Status Update: 8.7.08

Specific notable updates for today:

> CPW - Added discussion on its two largest purposes: it gives us first contact with freshmen and it serves as a marketing trial run for Rush.

> The Who, What, etc. - Currently a part on "when" is included here. I realized this is silly to include, since the answer to that question is the purpose of the entire work. But somehow I glossed over the question of "where" we recruit, which could be interesting to address (some discussion on the pros and cons of taking people out of your house for recruitment events). Then again, I touch on this under "how". We'll see what happens.

> Rush Special Topics - The first two sections have been outlined. They look like:

1. Clearinghouse
- Origins of
- Revival in '05
- Initial purpose
- Real vs. pretend purpose now
- Proper and improper usage
- Criticisms

2. Rush rules
- Purpose
- Purpose as an inverse prisoner’s dilemma
- Evolution (gag rule to the present form)
- Criticisms

Also, what in the world am I going to do about Retention? I have written:

Retention is keeping our new members, may they be pledges or newly initiated brothers (NIBs), engaged and excited about their chapter with the ultimate result of them moving into the house at the beginning of their sophomore year. […]

But I'm stumped on how to tackle it. It's the most forgotten of the three R's (with the other two being recruitment and Rush, of course), which is why it deserves attention. But the trick is to handle it without going into detail on things like pledge period, which would be a total sidetrack. Ideas?

Clearinghouse

At a rush chairs meeting today, I was very well reminded about how much I hate Clearinghouse. Recruitment Theory is mainly about stats and facts and practice, but I may be forced to get a little political with the Clh section. I find it hard not to--it's a system from the 80s and early 90s that has essentially been replaced by cell phones. The only reason we keep it around now (after being revived for Rush 2005) is because 1) we don't trust each other, and 2) we aren't confident in our recruiting abilities. Or something. But I'm getting a little carried away.

Unrelated: thanks to Foote for reminding me to incorporate a section on "Event marketing" under "Event planning."

Status Update: 8.5.08

Since this is the first status update, I suppose I need to let you know what I stand overall. Be sure to reference the outline to see the size and layout of the sections.

The following sections are draft ready. This means that they're more or less done and are waiting to be proofread:

• Passive recruitment
• Spring Recruitment
• CPW
• Summer recruitment
• The How
• Selling Rush
• Rush Chair

The following sections are minor works-in-progress. They will be draft ready with a little more work:

• Definitions
• The Who
• The What
• Orientation and Leaders
• Frosh Mentalities I
• End of week goals
• Event planning
• Motivation

These sections are serious works-in-progress. They're part prose and part outline:

• Active Recruitment - Rush
• The Why
• Chaos Theory
• Making First Contact
• The Rush Week - The Beginning

The sections below exist only as rough outlines:

• The When
• The Rush Week (all of it other than The Beginning)
• Rush - Special Topics

The sections listed below have not been started and may be cut before the final first draft:

• Spring - Dormitory effects
• Spring - Pledging sophomores
• The Where
  

And finally, the remaining section isn't even outlined:

• Retention (And it's kind of a big part. Oops.)

So the plan is to get everything written (in other words, draft ready) and then embark on a massive proofreading which will probably be the first of many. But let's cross that bridge when we get there.

What is Recruitment Theory?

"Recruitment Theory" is the working title of the massive piece I'm working on about fraternity recruitment at MIT. I started it in the fall of my junior year and have been writing ever since (albeit, somewhat sporadically). Now that I'm a graduate, I feel like I should finally sit down and chug away until I finish it. The plans for the final version? Hopefully some sort of publication, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

The outline of the piece is as follows (sorry for the formatting...HTML hates outlines):

Preface

I. Recruitment
A) Definitions
...- Types of recruitment
...- Types of joiners
...- Terms for Rush
...- [...]
B) Passive Recruitment
...i. Branding
...ii.Reputation
.......- Types of reputation
.......- Changing reputation
...iii.Alignment
...iv.Passive Recruitment - So What?
C) Active Recruitment
...i. Spring Recruitment
......a. Model
......b. Solving at the IFC level
......c. Tackling at the chapter level
.........i. Three idealizations
.........ii.Practical execution
......d. Miscellaneous notes
......e. [Dormitory effects] (Probably to be axed)
......f. [Pledging sophomores] (Outdated; probably to be axed)
......g. Final thoughts
...ii.CPW
...iii.Summer recruitment
...iv.Rush
......- Importance at MIT
......- Types of Rush
......- Stages of Rush
...v.Active in summary
D) Who, What, When, Why, How of Recruitment
...i. Who - like vs. unlike
...ii.What - house vs. fraternity
...iii.When - all year (Really stupid; probably to be axed)
...iv. Why - reasons we care about getting new members
...v. How
......- Two apparent paradoxes
......- Resolving the paradoxes
......- Miscellaneous notes
E) Recruitment Unpredictability
...- Intro
...- Internal unpredictability
...- External unpredictability
...- Reducing probability of unpredictability

II.Rush
A) Pre-Rush
...i. Extrahouse affairs
......a. Orientation and leaders
......b. Preorientation and FPOPs
......c. First contact with freshmen
......d. Frosh Mentalities I
......e. End-of-week goals
......f. Selling Rush
...ii.Intrahouse affairs
......a. Rush Chair
......b. Event planning
.........- Selecting proper events
.........- Types of events
.........- Layout of the week
...iii.Motivation
...... a. Via Rush outlook
.......b. Via incentives
B) The Rush Week
...i. The Beginning
......a. The Greek Griller and its aftermath
......b. Jaunts
......c. Other events
......d. General early Rush notes and goals
......e. Frosh Mentalities II
...ii.Midweek
......a. Maintaining the mood
......b. Midweek goals
......c. Frosh Mentalities III
......d. Personnel Micromanagement
.........- Retention and passing
.........- Hiding members
.........- Mixing potential flushes with potential bidsmen
......e. The preliminary Power Rush
...iii.Endgame
.......a. Frosh mentalities IV
.......b. Dorm paradox (not sure about this)
.......c. Crossrushing
.......d. Bid Day
.......e. The Clincher Jaunt
.......f. The Power Rush
.......g. Pledge Day
.......h. Beyond pledge day
.......i. [frosh mentalities V?]
C) Special Topics (subject to a reorganization)
...i. Clearinghouse
...ii.Rush rules
...iii.Rush shirts
...iv.Sophomore un-jinx
...v. Event advertising
...vi.Rush girls
...vii.Rush meetings
...viii.Prisoner's dilemma of event planning
...ix.Giveaways (events)
...x.The Speed Rush
D) Conclusion

III. Retention
[...]

Conclusion

The purpose of this log is to keep you updated on my progress as well as to gather input from you. I will rarely (stress the rarely) post the actual text here, since I'm a little OCD about drafts floating around.