Why is Recruitment and New Member Education Alcohol-Free?
Why is recruitment alcohol-free?
I often get questions about why recruitment has to be alcohol-free, and instead of offering you the most obvious reason, which is that it is against the law for anyone under 21 years old to drink, I think it is important to discuss other reasons why your chapter should not recruit with alcohol.
Who is your target market? – Each chapter knows what attributes they seek in a potential member. These attributes consist of scholarship, leadership, gentlemanly conduct, etc. What your chapter is NOT looking for are the attributes of drug and alcohol abuse and the character traits that follow. When you are recruiting, you should ask yourself “Is this recruitment method attracting our ideal candidate?” If it’s not, you are either wasting your time or possibly be unintentionally recruiting those who are outside your ideal candidate pool.
False Expectations – “Rush Parties” provide potential members with false expectations. Inviting candidates to a party at the chapter house before rush and getting them intoxicated is a false representation of what it means to be Greek, and especially a KA. If men are recruited at a party and this is the only side of the organization they have seen, the candidate may expect that this is what KA life is all about, and the men you recruit during these events will likely be the “partiers” of the chapter.
Bid Night – Bid night is a great time to show the accumulation of all the hard work and dedication that your chapter put into having successful dry recruitment over the past year. After finding all these men that hold the ideals of the true gentleman, it seems only appropriate that bid night should be an alcohol-free event to truly celebrate your accomplishments and the new brothers.
Big Brother-Little Brother Night – Along with bid night and initiation, Big Brother-Little Brother night is among the top three most dangerous nights for fraternity men nationwide. It is imperative that this be an alcohol-free event for reasons beyond it being a dangerous night. Most importantly, the Big Brother program is designed to give a young man a mentor and someone to look to for guidance and direction through his first years of college and KA. Introducing alcohol into this equation sends the wrong message and can start this mentorship on the wrong path.
Let’s make a positive change in your chapter’s recruitment practices this fall. Instead of recruiting men with a party, let’s design our recruitment plan to market to those who we see fit to join. Let’s really get to know our candidates by talking to them as individuals. Remember, good men build relationships with other good men, and it is these relationships that create successful organizations.
Recruit with values and you will recruit gentlemen of value.
