Recruitment care package for chapter
 

My alumnae chapter is sending Recruitment Care Packages to the chapters that we support. We want to include items that will be useful to the women in the chapter. Any suggestions? Here are some things that I've come up with, so far.

Small notepads
pens
air freshener
hand sanitizer
safety pins
peel and stick Velcro
neutral nail polish
nail polish remover wipes
Kleenex
snacks
small bottles of water (for chapters w/in driving distance)
pledge wipes

I feel like I'm overlooking lots of things that could be useful! Thanks for any input.

breath mints!

Not sure how applicable this is to your chapters, but maybe Tide pens? They're nice to have on hand in case of sudden spills, especially if there's anyone wearing white, be it active or PNM!

...yikes, that kinda sounded a little rude. I just mean it in a better-safe-than-sorry way, not in a they're-definitely-going-to-spill way.

How could I forget breath mints???? :) Great idea about the Tide pens, too. I've never used them, I really should try them sometime because it seems like one of my kids is always getting something on me!

In my experience they work really well if you use them right after a spill. :) I was making a last-minute Halloween costume last year and accidentally knocked some Coke on a light purple piece of fabric - yikes! The pen got it all out though.

Oh dear God yes! Our alumni brought us boxes and boxes and by the end of the parties they were keeping me sane. It's kind of gross being crammed into a small space with tons of people!

What about some small packets of nuts. Sometimes the women don't eat properly and with the extreme heat, well... you know the story!

Food seems like a good idea, but so many people are allergic to nuts, you wouldn't want to have someone pass out or worse.

BTW so sweet that you bring these care packages!

Granola bars
Maybe mini combs?
chap stick/lip gloss

What about feminine products? I know, not the most popular suggestion but I bet it might be useful.

Maybe fruit snacks? These gummy cubes made out of real fruit - I can't remember for the life of me what they're actually called - come to mind. They're not especially filling, but they're healthy and a good pick-me-up. :)

These are all great suggestions - keep them coming! I thought that a mix of useful (but not so exciting) items and fun (i.e., nail polish, gummy snacks) would be good. I thought about lipgloss/chapstick previously, then second-guessed myself because I wondered about spreading germs? (Ironic that I even think this because when I was in college I'm sure we shared all of that stuff, and more.)

The mini combs suggestion gave me an idea...those little travel mirrors and travel-size hairspray.

Yes, this is picky, but shouldn't it be "new member wipes"?

Starbucks frappacino bottled drinks/Sugar free red bull/Diet coke

Yeah sharing germs is a problem, but my chapter shared a ton during recruitment even during swine flu season. It was that last minute "Shit! My lipgloss went missing! Can I borrow yours?" about 1 minute before the doors opened.

I used to brush off the germ thing too. Then two years ago, swine flu went around the campus I advise and took down nearly the entire chapter between invitational round and pref. That was one of the worst days of my life -- I was SO SICK myself, and we were trying to decide which sister would pref which PNM, and we had to keep crossing sisters off the list as they called us crying and sick. Out of a 130 member chapter, we had TEN girls who weren't sick. TEN. I missed three weeks of work and honestly thought I might die.

Now we are MILITANT about not sharing anything. Everyone brings their own water bottle that's labeled, no one can share lipgloss, etc. So not worth the ease, once you've dealt with something like that.

Nail files/emery boards.
CLEAR Band-Aids (various sizes).

A few sticks of Friction block by BandAid. http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CDQQ8wIwAQ

It really works to prevent blisters if they are wearing heels.

What a great idea, such a sweet thing to do! How about baby powder-can be used for sticky, ouchy, hotfoot shoes before they need to use the bandaids or friction block? I for one would also never turn down chocolate when stressed (or calm, or happy for that matter)-maybe something like dove promises or hershey's bliss little chocolates that you could just pop in your mouth?

You stole my suggestion! I might as well work for Tide considering how much I plug their pen!

If you've got kids, the pens are a must-have. Truly. /end hijack

One year, a sister's mom made a care package for our chapter. I don't remember most of the things that were in there, but the one thing I'll never forget is the fortune cookies. The notes inside ranged from fun and silly to sweet and inspirational. The mom had our sister ask our newest initiates what initially sold them on our chapter, and she wrote some of their quotes on the notes, too. I can't imagine how much time she put into that! We had a blast just opening the cookies and reading the notes - an impromptu sisterhood event somehow sneaked its way into the craziness of rush!

re: fortune cookies -how incredibly sweet!!

Baby powder is also a good thing to fix oily hair when you're sweaty

THAT made me LOL.