Informal Recruitment

Informal Recruitment, also known as Continuous Open Bidding (COB), is a process that sororities engage in outside of the primary (formal) recruitment period. During this process, a sorority will offer bids to women in order to reach chapter Total, meaning the largest size a sorority can become through recruitment. Chapters will become eligible for informal recruitment if they are not currently at Total. If a chapter is below Total, they will be eligible for informal recruitment. However, not all chapters that are eligible will participate. 

 

Informal recruitment tends to be more casual and unstructured than primary recruitment and it can be difficult to identify which sororities are participating since not all can participate. Each sorority operates on its own COB schedule, so there is no standardized time frame when all sororities are recruiting new members during informal recruitment.

 

If you’re interested in sorority membership,  and a chapter invites you to a COB event, you should attend! Some chapters will have informal events to meet potential new members (PNMs), others will ask you on a coffee date. If you missed out on primary recruitment, this is a great way to try and find a sorority for you at Miami University.

 

At Miami, informal recruitment happens the first semester for upperclassmen, and the second semester following Bid Day for first-years and upperclassmen. ​

 

For more information on informal recruitment please complete the information form linked below or contact the Director of Informal Recruitment, Caroline. 

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Caroline Bloomfield bloomfcn@miamioh.edu