quota

I understand what back to the COB question is saying and I agree with tamsen's reply. How can anyone in good conscience sanction private COB? This seems like a seriously bad idea and just fans the flames of anger, elitism and racism. But maybe that's what the houses want to do because they think that they can prove that they are above public opinion and frankly above any regulations at all. Not sure where in panhel rules there is a provision for private COB? I guess my question is what is the point of having rules and a process if you think you are above or in your case below them? This is truly becoming a case of dumb and dumber and the crap just keeps piling up in terms of the way outsiders think of the system. Do you honestly think perception doesn't matter? I suggest having a chapter meeting and discussing the issue. My hope is that somewhere in the deep dark recesses of your houses that there might somewhere be a voice of reason. Why not do a true open COB NOW? What difference does it make if you only need to fill a couple of spots? Do you truly object to having to meet people? Or maybe I'm wrong and I don't get why you want to do private COB? I'm confused.

Guys, C.O.B. does not work like you all are thinking it works. Please try to understand the process before you get angry.

First, C.O.B. is not an option for many houses. You have to be below total. So, somebody is whining about KKG not doing C.O.B., they can't do it even if they wanted to. They're about total.

Second, you can only C.O.B. UP to total. In a hypothetical world, if total was 100 and one sorority had 98 members and one 80, one sorority can C.O.B. up to 20 women, one sorority can C.O.B. two.

So, if you have one or two spots open or whatever, no way you are going to do a full multi-day C.O.B. and spend everybody's time, the chatper's money, etc on a full out C.O.B. when you can just ask somebody in the home "Do you have a best friend you'd like us to bid?" then consider the four names you get, and then pick two and you're done.

However, if you have 20 spots, then of course you're going to advertise, hold big events, etc.

The sororities have no control over how many spots (if any) they get for C.O.B. Panhellenic decides that. Please try to learn how the system works before finding "flaws" in it. There are a lot of flaws in the Greek system, but much of this is misunderstanding.

Hmmm, Still scratching my head about the closed COB process. I hear your so called reasons for those houses that just need to fill a couple of spots. But if the 'true' issues are financial and disruption to the houses then why not institute snap bidding as part of formal recruitment rather than this hocus pocus COB? What makes me really uncomfortable is when you say in youur last post that the way this happens is to ask around and ask 'do you have a best friend you'd like us to bid'? Given that we have just gone through this formal recruitment with a brutal first cut where many girls that might have fit your house were eliminated, instead of going back to even the people you cut in rounds 2 or 3 you are INSTEAD asking for 'friends of friends'. I'm sorry but this seems against the spirit of what just happened in recruitment. Please explain to me why the friend of the friend idea is remotely a good one? If the sisters stayed up late for 4 nights or so going over lists and debating fit, I am not at all sure how to reconcile that level of detail with 'friend of friends'. I think the whole process of recruitment loses crediblity when COB is not handled consistently by houses. I hear you on the issue of some houses needing more people than others but in my mind you either have a process or not and this entire COB issue seems a bit nebulous and seems a bit unfair to all the people that were cut in your process in day 2 or 3 and they might not even know about this (con't)

page 2 super secret COB. Even if it works as well as you are saying for the houses (I am sure it works for the houses as its easy and cheap) it does ZERO for the perception of elitism and discrimination. As we have seen lack of knowledge is dangerous and can lead to bad feelings. I support the idea of snap bidding at the time of formal recruitment or having 3 house options to pref vs 2 but this secret COB seems distinctly half-assed to me. I think the “Snap Bidding” idea could remedy the messniness of secret COB. If at the end of the bid matching process there are still girls who do not have a bid, a sorority that is below “house total” and that has not made quota can “snap bid”. Generally sororities do not snap bid a girl they have previously not invited back although they may snap bid a girl who ranked them low (on her alternate list) and did not return to their parties. This is done at the same time as bid matching and only occurs on Bid Day. Most girls won’t know if they were a snap bid since it is done in conjunction with the bid matching process. Girls who are “snap bids” receive their bids along with all of the other PNM’s and participate in all of the Bid Day activities. A “snap bid” is not and cannot be used as a “quota addition”. This seems quite fair to me vs the not quite fair secret COB. Food for discussion I think. Curious what you think.

Because Berkeley guarantees a bid if you rank all your pref night choices, snap bids wouldn't work here.

Many schools where greek life is more dominant do not guarantee bids, no matter what. This means there are many girls every year who go to all the parties and rank all their preferences, but do not get a bid. Snap bids are reserved for houses who do not meet quota to extend to girls who did not get a bid. Usually they are not eligible to those who minimized their options (did not rank all, skipped parties, etc.). Also, the girl who is snapped will definitely know that she is snap bid, because most of the time it will be a bid from a house she did not rank for preference.

Actually, snap bids are a little shadier because while the new members will not know who amongst them is the snap bid, it's usually treated like a big secret, and there is no opportunity for members to meet the PNM again before the snap. Usually the new mem director reaches out to girls and asks if they want a bid and to come to bid day, which is (I would say) much shadier than private COB.

I totally hear you that private COB gives a sense of elitism, but snap bids aren't an alternative here. I wish there was a better way, but it's difficult to find a fair solution for a small number of bids (usually less than 5) which is why COB is considered informal recruitment.

According to Greekchat, the quota was 54.

"Alpha Chi Omega 57
Alpha Delta Pi 56
Alpha Omicron Pi DNP
Alpha Phi 58
Chi Omega 65
Delta Delta Delta 64
Delta Gamma 56
Gamma Phi Beta 35
Kappa Alpha Theta 56
Kappa Kappa Gamma 55
Pi Beta Phi 56
Sigma Kappa 69
Zeta Tau Alpha 54"