<p>My information is based on what my friends tell me about their sorority’s requirements – some of them may interpret local preferences as national requirements, so caveat emptor. Bear in mind that we live in Texas so everything having to do with recruitment is more complicated than it has to be – so my information may not necessarily represent an actual description of national requirements ! </p>
<p>Chi Omega definitely requires the local rec board’s signature. This is a national policy. (Local means to the PNM – not the rec writer – so if a girl lives in Chicago, but her aunt who is writing the rec lives in Detroit, the rec still goes through a board in Chicago.) It is my understanding that Delta Delta Delta also requires a local rec board signature. Pi Beta Phi and Kappa Alpha Theta <em>should</em> be submitted to the local rec board if one is available. Zeta Tau Alpha and Phi Mu can go directly to the chapter. My Alpha Chi Omega friend is submitting my daughter’s rec to the local rec board, but I don’t know whether this is her preference, local preference or a national requirement and my AOPi acquaintance is the head of the local rec board so obviously that rec is going through the local board. I don’t have solid enough information on the other sororities about what is happening in terms of submission of the rec to provide useful data about their practices. Understand that in general, particularly if you are in Texas or really anywhere in the South, your rec writer will have better information on the process for her particular sorority in the area where you live than you can get from anyone on the internet. </p>
<p>Also realize that in most cases if a rec needs signatures and doesn’t have them, part of the processing of the rec will involve sending it to the PNM’s local rec board. You don’t necessarily want this to happen, but it isn’t the end of the world unless you are getting close to deadlines. Sororities want to be able to pledge our daughters. They don’t want to have recs that they cannot use. They aren’t purposely setting traps for the unwary!</p>
<p>Your local alumnae Panhellenic is a wealth of information and can definitely set you on the right path.</p>
<p>Here’s how my alum panhellenic handles it: 1) PNM hands in her packets (as many packets as there are sororities at her school) to Panhellenic. 2) Panhellenic distributes them to the sorority representatives. 3) Sorority processes however it does things - rec board, individual alumnae, whatever.</p>
<p>If you are handing your packets to an alumnae panhellenic, do not worry about rec boards!! Honestly, it’s none of your beeswax how they process it, as long as they do and the packets go flying - electronically or on paper - to the chapter houses at Alabama.</p>
<p>If you are handing your packet to an individual sorority alumna, trust that she knows how to handle the rec according to her sorority’s requirements.
RELAX, ladies!</p>
<p>Thank you southlander!!! Ladies…I understand the nervousness :). Those of us who have been through the process before you had the same emotions! For those of you coming out of Texas or the south…use your panhellenic groups :). I also suggest you work on finding a second set of recs on your own (if you can) or as many as you can through friends, relatives and the like. I always encourage more that one rec because you have a better chance of making sure one gets there (ok so no panic on this as well).
southlander is right :). Trust those who are doing your recs…they will get them there, in a timely manner and according to their sorority’s rules and expectations.
For those of you from OOS (above the Mason-Dixon Line)…you too can contact your local panhellenics but you will find in many cases they are not nearly as organized or pro-active in this process. Trust you rec writers…they will get it done. If have newbies who have not done recs before suggest they contact their national organization to make sure they follow protocol.
As for transcripts…last night DD was in a meeting where 12 of the 16 sororities on campus were represented (several of the girls had roles in formal recruitment for 2013 and all were juniors). When I called her to talk about recs and transcripts she put me on speaker phone and we had a 10 minute round table about those two topics. Bottom line…recs are needed for all houses. Sororities use transcripts to verify grades although many will just use the list that is generated by panhellenic and handed out right before formal recruitment begins (a sub list of those girls with below 3.0 is started when recs come in). You can send a copy of your final “official” transcript to the sororities when you get it…it is not a contact violation. If a rec arrives that is missing signatures and the sorority wants to the bid that girl they will get the signatures needed. They do not throw away recs because they do not have a “Signature” that is needed. Yes…every sorority has certain rules and regulations that come from the national level but truth is IF they have a PNM that they think will make an outstanding member they will do what’s necessary on the national level to ensure that paper work ect is in place. Houses are already receive recs. Go ahead and send when ready. If you have the wrong contact person it’s ok…it will get to who it needs to get to :).
I would remind you that the girls who get into trouble at Bama are girls who have below a 3.0 GPA, don’t have recs for each house, are a liability due to questionable behavior, are awkward and cannot carry a conversation, or come into the process with a closed mind and only want certain sororities.
One brief thing about Chi Omega…your daughters Chi O rec must come from your hometown. I have been on the phone with Chi O about this several times (again just the other day). This seems to be important to them. If you cannot find a Chi O rec in your general vicinity then reach out to the next city ect. The alum who is doing your Chi O rec will understand this.
As far as legacy recs go…in some cases a legacy introduction form does not count as an official rec. Why? We all think our daughters are amazing young women and so the rec we write will be slightly biased. Most sororities want a second rec on file from a non-legacy writer…just to balance the table. I know…makes sense but is silly…I mean if someone says they will write you a rec are they really going to write a rec that says negative things about the PNM?<br>
So…take a deep breath…IT WILL BE OK!!! I promise. I know most of your daughters…they are beautiful, smart, articulate and amazing young women…they WILL find sorority home at Alabama.</p>
IF they are open to any sorority. It’s human nature to want the “best” sorority or a “good” sorority.</p>
<p>I find this is the biggest reason by far that girls don’t get a bid. They get in their head that they will ONLY accept A,B,C,D,E or F sorority and NO OTHER! And when they get their list back for the next day and they have invitations from sororities G - R, they wail and drop out. </p>
<p>Despite what you hear from “tent talk” or read on that despicable site greekrank, there are NO bad sororities at Alabama. They ALL have campus leaders, excellent students, beautiful and popular girls…and girls who are average students. ALL of them.</p>
<p>^^^ What Southlander said!!
D is a freshman this year and is in a wonderful house. She told me that she knows girls in almost every house and is friends with many of them. I was down on campus this weekend and as we were walking down Greek Row she told me that she could have been happy in any house on campus because every house is a mix of girls with hundreds of members in each house. </p>
<p>One thing I do love about every house is that they support their members accomplishments. As we walked Greek Row every house had banners strung from the roof or between the columns saying things like: congrats to X. Smith for Freshman Forum. Or other acceptances to Honor societies, Senates , etc. It was really so nice to see.</p>
<p>Being kind of nosy here, but in the south and Texas do you have the option of giving all of your resumes to one alum Panhellenic and they forward them? We are trying to find over 30 separate people to write recs, and it is not easy! Tell me there is an easier way to do this!</p>
<p>I can speak to the North Texas area. In some suburbs of Dallas, the Alumnae Panhellenic accepts packets and forwards them to their member sororities so that recs can be written – not the case in the city of Dallas, where you do need to find your own 30+ rec writers. The Dallas Alumnae Panhellenic does have a registration process which forwards the names of registered girls to each member sorority. The member sororities can then check the list of registered girls against the recs that they receive and determine whether there are any girls that they would like to write recs on themselves that they don’t already have recs for – but you cannot count on getting any recs through the Dallas Alumnae Panhellenic registration process.</p>
<p>We are in the Dallas suburb area and our local Panhellenic had all of the girls submit packets for every sorority that is represented at their college. From there, the packets were forwarded to women in the community who volunteer to write recs. Our community is small, with only one high school, so most of the writers in the town already know the girls or families. We, then, found close, personal friends and family to write our second, third, and sometimes fourth rec. The great thing about Alabama is, they only require one rec and do not want the piles and piles of letters of support!</p>
<p>Anyone know how the Plano/Richardson Panhellenic operates?<br>
We registered thru that group. We have some of our own that we know or they know the family. Just need more for the sororites that we do not have a single rec writer. </p>
<p>we had experience where some of our rec writers did not follow through. our area panhellenic said they would take care of recs, but they also did not have a person for every sorority.</p>
<p>i would accept the help of the area panhellenic, but i would also try to find as many on my own as possible.</p>
<p>Not to throw a wrinkle in to this, but a lot of the groups are going to online recs now. I know that Chi O has it so that you can submit everything on line and apparently Theta, DG, KD and several other groups also have on line forms. So if you are dealing directly with the people writing the recs (as opposed to the local Panhellenic groups) you might want to ask if they want you to provide the information electronically as the sites allow you to upload pictures and resumes.</p>
<p>As far as submitting recs electronically, that sounds so much easier in a lot of ways. Is there any way of knowing whether or not the sororities prefer a hard copy over an electronic submission? There are certainly advantages to both.</p>
<p>Let me clarify that: A national group may have online forms which can be filled out and submitted along with pictures and transcripts, but does anyone have any insight into what the sororities at Alabama prefer? I’m pretty sure that the online form for KD is new this year (or at least within the past two years) and I’m curious as to whether groups would rather have that or the “old fashioned” kind. I wouldn’t want the online rec to get lost just because it’s “new” and groups aren’t used to it yet.</p>
<p>I’d stick with paper. The sororities will receive the recommendations from their alumnae; you will not be submitting them (unless it’s to your own sorority, of course). Paper will cover both the web savvy and non-web savvy. Web savvies can scan the stuff they need for uploading. When you hand the packet over, you can always say that you can e-mail them electronic versions. Then you have their e-mail for a quick reminder/thank you.</p>
<p>All right, I realize this is a silly house-keeping issue and may be completely irrelevant, but humor me. The resume is 2 pages…to staple or not to staple?</p>
<p>Walmart and most of the scrap booking stores have teeny tiny clips if you, like I, must submit rec packages to your local Panhellenic clipped but NOT in an envelope.</p>
<p>Also, make SURE you have the current address list for the sororities. There are several online, and some are not current/correct.</p>
our area panhellenic said they would take care of recs, but they also did not have a person for every sorority.</p>