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3 Weeks Ago
5 min read

Your Chapter’s Fall Recruitment 2025 Planning Guide (Before Summer Break Starts)

EXEC TEAMS TAKE NOTE!!!
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We’ve been there—you’re so excited about summer break that you can’t wait for all your spring term stuff to be over. It’s like that scene in High School Musical 2 where the entire class chanted “Summer, summer, summer,” around Troy but it’s just happening in your delulu head.

Only to end up with your summer break being interrupted by things you really should have prepared during spring term, and now you’re cramming. Worse is if it will affect your chapter negatively, like failing to prepare for Fall Recruitment.

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“But isn’t it too early to prepare for Fall Recruitment before summer break?”

Nuh-uh! Outdated “The early bird catches the worm” adage aside, future you will thank present you for not procrastinating this. Especially if you’re a new fraternity or sorority apparel chair/executive board member.

Because Fall Recruitment is the biggest annual event for every Greek organization, exec chairs can’t cram it (unlike your thesis). Work Week may exist solely for recruitment prep, but even then, that timeframe is the latter half of the effort into making Fall Recruitment as successful as possible.

During Work Week, all members must work on chapter house decorations, review your philanthropy and chapter identity, practice fielding questions from PNMs, etc. And if you’re a sorority, especially if you’re from the University of Alabama, you know everyone should have mastered all choreos for your RushTok vids by Work Week. These take time to conceptualize and plan for.

(Shoutout Bama Rush, you will always be famous.)

To make sure you’re fully locked in for Fall Recruitment, here are the things you and the rest of the exec team need to prepare for before summer break:

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Recruitment Theme

Easily the most fun and also the most important aspect of your chapter’s Fall Recruitment is the theme y’all are going for. Your philanthropy and chapter identity spiels may stay consistent, but not the theme. After all, it will dictate the decor, the choreos, etc.—basically everything your sorority or fraternity needs to pull off.

The recruitment chair (and whoever their staff are), the apparel chair, and possibly the chapter president will need to sit down and choose a doable concept. You guys can go with a classic that never goes out of style, like the ever-reliable Retro World or Neon Sunset themes, or a softer, more coquette vibe with Ribbons & Bows or Dreaming of You themes. Maybe even a more trending theme rn. Squid Games or Wicked, anyone?

If it helps, y’all can make a poll and have your entire chapter vote on the theme they wanna do. Whichever one wins is your concept for the year. And, if you need more ideas, our theme pages have merch, decor, and accessories inspo for y’all in just one click!

Work Week, Recruitment, and Bid Day Merch

Once everyone agrees on a theme, the apparel chair should start working on merch. Which garments fit the overall theme? Would the members want shirts, tanks, or sweaters?

It’s not just Recruitment shirts you gotta worry about though, especially if your chapter is preparing videos for RushTok or to present to the PNMs. Because these videos are recorded during Work Week, you (or whoever your chapter's merch chair is) need to get ready for them beforehand.

Ideally, your chapter should have finished ordering Work Week and Recruitment Week merch before summer break. This gives your custom apparel company enough time to produce your merch while your chapter enjoys y’alls’ vacation without worrying about order delays. Y’all wouldn’t want to show up with generic ahh shirts, I’m telling you.

Bid Day merch should also ideally be in the works before summer break. Remember that Bid Day marks the end of Recruitment Week, and your PC’25 merch should be prepared before you even know who your next members will be. Order those at the same time as your Recruitment merch so your members can still pack them (if your custom apparel company hasn’t) before the big day!

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Supplies. Lots of Supplies.

One major thing you can't forget is all the stuff you'll need for decorating. Don’t go into Work Week and then suddenly you need to make another trip to Walmart or the nearest crafts store because y’all ran out of tape or something. That’s just time wasted!

Coordinate with everyone if y’all need certain items weeks before summer break, then start checking off things y’all need. Doing this early gives your chapter enough time to remember if you’re missing something you guys forgot is necessary. Trust us, we’ve forgotten one too many balloon pumps before.

You can order supplies on Amazon and have them shipped directly to your chapter house or just one address. That way, everything’s consolidated in a specific place and y’all won’t need to do last-minute shopping trips if someone forgot something at their house several states away.

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Self-Care and Chapter Bonding Plans

Work Week pushes chapters to the limit, with all the crazy prep and the pressure of making Fall Recruitment as successful as possible. Your members need to channel their stress out in some way or else y’all gonna be working with tensions high and arguments simmering.

Here’s a few things you and the other exec chairs can plan for Work Week:

  • Ask people what tasks they wanna do first. People are less pressured if they enjoy what they’re doing.

  • Finalize plans (decoration, choreos, etc.) before Work Week so people come in with a locked-in idea of what to execute.

  • Make sure everyone has snacks and water. Hunger can make people go feral.

  • Plan scheduled breaks. And make sure literally no one is working through those.

  • Bring out the speakers and listen to y’alls fave music while working.

  • Start and end at reasonable times everyday. Stick to a schedule so everyone can get plenty of rest every night.

For sororities, y’all can even book a pampering session between Work Week and Fall Recruitment. Gotta look your best for the big day!

With these tips, Fall Recruitment will be a week to remember for your chapter. Good luck!!