Cleaning and food services in houses?
 

Is my sorority house the only one that doesn't have maid service and a cook that serves 3 meals a day to the whole house? I'm reading these threads about the pros of living in the house and I'm like "maid service, qua?"

I remember when I was talking to my dad about living in the house at first and he asked me about the maid and cooking stuff, and I looked at him like he was crazy. He told me that it was the norm at the houses at UT (I'm from Austin), and so I just assumed it was those crazy rich Fraternities/Sororities at UT and it wasn't a common thing elsewhere.

Anyone else not have these things in their house?

Maybe. :p We didn't have a "maid," not the kind where you ring a bell and they bring you stuff, but we had a housekeeper who came five days a week to clean the bathrooms, run the sweeper, dust, and whatnot. We never had to clean.

We also had a chef. She was awesome--she made this great tortellini with pesto sauce. Yum! :) She came five days a week as well, and did lunch and supper, but not breakfast...we had cereal, bagels, and stuff that we fixed ourselves. On Fridays she usually didn't do supper, so our house mom got us pizza most of the time.

Damn, I wish I was living there again. :p

A lot will depend upon the size of your house and the configuration of your common areas/ kitchen. The logistics of individual members storing personal food and cooking simultaneously in a single kitchen as well as university requirements for a meal plan to be offered are leading factors in a meal plan (i.e., having a cook). Whether a chapter has staff depends on how large a house it is (many residents make paying a salary easier) but all the housed chapters I've worked with (4 different states) had a cook that provided at least 10 meals/week. Maid service varied from daily to weekly.

Since your signature says Denton, if you are at UNT and are getting one of the new houses, you may have some changes next year. Many universities require all residents of university-owned housing to purchase a meal plan. That can be via resident halls or via the sorority... so that may be one of the discussion points for your house corporation this summer. As far as maid service... if that's something your members want, and are willing to pay for, it may be negotiable.

SigKap @ the Univ. of KY had a housekeeper that would come 5 days a week to stock the bathrooms, vacuum the living room & common areas, dust, etc.
The cook made 3 meals a day/5 days a week & one of those meals was the big dinner on Mondays when all the sister's (& guests) came for dinner.
We also had a gardener too.
I'm assuming that nothing has changed since I went alum in 2002, considering I'm still down there quite a bit & I haven't noticed any changes!

My experience is much like AchtungBaby80

At my undergrad chapter, we had a full-time housekeeper (not a maid!) and cook. They did not live-in house but easily worked 40+ hours per week. The housekeeper cleaned the common areas and bathrooms and she was the sweetest thing! She left after my senior year, but I'm sure they still have one. For meals, we get 14 meals a week (B/L/D M-R and B/L on F--though breakfast is really only cereal, toast, bagels or whatever you feel like making, not a fully prepared hot breakfast.) Plus, our kitchen is open until 10pm nights and open during the weekend so we could have leftovers or cook or whatever.

At the chapter I advise they have a cook who provides 13 meals per week (brunch only on Fridays) and a cleaning service that comes 2-3 times per week to clean common areas.

I'm pretty sure this is the standard at both campuses--cooks and some sort of cleaning service.

ETA our house held 65 women, most of the other chapters on campus were of similar size.

None of the houses at Clarion (or any of the Pa State Schools* for that matter) have cooks or maids or kitchens....they are all just off campus housing that happens to have Greek letters on it.

*By this I mean the 14 SSHE schools, not Penn State.

HOLLY COW, Kiss My Butt and Call me the Maid fom Manhattan!:o

This has to be a dreamland childs _____!

Usually, in the olden days, there was a house mother who supervised the cooking and did help! She also taught manors, did not do dishes or cleaning!

Cleaning back in the dark ages was done by Pledges, today, everyone is to do House cleaning!

In Houses today, depending on the size of the Campus and Organizations, there is a food service who caters meals, so may times a day or week. If not, Chapters can subscribe to the School Food Plan!

Normally, food plans can cost the Chapters more Money than it is worth!

God, give me a friggen break, maid and food service????????:rolleyes:

Do you live in the Ritz Carleton! DA!:confused:

Get off of your dead butt, do something!!!!!!!:mad:

Don't feel bad, we don't have a maid or a cook :)

None of Iowa State fraternity houses have "maid" or "clean full time cleaner" whatever to clean the house. We do it by ourselves! ;)

we didnt have a maid. We had a cleaning service (a team of 2 or 3 people) who came twice a month, usually before a big event held at the house. heh. we all had house chores. every week we'd be assigned a different chore-- clean a bathroom, take out the trash, etc.

and we didnt have a cook. I wish we did. But then again, we lived right by all the great resturants off campus, so a cook was unnecessary. ANd our dues were very very low compared to what my sister pays for her huge house, cook, and maid...

Our local chapter house is cleaned twice/week (general sweeping, dusting, vacumming, and deep cleaning the baths and showers.) We have a cook who prepares lunch and dinner M-F when school is in session. Continental breakfast is available 7 days/week (cereals, milk, juice, bagels, fruit, french toast sticks, etc.) I believe that is pretty standard on this particular campus.

Tom,

I have to disagree with you. Back in the "days" a lot of these larger chapters had house boys who lived in and served as hashers in addition to housekeepers, cooks and house moms.

We had a breakfast cook during the week and a cook who came in and did lunch and dinner during the week. We had a housekeeper who cleaned the common areas 5 days a week and hashers who served and cleaned up on Monday nights before meeting. On weekends our house mom would open the big kitchen for breakfast and then we would assign proctor duty to two rooms per weekend and they had to do the dishes and clean up the kitchen. We had a "little kitchen" where each person had space to store food and we could cook our lunches and dinners on the weekends or after school if we missed meals and didn't get late plates.

My mother's experience at UCLA 25 years earlier was very similar to mine as was my grandmother's at University of Washington 25 years before that.

When you live in a large house it is impractical to think that the members will keep it clean (meaning swept, dusted, etc.). I never would have paid to live in a really large house where I would have had to do more than my share of cleaning up the little kitchen or proctor duty and cleaning my room. I would probably feel differently if I had gone to a smaller school with smaller chapter houses.

I forgot to mention our houseboys. We had them (I think every sorority house on campus did), but they didn't live in, of course, they just came in to help the chef at lunch and supper. They were the ones who washed the dishes, cleaned up the kitchen, etc. Usually, the houseboys would all be from the same fraternity...one year we had several FIJIs, and then another time we had some Sig Eps. They were the only "guests" allowed in our kitchen. :p

We only had hashers on Mondays when I was in college but they used to live in the house and serve and clear at every meal. At some of my other chapters we still have houseboys that don't live in but we call them hashers.

I've always associated the term "houseboy" with livinging in the house. Am I wrong?

We had houseboys too-members of a Fraternity on campus that came to help w/ dinner. They were very sweet.

Some of the bigger fraternity chapters at Ball State still had cooks when I started in '87, but at some point the city closed down all the fraternity house kitchens for health code violations! Then pretty much everyone had to get a meal plan and eat in the dining halls or subsist on mac & cheese, carry-out and pizza.
No one had housekeepers.

And you can tell! :p

We had "waiters" who were 5-6 fraternity men from various houses who came during lunch and supper. They helped the cook set up and tear down the meal, washed dishes and did general clean-up around the kitchen after meals. They were paid (like $100/semester or so) and got to eat the meals at the house. We loved our waiters!

We never had this because I lived in a house like 33girl's, but it makes complete sense at a larger school. I know several of the fraternities had a chef, and if my chapter had more girls living in, we probably would have considered it.

I don't think there's anything wrong with it, it just didn't make sense for us. :D

As a PA state schooler, we didn't have cleaning or food service, but it was a sorority house, nonetheless :) At one of the chapters I advise, they don't have a cook or cleaning service, but the University owns the house, and they provide cleaning once a week. You'd be hard pressed to find a ton of schools in the northeast that have all of this. Maybe Penn State....Rider sorority houses have cooks. Thse are the ones that stick out for me.

Bruinaphi, it looks like the houses up and down Hilgard are very similar except we didn't get our kitchen opened for us on the weekends.

On a side note, was your Mom a Alpha Phi at UCLA too?

No, my mom and aunt were both AGDs at UCLA in the late 60s.

I know a lot of Alpha Phis who were there during that time though (they were my advisors and mentors).

I wish we had that luxury at my school. We do our own cooking and cleaning. We were recently informed that we were going to be honored and receive a housekeeper for the fall of 2004. This is only on a probationary basis to see how we like it.

It's pretty sad that some sororities & chapters take it completely for granted that they receive these services when some of us have to fend for ourselves.

I don't think they take it for granted, we were very appreciative of our cook, housekeeper, waiters and house director and let them know constantly. Of course, I can't speak for everyone.

I don't think anybody takes it for granted...did you not see all the comments that said "We were so appreciative..." "I sure miss those days..." "They were wonderful...".

Sure, I wish we would have had it too, but I'm not stinking bitter. We are grownups who SHOULD be able to fend for ourselves.

I just thought I'd add that *NOT* having a housekeeper or cook at your sorority house is really giving you an unfair disadvantage to living on campus, even! On our dorm hall (which is the Phi Mu hall, but I know this occurs at ALL dorms here), we have a housekeeper who cleans the bathrooms and the hallway. We have chefs who prepare meals for us- it's called the CAFETERIA. Having a housekeeper and chef is not a luxury, it's just making Greek housing on par with campus housing!

CarolinaCutie,
I never thought of it this way... that is so true! I think of all those GDIs who portrayed Greeks as "spoiled" with our housekeepers and cooks...yet they had the same things in the dorms even better in some respect! Our cook made one entree a meal, we didn't have 20 choices like in the dorm cafeteria! And at UCLA, we are talking about GOOD dorm food (it is ranked I believe 2nd in nation), whereas in the house, if you didn't like the meal, it was toast and peanut butter!

Bruinaphi, the AGD house at UCLA is gorgeous...now it is student housing but if they ever came back they would have such an advantage with that house!

Let me claify something. When I said food service, it was found that at least % of the time, when there was someone who cooked for the House, say evening meals, there could be a lot of waste becdause of what some would or would not eat.

Breakfast was Continental, (Rolls, Coffe, Milk and Juice.).

Lunch was cold cuts if anything, sandwiches.

Dinner was a meal 4 days a week. Mon.-Thur. Fri was a party night, Sat, everyone ate out, dates maybe?

Nothing on weekend as so many people did not show up for many reasons------!

So, why not find a caterer who will do the same thing, clean up and take with them.

If this doesnt work, you can sign up with The College's Food Service, Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But here again it was for only so many days that they served, because of the above mentioned reasons.!

Remember, this dependes on the size of the School, etc.

Some schools, you sign up to go, it includes Dorms, and food service. Yo dont eat there and go out, you lose money!

In House Food Service can end up costing the Chapter Money! Just ask yourselves why?

Caterers can be just as expensive, if not more so, than having a cook. And at some campuses, dorm meal contracts are only good for that particular dorm or at limited places on campus. Plus, it's convenience. Who wants to wake up and walk 10 minutes to go to breakfast? It's nice to have it downstairs.

Our cooks stick to a very strict food budget and that food budget is part of the house bill.

And what are you going to do when you need to have a special dinner for initation, founder's day, scholarship or parent's weekend? Can't kick everyone out of the cafeteria. Besides, I highly doubt the dorm cafeteria would have been able to make Kappa dessert or better than sex cake like our cook did! :)

Logistics is another factor in having a cook if the house is large. Can you imagine 75 women trying to coordinate cooking separate dinners? Or store food? It's hard enough in an apartment with two roommates~ Trudging through the snow to the campus cafeteria when dorm students walk downstairs (and not all GLO houses are near the residential areas of a campus making that totally impractical). It may seem to be a luxury but having a cook can simply put you on par with the dorms. If you are lucky enough to have a talented cook, it can be so much more. Catering is, of couse, another solution but can be more expensive than a cook and provide less options.

Maybe sororities are more likely than fraternities to have a cleaning service (having been in a few houses in my time, I'd venture to guess that the women's groups House Corporations are more likely to include that in the rent... it's all a matter of priorities) but again, a lot will depend on how many residents you have. A house with 15 beds is unlikely to be able to afford (or need) the same kind of staff as one that houses 95 (and yes, there are Pi Phi houses that large).

house staff
 

when i was in school we had a breakfast/lunch cook, and a dinner cook. we had cooked breakfasts m-f. on the weekends the housemother set out cold cereal, bagels, bread and english muffins, milk and juice and brewed coffee and hot water for tea.
we would have a couple of selections for lunch every day. we had one entree for dinner with a couple of vegetables and a starch and a few nights a week we had dessert. there was always a salad bar .dinner was a seated affair, served family style.we were not served any meals on the weekend except the breakfasts described above. we had "servers", male students(usually in fraternities) who bussed the tables and washed up after lunch and dinner in exchange for their meals(lunch & dinner) at a sorority house-they considered it a good trade-off! we also had a lady that kept the house vacuumed and dusted and cleaned the bathrooms m-f. she did not clean our rooms, but we were allowed to use the vacuum to clean up our own rooms. i didn't realize how good i had it back then!

i believe that there is a similar arrangement at the house to this day, although i understand that all meals are served buffet style now. lisa

Okay, two situations, Okay!:)

When I was a Pledge of a Fraternity, they had a House Mom as ALL Greeks did. Required. She did the cooking, light breakfest, cold cuts for lunch and Full blown dinner at evening meal. All Members who lived in the house ate there along with students living off campus and in dorms, there was no central School food service. Meals were M-F unless a party was planned with food. She got room and board with a little pay for her to do with what ever. Members of the Chapter were bus boys and dish washers to help defrey their costs. She taught many young men manners and decorum about dates, meeting people and dressing. I really loved her.

When I started the local, we broke the House Mother Rule, policed our selves and busted guts to show that we were just as good as the rest. Now, there are no house moms, and sometimes, I think it would be better to have one to keep everything on and in line.

Or three!

The LXA House at U Ks St.was previously a Soroity house, and a member of that Soroitys Father then was a LXA and a Bus Boy at the House. He received his meals for busing tables and cleaning dishes. When the Sority went off of campus, LXA bought it and he lived in it until graduation. This is on GC somewhere back when!

As I have said several times, a lot depends on the size of the School and Greek Organizations.

Presently, all of the Soroities at a my Alma Mater use a caterer for dinner meals only. They have to be competitive with the College food service to get the business.

Another point is, just how close the House is to campus, for the food part!

our kitchen gets very little use.
most of the girls have microwaves and fridges in their rooms, so they keep/make food in their rooms, and there's a lot of eating out from what i can tell.
for special occasions when we want a special dinner, either we make it ourselves, or the parents group makes it for us.

also, the cleaning, the girls who live in the house have chores to clean the downstairs area, and of course everyone has to clean their own room/bathroom.

i guess in bigger houses i can see the need for cleaning services in the common areas, and perhaps cooking services as well.. but i kind of like the everyone pitching in and doing things for themselves thing as well.

and what the hell do house mothers do anyway? we don't currently have one, but when we move into the new sorority row house in august we're supposed to have one and i'm just wondering what to expect.

Our house mother (actually, her official title was House Director) was a mentor, a counselor, an enforcer and a friend. She was in charge of the day-to-day activities of the chapter house: if things were broken, they were fixed; if the living room needed new curtains, she ordered them; if one of us was very sick she would take care of us/call the doctor/let our professors know. She made sure we were safe, we were following the house rules (no boys, no beer) and cared for each of us. She taught us proper etiquette and graciousness. Her door was always open if we wanted to go in and talk about anything. In a sense, she was a surrogate mother while we were in college. It wasn't that, as college and sorority women, we couldn't take care of ourselves, it just helped that she was there.

I know not all House Directors are like this, we were extremely lucky. This is her 19th year in our chapter and we will hate to see her leave.

So, essentially, a House Director (or house mom) is an employee of your Headquarters who oversees the goings-on at the chapter house and makes sure things run smoothly.

At the U. of Iowa the practices vary, as the story from the May 6 student paper shows.

http://www.dailyiowan.com/news/2004/...e-678976.shtml

Special Note: In another thread an alumnae house board advisor pointed out (gently chastising me, with a sense of humor) that regularly-fluffed pillows in formal living areas are not her concern. Please see the last paragraph of the student paper story (above) with its reference to the Alpha Chi living room with symmetrically placed pillows. OK, it doesn't say "fluffed," but still . . . .

It didn't say fluffed at all ;D

(I tried to find a happy bouncy smilie out there, but my smilie site is MIA today)

We had a couple of maids, a few cooks, security guards, and houseboys. The houseboy jobs were coveted postitions for all of the boys. They lied doing it because they got to know the girls really well--and usually went to all the date parties & formals.

But I don't know about other schools...at Ole Miss you kinda HAVE to have a staff because the chapters are so large.

We used to have that back in the day. The house mom would kick you out of the dinner table if you had bad table manners. Now a days we police ourselves, but it would sometimes be nice to have someone teach people some manners instead of having to watch other peoples eating habits and correcting them. You know kids now r lacking in proper ettiaqte(spelling).