Put that phone to work.

Often, your first contact with a PNM will be via texting, direct messaging, or a phone call. Here are a few best practices to use when messaging individuals you haven’t met:

• Introduction: This seems obvious, but make sure the person you're contacting knows who you are.
• Share your connection: Increase the odds for a positive response by creating common ground. Share how you were referred to this person or provide context / reminders for how you met.
• Provide a "why": Provide the purpose for your outreach. This could be to schedule a call, meet for lunch, or invite him to an upcoming event. Pro Tip: The initial purpose shouldn’t be to invite him to talk about fraternity unless you know this person is already eager to join a fraternity.
• Create a response opportunity: Avoid asking questions that solicit a yes/no response. Instead, ask open-ended questions that start with "What, Where, When, etc.”

Your phone can make calls too!

Phone calls might seem a little more complicated, but when done correctly, they are a much better recruitment tool. We won’t attempt to script every call, but we’ll provide a few tips for reaching out to potential new members by phone. The key is to speak clearly and confidently, adapt to the other person’s tone, and remain positive. The flow of the conversation is the same as messaging: Introduce yourself, Share your connection, Provide your "why”, and Create a response opportunity.

Every person on your names list should receive at least 2-3 phone calls per week during your primary recruitment period (potentially every day if your chapter is participating in a formal recruitment that includes daily events).

• Rehearse before calling: Practice your first two sentences so that you know exactly what you’re going to say when the other person picks up. Also, practice leaving a voicemail.
• Write it down: Having difficulty memorizing your first couple sentences? Write them down.
• Practice: Call someone you know first to build confidence.
• Stand Up: When you stand while speaking, your voice projects clearer and naturally has more energy. The opposite is also true, are you speaking too fast and loud? Take a seat to put yourself in a more relaxed situation.
• Free your hands: Use headphones or put your phone on speaker so you can use your hands. Our voice is guided by body language, and having one hand stuck to our head can create an unnatural presence.
• Adapt your tone: You’ll find yourself talking to a variety of people who speak many different ways. Whether someone speaks slow, soft, fast, or loud, it can be helpful to match their tone. The key here is to only adapt your tone as it is natural to do so. Don’t venture too far from your own speaking pattern, otherwise you may come across as insincere or as though you are mocking the other person.
• Remain positive: You will hear no more times than you hear yes, that’s part of the game. Try to avoid getting nervous or frustrated by negative conversations. Keep your tone positive and have fun with the process.

The purpose of the call is not to get someone to join Delta Sigma Phi. The purpose of the call is to schedule a meeting. Shifting your mindset to a smaller goal can help focus the direction you take the call. See the flowchart below for an example.

Voicemail: Hey Matt, this is Brady. We haven’t met before, but I know your friend Jessica and she recommended I reach out to you to discuss this new leadership organization getting started on campus. Give me a call when you’re free and we can talk a little more. Also, a few people from this group are trying to get a pick-up basketball game organized this week if you’re interested. I’ll text you later, but I thought I’d give you a call since I just spoke with Jessica. Thanks Matt!

Let's meet your potential new members.

This is where the real recruitment work takes place. Meetings can be one-on-one, small groups, or at larger events. In every situation, the key is to learn as much as you can about a potential new member and find ways you genuinely think the fraternity experience might be a value-add to his collegiate experience. In this section, we will share a few best practices based on the type of meeting taking place, and some specific questions and talking points to help guide your meeting.

The reason for these meetings is usually to connect with someone to discuss single topic. The goal of a one-on-one meeting is to turn that single topic into a genuine conversation.

• Setting: Meetings should be on neutral ground, not in your dorm room or chapter house. Schedule meetings to take place at the student union or a nearby coffee shop.
• Timing: Meetings during the day and early evening are best. Try to avoid initial meetings at night unless it is for an activity or event.
• Conversation: The topic of Delta Sigma Phi can come up if it fits naturally into the conversation, otherwise, you should think of yourself as a detective that wants to learn as much about the hobbies and interests of the other person or find out more about their organization (if applicable). You should also plan on sharing relevant information about yourself to help build a connection.
• Facilitation: In a small group discussion, the best role a recruiter can play is facilitator. The key is to make sure everyone is always involved in the conversation regardless of its direction and find ways to pivot the topic to something that is interesting to everyone.
• Outcome: Based on the quality of the conversation, a reasonable outcome at the end of the meeting would be to share a little information about Delta Sigma Phi. If it’s not the best time to bring up fraternity, invite the PNM to an upcoming activity or event.

People want to feel heard. If you are doing most of the talking, they will lose interest at some point in the conversation. Use questions to guide the conversation and comment on responses from your potential new members.

Activities are different from meetings in that they involve some type of central action. The key here is that recruitment activities should be fun and routine parts of life. The worst thing we see chapters do is continuously spend money and energy organizing events like paintball or group outings to the movies. Guess what, paintball is expensive, and you can’t actually talk to people at the movie theater.

At the end of the activity, if there is a potential new member, or a group of PNMs, that you’ve met multiple times and you believe are ready to learn a little more about Delta Sigma Phi, ask if they can stick around afterward to discuss their interest in joining.

Here are a few best practices to help you plan effective activities.

Board & Video Games

Do:

• Pick games that allow for multiple people to play simultaneously.
• Pick games that move quickly, giving multiple people a turn to play and creating natural spaces for people to exit.
• Bring snacks.

Don't:

• Invite too many people. You don’t want to invite 20 people when only 4-8 people can reasonably play at a time.
• Pick games that are too complicated. It won’t be fun to spend half the time explaining the rules.

Playing Sports

Do:

• Make sure you have reserved a court or field, if necessary.
• Bring extra supplies (balls, gloves, etc.)
• Bring snacks and water.
• Mix-up your team so everyone can meet new people.

Don't:

• Be too competitive.

Watching TV

Do:

• Pick a sporting event or show with commercials, or that only requires limited attention. You want to create opportunities for conversation.
• Bring snacks.
• Have enough seats.

Don't:

• Sit in silence.

Working Out

Do:

• Be flexible with your routine.
• Consider a class.
• Bring water.

Don't:

• Push too hard.
• Judge others.

Studying

Do:

• Study for a similar subject or with people in the same major.
• Set expectations beforehand.
• Determine a start and end time.
• Bring coffee / snacks.
• A group check-in or final recap to reinforce learning and create dialogue.

Don't:

• Be distracting.
• Text constantly.
• Play games.

Volunteering

Do:

• Pick an activity that allows people to work together.
• Pick a time commitment that lasts 1-3 hours.
• Pick an event that
• Associate with a legitimate organization or recognized student group.
• Bring extra supplies (if needed).
• Be respectful.

Don't:

• Forget that you have an obligation to work.

Events are different from activities in that people observe the central action instead of participating in the central action. Also, the scale of the event is usually much larger than an everyday activity.

Prior to the start of every semester, the Recruitment Team should research key campus events and add them to the chapter calendar.

Recruitment shouldn’t cost a lot of money. We think chapters should spend their money on the people paying dues, not on trying to persuade new members. Instead of allocating resources toward a large event, we recommend participating in the events being organized by your school or in your community. Here are a few examples of common events found on or near many campuses:

Event Type	Notes & Tips
Continuing Education Classes	These classes are often offered by you school, community colleges, or your local library. Classes include technical skills, financial literacy, cooking, etc.
Career Services Workshops	Speakers and workshops related to resume building, interviewing, and all things job search related. These can be fun events that help you answer the never-ending question of, “What am I doing with my life?”.
Festivals	Cultural festival, food festivals, music festivals, the list is almost endless. Find some nearby festivals and see who wants to check them out.
Greek Life Events	Fraternities and sororities are always hosting events. See what is open the general student body and invite your potential new members.
Lecture Series	A celebrity, author, or successful professional might be headed to campus this year. Look at the event calendar in advance so you can get tickets.
Music Concerts	College campuses tend to have a number of local bands playing nearby. Check out some up and coming artists and invite a few friends.
Pep Rallies	The quickest way to get free SWAG and free food. Cheer on your team and meet others who share your school pride.
Pro/Am Sporting Events	Attend a professional or minor league sporting event.
Rec Center Classes and Events	Learn how to kickbox or play water polo at the rec center. The rec center might also have fun events like inner-tube movie night.
Residence Life Events	Res life is always hosting BBQs, ice cream socials, and orientation events.
Seasonal / Holiday Events	What’s going on for various local, national, and religious holidays?
Student Activities Fairs	This is mentioned as a reverse tabling activity, but there might be a few large-scale events hosted by your student activities office each year.
Student Organization Events	Dance Marathon is the most common event on most campuses. Do some research to see what else is out there and invite PNMs to join you and your chapter as you support another student group.
Varsity Sporting Events	Don’t overlook the less attended sporting events throughout the year, soccer, volleyball, track and field, and baseball games might be a nice change of pace, and a great way to meet people who like sports but aren’t into the tailgating scene.

Interest sessions are the one event that every chapter should host at least once a week during the first month of school. This event requires a little planning and practice, but it is your most controlled environment for recruiting potential new members. Every interest session has two objectives:

• Strengthen the connection potential new members have with each other, and with your team.
• Increase the interest potential new members have in joining Delta Sigma Phi.

In this section, we will share how to plan and execute an interest session.

• Location: Centrally located on campus, or in a recognizable and easy to find building.
• Room Type: Meeting space with an open floorplan is better than a classroom style with lecture style seats, but both can work. A newer room with natural light is better than a room without windows in the basement of an older building.
• Room Setup: Select a room with a projector and audio. If you have a decent sign, you can put that out front so people know they are in the right place.
• Date: Pick one day each week. Try to have a balance of Tuesday and Wednesday nights to accommodate different schedules.
• Time: Interest sessions should last about 45 minutes. We found 5-7 p.m. results in the best attendance.

Multiple reminders are usually needed. Focus on your names list first. This is a great event for people you’ve only met once or would like to meet for the first time.

• Manager: Responsible for organizing / ordering all supplies, making sure invites were sent and the room has been reserved.
• Greeter: Responsible for helping set-up the room, greeting participants and giving them instructions (grab a slice of pizza, sign-in, feel free to sit wherever you like or hang out and talk).
• Speaker #1: Responsible for kicking-off the interest session; alternates talking points with Speaker #2.
• Speaker #2: Alternates talking points with Speaker #1.

This is an opportunity to introduce the members in the room, formally welcome participants, and briefly share the purpose for bringing everyone together.

Example: "How’s it going? My name is Marcos, and this is Jeff. We want to thank you for swinging by this evening to grab some food and talk about ways to get more involved on campus with Delta Sigma Phi. Before we get started, let’s learn a little more about who is in the room. Like I said, my name is Marcos, I am a junior computer science major, and if it weren’t for Delta Sigma Phi, I’d probably be on season 27 in my Madden dynasty."

Ask participants to introduce themselves to the room and share a fun fact, a song they’ve been listening to lately, highlight of their week so far, a date that is circled on their calendar.

Ask participants to introduce themselves to someone sitting next to them, then have each person introduce their partner to the group.

We don’t want to lecture the room on Delta Sig, but we do want to use this time to tell our story. Example:

The reason we spend time getting to know each other, instead of jumping right into sharing information about our organization, is because our organization is about people. We exist so people can make new friendships, learn from each other’s backgrounds and experiences, and to create opportunities for people to work together to achieve something they couldn’t on their own.

That means, if you’ve ever thought to yourself, you know what, I’d like to meet some cool new people while at college, or I’d like to learn something interesting that’s not from a text book, or I want to look back and say I accomplished something real during my four, or five, or six years in college. Then an organization like Delta Sigma Phi might interest you.

We’ve been an organization for more than 100 years – but every year is a little different. Since we are always meeting new people and having new experiences, we are constantly finding new ways to offer value to both our members and the other students or organizations we work with.

I’ll share a little more about what that looks like, but I’d like you to have a little more time to connect with people in the room.

Ask the group to participate in one of the following discussion activities, you can assign one question or allow people to pick a topic. You could even have cards on every table to make this activity feel more interactive.

Provide ~10 minutes of discussion time and then dedicate ~5 minutes for people to share with the room.

• Discuss why you wanted to attend this school. Who influenced you the most to make your decision?
• Discuss personal goals, other than a degree, that you want to achieve while at college.
• Discuss the thing you’ve learned that has made you think differently.
• Discuss something you’ve seen or heard that has made you laugh uncontrollably.
• Discuss the coolest invention or idea you’ve heard about recently.
• Who has been your favorite teacher or coach?

Following the small group discussion, share a few details as to"how" Delta Sigma Phi accomplishes its "why", and share a few specific examples that highlight what your chapter is about. Example:

Thank you for sharing. Everyone here has some personally important story that has made them who they are today, and that is currently shaping who they will become. That’s true for every person in existence, whether they are part of a fraternity or not.

What Delta Sigma Phi offers, is a place to be more intentional about those connections:

• That cool invention or idea you heard about from someone tonight, guess what, we meet once a week to discuss chapter business and share ideas, you could learn fifty new ideas a week.
• Was your personal goal to be student body president or land a great internship, our organization surrounds you with people that will give you casual or formal feedback on your plan of action.
• Are you looking for a way to expand your social network? Not your online followers, but your real, in-person, social network? We can almost guarantee that you'll double the people you meet in college by joining a fraternity.

Share any specific examples of chapter activities that support your message. Every fraternity has social, service, and intramural events, so it is okay to share those, but also share anything your chapter does (or is planning to do) that may differentiate you from other student organizations.

• Write down how a group that is centered on forming positive relationships might be beneficial to you.
• Spend 30 seconds thinking about what you could accomplish on campus if you were surrounded by people who knew about your goals and wanted you to succeed.

Wrap-up the session with some high energy and provide next steps for those who are interested. Example:

We want to thank everyone for coming out tonight. Again, the purpose of this evening was to help connect you with a few new people and share a little information about Delta Sigma Phi. We truly believe that there are some awesome benefits to fraternity when it is done correctly, and we are looking for people who don’t want the stereotype, but want to be a part of a genuine experience.

We always like to close out with some Q&A, but if you have places to go and people to see, this is your chance to duck out. Be sure to say goodbye to Michael on your way out, he helped put all of this together. Michael can also answer any questions you might have as you head out. So, what questions can I help answer?

Have one or two people by the door to offer a final handshake and personal goodbye to folks. Always be ready to share next steps in the joining process, as well as an upcoming event that people can attend.

• Attire: Casual or Business Casual (better than gym shorts and less than a suit).
• Bring energy to the conversation, but don’t be too over the top.
• Slow down, speakers often speak too fast.
• Be visible, don’t just stand behind a desk or podium.
• Use body language to help tell your story.
• Make eye contact. Not too long, but enough to where people know your paying attention to them.
• Embrace the silence. When you ask questions, it’s okay if no one responds. Count to ten in your head and then ask the question in a different way. Count to ten again and then provide an answer or pivot to a new discussion.
• Repeat responses to questions, especially if the person speaking has a softer voice.
• Reference comments that others have said so that talking points flow into a natural dialogue. Meaning, if someone shared that their middle school basketball coach was important to them, then use basketball intramurals as an example of a chapter activity instead of other sports. This makes the connection more authentic and personal to someone in the room.

For interest sessions, you are both a speaker and a facilitator—your role is to share information, but more importantly, your role is to facilitate conversation among people in the room. Your role is not to lecture. If you find yourself speaking for more than 3-5 minutes without audience participation, you’re likely speaking too much. In this situation, pause, and consider what activity or question you can ask to get people engaged. The number one reason people aren’t in a fraternity? They were never asked to join.

Every chapter should have a process for selecting which potential new members are invited to join (see the Set Goals section of this guide). Regardless of your process, this decision should be based on the standards your chapter has established when you set your recruitment strategy. The two most common approaches we have seen are:

• The recruitment team provides a list of PNMs who should be extended a bid and a discussion or vote takes place to confirm these decisions.
• The recruitment team is given the authority to extend bids without a chapter vote, as long as bids are extended to people who meet the chapter’s expressed standards.

This selection process and its rules should be outlined in your chapter’s bylaws.

We recommend following these two steps when inviting someone to join:

Pre-Close

The "pre-close" can be its own conversation with a potential new member, or a part of a bigger conversation. Essentially, this is an opportunity to learn what a PNM is thinking before officially asking them to join Delta Sigma Phi. This is an important step because it doesn’t put a PNM on the spot when asking him to join, and it allows you to answer any questions he might have about joining.

The simplest way to initiate the pre-close conversation is to say the following: "Brandon, can we discuss Delta Sig real quick? Our entire chapter is excited about the possibility of you joining this fall. If we asked you to join, would you be interested? Or, what questions would you want answered before making your decision?

If possible, have a bid card ready to go during your pre-close meeting. If your potential new member says yes, go ahead and extend him the official bid. If he is not interested in joining at that time, its okay to wait and formally invite him to join another time. We strongly recommend having the person closest to the potential new member have this conversation. This eliminates many of the trust barriers that may exist between two people who do not have as close of a relationship.

Bid Extension

The bid extension is your formal invitation to join. This may happen at the end of rush week during a formal event, or it may happen sporadically throughout a recruitment period. Here are a few best practices:

• An invitation to join should be given by the recruitment team or the person who has the best personal relationship with the potential new member.
• When extending a bid, be sure the potential new member is clear on your joining process (i.e. what are your expectations of members, what time or financial commitments can he expect, what benefits come with his membership, etc.)
• It is often best to extend a bid during the day or early evening.
• Neutral sites can be helpful when extending a bid. Extending a bid in a private room of a chapter house can put additional pressure on someone to join, while meeting in someone’s dorm might make them feel as though their space is being invaded, making them more likely to decline.

Want some extra credit? Read on.

This is a bonus section, but it is intended to help you better understand how to keep track of the people on your names list. Your ChapterBuilder technology will facilitate this process for you, but it helps to understand the methodology that supports that system. Every interaction you have with a potential new member is done with a goal to move them forward in your recruitment process. Here is what that looks like when managing your names list:

Status	Definition
A+	Accepted invitation to join.
A	Received invitation to join, waiting on decision.
B+	Need to pre-close and extend invitation to join.
B	Mutual interest between potential new member and chapter.
C+	Potential new member has expressed interest in fraternity.
C	Continue contacting.
D	Needs to be contacted.
F	Not compatible.
G	Missing contact information
H	Hold communication until next term.