Club recruitment timeline template: week by week from info session to final vote

The four-week template

The four-week timeline below fits most selective clubs: one application, coffee chats, one interview round and a final vote. Each week lists what officers do, what members do, and what candidates see.

Four-week club recruitment timeline

Week	Officers do	Members do	Candidates see
Week 0 (prep)	Write criteria, class size and the timeline; build the application and the interview rubric; assign admins and interviewers; book rooms	Sign up for interview and chat slots	The recruiting page with every date
Week 1	Hold info sessions; open the application and the coffee chat request form; track attendance	Attend info sessions; take coffee chats as they're paired	Info sessions; the application opens; chats get scheduled
Week 2	Close the application; assign each application to two reviewers; chase missing chat evaluations	Review applications; finish chats and evaluations	The application closes; first-round results
Week 3	Run interviews; train interviewers before day one; check every room is scored	Interview and score live	Interviews
Week 4	Close evaluations 48 hours before delibs; build one record per candidate; run delibs; send decisions on the announced day	Attend delibs and vote	Decisions, all on the same day
After	Retro and metrics; hand over to next year's chair	Give feedback in the retro	Thank-you notes and next season's dates

Example timing. Put real dates in the first column before you publish anything.

How long club recruitment should take

Most selective clubs need two to four weeks from the first info session to decisions, plus about a week of prep. Shorter and candidates can't fit chats and events around classes; longer and both members and candidates wear out.

Published rules and reporting point the same way:

• The University of British Columbia's recruitment toolkit for student teams says recruiting usually takes two to four weeks.
• The Cornell Daily Sun found business clubs holding three to nine recruitment events in a two-week window.
• The Daily Bruin reported a two-week process at TAMID at UCLA, and up to five rounds at other clubs.

Your school may set the calendar for you. Penn's Wharton Council runs one calendar for all its clubs. Its Fall 2026 calendar had info sessions from Aug. 28 to Sept. 18, one central application open Sept. 4 to Sept. 18, and decisions on Sept. 30. Decisions must go out within two weeks of the application deadline, and a club may take applications only after it has held at least one info session.

Some schools ask clubs to file the calendar in advance. Grambling State's student engagement office, for example, asks organizations to submit a list of all recruitment activities two weeks before the first interest session, and to get any change approved.

The four weeks, step by step

Each week has one main job. If a week's job slips, push the next week rather than squeezing two jobs into one.

Week 0: prep

Prep is the week before anything opens. Write the criteria and class size, put every date on one calendar, build and test the application, and build the interview rubric. Assign admins and interviewers, and book rooms for info sessions and interviews.

Week 1: info sessions and coffee chat requests

Hold one or two info sessions and open the application on the same day. Open the coffee chat request form too, and pair each request with a member within 48 hours. Track attendance at every event.

Week 2: applications close, review and chats

Close the application at the time you announced. Give each application to two reviewers who don't know the candidate. Members finish their coffee chats and evaluations this week, and the chair chases anything missing.

Week 3: interviews

Train interviewers on the rubric before the first interview, with one practice candidate. Run interviews and have interviewers score during each one. At the end of each day, check that every candidate has a score in every room.

Week 4: delibs and decisions

Close all evaluations 48 hours before delibs, so the record is complete. Run deliberations one candidate at a time, write down every decision, and send decisions to every candidate on the same day.

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How Delibity does this

An application candidates can finish on a phone

Build the application with your own questions, several pages and branching for different tracks. Candidates upload a résumé without signing in to anything.

Answers are kept on the candidate's phone while they work, so a closed tab doesn't lose them.

See the whole season →

Two other versions

The four-week plan isn't the only one. Use a two-week sprint when your school limits you to one interview, and a six-week plan when you run several interview rounds and your school allows it.

The two-week sprint

The sprint fits rules like Wharton Council's, which limit clubs to one 30-minute interview per applicant. In 2025, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported that Wharton banned multi-round interviews for its clubs, citing hazing concerns. Check your school's rules before you plan more than one round.

The six-week multi-round season

Add a cut between rounds so you aren't interviewing everyone twice. Tell candidates when each round's results will come, and keep to it.

Building in buffers

The step that runs late is almost always review, because members have classes. Plan review time from the numbers, not from a guess.

Here is a worked example. Say 240 people apply, each application gets two reviewers, and a review takes 6 minutes. That is 240 × 2 × 6 = 2,880 minutes, or 48 hours of reviewing. With 20 reviewers, each one has 2.4 hours of work, which fits in a week alongside classes. With 8 reviewers, each has 6 hours, so give review more time or shorten the application.

Two other buffers help:

• Avoid exams and other clubs. Check the academic calendar for midterms, and ask other clubs on campus for their dates if your school doesn't publish a shared calendar.
• Leave a day before delibs. Closing evaluations 48 hours early gives the chair time to chase what's missing.

Decision and rejection deadlines

Announce the decision date on the recruiting page, and keep it. Candidates plan around it, and some are applying to several clubs at once.

Send every decision on the same day, at the same time, with kind and specific wording. The rejection email templates give examples. If your school sets a deadline, as Wharton Council does with its two-week rule, build the calendar back from it.

Next season: copy the timeline forward

The fastest way to plan next season is to start from this one. After decisions go out, add real dates and notes to the template: what ran late, what you'd move, how many people applied.

Hand it to next year's chair with the rubric and the application. The guide to handing off recruitment covers what else to pass on, and the recruitment chair checklist has the season's tasks by owner. For the whole season in detail, see how to run club recruitment.

Questions chairs ask

How long should club recruitment take?

Two to four weeks from the first info session to decisions, with about a week of prep before that. A single-interview process fits in two weeks; a season with two interview rounds needs about six.

When should a club start planning recruitment?

Start six to eight weeks before the first event. That leaves time to agree on criteria and class size, check your school's rules, build and test the application, and book rooms before other clubs take them.

How many interview rounds should a club have?

One or two. More rounds cost candidates and members time, and some schools now limit clubs to one; Wharton Council allows one interview per applicant. If you run two, cut between rounds so you aren't interviewing everyone twice.

When should a club send decisions?

On the date you announced, to every candidate at the same time. Some schools set a deadline; Wharton Council requires decisions within two weeks of the application deadline.

Sources

1. Recruitment Policies, Wharton Council: Fall 2026 calendar (labelled Spring 2026 on the page), info session rule, one interview, decisions within two weeks (checked 2026-11-09) groups.wharton.upenn.edu
2. Wharton bans multi-round interviews for club applications, citing hazing concerns, The Daily Pennsylvanian, Sept. 7, 2025 (checked 2026-11-09) thedp.com
3. Recruitment Toolkit, UBC Applied Science Student Experience: recruiting usually takes two to four weeks (checked 2026-11-09) experience.apsc.ubc.ca
4. Students in Cornell Business Club Scene Reveal Misconduct, Intensive Recruitment Process, The Cornell Daily Sun, Feb. 7, 2024: three to nine events in two weeks (checked 2026-11-09) cornellsun.com
5. Selective admissions processes for competitive clubs create challenges for Bruins, Daily Bruin, Oct. 19, 2023: a two-week process; up to five rounds (checked 2026-11-09) dailybruin.com
6. Membership Recruitment form, Grambling State University: recruitment activities filed two weeks before the first session (checked 2026-11-09) gram.edu