Questions from a new(ish) AOII!
 

Have you signed up for 'InCircle"? It is a very helpful AOII site and everyone there is very knowledgeable. Alphaomicronpi.org, then just click on Incircle and sign up or sign in. Hope that helps.

Congratulations, rubynpearlgirl! I’ve heard many wonderful things about PB an we are glad to have you all back.

AOII4ME gives an excellent suggestion about joining inCircle. There is already a group created for PB but there are more than 400 others plus general discussions.

Just to answer the Red Rose Ball question, Red Rose Ball is the name given to the formal dance. Some chapters have formal in the fall and others in the spring. Nu Beta at Ole Miss has wonderful tradition which occurs every four years. At that Red Rose Ball, the chapter members wear white gowns and the president alone wears red. It is a stunning visual. I’ve heard that a few other chapters do similar but I have only seen pictures from Nu Beta.

Congratulations and welcome, rubynpearlgirl!

I'll echo AOII4ME's suggestion of inCircle, especially for songs and chants. There are a lot of great resources available on the private side of the AOII website as well, so please, use them! :) Also, look at prior copies of To Dragma on the AOII website for ideas. There might be another chapter out there doing something that would work well at Rho Beta!

If you haven't already, definitely ask your advisers and your colony specialist these questions. They have some great ideas and loads of AOII contacts out there and they really want to help your chapter develop and grow. It's amazing to think that the things that Rho Beta does now can become a tradition celebrated for decades to come! A signature philanthropic event, an annual campus activity (picnic, passing out hot chocolate, rose sale at Valentine's Day, etc.), even an chapter sisterhood activity--the possibilities are endless when it comes to creating traditions with your sisters.

A few more general comments:

Families are not necessarily an official AOII designation. However as your chapter grows the founding members will eventually take little sisters, and each successive "generation" is considered a family tree.

Many chapters call their big formal dinner dance something along the lines of Red Rose Ball, Red Rose Formal, Roseball, etc. Some chapters hold this in spring and others in fall, probably more based on campus traditions than a strict AOII tradition. Again, the naming is not an official designation but usually involves something related to our beautiful rose.

Roses to you and your sisters!

I agree with everything said above...

Just another note: once you find events and traditions that your chapter enjoys and would like to carry on, encourage officers to document them in their officer notebooks! I find it sad when a tradition dies out because officers don't know the details about the event/tradition and it wasn't gone over at officer transition.

Also, you might want to have the officers brainstorm things that that would pertain to their office, for example:
VPAD: No Skippy Jar, Smartie Cookies
Alumnae Relations: Alumnae Tea
NME: New Member Retreat activities, etc.

Here are some other ones that I have seen done:

VPAD: Smartie Pants Award each week, Big Sis/Lil Sis with the highest GPA, Big Sis/Lil Sis with the most improved GPA each semester

VP Chapter Development: Support Award (it's a big bra--like a support bra-- that you can decorate) and give it out to the sister who has been the most supportive lately, Roses at chapter each week (Have the chapter members write little things like "Roses to Katherine for helping me with my Business Project," and they stick them in the VPCD's box (or she can set one up in the house) and then she can read them at chapter or read them once a month.

Alumnae Relations: Senior Tea for the seniors who are graduating. Or you could start a Senior Dinner in your house/lodge/dorm suite where the senior's little sister's or twins bring the seniors' favorite dishes to eat.

VPMR: Have the VPMR give an award each week before Recruitment starts that honors sisters who are showing enthusiasm and love for AOII. Many times before recruitment tension can build and members can become stressed. So it's nice to honor the sisters who are always staying positive for AOII and their chapter. You could just give them a little "happy" or just a paper award. Sometimes the smallest things mean the most to a member!

VPE: Outstanding New Member (overall best NM), Charm New Member (this is a new member who is always representing AOII well and she always looks put together in her AOII letters!), Spirit of AOII New Member--this is a nm who shows enthusiasm for AOII all of the time! At Nu Beta the chapter pays the difference for the Outstanding New Member to get a Ruby "A" Badge each year. So if that member has purchased a gold badge the chapter pays the difference for her to get the Ruby "A." (Your Chapter Adviser I believe will have to sign off on paperwork for her to get the Ruby "A" Badge.) Then you can put these honors in your campus newspaper by buying an ad!

Also, see what the other sororities on campus are doing too and modify their traditions to ideas your chapter likes!

Congrats rubynpearlgirl, it's always nice to hear from new AOIIs.

Alpha Lambda also does Red Rose Ball the same as Nu Beta. We actually had 2 formals a year (fall and spring) fall was called New Member formal (pledge formal in the earlier days) and spring was just Spring formal except every 4 years when it was Red Rose Ball. The only one that specified what we wore was Red Rose Ball (also the only one where the guys wore tuxes).

As far as Big/Little goes I would think that the existing members would start taking "littles" with the next new member class and the family trees will grow from there.

Other tradition ideas would be a "sister/new member" retreat following formal recruitment, annual philanthropy event, loving cup.

I can't wait to see my Rho Beta sisters at AOII Day next year! You'll have the opportunity to talk to the women of Gamma Alpha, Pi Delta, Theta Beta and Sigma Tau chapters to find some of their traditions that you might want to adopt. My chapter, Lambda Tau, used to have a yearly Rose Ball in the fall where the new initiates wore white and were presented by their fathers and big sisters. The event was always really special (though I really hated my white dress! Ha!) For scholarship, we had the Pi Club. All sister with semester GPA above 3.14 were invited to an ice cream or pizza party to celebrate. Also, the woman with the highest semester GPA had a Ruby A badge to wear for the next semester as an honor. We, consequently, had the highest GPA on campus every year. Like Katherine said, we also did roses (with an occasional thorn thrown in.)
A funny tradition that we had that I think is not widespread in AOII was to ALWAYS remove all the thorns from roses we used for ceremonies or gave to sisters. A good boyfriend always knew to have the thorns removed from red roses before sending them to his AOII girlfriend!

I didn't know about the thorns being removed! Great idea. I will have to 'share' this information with my husband!

I definitely remember getting green fingernails before Pref Ceremonies due to removing the thorns from all the roses we were using that night!

Yay! I was unaware of AOII day...one of my friends is a Zeta and she has spoken of Zeta Day in which all of the chapters in the state/area come together. I am assuming this is pretty much the same thing?

It will most likely be similar to Zeta Day. If you go to the Towson AOII website and click on AOII Day ( www.aoii-thetabeta.org) you will get a few more details. I'm in the very early stages of planning. A committee will be formed this fall. Your chapter advisor has been in contact with me about the day.

Awesome...you are the first person I've met outside of Lambda Tau who remembers doing this! We always said that we did this because AOII's rose had no thorns. We really thought the Jacqueminot rose was thornless! Of course, we were quite upset when we bought Jacqueminot rose bushes for the sorority dorm in 1997 to honor our centennial, and they were full of thorns (and kinda magenta, not red, in color!)

What exactly is the loving cup?

Loving cup is a game, where a "cup" (usually a trophy, pitcher, or generally large beverage recepticle) is filled with fruit punch or sparking cider and you sit in a circle singing the loving cup song, passing the cup along, and whenever the verse ends, the person holding the cup has to take a drink for as long as the group holds the note.

Now for the words of the song...I can't remember the exact words, though I can hear the tune distinctly in my head. One of your advisers should be able to help out with this!

Pass the loving cup around, don't pass a sister by.....
The sisters from the 70's at my chapter had this massive glass that looked like a brandy snifter that they would fill with cheap alcohol for their "Loving cup." The tradition stopped the year before I pledged...my bio sister participated in the last one at our chapter. At our 50th in March, they broke out that huge snifter and shocked the younger sisters with their craziness!

Ha ha! It's good to hear from a Rho Beta because I'm a Delta Lambda and going through the same questions! :D

My chapter does the Roses thing ("Roses to Bethany for being a good sister!"), and a book we pass around from sister to sister writing about how they have helped us (or about anything, really). One girl will start it and write to one sister who will write it to another sister and so on and so forth until the last chapter of the year where the last sister will write it to the chapter. :)

We also did the Loving Cup at our Red Rose Ball this year. It was hilarious! One of our sister's is a pottery major and so she made us this great Loving Cup and we filled it with water and passed it around, singing the song... we could not stop laughing and all the boys were taking pictures!

There are lots of things to do as everyone before me has said. :)

I like the thorn idea for the roses! =)
Also, for our chapter we do the big/littles.
The way we do it is by generations. The oldest person in our family that is still active is my "grand big" which is my "big's" big. My "g-big" has 3 littles, one of which is my big, and the other 2 are my aunts and my big's twin'. Each of my aunt's littles are my "cousins". My big has 2 littles, Me and my "Twin", my twin has a little and she is my "neice". This semseter I take a little (We wait until we've been in for a year before we take a little) and my big will be her g-big.

On Facebook they have a Greek Family Tree application, and it's nice to have around, especially when you have a large family such as mine. We also name our families. My family is actually one of the first families started at my chapter by one of our founders. We're named the "Bell Family", but this past year we changed it to the Bubble Family (Inside joke for my family members). Some other families in my chapter are the Flamingos, The Star Family, The Aloha Family. . .anything that comes to mind can be used!

Here is how we sing it at my chapter:
"Pass the loving cup around dont pass a sister by,
We all drink from the same ol' cup in Alpha Omicron Pi.
For you and I will never grow old until this fair cup is dry.
To health, to wealth, to life, to LOOOOOOOOOVE (gotta scream and hold this note!!)....in Alpha Omicron Pi!"

And this is the part where whoever is holding the cup at the time has to drink until the group ends the note!

Ahh...Memories.

Our version was a little different but the basic idea for the song, no matter what the lyrics are, is to stand around in a circle passing this goblet and clapping as you sing. Here's how we sang it:

Oh pass the loving cup around
Don't pass a sister by
We all drink from the same old cup
In Alpha Omicron Pi
Oh you and I will never grow old
While this fair cup is nigh
There's wealth there's health there's life there's LOOOOOOOVE
In Alpha Omicron Pi!

We usually did it at our rose ball or at other sisterhood events where there was something to celebrate. I attended an AOII wedding a few years ago where the sisters were all from a chapter different from mine, and they sang it slightly differently--I can't recall if the bride did anything special. But she actually had us go into a separate room away from the main ballroom and other guests--she had it as part of her special day to do this with her sisters. We were called off the dance floor to join her. Very nice.

I love the loving cup! lol. Thanks for the lyrics, I got most of it from just listening to our sisters sing it and trying to repeat after them. The loving cup was quite fun to watch, I'm so happy we continue this tradition in our chapter :)

I just listened to how the chapter members were singing it as well. I didn't know there were different versions to the song, depending on how each chapter sings it. How cool.

My chapter usually passes the cup around and everyone takes a sip while the song is being sung, then on "love" that person drinks for a longer duration.

We were actually given a large cup (looks like a large wine glass really..) from another chapter for our installation. We use that as our Loving Cup :D

I don't even want to tell you what vessel we used for the "Loving Cup". It starts with the letters JWH... I'm sure the chapter doesn't do this anymore, this was back in the crazy 80s.

Awesome! Nice to know the JWH cup got some use once it went home with your chapter.;)

I'm torn between giggling and looking like this :eek: all at the same time! :D

No kidding...maybe it's one from 1940 or something!