Chapter Development/Sisterhood Ideas
 

Hello everyone. I was recently appointed as VP of Chapter Development which is a sisterhood office and am in desperate need of some good ideas. We have chapter meeting every Sunday night at 7. I am planning on doing two sisterhood events a month. One event on Sunday that will be designated as a Family event where girls part of the same family can get to know each other better and then one other event during the month (probably on the weekend) where the whole chapter can attend together. I am just wondering if anyone has any creative ideas. I want the girls to have fun and really bond during these events. Sisterhood is something our chapter deffinately needs to work on. We have too many clicks in my opinion and the new girls need to get to know the chapter better. We are a small chapter of about 60 girls and do not have a chapter house. Thanks Everyone! :)

Hi...congratulations on you new office! You might try looking around the sister section of AOII's website as well as asking on inCircle. If you are trying to avoid cliques, having sisterhood events targeted towards "families" seems counterproductive. Realize that EVERY chapter has "cliques" but everyone should try to hang out with as wide a group of sisters as they can. You might try polling the chapter members on their interests. If you notice that a lot of sisters have similar interests that aren't necessarily part of the same clique, then you automatically have something to use to start a conversation.
Another way to throw random sisters together is to mix up cliques for non-sisterhood events like philanthropic projects, mandatory campus events. Sometimes people just need a little "desperation" to find that common bond with another person!

Our chapter does things like sister speed dating where we have two rows of chairs and you "speed date" with the sister across from you. We're given a list of random questions that we ask each other and talk about for like three minutes and then we switch. Sisters in one row of chairs moves to the left, and the sisters in the other row of chairs stays in the same place but passes their questions list to the right. It's a lot of fun and it's free :)

We also do things like movie nights, ice skating, and sisterhood dinners. These are always a hit, too. One of my favorite things is our friendship journal. We have a journal that our VPCD started and she chose a sister that isn't in her "clique" and then wrote to that sister telling her why she was a great addition to our chapter, why she's glad she's gotten to know her, etc. And each week at meeting we pass the friendship journal to a new sister. It's a really great way to show each other that you appreciate one another even if you aren't best friends.

We've done other things as well, like building a Habitat for Humanity house, giant sisterhood shopping sprees right before formals for dresses, and a chapter-wide secret santa exchange. Hope this helps! :)

Not sure how your chapter is but today our chapter went paintballing and it was a total blast. It really helps to get out and just bond with your sisters and vent any frustration school and other life stress you may have :)