We limited chapter business to an hour. When the hour was up, the alarm clock played "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid. That forced us to focus on the important things (and we couldn't add anything to the agenda after the Friday before Chapter on Sunday).

We gave out awards for sisters who went above and beyond, as well as for those who got a little silly. ;)

We had No Skip jar, the winner usually got a bag of candy, and Cookies for A's: if you got an A on a test, you could turn it in and request what kind of cookie you wanted from a really good local cookie place. One year we tried doing "supportive sister" where a member would nominate a sister for something supportive and that sister would get to hang a DDD bra on her door, signed by all the previous SS's. Never really caught on, though. . .

Here are some fun things we do in our meetings:

Smart Cookies - if you made an A on a test or a project during the week, you get a smart cookie from the scholarship director - usually anchor shaped cookies. Yum!

Seat of Knowledge - awarded from time to time when a sister does something academically outstanding - the seat is a toilet seat that hangs on the wall of our study lounge, you get to sign it. [brag] I was the 1st person in the chapter to sign it because I had made a 4.0 with 21 hours!![/brag].

Inspiration Box - a box where sisters can write notes to other sisters who have done something nice for them during the week. We read a few out each week.

From time to time we also give out silly little awards (usually just drawn out on computer paper). It keeps things funny.

The most important thing we do is Sweet & Sours. We do this each week no matter what. At the end of chapter (even if everyone is cranky and just wants to leave) we circle up and go around the circle and share good (sweet) or bad (sour) things that are going on in our lives. Every one of the 100 sisters shares something. It's good to hear what everyone is involved (good or bad). We get a lot of "I am so happy I don't have any tests coming up for a week" and "I have 3 tests, 2 papers, and 1 project due this week, I think I'm going to die." After you hear all of these, you know who to check up on during the week...send Miss. Drowning in Homework a sweet note on Wednesday...

That's about it.

blue boobs
 

I have NO clue abouat how this got started but we do blue boobs at the end of the meeting... its when we get to say something stupid or embarrassing about something that happened to us- or we can call another sister out and tell about soemthing dumb or funny THEY did- its hysterical and after mixers or big party weekends they last forever- also- at the beginning and end of the meeting we do a ceremonial clap thing that we have to learn- its really fun when we get it right- and its fun even when we mess up b/c we all start laughing- the blue boobs are definately my favorite and its nice to do them at the end esp when the meetings are tense or boring:)

My chapter borrowed this idea from another chapter that we had visited a few years back... throughout the week, sisters can write a "pink crescent" to another sister to just say thank you or how much they appreciate what ever it was that was done for them. And at the end of the meeting, the Public Relations VP woudld read them out to the chapter and give them out.

We also had an end of semester auction. Throughout the semester, we earned points for turning things in, getting to meetings/events on time, getting As on tests or papers, etc. Then, at the end of the semester every point you had was worth one point/dollar in the auction. Our standards chair had made prizes, bought some off of ebay, had some donated from alumnae sisters, and even got discounted fabric and heat and bond from where she worked (we make our own letters). Everyone had a chance to look at the tables full of the prizes and then the bidding began. It was a lot of fun, and most sisters "bought" things that they could give to their little sisters when we got the next new member class.

Those are really great ideas. Nothing kills morale more than 2+ hour chapter meeting, week after week.

The best way to shortened meetings involves accomplishing 3 things.

#1 Sort out major decisions in committees. Meetings are for making decisions as a group, not hashing through details.

#2 Educate members in the value of good meeting skills. For example, teach them that when they speak in a meeting, it is important to make sure that what they're saying is something NEW. If they agree with what someone else said, their vote will show that. One of the biggest contributors to long meetings is to have long discourses amongst the members -- usually when you analyze the content of these conversations there are about 1 or 2 viewpoints present.

#3 Use proper parliamentary procedure. This needs no explanation.

-- Meetings aren't for fun. They are for planning what should be fun. They are a business-like environment and something I think gives GLO members a HUGE leg-up on the rest of outgoing college grads.

We give out a yellow rose, it is a laqured rose that an alumna gave us and the person who has it gives it to a sister who has dones something to exemplify AST. They keep the rose for a week then pass it on.

we also do Tau Time during roll call. (helps the women who have class right before get there on time) We basically have one sentance to say soemthing good or bad.

:) I like some of these other ideas how long are some of your chapter meetings?

Every so often we would have a theme for our formal meetings. My favoriate was the formal fromal meeting where everyone came to meeting dressed up in formals. There was also an accessory theme where the sister with the most accessories got a prize at the end of meeting. It sure did help meeting to go a bit better and more exciting. :D

exactly. The business part of our meetings was about 15 minutes tops. That is because of #1 especially. The rest of our meeting we used to catch up on everyone's week and give them a place to vent if they needed to do so. All in all about an hour depending on the non business part.

wow what interesting approaches, right now we do casual meetings at each sisters house. Also we more chat online since some of us live far, this makes communication easier and we dont have to repeat everything in the meeting since they will all be up to date. We are thinking about having a raffle. those who always attend meetings and do a lot of community work, events, etc. will get one ticket and there will be bunch of misc. prizes and one grand prize will be the coverted Sac State parking permit....its really expensive over here and we are a "Commuter University" so everyone drives lol........

We have "sunshine notes" at the end of meetings that are read. Everyone just writes little inside jokes about stuff that has gone on that week or whatever. We also have the "you rock" award. This award (a rock spray-painted and decorated with the persons name and "you rock" on it) is given to someone who has done something outstanding for the chapter recently. Lastly, we have the support bra award. This is a sports bra that is passed to a different sister each meeting that may be needing support for that week (a pet died, brokn arm, or whatever). Each person who recieves it signs it.

I'm a Pike, and something fun that we do is Pike of the week and TKE of the week. There are nominations for both. Pike of the week is for someone who did something that really helped out the chapter or another brother, or someone who took one for the team. TKE of the week is generally hillarious. This way we get to hear all of the funny and embarrassing stuff that brothers have done that week...
We also have a random fraternity-history trivia question for a prize at the start of our meetings.

In the middle of the meeting, our song chair (when its her turn) stands up and teaches the whole sorority a new song each week. She gives us the words and we try to sing it a couple of times. This breaks up the monotony of the meeting and usually we get a good giggle out of it.

Also, we do sister of the week, we pass around a stuffed turtle puppet.

One other thing we do it pass a bracelet. We bought a square shaped bracelet (you can get them on any of the greek merchandise sites) and it has a "DZ" on it. Each week, the sister who has it, passes it on to another sister for whatever reason (i.e. doing a favor, helping a sister out, working really hard within the sorority, working hard in classes, surviving a tough week of class and so on)

Also, out academic chair gives out awards like "Smarty Turtle" (for good grades or such), the "SmartAss Award" (usually for something dumb or not so smart) and the "Brag Book Quote of the Week" (each meeting we send around a "Brad Book" and you brag about studying hard, or a good grade.)

:)

We do several things at weekly chapter meetings.

Sister of the week - Voted on by the Chapter Relations committee each week

BIONIC- (believe it or not I care) goes to someone who has had a rough week, been sick, or needs some encouragement...Lets them know they're cared about.

Silly Sister award- Always has a fun story to go along with the recipient

A-pail - anyone who made an A on a paper, project or test for the week puts their name in for a drawing

Roses & Thorns - Cards made for people roses are things like "Thanks for the ride" or "You're doing a great job with your office" and thorns are for silly stuff like locking yourself out of the dorm or being clumsy.

Those are a few of our fun things! :)

Sarah