Welcome back to another weekly blog post from the men of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity on the Simpson College campus! We are excited to see where this blog will go in the future and can’t wait to hear what YOU want us to be doing on campus, in Indianola, or on the web to make our message clearer to YOU and those around you.
To start off this week, I’d like to talk a bit more about how Formal Recruitment works. As you may, or may not know, Formal Recruitment is much different than regular recruitment. It happens every Fall and it lasts from when 1st-year students arrive on campus, until about the middle of September. During this time, all the Greek houses are hosting events, get-togethers, bonfires, grill-outs, sport outings, etc… with hopes that they can impress the new Simpson students enough that they will want to join if invited. Since there are only a few weeks that this is happening in, it becomes one of the busiest, most stressful times for the houses. At least in our case, we are having formal/registered events every few nights AND we are having random, spontaneous events (pickup games of ultimate Frisbee) almost every night with 1st-year students that want to meet us and get to know us better.
On top of all the individual events that houses are hosting, IFC (InterFraternity Council) is also hosting several events that the 1st-year students are invited to come to. It makes for a very busy, stressful time for the members of the Greek community, but it can also make the new students feel flustered because of how much is going on EVERY SINGLE NIGHT.
Like I said previously, the Formal Recruitment period is only a few weeks long, but the actual week of Formal Recruitment is where all the magic happens. The week starts off on Monday with all the fraternity houses having open houses and hosting large-group discussions with every male interested in Greek Life. It is a lot of fun. The 1st-year students are able to visit each house on the row, talk to the brothers of that chapter, tour the house and learn the big selling points of each fraternity on the Simpson College campus. After open house night, there is one more night of events hosted by individual houses. On Wednesday of Formal week, IFC hands out all the bids from all the chapters to every man who is receiving one. From then until the walk, there is a “Silent Period.” This is a time when no member of a house is to be talking to a 1st-year student about Greek Life. It allows the student time to reflect, and think about where he would like to go, without being swayed by a member of a house on campus. The silent period is over at the start of “Walk Night” which is on Thursday.
Walk Night is probably my favorite night of the year, other than parts of our Pre-Initiation week in December. This is the night were all the men who are going to be joining a house will make that decision in front of all their peers and every sorority on campus. The men who plan on joining a house will be walked to the soccer field behind all the fraternity houses, lined up and asked their name (which will be said over a radio so all the houses hear who is walking). From there, the man will walk up the hill to whichever house he wants to join (and has been given a bid from) to meet his new brothers. Until he walks to his house, he is the only one who knows for sure where he is going. After every man has chosen their house, all the houses get serenaded by the sororities. Following that, all the houses have their own celebration and do what they can to get their new brothers feeling at home!
With the end of Walk Night comes the official end of Formal Recruitment. However, this is NOT THE END OF RECRUITMENT. All the chapters are still around and looking for people who fit their values and have fun around them. Although I highly recommend “walking,” if you choose not to, you are still able to join a house at any time in the future.
Stay tuned for weekly updates on chapter operations, behind the scenes explanations, events and future possibilities for interaction. Thank you for taking time to read, and hopefully respond with suggestions to our new blog. Please feel free to share and comment on the post as well as encourage others to do so.
Also, if you have any questions, comments or concerns about Lambda Chi Alpha, Theta-Lambda Zeta, or our future content, please feel free to reach out to Matt Lash, our VP of External Affairs, at [email protected] or (319)-431-7687.
Welcome back to another weekly blog post from the men of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity on the Simpson College campus! We are excited to see where this blog will go in the future and can’t wait to hear what YOU want us to be doing on campus, in Indianola, or on the web to make our message clearer to YOU and those around you.
To start off this week, I’d like to talk a bit more about how Formal Recruitment works. As you may, or may not know, Formal Recruitment is much different than regular recruitment. It happens every Fall and it lasts from when 1st-year students arrive on campus, until about the middle of September. During this time, all the Greek houses are hosting events, get-togethers, bonfires, grill-outs, sport outings, etc… with hopes that they can impress the new Simpson students enough that they will want to join if invited. Since there are only a few weeks that this is happening in, it becomes one of the busiest, most stressful times for the houses. At least in our case, we are having formal/registered events every few nights AND we are having random, spontaneous events (pickup games of ultimate Frisbee) almost every night with 1st-year students that want to meet us and get to know us better.
On top of all the individual events that houses are hosting, IFC (InterFraternity Council) is also hosting several events that the 1st-year students are invited to come to. It makes for a very busy, stressful time for the members of the Greek community, but it can also make the new students feel flustered because of how much is going on EVERY SINGLE NIGHT.
Like I said previously, the Formal Recruitment period is only a few weeks long, but the actual week of Formal Recruitment is where all the magic happens. The week starts off on Monday with all the fraternity houses having open houses and hosting large-group discussions with every male interested in Greek Life. It is a lot of fun. The 1st-year students are able to visit each house on the row, talk to the brothers of that chapter, tour the house and learn the big selling points of each fraternity on the Simpson College campus. After open house night, there is one more night of events hosted by individual houses. On Wednesday of Formal week, IFC hands out all the bids from all the chapters to every man who is receiving one. From then until the walk, there is a “Silent Period.” This is a time when no member of a house is to be talking to a 1st-year student about Greek Life. It allows the student time to reflect, and think about where he would like to go, without being swayed by a member of a house on campus. The silent period is over at the start of “Walk Night” which is on Thursday.
Walk Night is probably my favorite night of the year, other than parts of our Pre-Initiation week in December. This is the night were all the men who are going to be joining a house will make that decision in front of all their peers and every sorority on campus. The men who plan on joining a house will be walked to the soccer field behind all the fraternity houses, lined up and asked their name (which will be said over a radio so all the houses hear who is walking). From there, the man will walk up the hill to whichever house he wants to join (and has been given a bid from) to meet his new brothers. Until he walks to his house, he is the only one who knows for sure where he is going. After every man has chosen their house, all the houses get serenaded by the sororities. Following that, all the houses have their own celebration and do what they can to get their new brothers feeling at home!
With the end of Walk Night comes the official end of Formal Recruitment. However, this is NOT THE END OF RECRUITMENT. All the chapters are still around and looking for people who fit their values and have fun around them. Although I highly recommend “walking,” if you choose not to, you are still able to join a house at any time in the future.
Stay tuned for weekly updates on chapter operations, behind the scenes explanations, events and future possibilities for interaction. Thank you for taking time to read, and hopefully respond with suggestions to our new blog. Please feel free to share and comment on the post as well as encourage others to do so.
Also, if you have any questions, comments or concerns about Lambda Chi Alpha, Theta-Lambda Zeta, or our future content, please feel free to reach out to Matt Lash, our VP of External Affairs, at [email protected] or (319)-431-7687.