active actives?!?!?!
 

We recently had elections and one of the main concerns for the office of VP of Programs is how to keep everyone motivated, but still focused and willing. We have the point system, which I intend to keep, but does anyone have any ideas as to how to keep the actives active. We have a great bunch of girls, but you always see the same faces at everything and once they get burnt out that's it! The Spring semester is really easy to get overprogrammed, due to mainly Fraternity weeks and All-Sing. Can anyone give me some ideas to work with?

Alyson

Have you tried a color system? In AGD, we color code our calendars in Red, Buff, and Green. Red programs are mandatory for everyone (Recruitment, Philanthropy), Buff programs are mandatory if they apply to you (chapter meeting, new member meeting, committees), and Green programs are mandatory to attend a certain percentage (Sisterhoods). This way, people don't feel like they have to attend absolutely everything. The only bug in this system is that sometimes (if you have a jam packed semester) it results in less participation in sisterhood activities.

thanks
 

Thanks I'll tyr that!

We use the points system, and it has worked fairly well, especially in getting our newest members involved. In the past, we also had a system where the chapter was split into two groups--Delta and Zeta--and each group was assigned to certain events. For example, the Delta group was required to go to X event, and the Zeta group was required to go to Y event. In case a person couldn't make it, she had to find someone from the other group to take her place. It worked for small events like intramural sports, but we finally scrapped it because it got confusing sometimes. Now we just do points, which is a lot simpler!

Re: active actives?!?!?!
 

Do you also have jurisdiction over the social chair etc? That will key in to how I respond . . .

We too have the point system..but do you have a requirement for a certain percentage that you must keep! If not then you suffer the consequences whatever that may be~ Ours was at 70% but, just recently got raised to 80%! It is more of a push for the Girls to go to things! In my opinion you should want to participate and be a part of things, but I understand that things get busy at times~ So, that is why there is a 20% room to slack.. After all arn't DZ's known for high involvement ;) Just an idea..it's worked pretty well for us! All the luck to you~

Bridget~

My suggestion is to just encourage sisterhood... when sisterhood is strong people want to go to every event they can to be together. Also through whatever ways you can think of... reward people for doing their jobs well and attending events... maybe give out an attendance award at your formal or whatever.

We had a point system, that if you didn't attend or have an excuse for 75% of the events, you did not have social priveleges. I think this is the best thing--everyone wants to be cute at formals, but everyone must realize that the formal's a reward for the hard work we all must do during the year.

These are great ideas thanks!

Yes, I do have jursidiction over the social chair.

I like the making it mandatory to attend a certian # of events, we sort of have that but it is according to different aspects, such as you have to either play intermurals or you have a certian # to attend. Is the only thing you took away was formal?

Next part of the question...how can I keep the burnt out attitudes from rubbing off on our newest memebers? All of our newest girls are very excited and involved, but I'm afraid after this semster the old actives attitudes will rub off, are we the only people who seem to always feel over programed?!?!?!

I mean how can you make 75 girls be at every single fraternity week, and try to win it and be at 1 1/2 months of All-Sing practice and not get upset about having rush workshops?!?!?!

Am I sounding ridiculous?

Alyson

It wasn't only formal, but that was a big part of it. That was the only event that we had that we didn't completely run (ie, we just picked the venue and had them take care of it), so it was like a reward for those who ran everything for the rest of the year. So, people who didn't show up for anything couldn't go to formal.

The other part of our point system culminated in housing priveleges. Those with the most points (based on pledge class) got first choice in housing. That was usually enough to boost participation first semester.

I mentioned the social chair because we are all Social Groups.

The complaint I have gotten from actives all over the country is that they feel "burnt out" as you say, which often translates into the fact they don't feel that a lot of social programming of the chapter is still relevant to them.

A phenoma that exists for independant girls on strong Greek campuses, is to go to Fraternity PArties a lot until they turn 21. Then their attendance rapidly drops off as they go to bars and clubs, or get boy friends and do more date things.

It would make sense that sorority girls follow a similar pattern.

So looking back to the social programming of a chapter, a lot of the problem is that social events are highly skewed towards younger members. Freshmen and Sophomores.

Especially because they can't drink legally yet so most mixers are kind of geared towards them.

Another flaw is that the Social chair is usually a stepping stone position, or taken by someone that is just really outgoing. Generally a sophomore or Junior. So they tend to be focused on events, or planning events that are more apt to appeal to younger members of the chapter.

Social events are generally perceived as fun and so desirable to attend. If people don't want to attend them, they are not having fun.

You want to consider your social chair/committee to be more like aCruise Director who's mission is to program for everyone. And someone that is aware that third and fourth years are often into different things.

Take a careful look at your calendar. If its centered a lot around conventional mixers, you will see a lot of been-there-done-that-attitudes.

If you program more relevantly you will not have much trouble getting them to more serious events because they will feel good about the chapter and their place in it.

Other than that, PACING of social events with the more serious ones are absolutely vital.

Remember another thing: Once you make events mandatory you are recognizing that a lot of your events may not be fun to many members of your chapter. Thats a bad way to go into things.

As far as trying to get 75 members of the your chapter to every event, well you are going to drive yourself MAD trying lol.

But if you program better or Pace things better getting an automatic 80 percent shouldn't be hard at all. And then you can use other techniques to get 80 percent of the stragglers in . . .

You can also try combining events...sisterhood/recruitment, philanthropy/recruitment, intramurals/sisterhood, chapter meeting/committee meetings. This way you're getting everything in, but you aren't excepting people to be in attendance 3 or 4 days a week. IMO, if you have more than three events in a week (including meeting...not counting work week/formal recruitment/I-Week) then you're already shooting yourself in the foot.

Did anyone ever get a 'floating A' in elementry school?

you earned them for doing stuff and everyone got one at the beginning of the year, and youcould turn it in for an assignment and get an automatic 'A'. they did it to help us deal with stress and stuff.

try it with missing stuff except for things like ritual, it helps :)
tau love
lil E

DZgirl- you go to MTSU, don't you?!? That's where I am. My roomie last Spring was a DZ at MTSU also! :)

Well we have a pretty successful points system where each event is worth a certain # (i.e. rituals worth more pts than meeting, meeting more pts than intermurals/mixers, etc). We also occasionally give prizes to people with the most points at the end of the month/semester/yr.
We rarely have problems getting newer members to stay active, but the Seniors get really busy so the officers have to sometimes keep on their tails about it.

If people don't enough points by a certain time, or owe any money to the chapter, our officers don't allow them to go to "fun" functions until they get back into gear. This works well b/c most of the people who we never see at meetings and service projects will show up out of nowhere for mixers and crush parties, and they're basically told "Sorry, but you should have attended the mandatory events."