Recruitment Process
At the Minnesota Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi, we do not have a formal recruitment process. How we recruit is basically how we make friends. Brothers meet people outside of the house and feel they would fit well into our fraternity. The brother may bring that friend over to the house a time or two to meet other brothers and get them interested in the fraternity.
There is an informal rush period, all houses have them, where we are really focused on having new members join so we plan events to have potential members and friends come to and hang out with the active brothers. Last semester and semesters past we have had pool tournaments, movie nights, Twins games, Gopher games, and a weekly poker night. When we find a member who we really want to join our fraternity, we extend to them a bid card. The potential member will sign the card agreeing that he too is interested in Alpha Delta Phi. There is no immediate commitment involved with the bid cards. You are only allowed to sign one bid card for one house. After that, a few weeks pass and New Member Education starts. No more bid cards are handed out.
Once a week, the men who have signed bid cards will come over and are now considered Pledges. They will spend an hour or so a week learning with the Pledge Educator about our specific Minnesota house and its history along with the history of Alpha Delta Phi International. This typically lasts for a month or month and a half; enough time to learn everything needed, then there is a long weekend set aside for Initiation. Initiation is a secret event which the events that go on not spoken of by any brother who has gone through the process.
We can assure you though that Alpha Delta Phi Minnesota, Alpha Delta Phi International, and the University of Minnesota have set forth strict NO HAZING guidelines and we follow these guidelines very closely. At any time during the initiation process if someone changes their mind about joining, they are welcome — yet not encouraged — to drop out. You do not realize what you get out of the fraternity until you get into it.
