What do your Alumnae Wear?
 

What do your alumnae who come to visit or help the chapter wear during recruitment? Do you tell them to just look polished? Have a specific outfit for them to wear? Tell them to wear a color scheme that ties into what the chapter is wearing?

Obviously there should be some distinctions between active recruiting chapter members and the alumnae. I personally feel like there should be some sort of uniformed look, but DEFINITELY not have the same outfit for a 50 year-old advisor and a 19 year old chapter member.

I know that this seems like a silly question, but I feel if we expect chapter members to have a certain look during recruitment, it should be expected of the advisers/alumnae.

No, my 60-year-old body would NEVER fit into the same outfit as a 19-year-old, nor would I want it to.
Usually I hide upstairs in a study room working on recommendations in jeans and a T, but if I HAD to appear, it would be in a a nice outfit appropriate to the round, pants and a top.
No sundresses!

We are not usually allowed "on the floor" at the places I frequent. But when we are, we dress in a nice outfit appropriate to the round. If the members are wearing khakis, so do we. If it's pref, then the LBD is de rigueur.

When I pop in to recruitments I usually wear "business casual" in the colors of TPA with my badge (unless it's pref- then it's a black dress).

+1

Pin attire if we are going in and out of the recruitment rooms. All black for pref.

We typically asked them to follow the color scheme, but tried to be flexible. For example, if we were doing sundresses in a round, we asked them to be in pastels of some sort, but many would choose something like a pink blouse and khakis over an actual sundress.

Thanks all! All said basically what I was thinking and what has been done in the past. This issue is currently is causing some drama that is not needed or appreciated...

Maybe you should rethink the "Bikini Beach" theme then....LOL, just kidding. If it's a problem of them not wanting to dress up, it might be that some alums are sick of dressing a certain way in their jobs and think of going back to college as their "let it all hang out" time...even if it IS sorority rush. Just a thought.

When I was a recruitment advisor, I wore business casual in a color scheme coordinated to the chapter's outfits. I was usually the only alumna on the floor, but the campus where I advised held recruitment in the student center, so we often had alumnae and active volunteers running membership selection materials to and from the house. We asked those volunteers to dress neatly in lettered shirts and jeans, rather than sweats or the usual lounging apparel in the tabulations room.

Now that I'm a recruitment international officer, I wear business casual and my professional ADPi nametag when visiting chapters during recruitment. I also look pretty young and prefer not being mistaken for a collegian. :)

At the chapter I advised, we alumnae knew better than to appear on the recruitment floor without being dressed nicely. Usually, the recruitment chair would try to tell us the theme days ahead of time. That way, for example, if the girls were going to wear teal and black one round, the alums would attempt to wear some kind of age-appropriate teal or black ensemble just to help coordinate the look. Casual clothes, such as jeans and t-shirts, were OK only if working behind the scenes in tabulations or something like that.


.....Kelly :)

I've learned a couple lessons about this. I'm not sure who is upset or not appreciating the drama, but I would caution you to treat your volunteering alumnae with the utmost respect. Recruitment can bring out the drama, but most alumnae don't have a lot of patience with that. Sisters who are coming to volunteer deserve to be appreciated. Make life easy for them. I'd focus more on the fact that they're coming to help you, and less on dictating to them what they should be wearing. They don't want to have to get "specialful" attire just for the night...have them wear what's appropriate but don't expect them to spend money matching you or each other for one night.

Two years ago at Bid Day, another advisor and I cleaned out the stinky, day-old cucumber water decanters from Pref. No one could figure out where the odor was coming from, and we didn't want to welcome the new members back to a smell-o-rama. All the collegians frolicked off to the bid opening and we felt a bit like Cinderella. The chapter president gave us tote bags and lettered shirts...she was always appreciative.

I have been known to wear work attire (jeans and a t-shirt) and just to bring something appropriate and dressier to wear later when I need to be seen by folks not drudging.

You will help your cause a lot by 1-asking nicely 2-giving lots of notice and 3-being specific about what you want. A nice email note spelling out the theme and dress code for the actives and a guideline for alumnae who might be on the floor will do wonders. "The members will be wearing white shorts and blue shirts on Monday. If you are going to be volunteering on the recruitment floor, please wear complementary clothes, like white slacks or skirt and a blue top. Of course, if you're working in the basement, please just be comfortable and thank you for all you do!"