PR for a small chapter
 

Hi All! I was just reading the thread posted entitled "Small Chapter Syndrome" and it really caught my interest. I jsut graduated from a medium size school where greek life in general seems to be declining in popularity. My sorority which is Local is down to about 4 members. In order to help boost the sorority Alumni are doing everything they can to help. I am one of the Co-rush Advisors and I I was wondering if anybody had any PR ideas that had worked for a sorority of such small numbers.

This doesn't really have anything to do with recruitment, but one of the best PR ideas is to do a campus-wide philanthropy. My chapter had an average of 30 members (total was 75) while I was in college, but each semester we had a big philanthropy event that involved all of the other greek organizations and many of the campus organizations and even dorms. In the fall, we had a trick-or-treat and in the spring we had an easter egg hunt and other activities, all involving local kids. Some other good ideas for philanthropies that can involve the whole campus are penny wars, a dance marathon, a jail-and-bail, a car wash, or sports tournaments (such as tennis or basketball). One of the smaller fraternities on my campus always had spaghetti dinners and pancake breakfasts to raise money for charity. If you're putting together a big event like this, not only are you doing something good for your community/philanthropy, but you're also getting your name out there and encouraging the organizations on your campus to work together. You can also invite philanthropy-minded pmns to participate, which will give you a really good opportunity to demonstrate your sisterhood and your ideals.

Send news releases to your campus newspaper when you do philanthropies. Accompanied with pictures. Most likely it'll get printed word-for-word.