The Hype

New rush plan, snow days secure great new class

by Andrew Chew and Jacob Sloan

This rush period brought about a new vision for recruitment techniques thanks to Rush Chairman Brant Christiansen and our recruitment team. Instead of continuing the extended rush period established last term, Brother Christiansen took the schedule back down to just two weeks so that there would be an event every night as opposed to just a few nights per week.

This new format appealed to the chapter since it allowed us to compete with those fraternities that offer bids almost immediatley and do not give as much time for rushees to experience a chapter during rush. This change allowed us to issue bids and begin pledgeship more promptly as well. The first events were met with some unfavorable weather which actually worked to our advantage since our common room allows for us to host events indoors without any problems. The freezing weather forced the campus to close for several days and allowed otherwise busy students to take a break and enjoy the rush events which stayed right on schedule. As a result, our "Back to School Bash" and impromptu "Snowed In" events drew much attention from rushees and other members of the Greek community.

The crowds continued into our next several events since events and gave us plenty of entrants for our "Tournament of Champions" event later in the week. From the contacts we gathered from those events, we continued to invite people to come to the house and at several other events.

By publicizing our name on campus throughout the rush period, we were able to attract an enormous crowd to our annual "Not Another Frat Party" celebrating our unique fraternity image. The party theme follows the basic premise of Not Another Teen Movie's approach to teen movies by making a parody of every traditional fraternity parties on campus, and it earned us a packed house full of rushees. Guests dress as any theme they wish.

We followed this event with an AFC/NFC Championship watching party and continued to make our presence known both in West Campus and on the campus. At these events, we made sure that our rush team was able to keep in reach with all of their contacts. The weather wasn't the greatest near the end of our schedule, but we had signed many of our pledges by that point and hung out with them at our Poker Night and Old School Game Night. The weather eventually cleared up in time for our "Acacia Olympics," which served as our last night of the open rush period. We had a high attendance at this event, and we spent most of the time securing the men that had showed some interest in the fraternity as well as handing out bids to the final men that we had scouted out.

The rush period was capped off with a closed bid party for the signed rushees and their dates. This night was a time for the pledges to meet the entire active chapter and converse in a more intimate setting without being barraged by the brothers. The night provided fun for all and ended with the Spring 2007 Pledge class posing for pictures with their Senior Dean David Metter. Based on the number of men that we received for our pledge class, we saw that Brother Christiansen’s strategy for rush was one that we should implement in the future. The active participation was a huge factor this rush. With almost every active in attendance, we were able to cover all the ground that was necessary to reach out and find exceptional new members.