Recruitment is a crucial part of the fraternity operations. It not only allows for us to have more man-power, but it gives us the chance to show someone why we love our fraternity. Recruitment provides potential new members with new homes that they were looking for while coming into college. It is important to remember that recruitment should not be taken lightly or be forgotten. During my travels, I have seen both successful recruitment and unsuccessful recruitment. Unsuccessful recruitment typically was not due to the members, but a lack of training or knowledge about recruitment. Even chapters that recruited successfully have their obstacles. Here are the five most important things I learned about recruitment while visiting chapters: create a successful recruitment committee, create a values-based recruitment, build relationships, recruit, don’t rush, and utilize a successful names list.

Creating a Successful Recruitment Committee

In some circles, members believe that it is only up to the recruitment chairman to recruit for the chapter and to ensure that their recruitment is successful. This thought is not correct. The entire chapter should be held accountable to ensure a successful recruitment. The recruitment chairman’s basic responsibilities are to ensure that the chapter does recruitment and does it well and in order to do that, he must also put together a recruitment committee. This committee will help drive the success of recruitment. A successful recruitment committee contains guys who will drive the process (will add names to the list and set up one-on-one meetings and small activities), guys who are good at building relationships (comfortable meeting strangers and holding valuable conversations), guys who are involved on campus and can connect to top leaders on campus, guys who can organize and plan other recruitment events, and someone responsible to keeping the names list tidy and organized.

Create a Values-Based Recruitment

It is important that chapters recruit men who will fit the values that they see their chapter to be. Many times, I have been asked how to ensure a chapter does not have big drop numbers in their associate classes or how do they recruit “good men.” The answer is simple; the chapter must have a values-based recruitment. Values-based recruitment gives chapters the reassurance that they are taking in high quality men inside the chapter. In order to have a values-based recruitment, chapters must: use value-based criteria, choose recruitment activities and behaviors that reflect the core values of the chapter, engage in conversations with potential members that include topics to your core value, and verify that the potential new member can fully commit themselves to the chapter’s values, code of conduct, and requirements.

Build Relationships

“People do not join fraternities or sorority, people join people.” – PhiredUp

When it comes to recruitment, chapters must remember that relationships matter. Every single member can remember someone specifically who made a moment matter to them that influenced their decision to join the chapter. That person made a connection to the potential new member during his process. This could also help with the “I can’t talk to random people,” members. Instead of thinking of speaking to a stranger during recruitment, how about attempting to get to know the person and building a relationship with them. This is what matter to potential new members, not the sports, numbers, etc.

Recruit, Don’t Rush

Recruitment happens when a chapter expands their options for potential new members. Meaning, they explore multiple ways of gaining people to be interested in their fraternity. It also lasts for however long the chapter wants it to last. Rush is when members rely solely on one to two weeks to gain new members. Granted, rush provides you with men who know that they want to be in a fraternity. But rush also only limits you to a small amount of time with a small opportunity to grow your chapter size.  When you utilize recruitment, you expand your horizon and come across a greater number of potential men who would be a great fit for the chapter. Many times, men who did never considered being in a fraternity turn out to be some of the best, high functioning members inside the chapter. When a chapter utilizes recruitment, they give themselves a better chance of success than just limiting to rush.

Utilize a Successful Names List

A huge factor in recruitment is your names list. Having an extensive names list is crucial to a successful recruitment. Many times, members just create an excel sheet that is never updated. With Chapter Builder, members can see when the last time a potential new member was contacted as well as by who. The app also allows members to insert information about the potential new members and to add characteristics they would like to see with them. This feature helps with the values recruiting. Chapter Builder also allows members to be assigned to a potential new member to ensure they are being contacted, but also that members are being involved with the recruitment process.

These five tips provided will help your chapter peak to where they would like to be. They have been utilized in many chapters and have seen positive results from them.