Ideas for Rush - commuter school
 

Hi

I am working with our Recruitment chair for ideas on rush events. We want to have something that's more appealing than what we've had in the past. We do Game night with one of our fraternities here on campus which we always look forward to, but we want to do something different aside from craft night and info session. Any ideas?

I go to a school where a large portion of the students are commuters. It sounds like you are asking about informal recruitment events. In my opinion, I don't think you should be bringing fraternities into your recruitment events. You're trying to sell PNMs your sisterhood, and bringing a fraternity into makes it seem like you're trying to lure girls in with the promise of guys. It sounds like a bad idea to me.

Anyways, there are many events that you can do for informal. We have had an info session night combined with some fun icebreakers. Game nights are also fun. To make craft night more special, you could do something for your philanthropy. You could also do a mocktails party, a dessert party, a dinner party, go bowling, go ice skating, or have a girly night. These events can go beyond the typical recruitment feel and give PNMs a chance to get the "real" vibe of a chapter rather than the recruitment vibe.

How many girls are you hoping to pledge? I ask because if it's a few, I would say the best party is the one that doesn't FEEL like a rush event. Hanging out with the girls in a fun, geniune, relaxed way is (IMO) the best way to get girls to see the value of membership. Of course, that's easier said than done if you're trying to pledge 50 girls.

I agree with Victoriana that you should leave the guys out of it. I think food is always a winner, so pizza making, cookie decorating, chili cook-off, whatever, where the rushees are paired or grouped up with members would provide a task to complete while also making conversation easy is a winner. If kitchen space is an issue, something like cookie decorating, where the cookies are prepared in advance, would work well. And possibly you could tie this in with your philanthropy by then delivering the cookies to a shelter, school, etc. would show how you're involved with your community. You could also invite girls to participate in a campus clean up or other outdoorsy activity (plant trees?). Your school may have a service requirement that this would check, along with the rush aspect. You need to provide a reason to get the girls to stay on campus, so killing two birds is a good incentive.

If you are NPC groups, you are not allowed to have men at recruitment events. That is a Unanimous Agreement.

They're not. :)

As a women's GLO we participate in clean & sober fraternity recruitment events like game night or make you own pizza.

For informal we really like bowling (we have a bowling ally on campus). Since you only get to bowl every 5min or so there is still time to talk to everyone. We switch up the sisters and PNMs on the second round.