Get ready for an inspiring chat with two incredible Tri Delta leaders, Sofia Bowman, vice president of member experience, and Lauren Danielski, director of member selection, at our Theta Omega Chapter at the University of Kansas. They’re sharing how they juggled their busy lives far from campus over the summer with crafting recruitment and retention strategies that are now the secret to their chapter's long-lasting success.
In this fun and candid heart-to-heart conversation, we dive deep into the adventures of two Theta Omega Chapter officers and explore the valuable lessons for other chapters to draw inspiration from. Sofia and Lauren spill the beans on how they navigated preparing their members for recruitment while overseas by leaning on their close-knit support network. They share an entertaining story about “Hotel Tri Delta” and how it has transformed into an unforgettable experience for their members.
We'll also uncover their strategies for standing out as a chapter and feel their genuine excitement about their brand-new, under-construction chapter house. Plus, they'll share their tips for keeping a strong reputation in the competitive Greek life scene, their deep appreciation for their alumnae volunteers and Executive Office staff, and how they plan to carry these invaluable lessons forward.
Join us for an authentic and motivating conversation about living out Tri Delta’s core values and celebrating the unique bonds of sisterhood!
Hello, and welcome to another episode of our podcast Let's Talk Tri Delta. Lucky you guys. Once again, your host Meredith and Avery are back for this week's podcast. So today we're so excited that you've joined us. We have two wonderful ladies from Kansas. We have the VPM E. Sofia Bowman, and the director of member selection, Lauren Danielski. Both of them spent summers abroad while planning recruitment. So they have great advice to share with them. We can't wait to talk to them. But today we're gonna talk about all things recruitment, new house, successes, and looking ahead as a chapter. Ladies, we're so excited to have you on today. Sofia and Lauren, do you mind introducing yourselves? We can't wait to talk to you. We can start with Sofia.
Yeah, hi guys, I am Sofia Bowman. I am a third year at the University of Kansas. I am majoring in international business and finance, and I am VPME here at Theta Omega.
Yeah, my name's Lauren Danielski. I'm also a third year. I am majoring in strategic communications and marketing, and I am a third year at the University of Kansas. I am the director of membership selection of the Theta Omega Chapter.
Okay, can you tell us how it was planning recruitment? Because both of you guys have really important positions while you were abroad. That's challenging in itself, I feel, like just trying to get people together in one in one city and location in time zone is hard enough so across across the world is a totally different. story.
Yeah, I mean, we are grateful to have a lot of members of our chapter to be dispersed all over the country and so during summer when we have to do our recruitment trainings and just getting everyone on the same page. We’ve always had to be creative with how we distribute that information and key. keep involvement high over the summer. And so when I applied for a VPME, I already knew going in that I was going to be abroad. And so that was a topic that came up in my interview. And I had to start thinking about ways to not only keep the involvement the same, but make sure that the involvement was even higher because there were a lot of things that were changing. coming back into this fall semester like the house, for example. Also, this was the University of Kansas's biggest freshman class ever to go through the university. So that was something we also had to consider and kind of get creative with on my part.
I would say I had an amazing membership team and our DRE was here in Lawrence throughout the summer. And our membership advisor Bridget White was in Kansas City during the summer and so communicating with them if there was ever anything that needed to be done at our home base that was essential. Then also just having to brace myself for those early morning and late night Zoom calls considering I was 13 hours ahead, just so we could communicate as face-to-face as we could possibly be. Either troubles we were running into or things that needed to get done, or just throwing ideas out there to see how we could make this recruitment the best one yet.
Yeah, and Sofia was eight hours or, sorry, 13 hours ahead. I was eight hours ahead. And then whenever we met with the rest of the recruitment team, they were obviously behind. And so we were making meeting all different types of the day, just whenever we could meet all together, which it took some planning, but we got to do it quite a bit. And then I would say that we also every time we did meet, we knew that it could be a little challenging to find another time. So we had a bunch of checklists and stuff and everyone kind of knew their part that they to do. And then we all kind of were planning that this had to be a whole new recruitment since we're gonna be in a different house, kind of how to figure that out, like Sofia said. So I think our team really made a huge impact on each other and we all worked really well together and that was the biggest impact of it all.
Yeah. yeah. Lots of organizational skills.
Yeah, and I know we're gonna learn so much more about your chapter, but I think it says a lot about your membership and your officers and your officer selection team from last year that they knew you could do it and they trusted you. And they also wanted to give you that opportunity to still go abroad and you can really do it all. We're lucky that we live in a time where we have Zoom and can communicate so easily because we should be able to do everything we want to do in college. You know, you embodied self-sacrifice in doing that.
I was thinking the exact same thing I was like, wow way to live out our values!
It was definitely a very prominent selling point during recruitment. During sisterhood, when we did house tours, we would have boards with like sisterhood photos and stuff. And we had to study abroad board where we were like, see, like, we really promote studying abroad, our officers do it. You know, there's ways you can stay involved with the chapter. And so I think, I think we were very grateful that we were able to do that and still have a position. And not only were we able to do it, but our president was abroad all summer as well. She was in Africa. so.
What? Your entire MSC was out of the country?
Yeah.
And then you had an excellent recruitment. Anything is possible.
Anything is possible! (laughing)
Okay, so your house is not your house right now. Your house is somebody else's house. We hear you're calling it Hotel Tri Delta. Tell us what it was like to recruit in a space that wasn't your own. We want you to tell everyone where you were recruiting and how you made it fun, how you made it yours, how you spun it to be a positive experience for your members and for PNMs. But we're really interested to know all about Hotel Tri Delta.
So Hotel Tri Delta is the Sigma Chi Fraternity house here at the University of Kansas. It has been vacant for a year or two prior to our arrival. And Hotel Tri Delta started in the springtime when we had found out that we had secured the lease for this amazing establishment while our house is currently being built, which is super exciting. I remember coming into our first recruitment meeting after CLC and the first slide was a Google photo of the Sigma Chi facility with a clip art Poseidon in the front with a dolphin and a fountain and the Tri Delta flag copy and pasted right on the smack dab middle of it so that was the birth of Hotel Tri Delta. And this theme kind of, it was kind of just like this fun little, not necessarily joke, but kind of just making light of a typically tough moment. I mean, getting like kicked out of your residence is never fun, but we've made the most of it and we love Hotel Tri Delta.
Over the summer, Tri Delta Housing came in and really delta-fied it in here and we have beautiful decor and there were pictures hung over all of the fraternity plaques and we have a gym in the basement—who would have thought. It's really a fun experience and I think everyone who gets to live here really enjoys the unique opportunity to do so.
There was some apprehension about what this would look like and what this would mean for recruitment. Because we were recruiting in a house that these new members would not be living in and so housing tours on sisterhood day would we'd have to get very creative with it. And with the help of Executive Office, we had amazing talking points that our president spoke on during this round so that everyone was clear with the same information about the how the new house coming fall 2024. One of the other difficulties was that typically every year you come into recruitment and the DRE and VPM you don't have to spend too much time thinking about the operational stuff, in terms of like where you line up and what rooms you stage and what rooms you host PNMs in. Well we had to come in and since we were abroad over the summer it wasn't until the day right before work week had started that we had to come in and kind of start thinking about these things and I really am grateful for our entire chapter this week and to actively get this out and with the whole of our CDC group and our patient members, they allowed us to experiment and play with things to find out whatever would end up working the best for us.
Yeah, I think something also that's really cool about this whole experience is with us being abroad and like it kind of starting right before work week, a lot of the members got to help, you know, put up the pictures that they like around the house kind of. of make it like feel like their home. And then we also brought some of our old decorations and things from our old house to kind of really make us all feel like this is a place we can stay at. And then it kind of in a sense makes it feel more real. Like now that we did move into this other fraternity house. It's kind of like, oh, there is a new house coming like it kind of motivated some and like make some engage more to be more excited and go through recruitment and really get like show off what we're proud of and excited about and I think that really helped a lot too.
That's awesome I feel like you guys are showing flexibility in so many different ways with being abroad, in the new house and how are we changing recruitment and like everywhere way that we've done it before. So kudos to you guys for that. Okay, so we've talked a lot about this new house. We're so excited about it. And I know that we can follow the construction journey. So tell us about your new chapter house and the impact it's had on your chapter's reputation and overall experience as well as what it means to you personally and how it has shifted your perspective on Tri Delta values and sisterhood, which I do feel like you touched on a little, but just like, what are you guys excited for whenever you get your new house and how do you feel like that's kind of like,
like you were saying, just, I feel like boosting everyone's spirits and kind of motivating people to get to the finish line.
Yeah, so I think personally, as I was kind of saying before it kind of motivated everyone, I think also it's something cool to for the new members like when going through recruitment to see that there's this new aspect of recruitment something that they've never seen before something that the other chapters don't have and then I also think that for our members going through recruitment on the other side, it's kind of like they work hard and then kind of get rewarded after because they see how good they've done. And then next year, it will feel so much better when they're like, we achieve this. It's not just like handed out. And then I personally think the new house itself shows how great the sisterhood is all over, like all the alumnae, everything that they've done, like to help. help us get this and I think it really shows how this is like a lifelong thing and it's just really cool I think from every perspective you look at it.
I highly agree with like the alumnae involvement, and it goes to show to that like our chapter is ever growing and not just in our membership size but also, you know, the Tri Delta foundation is so strong. And we are one of, I'm grateful to be a part of a sorority that goes beyond our Kansas address. You know, I know anywhere I go, there's going to be Tri Deltas because those Tri Deltas all over the world are the ones making this house happen. And I think it's also super exciting from a retention standpoint because it's providing something to look forward to. I think a lot of times in our traditions and rituals, those are very meaningful in sororities, but it can be, you can get into the same routine very easily and it's hard to get excited when you know what to expect all the time. And so I remember all of us being in the old chapter facility when we were there for the Zoom where they announced that we were getting this new house. I get goosebumps thinking about it because it was so exciting. It was like Christmas and I think that being a current member and being a new member or a PNM during recruitment it was everyone loved talking about it equally and everyone was so excited about it and it wasn't like a fake excitement that you had to put on for recruitment. Everyone genuinely wanted to know what was going on and how this was gonna work. And as much as you don't wanna admit it, especially during recruitment, everyone likes to judge a book by the cover. And for the past two years, our cover of the old house was not the prettiest. And despite the amazing members that are in that house or were in that house, a lot of people liked it, don't want to look past the outside walls because they have to live there and that's understandable. I mean most times if you go house shopping, if the outside isn't pretty you're not as willing to look on the inside. So I think now that we get a brand new cover to our Tri Delta story, I think it's only going to be upward projection for our recruitment and just the overall living situation for our members.
That was so beautifully said and that that was honestly very touching. There's so much we could talk about and what you just said, but I want to talk about the power of sisterhood. I mean, truly you said it. The reason you get this house is because people wanted to give money, your sisters wanted to give money to build you a new house so that they could bring their families back and look at the house and make sure that you had this wonderful experience. And that says so much about the power of sisterhood, the power of Tri Delta, and that is so incredible. So I want to keep going on this subject and talk a little bit about your advisors. You had great advisory support during your recruitment process. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Yeah, so Tri Delta or Theta Omega has been going through a lot of changes recently and our advisory board is one of those. We got a full advisory board this spring and so for the first time we had five advisors, one for each team and that was one for each team was immense help because now each team had their own guiding star that they could seek out for help whenever they needed to. And like I was saying earlier, while we were abroad, our membership advisor, all of our advisors are great. Bridget White, my membership advisor, is the one that I know the nearest and dearest and she is amazing. And not only she is my advisor, but she's honestly one of my great friends and she is such a role model to me. I think that she is an entrepreneur. She is so organized and with all the chaos that happens during recruitment and work week, she was my steady rock and she did an amazing job with helping out with alumnae engagement and I have nothing but amazing things to say about her. I don't think I could have done. I don't think my team could have done half of what we did without her. She always had so many good ideas and always knew the right person to reach out to about something. And with also not only our advisory team, but having our CDC there during recruitment literally changed the game. game. Grace Shoop is a recent graduate from Oklahoma or yeah I think it's either okay okay I don't know if it's Oklahoma or Oklahoma State but so she came into this situation where we were in a new house and recruitment it's not it didn't have a negative connotation with our chapter but it was just something that we knew was hard and no one was really super looking forward to it because it's two weeks of hard work and that's, it's literally like boot camp. And she came in and had amazing new perspectives that she shared with us on how we can switch things up and make them exciting for our members as well as creating a new experience for the PNMs that is different from anything else they could get at any other house on this campus. And so we had so much help from our advisors and those at EO and it was so overwhelmingly supportive.
Yeah and kind of going off that with Grace it was amazing and she would come up with all these new ideas and talking about Bridget again. She actually went to school at Kansas. And so she kind of, she's been through this before she, she's, she knows the drill. But saying that again, that was also at the old house and so she gave us amazing advice like all this stuff but some things of that we also had to change as well which Grace really helped with and Bridget would adapt to it so fast she would try new things if we were struggling. And she would, you know, help us. find a solution, help us find a new way to do things. And it was great, honestly. And I think every advisor for each team really did the same with them. I can't speak too close on it 'cause yeah, but Bridgett was awesome. Grace was awesome. I don't think we would be where we are at right now without either of them or any of the advisors at all.
Okay, let's talk about where you're at. Because we haven't even talked about what actually happened during recruitment. We've been talking for like 20 minutes and we haven't said, you all had a game-changing recruitment. You, your numbers went up like crazy. You made PNMs want to join Tri Delta. You made them want to choose Tri Delta and they did. So with that, we want to talk a little bit more about that and how this has changed the game for you.
Yeah, I think that we have never been in this position before and it's incredible but so in the past since COVID when I came, I went through recruitment in fall of 2021, which was like the first year halfway back from COVID. And since then, I know that we have been 30 to 40 under total every year. And with, it wasn't only an effort of recruitment this year, but also retention last year. Our prior VPME, Juliet Schulte, did an amazing job with retention. And as hard as I try to have conversations like she did, she's unbeatable, she's incredible. But when she taught me so much, but recruitment this year, it was, it definitely helped that KU had a massive freshman class. That was helpful. I believe that quota on bid day was 82 and we are currently sitting at 103 new members for this year. So how it happened is we got I believe 86 on bid day and then from there we had a tremendous amount of women reach out to us saying that they had single preffed us and they just didn't they didn't make the list Panhellenic had given us. Everyone who makes it to pref day pretty much you know we're in love with them and so at that point if they had reached out to us about being single preffed and we went back into our system and confirmed that, and we offered them bids and now we are currently doing COB or year-round recruitment. And we have three spots to fill, which is super exciting because that means we're three spots away from Total. And then after there's a few women who are graduating at semester will fill their spots. And then hopefully after that, we theoretically won't have to do year-round recruitment after nine months, so that's super exciting.
Yeah, and kind of going in a different direction. I think being able to get all these girls that we did love so much back each round each day. I think a huge part of that is because our chapter has gotten significantly closer and a lot more people do know people from each year, like if you're a freshman, you’re friends with the seniors, all that. And I think on my part that really helped because me and my matching team behind the scenes were kind of trying to pair up people that we thought, you know, could match as well as they could and being able forever to be so close. And that helped so much being able to find girls that they really connect with, find girls that have the same values and stuff as us and kind of make sure that everyone feels comfortable here. And I think that's what really helped me a lot. helped a lot with, you know, getting those girls back each day.
I feel like you guys have had to recruit and live very unfiltered. Like, we don't have all the shiny things and y 'all have, I think, gone through this process very authentically and I think that you've been rewarded because of that. It's like, hey, we're not playing anything, any games. We're not like faking anything. This is exactly what you're gonna get. And people are attracted to that and that shows in the success that you guys have had. So congratulations, that is incredible. You guys have a pretty competitive Greek life at Kansas. So how does your chapter has this reputation, I think, is improving and growing and becoming much more solid? How are you maintaining that strong reputation? And continuing to attract those high-quality members?
Yeah, so I think by implementing our values early on with the new members and making sure that's like, like you said, being authentic during recruitment, you know, we had full transparency about, you know, we do have community service hours. We do have this expectation that if you are a Tri Delta you uphold yourself in these ways. And we're, we're legit about that. You know, I think that it's amazing to be a part of the sisterhood, but it's more than just good days and glitter. I think that, you know, we are here for education. We are here to be successful women. And so we have programming in place to help keep GPAs high and we have programming in place to where you can be connected with members who are of similar majors or in similar classes and we have this programming in so many different aspects that kind of help bring up our chapter at an even pace all around. I also think that by our leadership demonstrating these values and these qualities, then we genuinely do act as like role models, especially for these underclassmen who want to run for a position or want to be where we are at in our degree and I think by just being transparent with people I try my best to be transparent in my position so when I have an announcement to make get chapter and I'm saying we all have to do this I'm gonna also tell them this is why we have to do it and so I think people are a lot more willing to lean in to the values and the reasoning why we do things when they know why things are the way they are. So like, that's very clear.
Yeah, I think going back to what Sofia said with like the leaders or even like upperclassmen and kind of being role models, I think a huge part of that is they don't just tell everyone everything's gonna be like sunshine and rainbows all the time. Like they will open up about, you know, sometimes things do get harder if it's in the chapter fits school or just everything, you know, like piled up on each other. And I think them being able to openly share about that stuff and their experiences really shows our new members or like our sophomores any or of any PC really just that if they're not really even alone or it's not always just if it’s school or in the chapter it's not always just be such a great road all the time, but they got through it. They have these older members who can support them to lean on. And I think that is also why people like it, because they can kind of connect to these people or members in some way that, yeah. I also think that, especially now with this new house, we can now demonstrate how it is a privilege to be able to live in or a privilege to be able to be a part of the sisterhood. And so when people start seeing things as a privilege, they're gonna try harder to have that privilege. And so whether that means demonstrating truth, self -sacrifice and friendship through their daily lives. I believe that that is what is ultimately going to keep up our reputation and continue to grow it in the future.
I am truly in awe of everything that you all have been saying. I sit here in my office, at Executive Office, and this is all we hope for for our members, that they see Tri Delta the way you do, like, that this is what is going to keep up our reputation and continue to grow it in the future. is not four years and you can see what the meaning of being an officer is and what your members think matters and you understand the value of your alumnae. I mean, you are there, you get it. I know that you'll be great alumnae in the future. It really warms my heart that you all see Tri Delta the way you do, the way we dream you will. So our last question is, you've learned a lot of lessons in this past, what is it now, six, seven months as an officer. You had a lot of changes. You've had a lot of success. You've probably learned some lessons along the way. What are you taking with you? What are you passing on to the next officers who take on your roles?
I think I'm definitely taking with me like, if you work hard, no matter what you have going on, you can clearly achieve whatever you want, and that if you need to lean on your support to some, my membership team, our membership team has been so great to all of us and they really will help out in any way that, you know, they could when we couldn't. And I think bringing that to the future officers or members is a huge important thing. And I would like them all to, you know, bring that forward.
I think for me, one thing that I have learned in my time as VPME is that there's so much work that goes on in the background that people do not necessarily see, but that doesn't make it any less fulfilling. I think that there's so much to my job and every director and VP's job that goes unseen. And I think that there's so much work that goes on in the background that people do not necessarily see. Just because it's unseen by every other member in the chapter does not mean that it is less valuable because all of the processes that go into recruitment are this new house or just crisis management which while being on exec there's crisis management daily I think that the skills of like self-validation and growing your self-confidence just with yourself and with your small circle that might be exec or your membership team or whatever, I think that is an immense skill that no matter what job you have, what circle you find yourself in post-graduation or for anyone who wants to run for office, I think that knowing that the fulfillment doesn't come from validation from outside, but just knowing that you made a change, no matter how big or small that change is. I know that there are things that we've done this year that Tri Delta will be left with for a while. And I think that is very satisfying for me to know.
You guys are awesome. It has just been really fun to get to hear about what you're doing. I think I've taken away from this conversation one is you guys believe team Tri Delta. We say that a lot at Executive Office like takes it takes the village but if we're not working for the same common goal things aren't going to go well and it seems like you have really rallied everyone around you to aim for this common goal. And also you get out what you put in you guys have put in so much work and so much effort and love and you are producing something incredible and you are leaving a legacy that I think is just going to be so impactful for so many members in years to come. I just don't even think you know what that's going to look like. like, which is so exciting. So it's been a joy. I have really enjoyed talking to you guys, but we wanna make sure everybody knows where to follow you. So how can we keep in touch with you guys along the way?
Yeah, I mean, my personal Instagram is, yeah shout it out, follow her.
My personal Instagram is Sofia Bowman, S -X -F -I -A -B -X -W -M -A -N.
Mine is Lauren Danielski, L -A -U -R -E -N -D -A -N -I -E -L -S -K -I.
And then we have KU Tri Delta. It's just KU Tri Delta on Instagram. We don't have our very many housing updates on there, but I do know there's Facebook group. for the house.
Yes. And I have that information, but we will, I will follow you guys after this. Thank you so much for sharing that. So that way we can increase the fan base. But, um, we talked about the new house lot. If you want to keep up with the new build, you can find it at www.tridelta .org /housing /theta -omega -chapter -house/. We will put that in our show notes. But thank you guys so much for being here today. We are just so excited for all things that are to come for y 'all. And thank you for our listeners. I know, thank you for our listeners for joining. If you guys have a story in your chapter that you would like to share, we would love to feature you on our Let's Talk Tri Delta podcast. But ... but until next time, I hope you guys have a great day.
Thank you so much for having us.
Thanks, guys.