Another good idea is to fill the bag with a booklet of information about the sisters in your sorority. Have each girl pair with another sister and create a page of pictures and facts about them. The book will end up really cute and the new members will love it because it will help them learn names! :)

Include a "Survival Guide" - a chapter directory, "Greek Dictionary", info about other chapters on campus (letters, nicknames, President, address), poems about sisterhood/your mascots/symbols, hazing policy, tips on being a pledge/new member/new active etc - I still have mine, and I look at it and remember spesific things about my pledge period.:D

That is a great idea- especially if you have a really big chapter! Oh and giving the new member back anything that was used during the pref ceremony is always nice. So if the rusher wrote a letter or something to the PNM, give it to them to keep on bid day (since they can't leave the house with it after pref).

our girls always get bags, t-shirts, pens, a bumper sticker, pink gum (one of phi mu's colors) a disposable camera to capture bid day memories, a picture frame, and magnets. we also girl the girls an info pack with basic phi mu info specific to our chapter, including a list of members with phone number, phi (pledge) educators bios, exec council bios....we also have the bid day buddies give the new member a gift pack to be put together by the active with things specific to the theme of the bid day activity -- when i went through recruitment there was a wizard of oz theme (there's no place like home, with the 'o' and 'm' in 'home' represented with a phi and a mu) so i got a basket with a stuffed dog, red socks (for rollar skating that night), etc. last year our theme was barbie (every girl's dream house) and i got my bid day buddy a barbie (duh), a babie crown, etc...

Does anybody give out candy in their sorority (or fraternity) colors on bid day? Initiation?

I've been trying to find candy other than M&Ms or jelly beans, but those seem to be my best bets. It just kinda sucks that I'd have to repackage them.

We definitely included some candy in our bid day gift baskets. We used this really cool company that makes personalized candy. We got red and green M&Ms with A, X, and O on them instead of the "m" logo. We also got cherry and lime lollipops with our greek letters on the wrapper. A lot of girls didn't even eat them, they just incorporated them into their room decorations because they were so cute. I'll try to post the site for this company if I can find it, the name of it escapes me at the moment.

For different types of candy in specific colors, try those candy stores at the mall where you can buy candy in bulk by the color. I think the chain is called Sweet Factory. Hope that helps!

seems like I just saw an ad somewhere for ordering chocolate kisses with personalized messages on the little tag...that would be cute!

or if you have hard to find colors you could always wrap candy bars with a label you make yourself with copier. but the last time I looked for foil wrapped chocolate bars they were hard to find! I guess they only make them with plastic wrappers now. maybe you can order the foil ones somewhere online?

I love the idea of the little books with info on each of the sisters. You could make them to use during recruitment practice days to learn more about each other....do it in the form of a celebrity interview... (have each member list her favorite food, movie, hobbies, last place she traveled to etc.) and then give them to the new members on bid day!

For fraternity men, how about those drawstring gym bags (like the Nike ones)? I know they can be screenprinted with your house's letters. Guys would probably find those super useful for running errands on campus, going to the gym, intramurals, etc. They're pretty inexpensive, too.

My Pi Phi chapter puts together a booklet to give to our new PC. Every active designs and submits her own pages filled with her pertinent information, a family tree, hobbies and pictures. It helps our pledges learn about the girls in the house and also is a great reference when they start thinking about big sisters.