Bringing Tabling Back

Anthony Dominguez (Delta Phi/North Texas 2010)

Kyle Mauch (Alpha Iota/Indiana 2010)

Leadership and Education Consultants

When people think of tabling, often times thoughts of draping a flag over the table, having your most prized trophies and awards displayed, and showing off some great pictures coupled with flyers that have a cool slogan and list your rush events all immediately come to mind. Sitting behind a table for hours, dressed in your best recruiting clothes and bragging about your chapter is a thing of the past. Here is a new take on tabling that will be much more fun and will definitely be more interesting for the guys you are recruiting.

What you need:

1 table

Food or candy

1 piece of poster board

Markers

1 role of tape

1 stack of paper and pens or a computer with Excel

2 outgoing, social individuals from your chapter

1 game, which will be explained later

Before setting up your table on campus, find two of your most outgoing members who are also good recruiters. Brainstorm ideas of games to play with potential new members that will attract others to come to the table; for example, have a putter, a golf ball, and cup or have a soccer ball and a small goal. You could even go old school and play rock paper scissors. Next, write the name of the game you chose on the poster using the markers. Make sure that this sign is legible and can be read from a few feet away. Before you head out to campus, be sure to have a way to write contact information of the potential new members you meet. The information you want to collect is their name, e-mail address, and phone number. You can use paper and pens and have them write down their information or you can have them type it into a computer. Do whatever works best for the location of your table.

Next, choose a spot on campus where you will have a large number of potential new members walking past you. Set up the table there. Place the food or candy on the table along with the stack of papers and pens or laptop next to it. Use the tape to hang the poster from the front of the table. Set up whatever game you will be using as your attention getter in front of the table.

Now that everything is set up, it’s time to start meeting people. Begin by stopping potential new members passing by and give them an offer pertaining to your game, “You hit the golf ball into the cup with this putter, I’ll give you food/a piece of candy and you go on your way. If you miss, I’ll still give you food/candy, but you have to give me 30 seconds of your time.” (Note: you haven’t even mentioned Theta Chi at this point. The hardest part will be getting the first person to come and participate. Most often, after you get that first individual to play the game, you will have other people coming to the table to see what exactly is going on).

Even if the potential new member wins, they will probably still want to hear what you have to say. This is where your two recruiters need to have a 30-second pitch ready. It is important to know why you exist on your campus and what is important to your chapter. You should give a brief explanation of what makes your chapter great, ask them to provide you with their contact information, invite them to an event such as a rush or brotherhood event, and thank them for their time, letting them know you will be in touch. At that point, you move to the next person and repeat the process.

Remember, have fun while tabling and you will draw a greater number of people to your table. If you aren’t having fun, the potential new members won’t have fun, and people won’t want to approach you. By having only two members at the table, potential members won’t be as intimidated to approach you. Be sure to tailor this plan to your particular campus for the most successful results.

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