It’s All Greek to Me: The Language of Sororities and Recruitment

What terms are used most frequently during sorority recruitment? We’ve got them for you here, including people, groups, time frames, rules, statistics, and actions. A quick peruse will help familiarize you with some new (and sometimes odd) words and phrases you will likely be hearing more often.

National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) is the conference body of 26 sororities and women’s fraternities established to collaborate with and advocate for it’s members. Membership recruitment is governed by a College Panhellenic Association at each institution.

College Panhellenic Association (sometimes abbreviated as CPH, PHC, Panhel, CPC, etc.) is the cooperative campus organization of collegiate members of NPC sororities represented on that campus.

Formal Recruitment is a designated membership recruitment period during which each sorority holds a series of organized social activities.

A Chapter is the local group that represents a segment of an Inter/National organization. The term Inter/National describes a sorority’s central organization.

All sororities have chapters in the U.S. These are national sororities. Some sororities have chapters in Canada, making them international sororities. The term Inter/National describes both types organizations and is used widely in the collegiate setting.

Collegians are the college women you will be meeting who are current members of the chapter. You may also hear the term collegiate. It might help to remember that collegiate is an adjective and collegian is a noun.

An Alumna is a sorority member (female) who is no longer in college; the plural form is Alumnae (pronounced uh-LUM-nee).

Do you know any alumnae? You may already know women who are alumnae members of a sorority; perhaps your neighbor, a teacher or how about your own family members? If a woman related to you is a member of a sorority you may be considered a legacy to an organization.

A Legacy might be the sister/step-sister, daughter/step-daughter, grand-daughter/step-granddaughter, or niece/step-niece of a sorority member. Your legacy status could impact your recruitment results.

If you do know alumnae you may want to ask for a Recommendation. In this case, sorority alumnae provide information regarding potential members to collegiate chapter members who are conducting new member recruitment. Each organization has special forms for their recommendations. Expect your recommender to take care of that piece.

Potential New Member (PNM) is a woman who has not yet joined a sorority.

During the recruitment process you will be assigned a Recruitment Counselor, a collegiate Panhellenic woman not in contact with her own chapter during recruitment. She guides potential members through the recruitment process and answers questions. Sometimes counselors have special Greek-letter names like Pi Chi, Rho Gamma, Gamma Chi, etc.

Recruitment counselors work with the officers of the College Panhellenic Association and often times an advisor. During Recruitment PNMs attend events that are organized so they have an opportunity to meet with each chapter. These events are organized in Rounds. Each round is comprised of a group of recruitment events, often described by the number of events (e.g., eight-event round).

Different rounds will have different themes, usually centered around what you may learn from the chapters on that particular day. For example, the chapters will usually focus one event on their Philanthropy, which is a charitable project an organization sponsors.

Preference is the final round of formal recruitment events, more intimate and formal than previous rounds. Immediately after the preference events, the PNMs complete their final ranking of sororities in preferential order. Sometimes a preference event will discuss the sorority’s focus on their values and ritual.

Ritual describes a sorority’s traditional and secret ceremonies which are not shared until a woman is an initiated member of the organization. However it is important to learn about the chapter’s values and beliefs, since this is the basis on which they were founded.

Some potential new members will list only one sorority when they make their final decisions. This action, known as a Intentional Single Preference, lessens the chances of receiving a bid, and isn’t recommended.

If you are a PNM, your end goal is likely to receive a Bid, which is a formal invitation to join a chapter of a sorority.

How do sorority women decide who to bid? They participate in Membership Selection, which refers to a formal sorority meeting that determines the bid list. The Bid List is a sorority-authored document used in Panhellenic bid matching to coordinate sorority and potential member preferences. This list is submitted to the college Panhellenic council.

The Preferential Bidding System (PBS) is a system used at the conclusion of formal recruitment to match the preferences of the sororities and the preferences of each potential member.

Bid day is the day bids are delivered to potential new members; there is often a celebration or ceremony on bid day.

And that’s it. This article should now equip you with a basic understanding of the formal membership recruitment process for sororities, and the lingo. Of course, new words and concepts are going to be presented and the process can vary from campus to campus.

Whether you are a PNM, parent, advisor or hold some other role in the Greek Community, never hesitate to ask your Recruitment Counselor or a representative of your College Panhellenic if you have questions.

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Mary Kate Lobough is a SureSister.com Ambassador. She is a past college Panhellenic Vice President of Public Relations and was a Greek Life graduate assistant at Eastern Illinois University. She holds a bachelors degree in history and a masters degree in student affairs in higher education from the same institution. A member of Sigma Sigma Sigma National Sorority, Mary Kate has served on both advisory boards and housing corporations. She can be reached via email using her first name (at) suresister.com, or at @PETALMaryKate on Twitter.