How to Recruit Males

Many Chapters have the recurring problem of recruiting too few males. One of the biggest issues we face as a National Fraternity is proving to our universities that we really are CO-ed. In a lot of ways, we do this to ourselves in the recruitment and PR tactics we use. Here are a few ideas for recruiting males that you may not have though of.

1.Style: when making your recruitment posters, make sure you’re not using the “girly” fonts. For example, aim for Arial or Times New Roman in lieu of Kid-print or Georgia

2.Color: using light purple and baby yellow, while pretty, probably will not scream “CO ED” at the males that read your posters. Using black, gold and dark purple in your colored posters, or school colors, for your rush t-shirts might help males to see that this organization is not just for females

3.Campus involvement: throughout the year, get involved with OTHER campus organizations that have a lot of male members. Support their events, co-sponsor events with them, send males to their meetings to invite them to rush, have a mixer with them, etc.

4.Location: Hang posters and flyers in “manly” places on campus. For example, all male dorms (or floors), cafeteria, men's bathrooms, Recreation or Intramural sports centers. There are also majors and colleges that are stereotypically male-oriented. Areas like engineering, architecture, building construction are great places to start . . . hang posters/fliers in those buildings or classrooms.

5.Balance: For rush events - BALANCE the events!!! Have a flag football night, have a BBQ wing night, help fix a house for service, etc. While it's very noble to go to nursing homes and eat only salad for dinner, let's face it . . . most guys don't dig it.

6.Ratio: At the “meet Phi Sigma Pi” nights, have a 50-50 ratio of male and female brothers standing in front of the room. Every chapter does it differently, but it will really help to portray a 50-50 truly co-ed fraternity.

7.Approach: During rush, have the male brothers approach male prospectives. Invite them to play basketball, watch a game, or whatever is going on with other male Phi Sigma Pi brothers.

As a rule of thumb (and this is NOT meant to offend anyone) you should aim your PR and recruitment advertising at males. Getting females to rush is never as difficult, no matter how you advertise. Therefore, you’ll be most successful if you gear your PR at males. So, put away those pink markers and save the bikinis for the car wash! Let's go get those males!

References

Recruiting Males (.DOC)