At SHSU the guys seranade when they give Bids for mixers. (Explanation: The fraternities choose the sororities they are willing to mix with and seranade them at their house before their meeting. They bring flowers for the New Members and extend an invitation to mix with them (giving a mixer idea). Then the sororities vote on the fraternities they want to mix with and call the social chairs of the fraternities. )
It is usualy soooo much fun for the guys to sing or do a skit!

Kappa Sigma at Rhodes has sang this one all year long, how romantic:

We're a bunch of dirty bastards
Scum of the Earth
We're a bunch of dirty bastards
And we go from bad to--
mother f'kin sons of b'tches
(something about whorehouses)
We're Kappa Sigma
And we love you.

Sweet bunch of boys, really.

Do a little undercover work and bring them their sorority flower (ie, we're yellow roses ;) )!

At my school serenades are a common event during an organization's philanthropy weeks, though during several weeks the girls have serenaded the guys (the guys have houses, the girls don't...so reciprocation is somewhat limited).

Also, my sorority has put a twist on serenading in this past year. For our philanthropy week in the fall we asked the participants to serenade the children at St. Jude Children's Hospital (our national philanthropy) rather than our chapter of Tri Delta, then recorded the serenades in a video to send to the hospital for the patients to watch.

To increase our good public relations with the other organizations on campus, we serenaded every organization over the course of the semester as a way to thank them for supporting us and all their hard work on campus.

At our campus, it's one of the requirements for the new members. The fraternities will come serenade the sororities and vice versa. It's so much fun. When the fraternities come to our house, the usually will sing a few songs and then have our new members go by their new members (Delta Sig has our new girls sit on their knee) and will sing them a sweetheart song. At some point, they will introduce all of their new members.

Different houses will bring different things. SAE always makes us a paddle from their new members. Other houses will make cookies or bring flowers. Whenever we go serenading, we usually bring cookies over to all the fraternities.

Serenading is a really fun thing we do, and it's something I always look forward to!

We had serenades for our philanthropy last fall, and one of the houses wrote us a poem...

"Roses are red, violets are blue
Who loves Kappas??
I do!! I do!!

Faces like angels
Hearts filled with love
When Kappa babies are born
They're touched from above..."

It was adorable to see that they took a little time on their serenade. Lambda Chi also put their mom in their skit (most of our serenades involve a little skit, too) and her character was to play OUR house mom... and the boys played different Kappas. That's always fun to see how well they know us and stuff... singing doesn't hurt though either!!

One year, when I was still a collegiate, one of the fraternities invited all the sorority housemothers to dinner on a Monday night which was sorority meeting night. They served it very formal. They sent each of the sororities a candle and a note and told what time we were suppose to light the candle and then open the note. We were told that our housemother had been kidnapped and the ransom to get her back was for us to serenade both the bothers and the housemothers. Was really a lot of fun.

DaffyKD

I grew up in a small southern college town. The Sigma Chi house was located just a few blocks down from our home.

When I was ten, while my older biological brother was an undergrad, the chapter decided to go all out for the All Campus Sing festival that spring.

At the time the chapter didn't have a piano, so my brother asked my Mother - who is a Sigma Sigma Sigma - if it would be ok to 'borrow' our piano (it was an upright) and take it down the street to the chapter house. My Mother reluctantly agreed. After all, she knew what it meant to be Greek.

Because my Mother had agreed to help, the chapter decided to do something special for her. My brother enlisted me and my next oldest brother (who also became a Sig) to be sure that our Mother would be home when they came for the piano.

Why...?

Well, when the night came to pick up the piano, the whole chapter quietly assembled outside our home and began to serenade our Mother.

Side note: We also lived across from a woman's dorm and we could see all the lights coming on in the rooms with the girls lining up to see what was going on. They were all very much moved.

Once our Mother heard the singing, she went to our front door and quickly realized what was going on. I remember to this day how touched she was. And when the chapter sang "The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi" to her, tears sprang to her eyes.

After they were done, each member came in and paid their respects to my Mother and presented her with a bouquet of flowers.

Then they gently - or so we were told - took the piano down to the chapter house.

Postscript: The chapter won All Campus Sing that year, and for many more years to come.

Postscript 2: After that, 'the boys' - as my Mother called 'her' Sigs - were allowed to borrow the piano every year until the chapter purchased their own. She was so won over that one year - shortly thereafter - she allowed the chapter to use her grandmother's china for parents' weekend. Before hand, she instructed the chapter on proper manners and etiquette. And of course she was present for the event to 'officially' help. Yet in reality she was there to be sure that nothing happened to her grandmother's china.

I guess you could say that while my brothers were with the chapter, she sort of became an unofficial 'house mom' for the chapter. All because of a night of serenading.

Ahh TSteven... that is the sweetest story!

Thanks.

Way too often, these types of activities go unnoticed outside the people involved. Yet, it is the 'little things' a chapter does - living by the ideals and principals that the fraternity was founded upon - that is the true heart and soul of the brotherhood. The same with sororities.

Recently my brother's fraternity (same campus, and my best friends) threatened to kidnap me, take me to their house and duct-tape a bottle to my hand, and not release me until my sisters came and sang to them to get me back.....lol.

They would've done it too, had me thrown over my brother's shoulder and walking out the door of our hall, when four or five of my sisters saw them and made them put me down.....lol!

At the time I was upset (I'd had a bad day too) and kicked them off the hall, but looking back, it was really funny.....

Also, one of the fraternities on our campus (Either Delta Chi or Sigma Nu I think) has their new members come and serenade our new members....I had scarlet fever that day, and unfortunately couldn't make it, so I don't remember who it was. I head that they were great, however! I wish we would get sung to more often.

Serenades
 

We always serenaded the girls at Hooters during rush week.

One of the coolest memories was when one of our brothers proposed to his wife, then girlfriend, at her sorority meeting. We invaded the Alpha Phi's meeting (planned in advance by both groups) about 8ish. We serenaded the Alpha Phi president, our brother's chic, while our brother gave her the ring and the girls all went bonkers. They've been happily married for a few years now.

Fraternally Yours,

Boodleboy322

My brother's lavaliering to his girlfriend was very sweet. Her AXiD chapter was having an xmas party and asked some of his fraternity brothers to be elves. He wanted to be an elf too but he was too big for the costume. However, the santa had backed out! So PhoenixBrother got to be santa. On the walk down to her house, he decided that he was going to lavalier his GF. One of his brothers (an elf) had lavaliered his AXiD girlfriend the spring before, and she had two lavaliers. So PhoenixBro pulled her aside and asked her for one of her necklances. He let all the girls sit on his lap and tell him what they watned for Xmas and he gave them each like a candy bar or something little. When his girlfriend finally sat down on his lap, she told him what she wanted...and he said "Well, I don't have that, but how about this?" and put it around her neck!

Now I know that's not the traditional way to lavalier your girl, but I had to give my brother some major points for creativity. Although he got some off for not having a lavalier of his own! Turns out my brother can actually be pretty thoughtful when he wants to be.

As far as I know, Beta is the only fraternity at our university to serenade the sororities. We dressed up in suits, walked to all 9 houses, gave them roses, and sang three songs (one of which being a Christmas song, cuz it was in December). The ladies definitely enjoyed it. It's a little stressful and time consuming for us, but it was worth it.

something not to do....

A group of a certain fraternity new members (who shall remain nameless) serenaded a certain sorority (who shall remain nameless but was not Gamma Phi) naked and set their own pubic hair on fire while they were there. Dumbasses. *lol* It was about 2 a.m. and they were drunk to say the least!

It's true... *lol* but needless to say did not make a good impression.

Good luck with your serenade.

Bring the sororities their sorority flower. :-)