If you ask any sorority woman she will tell you that recruitment is 365 days a year. There is never a time you are not promoting your letters, informing hopefuls of what is to come, or preparing for the day you welcome your new members home. All the year-long hard work and preparation is entirely for Bid Day.
Bid Day is the last day of a week of recruitment events where potential new members (PNMs) get to run home to the chapter that has given them a bid and celebrate with food, fun, and sisterhood. Recruitment week is run by the Panhellenic Executive board along with the five Panhellenic sororities.
Chelsea Valtierra is on the Panhellenic Executive board as the Rho Gamma Director and explained a little bit of what her job entails and why Bid Day is so important.
“I was the Director of Rho Gammas which meant I was in charge of preparing all the recruitment counselors for sorority recruitment and counseling all the potential new members,” Valtierra said. “A ‘Rho Gamma’ is essentially potential new members’ guide through the recruitment process. They take all the girls to visit all the chapters and if they have tough decisions to make, the Rho Gammas are there to offer advice.”
“The best part about Bid Day is getting to re-affiliate with your chapter after not having any contact with them for the whole summer and finally getting to run home to your sisters,” Valtierra added. “Bid Day is very important because it is like the grand finale. Not only do the chapters get to see all their months of hard work pay off, but so does the Panhellenic team. It is also the big welcome to Greek life for the new members who finished the recruitment process and found their new sisters and homes away from home.”
Bid Day is usually the first weekend of the school year, but due to Hurricane Harvey, all recruitment activities were pushed back not just once, but twice.
Panhellenic President Kayla Miller said this year’s Bid Day recruitment process took a different turn.
“What made this year’s recruitment experience different was the weather situation,” Miller said. “While it definitely put some strain on every person participating, be it the potential new members, the chapters, or the Rho Gammas and my Executive board, I believe it also made the process much more worth it for them, as well. We faced a very big obstacle but were still able to complete the task at hand.”
Bid Day is most importantly the best day for the PNMs who have waited all week to find out what sorority they will be calling home.
For one of the newest Tri Sigma members, Olivia Cummings, Bid Day was everything she dreamed of and more, running home to a group of women she now couldn’t imagine life without.
“Finally being able to run home was the best feeling ever,” Cummings said. “The whole experience was so great and I met so many wonderful people through it that have already changed my life so much. Bid Day was long, but being able to open my bid card made all the stress worth it.”
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I would like to thank you for the information.