very anti-Headquarters. I didn’t think there was a lot going on. Hearing stories of staff coming to help and then not a lot of follow-up. Cory Martin came down and changed that view for me. It just takes one person. Cory spent the time, he would even hang with us while he did work – catching some sun with his laptop out. That’s something we remembered long after he left. Cory has been a great mentor for me.

I don’t think there is a single staff member in this industry that actually cares about their members as dollar signs or pieces to manage. In my opinion it’s about creating a better experience for the active members now than it was when I was an undergraduate. We can make all the resources we want, but it won’t mean every question is asked and answered. We want to listen.

Tips for Recruiting in a Pandemic

Recruit the members you already have. We’re all going to face bigger retention issues. Even for people that may take a semester off, find ways to stay connected and keep tabs.

And have a fun opener for when you make new friends. I’ve been using one that is guaranteed to light up the conversation. Feel free to steal it:

“Do you have enough toilet paper right now?”

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