• Bring your pledge class together and write down the names and contact information of anyone you think would make a good member of the Fraternity. Too many times men are initiated but are never asked for the names of friends who could make good members of Theta Chi. Your alumni can also be great resources.
• As a pledge class, put together a recruitment event where you invite all of the people that are on your new names list. At some point, you will be running your chapter; take charge and find out how to run a recruitment event successfully.
• Start introducing potential members to brothers in your chapter. You do not need to immediately identify these brothers as members, just as friends of yours. After a while, introduce this prospective member to the concept of the Fraternity and then show that these people he has been hanging out with are members of our fraternity.

These three things are just the first of many things that you can do to help your chapter with next semester’s recruitment efforts. Remember that the recruiting process doesn’t end when your campus’s rush or formal recruitment period does. Take initiative and make a difference. Good luck!

The men of Gamma Delta, celebrating with their almost 30 pledges!

School Name:

Florida Southern College

Chapter Designation:

Gamma Delta

School Size: Small (1,900 undergraduate students)

Current Chapter Membership: 34 initiated brothers

3 Secrets for a successful recruitment : At Gamma Delta, we have held successful recruitments for the last two years, with new member class sizes of around 30.  This also means graduation hits us pretty hard, so a good recruitment is necessary to keep the chapter alive.

1.        Hit the ground running and encourage brothers to take part in Orientation staff, Residence life and move in teams so that your fraternity is the first one prospective new members see when they get to campus.  This early presence can jumpstart your chapter’s names list even before classes begin.  It also allows your brothers to provide a new circle of friends to freshman who are far from home and looking for a place to belong.

2.       Utilize campus events to add to your names list.  Take part in intramurals and invite prospective new members to play on your team.  Pick-up sports games are great too.  Be sure to employ a broad range of tactics.  Not every worthwhile prospective new member plays sports and not every sports player is a worthwhile prospective new member.  Having cookouts, water-balloon fights, leisure games in the middle of campus, or whatever your chapter enjoys can draw out additional demographics that you might miss otherwise.  And be sure to hold events in which brothers can actually talk to the prospective new members whom they’ve previously just been throwing footballs to.

3.       Set your number goals high and orchestrate a plan of attack to achieve them.  If you think you want to pick up 25 new brothers, set your goal at 35.  And be sure that your names list vastly outnumbers your goal number of men.  A greater number of prospective new members allows the chapter to be more selective and ultimately end up with higher quality membership.

Traps to Avoid:

1.       Do not have a small group of brothers recruit men, such as Resident Assistants or Orientation Leaders.  These groups are valuable but the entire chapter must get involved.  Prospective New Members need to know most of the Brothers, so that they feel they belong.

2.       Do not rely on mudslinging the other houses on your campus to pick up prospective new members who might have numerous interests.  The Mudslinger always looks like the bigger jerk than the one who is on the receiving end; this can be a huge turn off.

3.       Do not do a slap-dash recruitment.  Have all of your events for the semester planned out well in advance. This planning can remove a great deal of stress for your Recruitment chair, treasurer and the chapter in general.

The men of Iota Theta/Central Florida

Chapter Designation: Iota Theta

School Size: Large – 25,000+

Current Chapter Membership: 80 brothers

3 Secrets for a successful recruitment:

• This year we made neon rush sunglasses so we have more than just a rush shirt to get our name out.
• During the summer and spread out in the fall, we have recruitment events such as BBQs, sporting events, and get-togethers at a brother’s house. Since it’s hard to recruit freshmen right before fall class, we attend every orientation and ‘rush’ kids, telling them to come by the house and send mass emails/texts about events going on.
• We pick the best guys for the best positions, and keep the rest of the brothers motivated with incentives and encouraging chapter emails reminding them why we’re the best and to never get complacent.

Traps to avoid:

• We always take chapter and director/exec meetings seriously. Detailed reports are given by each director/exec member during meetings and are passed on to the rest of the brothers during chapter meetings.
• We also send mass emails to the whole chapter letting them know what’s going on and what they need to do/know for upcoming events like rush or a social.
• As said earlier, we keep the rest of guys motivated by reminding them we’re the best fraternity on this campus and to never settle for anything less than great.

Chapter Designation: Alpha Nu

School Size: Medium (10,000 – 24,999)

Number of Men in Chapter: 53 brothers/23 pledges for Fall 2009

3 Secrets for a Successful Recruitment:

1. Always remember that recruitment is a year round function of the chapter. This includes rushing heavily in the summer, fall and spring. We have found that the best times to recruit are outside of the official rush periods.

2. Trust the younger members of your chapter with recruiting and keep them as involved in the process as possible. Especially with the freshman, encourage them to meet people in the dorm rooms or even send older members of the chapter to go over to their dorms to hang out. It is a good idea to emphasis rush during the pledge process and spend some time teaching them good rush techniques right away.

3. The chapter will be better off in the end to have a small group of quality guys who are highly motivated to succeed than a large group of guys who care nothing about the house or its reputation on campus. Quality brothers recruit more quality guys.

Traps to avoid:

- One of the biggest traps to avoid is to never become complacent with a given chapter size or pledge class size. Always keep a high level of motivation for recruitment in the chapter. There is always room for improvement. As soon as a chapter stops trying to make itself better, it will surely start getting worse.

- A small group of brothers can not carry rush on their own. Keep as many brothers involved with the recruitment process as possible.

- Making personal connections with rushees is much more important than spending a lot of money on events.

- Rush must be planned out well in advance, and to a high level of detail. We even go as far as to have specific individual tasks for the majority of our brothers. At the same time, keep thinking of ways to improve the efficiency of rush and how to make it smoother.

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.

Coordinator of Expansion

In honor of school starting across the nation, here is a pop quiz: Which institute of higher learning receives more applicants a year – Harvard University or your local community college? Answer: Harvard, by a fair margin. The reason for this is simple: Just about anyone can get into community college, but there are only a select few who can say they are students at Harvard, which makes that university more appealing. If a student can make it into Harvard, they know that they have done something with their lives, and they are recognized for this.

Now, let’s twist this question around a bit: Who gets more interest from prospective new members – The chapter with high standards or the chapter where you only need a pulse and a pledge fee, if that, to get in? Answer – The chapter with the high standards. Again, the reason for this is pretty simple: Men are pretty competitive animals; we want to know that we are joining the best organization that we can. Do you really want to join a group that anyone can join and that means nothing around campus? Or do you want to join a group that when people see the letters on your chest they know you are someone to know? Chances are you said you want to be a part of a group that means something to others on campus.

Unfortunately, we have some chapters out there who treat themselves as the community college of their campus: Anyone can come in as long as they promise to pay their fees at some point. This mentality hurts not only that specific chapter, but Theta Chi across the nation. We are an elite fraternity; this does not mean that we are elitist but that we want only the best men for our organization. The best men are interested in a group that is going to challenge them, that is going to make them better men, and is going to give them something in return. The best men are not interested in a group with a chapter GPA of 2.32, no involvement on campus, and only mild knowledge of each member (though their brotherhood is better than any other chapter’s on campus).

If your group is having trouble recruiting the best men on your campus you need to be ready to raise your standards. Here are a few things that your chapter should check out before extending a bid to a prospective member:

• Grade Point Average: What was this man’s GPA in high school? What is it in college? Our fraternity is not a clearinghouse for those men who just had a bad semester or three in terms of grades. Except in very rare exceptions, a student’s GPA is going to stay roughly the same throughout college. If a man gets between a 2.2 and a 2.4 for three straight semesters, Theta Chi is not for him.

• Campus/Community Involvement: What does this man do in his spare time? Does he volunteer around town, chair a committee on the Student Government Association, and play on an intramural team? Or does he go to class, go home, and then proceed to spend the next six hours playing the newest game on Xbox Live? Theta Chi wants the man who is involved on campus and wants to make a difference.

• How this man presents himself: Does this man look like someone you could present to the President of your university with confidence? Or does this man dress in cut off shorts with holes in them and dirty t-shirts every day? Again, it is not about being elitist; it is about wanting the best men for our fraternity.

It is easy to say “He’s a great guy and he would fit in well in our chapter!” It is hard to say “This man has a 2.89 GPA, he is involved in three different organizations on campus, and he already volunteers at the nursing home.” Why is it hard? Because you and your chapter have to 1) Have standards and 2) Stick by them without compromising for the “great guy.” Do not let your chapter take the easy way out and disgrace the name of Theta Chi.

Coordinator of Expansion

Missed Start with Why, Part I? Click here to read it!

First and foremost, your chapter needs to know why you exist. How do you determine this? At your next chapter, take a few minutes and ask every member to write down why they think the chapter exists. This answer should only be one, maybe two, sentences. For example, when the Leadership and Education Consultants did this activity, we came up with the following responses:

Theta Chi exists to –

• “Transform the lives of our members through service, scholarship, and leadership.”
• “Empower young men to make a change through leadership, service, and loyalty to alma mater.”
• “Help men grow as leaders academically and serve their communities.”
• “Enhance the collegiate experience for undergraduate males through scholarship, leadership, and service to our communities and universities.“
• “Serve as a development organization in creating better men in the sense of a drive for life-long learning, active involvement in the community, and to create bonds with other high-caliber men that last a lifetime.”

While we all had slightly different wordings, our message was still the same – Theta Chi exists to make us better men through service, leadership, and scholarship. Your group should believe in roughly the same thing as well, even if your wording is different. Every member of your group should be able to tell a prospective member why we exist as well, and it should all sound somewhat the same so that your prospective members are not confused. Now on to the next part – How to find out if the prospective member believes in the same ideals that your group does.

When you are talking to these young men about why Theta Chi exists, you should be able to tell how interested they are in your group’s WHY by paying attention to how they respond to certain benefits and by the questions they ask. Do they ask what leadership opportunities they would have in the group and how they can give back through community service? Normally these men are more interested in a group’s WHY since it probably matches their own. Is the prospective member more interested in learning about what parties you throw and how strict the group is about dues? Chances are his personal WHY would not mix well with the group’s WHY which means that you should not extend him a bid. If you find your group extending too many bids to men whose WHY does not match your group’s WHY, it is then time to look at the prospective member standards you have in place.

There is no surefire way to guarantee success in anything you do in life; however, by identifying a purpose behind your actions, and your chapter’s actions, you will help keep everyone motivated and on track with the purpose of Theta Chi. Always keep in mind that it is your job to make our members, and yourself, better because of Theta Chi.

Coordinator of Expansion

This fall, prospective members will come to your chapter/colony/interest group and they will be interested in joining our fraternity. When they ask why they should join Theta Chi, what are you going to tell them? “We throw the best parties on campus,” “The sororities love us,” and a personal favorite “We have the best brotherhood on campus” will all be uttered at some point by a well-intentioned recruitment chairman or member of the group. And you know what? Those promises will work on some prospective members. Some men are only interested in the surface level reasons for joining a fraternity. Does this make them bad prospective members? Not at all; in fact many of these men will go on to learn about our fraternity and realize its true purpose.

What about those men on your campus who are interested in something more than a surface level fraternal experience though? Those men are not going to be swayed by claims of the coolest parties, women loving you, or having the best brotherhood. These men want to know that through investing their time and money they are going to become better people and better men because of their experience in Theta Chi. In order to bring these men into our fraternity, our chapters need to discover their WHY.

A man named Simon Sinek wrote a book called “Start with Why” which talks about the importance of an organization/company/person knowing why they do what they do rather than how or what the company does. In Sinek’s own words “People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it. The goal is not to do business with everyone who needs what you have; the goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.” (Watch Simon’s video version of “Start with Why” here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA)

Think about that in a fraternal mindset for a second: We do not want everyone who could use a fraternity (which is every man); we want those men who believe what we believe. Unfortunately too many fraternity chapters are taking anyone and it shows through their grade point average, service hours, and camaraderie. But how do you find out if these prospective members believe what you believe? To take it a step further, how do you determine what YOU believe in?

Interested in an exercise to find out what your group believes in? Do you want to know how to find out what your prospective members believe is important to them? Then come back next week for Part II of “Start with Why!”

One of the most impressive things about this year has been the ability to retain members, keeping every member who joined this year except for one. This has been our greatest turn around in success owing much of this to our ability to focus on creating a fun environment that generates a great sense of brotherhood.

Last November, we sent twelve members to the Mid-Year Leadership Conference held at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. In addition, Jason Handberg, Expansion Coordinator, came to visit us early in December to help us get more on track to achieving our goal of installation this academic year. We have utilized his recruitment strategies through booth events at our Student Union and contacting the new members we meet. In addition to our accomplishments with recruitment, we have launched a new website this year thanks to the expertise of Brother Leon Kilmer. The website can be found at www.thetachiay.org.

Our chapter is getting ever more involved on campus with members becoming active in student organizations of a variety of interests. These include the Men’s Ultimate Frisbee Club, Lutheran Student Center, American Cancer Society, Nebraska Pep Band, Circle K, Student Impact, and student government.

Currently, the chapter is working on raising funds to again take part in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life event here at UNL in late March. We will be hosting our annual Theta Chi Poker Tournament with the proceeds and donations going to the ACS for our Relay for Life team. We will also be taking part in a campus-wide day of volunteering at many community service projects, known as the The Big Event, on April 10^th. Later that day, we will also be celebrating Founder’s Day with a brotherhood BBQ cookout.

All of our members are inspired by our recent success and are excited to finally see Alpha Upsilon reinstalled at the University of Nebraska. Please contact President Matt Snowdon (mjsnowdon88@yahoo.com) or Vice President Issiaih Yott (issiaih.thomasyott@huskers.unl.edu) for more information.

Attempting to bolster our image on campus, three members of our Public Relations Committee visited Kappa Alpha Theta at their chapter meeting to present flowers to them for their Founders’ Day. Our President, Benjamin Boone is currently re-running for the Undergraduate Student Senate, and 33 of our members currently hold an important Chair or elected position in our Colony in addition to various student organizations in which they are involved. Our Internet Technologies Director Will Ryan created a website for our colony, which can be viewed at (http://people.clemson.edu/~thetach/). The website is updated regularly and provides an excellent recruitment front for prospective new members as well as keeping our current members up to date on current events.

In early February, 12 members attended the Southeastern Mid-Year Leadership Conference at the Gamma Rho Chapter at Florida State University. The twelve who attended found many new acquaintances with brothers of nearby chapters and brought back some fresh ideas to Clemson. Our Social Committee set a date and place for our upcoming Beach Weekend and has begun to work with sororities such as Kappa Kappa Gamma and Gamma Phi Beta to plan mixers and date functions for next year. Finally, our new Executive Council has worked to seal the framework of our preceding Executive Council so that Eta Alpha Colony can run more efficiently in preparation to become an official Chapter of Theta Chi Fraternity. All of our members are unified in their zeal to see Eta Alpha reinstalled at Clemson University! Please contact our President Ben Boone at (bboone@clemson.edu) or our Secretary Will Ryan at (wwryan@clemson.edu) for more information.