total number of bids?

Who is headphone girl?

It is really unfair to say that if 1,890 girls go through rush that 1,890 girls will get a bid. That won't happen. Last year there were 50 girls who, throughout the week, didn't get asked back to any houses. And the houses have something to say about it and my house, and at least 4 others, have gone on record saying they don't want pledge classes any bigger than last year's. Let me state that more strongly: my house and at least four others have said we WILL NOT take pledge classes any bigger than last year's. So let's not misrepresent what actually goes on. Many people will be disappointed, many people will drop and getting into a house is not a slam-dunk.

headphone girl was a pnm a year or two ago that took this site and the tier system too seriously. so at rush, while visiting the "lower tier" houses, she stuck some headphones in her ears, was really rude, and sometimes would tell her ΠΧs that she refused to go in. little did she know that, despite what this website might portray, we are all a community and look out for each other so every sorority took an offense to her actions -- not just the lower tier. she got cross cut across the board and did not last until pref round.

Were were following an order from our national. Our chapter has more than enough money and what the national is finding is that when you have a huge pledge class, the sorority experience is too impersonal and, as a result, there is not as much loyalty when it comes to donating as alums. Giving after graduation is dropping precipitously at schools with overly large chapters. That's why we, and some other houses, have been told to keep it under 100 at all costs, and preferably closer to 75.

You clearly don't know how national's work. They want each chapter to be successful on the campus they are on. Which means meeting quota. You can choose to take less than quota but RFM is designed to make sure all girls who maximize their options get bids. So they could be quota additions at other houses if you didn't take them.... But that would be stupid and risky because in order for that to work out you'd have to not give a flex list, just give 90 girls you want and hope they want you too.... Because otherwise the computer system assigns you girls from your bid list (OF EVERYONE WHO ATTENDED PREF) until you meet quota.
I guarantee every house at mizzou will try to meet quota. Nobody's going to intentionally fail. It won't be 1890 bids, but the point is it COULD be if everyone who signed up had the grades and maximized their options. Girls will drop out because they think they have to be in a "top" house, so in reality, never will the number registered = # of bids, but it COULD hypothetically

I don't know about "Stop," but I DO understand how nationals work. I have been my house's liaison with national for two years and my national is very interested in getting a handle on huge, impersonal pledge classes. It's bad enough when girls don't know everyone in their pledge class much less everyone in the house. Of course we want to make quota, and we always do. We just want quota to be a more realistic number -- not more than 75. The solution to keeping a quality Greek system isn't forcing huge numbers on houses that already exist, it is having more houses. Now, the good news is that demographically there will be fewer and fewer girls going through rush, so the problem might very well solve itself. But in the meantime no house should be forced to take more girls than they want, or can live in the house.

But you don't get to decide what quota "should" be. RFM does. And quota is # of girls at pref/number of houses. You aren't able to set quota at 75 because that's where you want it to be.
The problem isn't going to be solved until Mizzou expands. they need more sororities to meet the demand, because the system is designed to give as many girls bids as possible. Lots of girls rush, we need more options to make pledge classes shrink.

Even though this is an anonymous website, I'm sure you enjoy throwing your weight around and telling us what we can and cannot do. I'm not sure where you get your information, but about half of it is wrong. Quota is up for discussion each and every year. The determining factors change each and every year. You don't have to be on Panhel or your house's exec to know that. It is simply wrong to mislead PNMs by saying if they just keep going to parties they are guaranteed a spot. That couldn't be further from the truth. Hearts are broken all the time. Just stop.

"." Is right and you clearly don't know how it works. The system mizzou uses is RFM, release figures management. RFM determines quota. Chapter preferences do not. Saying that if PNMs make it to pref and maximize their options they'll get a bid isn't leading them on. It's a fact. Everyone who attends pref (barring some crazy circumstance like yelling at a sister so they could get permission to not put them on a list) is SOMEWHERE on the bid list. They go through bid lists till each house meets quota. Then the girls who don't match are placed as quota additions to houses they preffed at. IF YOU MAXIMIZE YOUR OPTIONS AFTER PREF AND DONT DO ANYTHING STUPID AT PREF YOU WILL RECEIVE A BID. The girls who go bidless after pref are girls who don't list all their options on their MRABA. They suicide rather than maximizing their options.

"Arbitrarily reducing quota?" There is nothing arbitrary about it. The nationals who are trying to get a handle on the sizes of pledge classes are doing it for very real reasons. They want the sorority experience to be better for all who join,. They want their sorority to be a true sisterhood, where you know the other members, can live with them and get to share experiences. They are more concerned with lifelong friendship than the bottom line. If you are so concerned about a trophy for every entrant, then why aren't you working to increase the number of chapters and to make every chapter better instead of saying insulting things. And, yes, I'm talking to YOU, "Question," who thinks the way to build accord is to call people names. Here's an example. I was at a party last year when a DG had too much to drink and was getting more than sloppy. Another girl was passing judgment on the DG and her friends because no one was taking care of her and getting her out of a potentially bad situation. The thing is, the girl who was passing judgment WAS A DG, TOO. And didn't even know the drunk girl was in her house. Now, you tell me how this is a good thing and how this reflects positively on greek life and how this reflects what Panhellenic stands for.

Ok, so your premise is laudable. I fully admit that.

But you haven't answered the question of how your national organization is trying to reduce quota. If it isn't by encouraging women to drop out of recruitment, then how, exactly? It's all well and good to say that classes are too large. But "stop" says that her house has been instructed to keep their class under 100 "at all costs," and closer to 75. I want to know how they are planning to do that. We can't magically make a 16th house appear this year. So how does stop's national organization propose that they make quota close to 75, without encouraging qualified women to drop?

It's not about handing out a trophy. What you are suggesting is that if there are 90 women who meet your standards of membership and would make good members of your sorority, that you should in some way deny membership to 15 of them just so that you can keep class size down. I honestly don't know how you will accomplish that in the present unless you are encouraging women to drop out of recruitment so that there is a smaller pool of candidates.

That is wrong. That is contrary to NPC ideals. The first purpose of RFM, per NPC, is: "Maximize the number of potential new members (PNMs)
who ultimately affiliate with a sorority through recruitment."

When PanHel ideals are at odds with an individual house's ideals, something has to give. And when PanHel no longer works to make its member houses stronger, then change is in the air. Demographic trends are likely to solve this problem, but I hope you can see that having more girls go through rush (and ultimately wind up in a house) does not necessarily improve the system. Here's the thing. Freshman are not necessarily getting prettier or smarter or more involved than they once more, there simply are more of them who want to join a sorority. So the Thetas and the PiPhis and the ChiOs of the world are always going to get who they want, whether they each siphon off the top 60 or 75 or 90 girls for their pledge classes. And so on down the line. If the top houses take even more of the top girls, in a way that may leave quantity, though not necessarily quality, for the lower-tier houses. If PanHel is worried about girls dropping after bid day or not making grades or not being committed to a house's standards, they have no one but themselves to blame for watering down the system. Ultimately being more selective makes the system stronger. When you are on a second grade soccer team and the coach makes sure everyone plays, the team may suck but the girls are happy. When those same rules are in effect when you're 18, it brings down the whole system.