Sober sisterhood events!
 

I need help thinking of fun sober events! my chapter is on social proabation and we need to do fun things to keep us close and active! any and all ideas are greatly appreciated!

I don't know about other chapters, but all of our sisterhood events were sober (save for the few individuals who would chose to have a glass of wine). I have no idea how big your chapter is, but sisterhood events don't have to be a lot of work. Movie/tv show marathons, spa day, baking, bowling, dance or exercise class, sports games. I would say to send around a survey, find out what people actually want to do, and then go from there.

Do you have one of those painting class places in your town, like Sips n Strokes? Those places are BYOB but you can certainly still have a fun painting class without anybody drinking and everyone gets to take home the picture they painted! Or a pottery-painting place could be fun too.

What's your budget?

What's available in terms of recreation - are you in a big city/suburb/etc?

Chapter size?

Give a little more info, and we can go from there.

ETA: sisterhood events for Theta are alcohol-free, so I'm not going in that direction at all, but other sororities' policies may well be different!

We don't have a budget for social because we're on probation lol. And not many people like to pay for anything out of pocket. There is about fifty of us and our school is in a super small town. It's beautiful but there is not a lot to do at all. That's why we are struggling with ideas!

The chapters I have worked with each have a budget for sisterhood events-because, let's face it, it's one of the most important aspects of being in a sorority-or it should be. And ColdinCanada11, my chapter and the chapters I advised had non-alcoholic sisterhood events, too. And the girls look(ed) forward to them.

Someone suggested a movie/tv show/popcorn night-those are always fun. You could always do pizza instead of, or in addition to, popcorn. Bowling or skating, ice or roller, attending a sporting event and sitting in a block together, attending a concert on campus together, board game night, frozen yogurt night, craft night (could make letters for shirts or tote bags, etc.) Family feud night or Newlywed game night. Chapter members are divided into teams and compete against each other. Could take questions off of the actual shows or incorporate fraternity education questions into the event. Have a prize for the winning team.

Is there a pottery painting place nearby? Some of my chapters have had a great time doing that. How about a dessert night? Every member or every family could bring a dessert. you could also do a potluck by classes-seniors bring main dishes, juniors brings salads, sophomores bring desserts, and freshmen bring soft drinks/water/lemonade. Chapter provides paper goods.

Study night. Everyone comes together for a study session and your executive officers provide a snack -chapter should pay for this out of someone's budget.

You need to find out why your chapter does not have a budget for sisterhood events. I bet that y'all used to and somehow it fell by the wayside. As for not wanting to pay out of their pockets...that is all you all can do right now, but going forward a portion of your dues could be apportioned for sisterhood events-with permission from the proper authorities(your advisors and/or national office).

As other posters previously stated, you should have a sisterhood budget. If you're on sopro, you might not have a social budget. Check to see, they should be two separate budgets. You can choose campus events that don't cost a lot of money like attending a sporting event or musical performance together. We did TV show nights a lot, too.

Didn't the OP say that they don't have a social budget at the moment because they are on Social probation?

It reads to me that they DO have such a budget, but are technically not allowed to have "social events" and therefore, can't use that money.

Am I correct?

In my chapter, sisterhood events were not considered social events. Socials are external events and sisterhoods are internal events. I wondered if the OP was aware if they are one budgets or two in her chapter.

When my chapter was on probation I believe (I wasn't treasurer so not 100% positive) we were able to allot some of our social budget to sisterhood events and such. We had different budgets for sisterhood and social events.

One of the fun things we did was ice blocking. If you live in an area with snow, maybe sledding? With a signed waiver of course.

Beauty things and more....
 

Go swimming at a local pool for swimming.

If there is a local beauty school nearby, have the students do the girls nails. Or grab a facial or massage. The schools are cheap and will instructors approve every single step. If the girls are not afraid, have them do their hair. I have used them before and sometimes the students are better than people who have been cutting hair for years. They try so hard and want to get good grades and build up clients.

Your sisterhood budget should be separate from your social budget and if it isn't, I think I'd be talking to someone about that. While on social probation, you not only need to have the sisterhood events to keep the group fun, but it becomes all the more important to prove you can have fun without alcohol.

Why not piggyback everyone's favorite New Year's resolution with some sisterhood and have a Zumba night? You could even make an ongoing thing out of that with a whole series on healthy (but fun!) living. Healthy cooking lessons, healthy pot luck, chapter hiking outing (fun, accessible anywhere you are, although the environment might be street hiking AND cheap/free). Just make sure the focus is on FUN and not diet/weight loss. You don't need to call everyone fat on top of not being able to have socials!

Some of my favorite sisterhoods have been sitting in the living room of our house watching movies and doing each other's nails or baking together.

And I agree with everyone else on social budget and sisterhood budget being two different things! That's what our chapter does at least!

Besides the usual movie nights, sleepovers, dinners and the like...

If it's nice weather, you could do a BBQ and/or Game Day (bean bag toss, soccer, kickball) and maybe pair up with another organization for some friendly competition.

We did simple things like cupcake decorating, baking together(we had a lot of baking therapy days), and awesome things like pizza-making at a local pizza joint. We also did Zumba a few times and Hot Yoga once, which tied in nicely with our Wellness Pearl, scavenger hunts and had board game nights.

I didn't get to go :( but one night had a hayride, campfire and made S'mores. Everyone had a LOT of fun doing that.

Really anything can be made into a sisterhood event. We liked to go to different on-campus events together and then do something separately afterwards.

If an organization on campus is hosting a big philanthropy event, that can also be made into a sisterhood event. Something as simple as watching the game on TV together with some snacks can turn out really fun. You don't need a big budget :)

Ask your alums for help. They may have ideas that you haven't thought of. Do you have a house or dorm to meet? A central meeting place gives you a lot of flexibility to plan low key events that won't stretch your budget but lets sisters spend time together. Not everything has to be a big event.