recruitment on a small budget
 

hey y'all!
I was just wondering if anyone had any good suggestions on how to run a great recruitment on a small budget? Are there any good places to get decorations at reasonable prices? And where do y'all get your tshirts? We have a really restricted budget and we're looking for ways to save money...
Thanks so much!!!

shirts: try customink.com

decorations: we use Dollar Tree (or any $ store will do) or we have had sisters who work at Party America and we get hook ups. But usually Dollar stores are a great help.

Hi! I could probably come up with a few ideas for you, but I need to know a little bit more about Furman's rules. For example, what are the restrictions on decorations? Do you have skits? Do you use themes? Refreshments? I have had to plan a lot of
COB events as well, so just let me know what kind of ideas you are looking for.

HappyKappa,

There is a wonderful T-shirt shop in the shopping center with Publix supermarket (the one next to your school) and they have very reasonable prices. Like someone else mentioned...Dollar Tree does have some great stuff and so does Big Lots. Get creative, you'd be surprised at what you can make on a budget.

A big thing my chapter does is always try to look at its current members and alumna for connections. Such as we have sisters who's families run printing companies, so we get great prices doing shirts through them...Another handy thing is to see if any parents or alumna are willing to donate supplies or money towards decorations. We had a mom last summer who greatly helped with the name tags...

Yeah someone else from Furman on the boards! Yeah that is so neat. Its been a while for me so let me think. I would really have to go with any Dollar store as a place for cheap decorations. Is Harpers still in business? I can't remember where we got our tshirts but I know how expensive they can be. This is probably obvious but the less colors you use in the shirts the cheaper. I feel a navy shirt with light blue lettering would be nice. I remember Kappas rush shirts one year. I think on the front they said KKG Furman Rush etc and on the back they said "The Hottest part of the flame is the blue" with a picture of a candle and a flame. Its so random I remember that. LOL. I thought it was neat. So there's an idea! Hope it helps!

We not only had to run recruitment on a shoestring budget, we had to compete with 4 other sororities, each of whom could spend the full $2400 or so that we were allowed. (We had less than $1000, being a much smaller group.)

We got refreshments at Costco. This included powdered drink mixes and snacks (we could serve finger food and any non-alcoholic drink at all rounds).

One year, we got our bid day t-shirts on the cheap from another AEPhi chapter. The printers had accidentally left out a color, so that chapter had them re-printed, but you couldn't really tell there was a color missing, so they let us have them at like $5 each, and they looked fine.

That does give me an idea though - could you get together with another nearby Kappa chapter and order rush and/or bid day shirts together for a volume discount?

If I think of any more ideas I'll let you know. Good luck! :)

ask alum for donations. make sur eyou're specific in saying you do not want monetary contributions, rather you would love if they donated flowers, refreshments, etc. it will be a great help and i don't think NPC can restrict donations.

Hey, sister. I'll echo the suggestions that you check with your alums. We never have to spend too much for Recruitment because our alums donate all the food. They also come to rounds and serve it-- a big hit with the PNMs.

Good luck!

Do many schools have patriotic-themed Recruitment parties?

Hmmm....
I don't really know. I just remember thumbing through the latest oriental trading catalog and seeing lots and lots of cute patriotic stuff because its getting near the 4th of july.

I do remember that the DG's wore all red white and blue clothes during the first day of rush, but I don't really think it was a patriotic theme.

It could be a very cute idea, but at the same time, it might alienate any foreing rushees.

USC Rush
 

Our rush is August 19-20, 22-23. We would welcome you to come down and visit to get an idea of what our recruitment is like. Carolina is moving towards a no-frills recruitment, although we still have a good deal of frills. You are also welcome to visit during our recruitment retreat which starts August 12. You could watch our slide show and skits to get ideas for your recruitment. I believe your school website said yours was during the spring, is that right? Just let me know if you would be interested. ;)