Sorority Bonding Activities - please respond!
 

Hello Everyone,

My name is Emily - I am a Delta Gamma.
Throughout the past year my sorority has experienced a level of seperation between our freshmen class and the classes above. The freshmen feel that we are not inviting, have cliques, don't like them...etc. I know we probably all felt this way as a freshmen - its hard to get to know the women when it appears that they already have an established group of friends. I think we also know that as upper classmen it can sometimes be too much work to personally make all the underclassmen feel welcome.
This year we really want to impliment some ideas that would get the freshmen girls bonded with our upper classmen from the get-go.
Does anyone have any good bonding activities we could use on Bid day? I want them to feel connected with the initiated members on a deep level, but without making it too intimate or emotional - it seems a little too early for that.

Pleaseeeee, if you have any ideas they would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you!

I think one of the best ways to bond the younger members with the older girls is just ot invite them out to everyday activities. Go out to lunch, study at the library together, watch a movie at the house etc. It's not necessarily the organized chapter event that bonds members but the things they do outside.

As far as Bid Day goes, do you guys give them a buddy of some sort? If not, you might want to think about doing that so the new members can have someone older they know right from the start.

There are many resources for bonding activities. Let me google that for you:

http://tinyurl.com/34meyjj

You can also look at the bottom of the page here for suggestions, or use the search button at the top of the page, for ice-breaker type bid day activities (there are a lot of good suggestions in previous threads).

And just to show that I'm not completely snarky, there's something that I really enjoyed as a pledge/new member. Each week, pair up a new member/freshman with another member/upperclassman. Have "Buddy Day", where the two buddies do something together - anything. Eat lunch, have coffee, take a walk, work out, go shopping - it doesn't matter what the activity is, as long as they hang out. Change "partners" each week so that newer girls get some quality time with different sisters. (You can do during the new member period or even during the non-recruitment semester.)

Another way to mix things up is to involve new members/freshman in committees. It's a great chance to work with a cross-section of members, from new to "older".

How about creating groups of 4-6 women, 1-2 from each class? Then use those groups throughout the new member period for some sort of competition. Example- one point for each time all members get together for a meal, or have a study session, or watch a movie, or attend a sorority or Greek function. Then at the end, do something for those with the most points. A lot of chapters use a point system, but often with negative connotations... this is more of a fun one, a good way to encourage people to get know each other. Or use the groups for specific events, projects, or committees. Kappa does something like this and it is great for getting to know different sisters that you may not otherwise hang out with as often. Even in my small chapter of 30 women, it was still really helpful- and I can imagine that it'd have even more impact in larger chapters where the classes are more separated from one another.

Even if girls don't get their big sister on bid day, they should get a sponsor (especially if you have any kind of ceremony on bid day). They can have the same sponsor until bigs are assigned or different buddies can be used as ree-Xi suggested.

Make sure the women know that they are welcome to come to the house at ANY time. If there are any problems with security/admittance or anything like that, clear them up. Make sure the new girls are all on the "ok to admit" list, if there is such a thing.

Thirding this idea:
We got heart sisters for each week of our new member period and each "temporary big" hung out with us at least once during that week. It helped us meet the actives and then it made big/little assignment easier.

We do similar things. The first week we get our golden then the second week we have a silver, then they get their big that next week. It lets the older girls (especially in our large growing chapter) get to know at least 2-3 new girls.

Something I just thought of that we did at a sisterhood retreat.

Have all the old members stand in a circle. Then have the new members stand in a circle around them facing the old members. Does that make sense? Then have someone who is running the activity say something like "Where would you go if you could visit anywhere in the world" and then everyone gets a couple minutes to talk. Then be like "Okay outside cirlce take three steps to the left" and now the persons with a new person. Ask another question like "Whoes your hero". This gets people to get to know eachother.
You'd be surprised how much you have in common with other girls.