Bossypants

On the long drive from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City (13 straight hours) I had the pleasure of listening to Tina Fey's Bossypants on audio book. My interest was solely on the entertainment factor. However something caught my attention that tied in perfectly to recruitment and Social Excellence. Now I have a reason to combine my professional life and my celebrity crush on Tina Fey.

For those of you who don't know, Tina Fey studied improv before hosting Weekend Update and impersonating Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. After detailing her lessons at Second City in Chicago, she lays out for the readers the simple rules of improv comedy:

1. Say "Yes"
When it comes to improv, this shows respect for a co-worker who sets a scene. However, in the recruitment world the word "yes" opens up a lot more doors than "no".

2. Not Only Say "Yes", But "Yes And"
This shows genuine interest in what the other person is saying and provides an avenue for additional diologue. To only agree with the other person is just another conversational road block, offer something in exchange to keep things fluid.

3. Make Statements
Unless you're in the middle of a formal interview or police interrogation, its probably common courtesy to allow the other person to ask questions. This is accomplished by simply making a statement and allowing the other person an opportunity to flip roles.

4. There Are No Mistakes
Tina continues with "There are no mistakes, just opportunities". Every conversation, every question and every answer is a new opportunity to open up or learn something new about the other person. Don't regret anything and just go with the flow. Some of the best innovations in recent memory have been accidents....ask Pfizer.

Unlike the improv show Who's Line is it Anyway?, the points do matter when it comes to recruitment. Remember these simple rules to improve both your conversation and your improv skills. If you haven't experienced it yet, I highly recommend Bossypants. Just be warned it has some crude language - and if I'm saying that you should know what you're getting into.

Creating a Chapter Scholarship: Part 5

Its a little later than I would have hoped, but here is the 5th installment of "Creating a Chapter Scholarship". Hopefully by this point you have done the following:

Agree to Start a Scholarship
Create an ApplicationDistribute that Application
Follow-Up with Applicants

This final post is where all it all comes together. This is how to take a scholarship applicant and bridge the gap to get them to accept a bid. It may be vastly overplayed, but its based on the movie Inception.

For those unfamiliar, Inception is a tactic used to influence people's thoughts and decisions based on small, sometimes inconsequential, events. Another metaphor would be to "plant a seed".

The concept is very simple. Throughout some form of follow-up meeting, seek to find out what an individual can gain from joining a fraternity. In my scholarship interviews I use the following set questions to to get my answers:

"What do you hope to do professionally after you graduate?""What types of things do you need to improve on or accomplish to get to that point?"

There are a wide variety of answers to the second question that are applicable: leadership, community service, networking, getting involved... Hopefully these ring a bell as advantages of joining a fraternity. Take note, but don't make your pitch yet. I actually write these answers in the margin of my page so I can reference them later. Continue through the interview as normal.

This is where the magic happens...

At the end of the interview act like you're required to give an elevator pitch. Nonchalantly weave their answers to the above questions into your pitch. Then, you should have some form of professional-looking handout that gives information about your organization and your chapter.... again, something you "have to give them". Shake their hand and say it was great to meet them, and if they have any questions about the scholarship or the organization they can contact you.

The key is in the follow up. If the applicant contacts you, great. If not, in a day or two follow up with them via text with:
"Hey its Alex from XYZ, I was wondering if you got a chance to check out that folder?"

Chances are they respond something to the affect of: "yes, it looks interesting"
You respond with "Do you have some time to meet up this week to learn more about it?"

... and there you have it, you've just booked a 1-on-1 recruitment meeting through a scholarship. The rest is up to you to communicate the value of joining your organization and make sure to sure their answers from above. If you went through something close to the event discussed in Part 4, you should have an even bigger advantage in having a larger amount of personal connections with each applicant.

Creating a Chapter Scholarship: Part 4

Welcome back for Part 4 of "Creating a Chapter Scholarship". After deciding to start a scholarship, creating an application and distributing that application it is now time to figure out what to do with all those applications once they are turned in.

The generic answer would be to interview the candidates one on one either in person or over the phone. But the goal of the scholarship is to recruit these elite students. How can you leverage the scholarship into signed bids? What I'm about to suggest is a little out there, and requires a fair amount of effort to pull off:

What if you had a day long "interview" that incorporated multiple aspects of fraternity life while at the same time provides an opportunity to create positive relationships with all of your candidates?

This event would need to be planned far in advance, noted on the application and requires the time commitment of chapter members. To me the day would be split into three basic areas: Philanthropy, Leadership and Athletics

Philanthropy
At some point in your day long interview take current members and the applicants to preform some act of Community Service. Find something relatively close. In my original brainstorm for this I thought of building a house for Habitat for Humanity. You can use this time to observe how applicants interact in a group setting and take advantage of the opportunity to build personal relationships.

Leadership
This is the most formal part of the day and it can be broken down into two separate parts. The first is an individual interview. This would involve standard interview questions to get to know the applicant on a deeper level. The individual connection created through this interview is important when it comes to recruiting them. The interviewer is going to know that person better than most and will be in a better position to make a recruitment pitch when the time comes.

The second aspect of the leadership section could be one of two possible activities:

1) Have each applicant create a presentation in advance about a topic of their choice and present it to the applicants and members. This activity shows the applicants interests as well as presentation skills and public speaking.

2) Hold a Group Interview. There are multiple team exercises out there created to force a team to work together towards a common goal. A personal favorite of mine is to give each group a random objects to "invent" some new productive and present a sales pitch to the group. This activity allows for members to observe how applicants work in a team setting and what their strengths are.

Athletics
The last portion of the interview day can be devoted to athletics. Choose large team games that allow for adequate relationship building and also make sure that there is a mix of members and applicants. It doesn't have to be anything super competitive but rather an opportunity to run around and encourage applicants to start viewing members as part of a "team". Instead of telling applicants about what a strong brotherhood you have, this is your opportunity to show it.

Sample Schedule
8 AM – Meet in Union/Breakfast
8:30-11:30 – Community Service Project
12-1 – Lunch
1-5 - Individual Interviews/Group Interview/Presentations
5-6:30 – Dinner
7-9 – Athletics
9-9:30 – Debrief/Snacks/Hand out Recruitment Materials

Goal
From a recruitment standpoint, the goal is for members to make personal connections with the applicants. They should individually follow up with those people and continue to build that friendship. If this event occurs over the summer before the applicants get on campus, make plans to do something with them in the first couple days after the arrive. Chances are they're going to need someone to show them around town.

Creating a Chapter Scholarship: Part 3

Happy Leap Day. Welcome to Part 3 of "Creating a Chapter Scholarship". Parts 1 and 2 can be found HERE and HERE. Today's installment is all about distribution. The next step after creating the application is sending it out for applicants to fill out. Before the application goes live, make sure to have all the details from Part 2 set in stone. This especially applies to how applicants turn in their applications. Before diving into these different methods research the different regulations for your campus in regards to recruiting and marketing.

The following are different ways to increase the number of applicants:

University Resources
You're looking for any office/department/individual who can assist you in directing people to your application. Assistance may be in the form of an email, allowing you to leave flyers or putting a link on their website. Some good places to look are:

- Office of Financial Aid
- Greek Life Office
- Academic Departments
- International Student Office
- Veterans Office
- LGBTQ Office
- Athletic Department
- Leadership/Community Outreach Office
- Multicultural Affairs Office
- Office of Admissions - see if you can acquire a list of all incoming students (including transfers)

High School Outreach
Every Spring/Summer incoming Freshmen are hunting for scholarships to help fund their education. The following are ways to reach out before potential applicants graduate high school:

- Have members ask their former teachers/coaches/administrators for referrals
- Offer to volunteer at a college night
- Speak to local Parent Teacher Associations (PTA's) - If you're offering thousands of dollars in scholarships, what parent isn't going to go straight home and force their child to apply?
- Go through school/region based organizations such as Student Council, National Honors Society, Youth in Government, Boys State, DECA, 4H, Future Business Leaders of America, Future Farmers of America, ext
- Reach out to Guidance Counselors and ask them to pass the application to students coming to your university

On Campus Marketing
Most universities offer some form of orientation over the summer to get new students acclimated. This is a great marketing opportunity.

- Have members involved in the orientation program. They provide access to a large number of students and can direct them to the application
- Have a table at one of the orientation events to pass out applications, or flyers leading them to an online version of the application
- Create banners, bulletin boards and flyers and post them where appropriate
- Place a large banner on your chapter facility
- Ads in the campus paper

Digital Marketing
Based on the amount of time students spend online, it would make sense to focus some time and effort into digital marketing such as:

- Facebook. Everyone has one. Post a link to your scholarship on your Fan Page as well as individual member's pages
- Internet Scholarship Sites. There are dozens of these sites that promote scholarships such as Fastweb and Cappex
- Chapter Website. Make sure there is a very visible link to the chapter website. If you want to get really fancy you could purchase a domain name and create an entire website to promote your scholarship

Make sure to check back tomorrow for how to turn a scholarship event into a recruitment event.

Creating a Chapter Scholarship: Part 2

Welcome to the second installment of "Creating a Chapter Scholarship". Part 1 can be found HERE. After deciding to start a recruitment scholarship, the next important part of the process is creating the application process.

Name
Your scholarship needs an appealing name that will encourage people learn more about it. Very few people are going to look at the "Lambda Alpha Mu Epsilon Scholarship". There are a couple different areas of inspiration that you can turn to so as not to re-invent the wheel:

Organizational Mottos- Example: Men of Principle (Beta), True Gentlemen (SAE), Greatest Version (Phi Delt), The Pen is Mightier (AXD)

Organizational Symbols- Example: Sword & Shield (Phi Delt), White Cross (EX), Lyre (AXO)

Organization/Personal Values- Example: Love, Honor, Truth (SN), Scholars, Leaders, Athletes, Gentlemen (Pike)

Campus Specific- Example: Future Tiger, 12th Man, Cameron Crazies, The U

These areas are not mutually exclusive. Feel free to mix and match until you find an attractive title.

Description
Somewhere in the application you need to answer the following questions:
Who are you (organization)?
Why are you giving out the scholarship?
Who is eligible to apply?
Who do I contact with questions?
What is the scholarship for?
What awards are available?
What are the criteria to win?
When are applications due?
When will winners be notified?
How will winners be notified?
How are materials collected?
Do I have to join the fraternity to win?

Potential Collectables
There is a wide variety of information you can collect from an applicant. The amount of the potential scholarship can dictate what is appropriate. No one is going to write 10 essays to win $250. Here are some possible ideas:

Form Data: Name, Address, Phone Number, Email, GPA, Interests, Involvement, Leadership, Employment, Hobbies
Essays: See Below
Letters of Recommendation: How many? From who? How should they be collected?
Resume
Transcript: To prove grades
Professional Photo

Essay Questions
The goal here is not to punish applicants, but rather to learn more about them. Make sure to outline the formatting requirements and be clear as to which questions to answer and their length. Additionally, you want to tailor your questions to a potential recruitment pitch by asking things such as:

What is the importance of networking and how does one build their network in college?
What is the importance of involvement and how has involvement impacted you?
What are your goals and how to you plan to achieve them?
What is your greatest accomplishment?
What is your favorite leadership quote and how does it apply to your life?

Collection
How should applicants turn in their application? I'm of the opinion that sending in a paper application makes things seem more official. The only facet to that is that there has to be someone collecting them on the other end ie: you can't have people send them to the chapter house if there's no one there. Another option would be to use digital resources such as GoogleDocs or having an applicant email everything.

Creating a Chapter Scholarship

Often times we as Greek professionals suggest to our chapters to create a scholarship for incoming freshmen as a recruitment tool. However, the help and advice generally ends there. Recently I have had the opportunity to work with groups in creating these programs and realize there's a huge amount of work that goes into the process in order for it to be successful. What started as a simple idea for one blog post has now turned into a five day mini-series.

Purpose
The goal of a scholarship is two-fold. The first is to recognize outstanding incoming freshmen coming to your university. The second is to add those names to your Names List in hopes of recruiting those outstanding individuals into your chapter.

For many chapters, this opportunity will give you the first crack at a huge base of incoming students.

Amount
The amount that is offered will dictate how elaborate your scholarship process can be. How many people are going to jump through hoops to apply for a $250 book scholarship? The answer is not many. If the price is right, a chapter is able to require a lot more time and effort from the applicants. As a general rule I would recommend that a scholarship be over $1000 to attract the highest caliber applicants.

Another aspect is how the scholarship is marketed. Imagine you have $4000 to work with. Does it sound better to advertise four $1000 scholarships, or up to $4000?

Funding
The next hurdle is where the funds for this scholarship will come from:

Chapter: If you have a large chapter that can afford to budget the entire thing, that makes life easy. While some may argue that dues should be "spent on the active chapter", an investment in a scholarship will go a long way to insuring the future success of the organization.

Alumni: This is opportunity to go to your chapter's alumni and say "We have a recruitment plan that will increase both the quantity and quality of our membership and we need your help funding it". Some chapters have found success targeting alumni from a specific era or a position such as past chapter Presidents.

Oversight
If your chapter chooses to create a scholarship (which it should), someone needs to oversee its execution. Every group is set up differently but I would recommend this falling to either the Recruitment Chair or the Scholarship Chair and their respective committees. If those positions are unable to handle the task, a new officer position could be created/appointed.

Stay tuned the rest of this week for posts related to: Creating an Application, Distribution, Process and Inception

The Gate Keeper

How many times have you had difficulties scheduling a meeting or getting a reply from someone in a position of power? This is an occurrence that happens in all professional fields. Often times people are so concerned with the person or task in question, they forget about the Gate Keeper:

gate·keep·er
[geyt-kee-per] noun
1. A person in charge of a gate, usually to identify, count,supervise, etc., the traffic or flow through it.

In laymen’s terms, the Gate Keeper is the person in charge of managing information. That information can be in the form of a meeting request, room reservation or anything else that requires action from someone else. Often times these individuals are overlooked and underappreciated. Its amazing how much of a difference small talk, a smile or a Thank-You note* can make. If someone helps out you or your organization, make sure to recognize those Gate Keepers that make it possible…they’ll be much more likely to assist you again in the future.

Take a minute to think of all the Gate Keepers you deal with on a regular basis. I challenge everyone reading this to actively show appreciation in some way shape or form to at least one of the Gate Keepers you just brainstormed. I guarantee you will not be disappointed at the results.

*Words of Wisdom – I highly recommend hand written Thank-You notes for just about anything. Everyone loves getting mail and hearing how much people appreciate them.