Bid Day Gifts
 

I thought it might be helpful to post sources for bid day gifts. I bought our U of TX-Tyler chapter personalized pens (They say "Gamma Phi Beta" University of TX - Tyler. Connect. Impact. Shine.) for them to use for bid day at www.nationalpens.com . The prices were great, and I've been happy with the pens our alumnae panhellenic got from them.
Anyone else want to share a great bid day gift idea?

We've started using really cute messenger book bags with our letters embroidered on them as the girls' bid bags. That way they have a new book bag to start school off with and its a great marketing tool! :)
I have no idea where we order them from, but I'm pretty sure you can get them made just about anywhere....from ordering online to calling your nearby greek store. :o

We also like to include Alpha Phi car decals in the bags. We get those at the greek store.

I'm going to jump in here because I try to think outside the box with my "crossing gift" ideas, which aren't much different from Bid Day gifts.

What might be a masculine equivalent of a tote bag? I'm trying to think of something inexpensive that I can have personalized.

http://www.officedepot.com/pictures/...8680_sk_lg.jpg

Something like this would be nice (without the 3M logo) - and it's $7 from Office Depot.

I bet you could get that tote embrodiered with letters, etc. That would cost more than the bag, though!

I think fraternity men or members of a pre-professional GLO would love a laptop bag with letters. Heck, I would even like one with sorority letters.

We recieved LL Bean Boat & Tote bags with AOII monogrammed on them. I think we recieved the medium size with regular handles- in red of course. It was a great bookbag while I was in college and even now 15 years later, I still use it. I swear it is indistructable.

Plus it was a little different from the normal "Bitch Bags" that all of the other groups recieved.

I found this on ebay, but it's like 30 bucks.

http://i9.ebayimg.com/07/i/000/89/69/32f7_1.JPG


Of course, we never bring in very very large lines, but I was hoping for something cheaper. The office depot bag required a minimum order of 50! (so it said in the fine print)

You could have your "crossing gifts" made up for the next 10 years.:)

I've gotten similar items all from www.joetoga.com.

You really are onto something here....my alumni chapter is ALL about being thrifty, and since we have a house to store them in, I bet that motion would pass LOL

Hey, if you decide to do that, do check out the website for the pens I mentioned - they also have bags and just about anything else you can name and they will personalize it for you!

And no, I'm not on the payroll of any of these companies, although should they want to shoot me a check, I would not say nay. :rolleyes:

lol....i am actually looking through them right now and I like the sports bags they have. (With the exception that I'd have to get 100 at once lol)

http://i20.ebayimg.com/06/i/000/89/69/010f_1.JPG

I like this one better than the other one I posted. Also from ebay.

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.