The Time is Now for Recruitment
The summer is upon us. The spring recruitment season is over and final exams are a thing of the past, but that doesn't mean you put the fraternity on hold until next fall. You need to start planning now to give your chapter a leg up on the competition.
Summer Recruitment Plan
A successful summer recruitment program enables you to meet potential new members during the summer in a relaxed environment. The formal recruitment process is sometimes intimidating to incoming freshman, but many come to campus during the summer months to get a few classes out of the way. This is also a great time to meet upperclassmen who may be interested in joining, but couldn't during the traditional school year. Summer recruitment provides an opportunity to meet these men before they have a full load of classes and other activities distracting them in the fall. Contact is the basis to forming new friendships and the summer is an ideal time to start this process. Even if your campus does not allow bidding potential members during this time, you can introduce them to the Fraternity and some of the members.
First, you will need to appoint a summer recruitment chairman. This should be someone who will be around the campus all summer and available to coordinate events. Once a man is appointed, he should work with the Crysophylos to set a summer budget that includes money for small events, phone calls, copies and other expenses. The chairman should assign a group of Fraters who live in different areas to target students who will be coming to your school and host events in those areas. The recruitment team should then meet to identify prospective members. The list can be generated from several different sources.
- Incoming freshman list from the Admissions office
- List of men admitted with scholarships
- Other students who have expressed interest through the Greek Life office
- Friends or younger brothers of chapter members
- Alumni recommendations
- High schools - encourage Fraters to return to their high school for a list of students attending the institution
- Men who joined other clubs on campus
After compiling a solid list of men, fill out the online form on
tke.org for a recruitment package or
call the Offices of the Grand Chapter. This will include flyers, posters, bid cards and other public relations materials you can use to promote your events. The next step is to make plans and set goals with the summer recruitment team. Goals should include how many men you want to meet, what events you want to have and how much this will all cost. Then compile a list of where all Fraters will be over the summer months, so you contact them if you have potential members from their area or simply notify them of the upcoming events. Create and distribute a calendar of summer recruitment events, including the time, place and description of the event.
Before the end of the semester, hold a chapter meeting explaining your plans and the goals you have for the summer. You should also offer a refresher course on how you should recruit members.
Creating a Summer To-Do List
There are several activities to do during a summer. Though the following list seems daunting, if you have a good team in place, each team member can take a piece of the puzzle. Remind Fraters that this will impact the overall health of the organization, infusing it with new ideas, potential leaders, money for events and the opportunity to out-recruit all other fraternities on campus.
Sample To-Do List
- Create a welcome letter to the college or university to all incoming freshman male students. This does not need to include how great the chapter is - that will come later. Simply concentrate on welcoming them to the next step in their life.
- Start meeting contacts from your prospect list. Assign certain members a list of men who are in or near where they are during the summer (utilizing the summer whereabouts list). Invite them to lunch or dinner and just get to know them, again concentrating on creating a friend - not selling TKE. Find out as much information about them as possible and then invite them to a second meeting with a few of your other friends, such as a pick-up basketball game or something else they may be interested in. At the next meeting, invite them to a recruitment event.
- Aside from those you meet, be sure to publicize the recruitment events through flyers and campus calendar publications.
- Hold small recruitment events that are free from alcohol to ensure you attract the right kind of man.
- Follow-up with all attendees and non-attendees letting them know about other upcoming events and what TKE is and is not.
- If you are allowed to bid men in the summer, do so. If you cannot, explain the recruitment policies on campus and that you would like them to continue coming around during that time period so you can extend them a formal bid.
- Keep in contact with all the prospective members during the summer and into the fall through email, facebook, phone calls or text messages to keep them engaged. This will also keep TKE on their mind when they come on campus in the fall.
Recruitment is very simple if you break it down to Fraters like this:
- MEET HIM - Find out where the prospect is and go there.
- MAKE HIM A FRIEND - Be interested, not interesting.
- INTRODUCE HIM TO YOUR FRIENDS - Invite him to lunch.
- INTRODUCE HIM TO THE FRATERNITY - Tell him about Excellence.
- ASK HIM TO JOIN - Make your friend a Frater!
For more recruitment help, click here.
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