by Josh Orendi

Those that are familiar with the Dynamic Recruitment message know that Member Positioning is one of the “cylinders” for powering your “names list” with leads from your “prospect pool.”  Too much lingo?  No problem.  Let me try again.

Fact:  People do not join fraternities or sororities.  People join people!  Relationships drive results.
Fact:  You can’t recruit who you don’t know.
Fact:  Most of the high quality men and women on your campus don’t realize the value of belonging to a fraternity or sorority.
Fact:  Those high quality men and women are not typically signing up for formal recruitment.
Fact:  Most of your current chapter leaders were not looking for a Greek experience when they came to campus.
Fact:  Most of your current chapter leaders can name one person (literally one person) that is primarily responsible for them making the decision to join.
Repeat Fact:  People do not join fraternities or sororities.  People join people!  Relationships drive results.

In these critical first few weeks of school, you have a powerful opportunity to impact your recruitment throughout the year.  THE POWER OF PROXIMITY.  While other chapters are asking, “how do we get more prospects to the house,” try a different mindset.  Ask:  “How can we get our members out of the house?”  Begin thinking of creative ways to avoid letting your members get comfortable at home and fall into bad habits.  Consider ways to get members engaged on campus in locations that are ripe with top prospects.  Here are a few creative ideas:

• $100 of the Rush budget in quarters.  Offer to pay the laundry bill of any member that will do their laundry in the freshmen dorms.  Bonus tip:  Sunday is usually the most popular day in the laundry room.  This is a great icebreaker that almost always leads to conversation.  Proximity matters.
• Offer to host a reception or bbq on campus for transfer students.
• Choose 5 large student organizations that tend to attract top non-Greek members.  Contact the organization president to ask how your members can sign up.  At chapter, ask every member to choose one of those 5 to attend the group’s next meeting on campus.
• Take the 5 organizations above and make it a mandatory part of your new member education program to actively participate in one of those groups.
• Choose a small or dying student organization on campus that you’d be excited about reviving.  Rally several of your members to take over the club.  Encourage non-Greek freshmen and sophomores to join the club.  By proximity, you’ll build relationships that often turn into membership.  Bonus tip:  Clubs get money from student activities/government.  If the club is mostly your members your next chapter retreat was just funded by the student body. 
• Partner with a freshmen club or non-Greek student group for Saturday’s tailgate.
• Watch Sunday/Monday football in the freshmen dorm lobby.  Buy pizza and you’ll attract a crowd.  Bonus tip:  Run a fantasy league or bracket and you’ll be able to collect contact info.
• RA’s are gatekeepers.  Ask for an opportunity to present for 5 minutes followed by 5 minutes of Q&A at the next hall meeting.  You’ll be seen as the “expert” on Greek life by those freshmen.
• Got smart members?  Group tutoring session for freshmen seminars and general education classes is a great way to meet a lot of freshmen committed to improving their grades.  Proximity matters.
• Got athletes?  Hosting tournaments on campus or in freshmen dorm works great for building relationships.  Even semi-sports like throwing bags, horse shoes, or foosball can work.
• Got wanna-be athletes?  Pick an obscure sport and begin playing it on the quad or a central part of campus with a lot of traffic.  Pull in people that walk by.  Bonus tip: Being confident and having fun while making an ass of yourself can draw lots of attention and tons of new friends. 

You get the idea.  It’s time to build the expectation that our “social” fraternity/sorority expects our members to be “socially excellent.” 

Remember: Quantity of Relationships Drives Quality of Membership.

by Josh Orendi

Q:  What is the purpose of an information table?

• Give away information about the organization
• Sit awkwardly behind the table as people walk by
• Get the organization’s name out on campus
• None of the above

A:  The correct answer is … D, none of the above. 

Of course we never sit behind the table.  In fact, the first thing we do when we arrive is get rid of the chairs.  You might give away some information and you might create some more awareness, however, this is not the “purpose” of tabling.  The reason we table is the exact opposite of “giving our information away” … we do them to “get their names on our list.”  Period!

The success of an information table is measurable.  Every 30-60 minutes count up the number of names with phone numbers and email addresses that you’ve collected.  Those are your results.  Any other positive outcome is a bonus, not the purpose of your time. 

Great tables yield 25-50 new leads per hour.  If that’s not happening, you’re:

• In the wrong location
• Tabling at the wrong time of day
• Not working the table … you’re waiting for results to happen to you

Have you ever wondered:

• What am I supposed to wear?
• What should I put on the table?
• What am I supposed to say?
• Who should be at the table?
• How can my table stand out?

Good questions.  The Phired Up team has developed a new cheat sheet to help you answer these questions and more.  And, in true Phired Up fashion, it’s completely FREE.  Here is the direct link to the new free resource and all of Phired Up’s free resources. 

For links to a few recent Phired Up blogs on more effective tabling practices, including video and pictures, click here and here.

The academic year has begun, so we’re re-posting a blog favorite that may come in handy as you start your semester!

by Josh Orendi

“Three-to-Seven” A little technique with big results…

Write “3-to-7″ on the back of your hand. Post it on the inside of the front door of the chapter house. Put up a sign in the bathroom stalls. Whatever you need to do, we’re looking for every member of the chapter to make this commitment on the first day of class:

1. Show up 3-7 minutes early for every class.
2. Sit in rows 3-7.
3. Make 3-7 new friends in those classes this week.

Here’s how/why it works:

1. Arriving more than 7 minutes early means you won’t have your pick of potential new members to sit next to. Be strategic about who you sit near. This is likely to be the same chair you’ll sit in all semester. Showing up later than 3 minutes early means the best seats will be taken, or you may be forced to sit near the back of the room because class has already started.

2. Research shows that top academic performers sit in the rows closest to the front of the class … but not necessarily the first 1-2 rows. Interesting. You want to position yourself as a top performer and associate yourself with other top performers (right?), so take a seat in the section where top performers congregate. 

3. You just showed up early and you know that you are sitting next to a top performer. It’s time to make a new friend! Do that with a person or two in each of the 3-7 classes that you’re taking this semester. Multiply that effort times the number of members in your chapter. (The Names List is about to explode)

Oh, it’s so simple and so sweet. In week #1 without spending a dollar or planning a Big Event, you just met dozens of the best non-greek students on campus. Side benefit: You’re better positioned to be a top performing chapter in academics as well.

Remember, 3-to-7!!!