Remember to Ask Them

Welcome Back!

The new semester is approaching, as is Rush. Recruitment is key to a Chapter's future, especially at this time of the academic year. A strong stable of potential Brothers provides an added enthusiasim and energy that leads your membership, new and old, to additional success, better service projects, enhanced leadership development, and a greater spectrum of bonds to explore in Brotherhood.

Rush involves a litany of strategies, marketing, activities, and efforts. Before you go too far, I wanted to pass along something I picked up from a recent Rotary meeting. Our District Governor was visiting, and he reminded us about the importance of recruiting new members (a year-long process, just like rush should be in APhiO). He stressed the importance of simply "asking" those we thought would make good Rotarians to join, indicating that approximately 25% of those who are asked wind up joining.

If this is true for Rotary, perhaps it is true for Alpha Phi Omega. Even if our numbers are not as strong in this area, perhaps only 20%, this is still the strongest recruitment tool available. Better than fliers, interest meetings, or any other weapon in our Rush arsenal.

Of course, not everyone is comfortable "asking" people to join. In some ways, this is where the Rush Chair or Membership Vice-President really comes in. All members should be encouraged to identify potential members among their classmates, lab partners, friends, and those they meet in other extracirricular activities. If they do not feel comfortable talking
to them about Alpha Phi Omega, then encourage them to provide contact information to the appropriate Chapter members. In any future contact, a reference should be made to the Brother who passed the information along, just so they are aware that their name was not picked at random.

Establishing these personal connections with potential members exemplifies the strong bonds we need to establish to achieve success in rush and recruitment.