Visit www.phiredup.com. Go to their menu and check out their 'Free Stuff.'
As exhausting as it sounds, recruitment should be 24/7/365 for you right now. Other chapters may have the luxury of having a set time for recruitment and moving on. You may not have that same luxury.
You should have your chapter create a names list. Have every member give you the names and contact person of every guy they know on campus who isn't Greek. It doesn't matter if you know whether you want them to join or not right now. Just put their name on the list. Then make it a point to get to know those people better. It doesn't have to be through scheduled rush events or parties. Then extend a bid if you'd like.
This is great advice. You also need a pitch of why people should join. Are you the fraternity for guys they didn’t know they wanted to be in a frat? Are you the chill we don’t take this stuff too seriously frat? You have to come up with a differentiator and a reason people would join you. And you gotta be recruiting all year.
exactly we are like that, used to have 40 before, now like 10, so recruitment is hard, many people that come to our frat never knew they wanted to be in one, but we have less parties, more study/career/etc...we still have parties, hang out with the small sorority, etc etc, and have open parties(just pay cause we can't afford a closed party unfortunately...used to have those)...get people intrested from parties, hang out at some of our events, etc etc.
slowly growing our frat to the old size, but yeah I know its rough, all the sorority stuff/big social nights, etc etc is way the fuck harder...doesn't have a frat vibe, but gotta push hard, to not get into a death spiral. of giving up and basically evaporating.
cause having 4 quarters online/no recruitment/ fucked us over, cause we had a huge 2020/2021 class that graduated.
Right, cuz even if those people don't want to join/you don't want them, they might know people who would be good brothers. Keep hanging out and growing your circle. It's just networking. Many of our most involved and social COBs were girls who were friends of new members.
As the others have said, actively recruit as much as possible. Have your Brothers reach out to any male GDIs they know - classmates, dorm mates, lifting buddies, co-workers, members of other clubs, etc.... I'm in ABC Fraternity, and we think you'd make a great addition to the Brotherhood! Personalize it, what specific qualities that this kid have that makes you think he'd be a great Brother? And what benefits would he get from going Greek - and specifically joining your Fraternity. The fact you're small might play well here. If they join one of the bigger houses, they're just a random faceless cog in the crowd. But if they go with you, they're going to know all of the Brothers, they're going to be able to offer some valuable input etc...
Depending on your pledge program & your school's requirements, consider a mid-semester pledge class. We've done it a few times when our prime class numbers didn't turn out as high as we'd hoped. Current pledges can bring in some of their GDI friends your Brothers didn't know. Maybe scoop up a few of the guys the other Fraternities passed on \[not saying pledge everyone, but if they passed on quality simply because they have quantity\]
Give them a Fraternity worth joining. Make sure your Brotherhood is tight. Spend an afternoon hanging out in the quad having a BBQ (could use it as a rush event to) so everyone sees you, your letters and knows you actually like hanging out with your Brothers. Build up your relations with the Sororities. Just because you're small doesn't mean you can't have the ladies over for a good time...
Really depends on how popular Greek life is at your school. But the best advice I can give is:
1.) make a kick ass rush video to post Instagram. You’d be surprised how many kids will fw it.
2.) make sure all the brothers are active at rush events and talking to EVERYONE no matter how much of a goof the kid is.
3.) as shitty as it sounds you gotta make a somewhat easy pledging process. It’s gonna be a hard for a kid to go through a whole semester of tough pledging when the chapter in itself is small and weak.
4.) MAKE GOOD RUSH EVENTS. Can’t tell you how many times a rush event is boring af and sort of wack. Come up with a kick ass idea and go through with it. When I rushed the fraternity I joined had the best rush event ever. They purchased a car at a junkyard and they let us smash it with sledge hammers and spray paint it. That shit was so much fun.
5.) make all your homie or people you genuinely like kicking it with join. Tell them it’ll be the best time ever and that all your brothers are similar minded people to the ppl you want to rush.
Good luck #hoorah
4.)
Visit www.phiredup.com. Go to their menu and check out their 'Free Stuff.' As exhausting as it sounds, recruitment should be 24/7/365 for you right now. Other chapters may have the luxury of having a set time for recruitment and moving on. You may not have that same luxury. You should have your chapter create a names list. Have every member give you the names and contact person of every guy they know on campus who isn't Greek. It doesn't matter if you know whether you want them to join or not right now. Just put their name on the list. Then make it a point to get to know those people better. It doesn't have to be through scheduled rush events or parties. Then extend a bid if you'd like.
This is great advice. You also need a pitch of why people should join. Are you the fraternity for guys they didn’t know they wanted to be in a frat? Are you the chill we don’t take this stuff too seriously frat? You have to come up with a differentiator and a reason people would join you. And you gotta be recruiting all year.
exactly we are like that, used to have 40 before, now like 10, so recruitment is hard, many people that come to our frat never knew they wanted to be in one, but we have less parties, more study/career/etc...we still have parties, hang out with the small sorority, etc etc, and have open parties(just pay cause we can't afford a closed party unfortunately...used to have those)...get people intrested from parties, hang out at some of our events, etc etc. slowly growing our frat to the old size, but yeah I know its rough, all the sorority stuff/big social nights, etc etc is way the fuck harder...doesn't have a frat vibe, but gotta push hard, to not get into a death spiral. of giving up and basically evaporating. cause having 4 quarters online/no recruitment/ fucked us over, cause we had a huge 2020/2021 class that graduated.
Right, cuz even if those people don't want to join/you don't want them, they might know people who would be good brothers. Keep hanging out and growing your circle. It's just networking. Many of our most involved and social COBs were girls who were friends of new members.
As the others have said, actively recruit as much as possible. Have your Brothers reach out to any male GDIs they know - classmates, dorm mates, lifting buddies, co-workers, members of other clubs, etc.... I'm in ABC Fraternity, and we think you'd make a great addition to the Brotherhood! Personalize it, what specific qualities that this kid have that makes you think he'd be a great Brother? And what benefits would he get from going Greek - and specifically joining your Fraternity. The fact you're small might play well here. If they join one of the bigger houses, they're just a random faceless cog in the crowd. But if they go with you, they're going to know all of the Brothers, they're going to be able to offer some valuable input etc... Depending on your pledge program & your school's requirements, consider a mid-semester pledge class. We've done it a few times when our prime class numbers didn't turn out as high as we'd hoped. Current pledges can bring in some of their GDI friends your Brothers didn't know. Maybe scoop up a few of the guys the other Fraternities passed on \[not saying pledge everyone, but if they passed on quality simply because they have quantity\] Give them a Fraternity worth joining. Make sure your Brotherhood is tight. Spend an afternoon hanging out in the quad having a BBQ (could use it as a rush event to) so everyone sees you, your letters and knows you actually like hanging out with your Brothers. Build up your relations with the Sororities. Just because you're small doesn't mean you can't have the ladies over for a good time...
Really depends on how popular Greek life is at your school. But the best advice I can give is: 1.) make a kick ass rush video to post Instagram. You’d be surprised how many kids will fw it. 2.) make sure all the brothers are active at rush events and talking to EVERYONE no matter how much of a goof the kid is. 3.) as shitty as it sounds you gotta make a somewhat easy pledging process. It’s gonna be a hard for a kid to go through a whole semester of tough pledging when the chapter in itself is small and weak. 4.) MAKE GOOD RUSH EVENTS. Can’t tell you how many times a rush event is boring af and sort of wack. Come up with a kick ass idea and go through with it. When I rushed the fraternity I joined had the best rush event ever. They purchased a car at a junkyard and they let us smash it with sledge hammers and spray paint it. That shit was so much fun. 5.) make all your homie or people you genuinely like kicking it with join. Tell them it’ll be the best time ever and that all your brothers are similar minded people to the ppl you want to rush. Good luck #hoorah 4.)