Does this couch make my head look big?

So if you've attended Cal Poly Pomona within the last decade, you've seen them:  Fraternity rush "booths". 

Yes, the word booths is in quotations.  It's because they are no longer booths like they were initially intended to be.  Information booths or tables have now become hot spots or hang out locations.  This may seem like a great idea at first, but I've come to see them as horrible excuses for recruitment tools. 

I would like to slap the idiot that decided to start bringing as many old, smelly, broken couches as they could to the recruitment events.  Perhaps he decided that passively sitting down and making potential new fraternity members approach his group was a good idea?  Or perhaps he thought by creating conversation spaces for guys to hit on girls or catch up on homework instead of actively recruiting new brothers was the right idea? 

Maybe the guy that wanted to bring a half-dozen couches to recruitment was the same one that decided to give out free shirts to sorority girls to recruit for them?  That's it!  He said in his meeting, "Hey guys!  Let's get cute girls to wear our rush shirts with their short shorts and jeans skirts!  Then we can sit by and let the girls advertise for us while we chill on our old and dirty couches!" 

Then someone else chimed in, "I second that!  If I were a freshman, I would definitely join the fraternity that has the hottest girls wearing their shirts and the most amount of couches in the quad!  But, I think we should add a DJ to our couches because everyone likes music and we won't have to talk to the new guys if the music is really loud!" 

And that's how it was born: the worst idea for a fraternity recruitment booth.  Girls in short skirts and fraternity tee shirts.  Couches so the fraternity members can sit by and intimidate potential new members.  DJ's so you can't hear a word of what is said between a fraternity member and an interested student. 

Here's a little advice to avoid the "tools." 

Don't ask ladies to wear your shirts.  They have shirts of their own to wear.  Believe me, that shirt will soon become a gym shirt, a rag, or a goodwill donation.  Heaven forbid she becomes an ex-girlfriend, because that shirt will be burned.  Oops.  I mean that I've heard rumors about girls burning the free shirts.  Besides, if guys are trying to join your organization just because you know the hottest girls, then do they really deserve your bid?

Don't let the fraternity guys sit around on their butts doing homework or eating at the recruitment tables.  If they need to eat, have them eat at a table away from the recruitment event.  If they have homework to do, send them to a computer lab or the library.  Your fraternity will benefit and their grades will benefit as well. 

Don't bring a DJ to the recruitment table.  It's a huge distraction to potential new fraternity members as well as the rest of the students that are in class or having meetings while your group is dancing around to the latest stupid rap song. 

And finally, learn to recruit.  A very intelligent man once told me that his fraternity used to give their members a single objective during every rush: Recruit someone better than yourself.  Teach your members that and I guarantee they will realize that they (1) are not the greatest person in the world and God's gift to your fraternity and (2) your membership pool will improve greatly.