Rush help please!!
 

I need some help on thinking up a decent open rush for my sorority next week. (Yes, I said next week, I just found out today! Eek!)

The rush process is very very informal here as in:
*no skits or plays for rushees
*rushees do not have to go to every sorority for their open (as in, if you are just interested in AB and CD you don't have to go to EF and GH's rush)
*No Recruitment Counselor whatsoever


So, please give me some ideas for Rush...we're thinking bowling..but we have a slim budget to work with (less than $50).

Any ideas?? :)

Greek love, Kayla

We're doing ice skating next week. We've also done BYOB (Bring Your Own Banana) for sundae parties, volleyball, barbeques, Friends (the TV show) Night, taken girls to the cheap movies... we try to be creative and cheap. ;)

Re: Rush help please!!
 

I can totally help, because that sounds exactly how SAI rush goes! :D

The best Rush ideas are things that cost little or no money and that are easy to coordinate in little time (and you don't have much time, LOL).

Some easy, fun ideas:

Info Night: you should DEFINATELY have the first night be an info session. You could tell the history of your sorority, introduce the sisters, discuss pledging, go over financial obligations, etc etc.

--Death By Chocolate Night: everyone brings any dessert type item they wish, as long as it's chocolate. Yum. :)

--Jammy Jam: everyone dress in P.J.s, and you can play kid games like musical chairs, duck duck goose, etc.

--Service Night: a night devoted to service(duh), especially good if you support a specific philanthropy.

Those are just a few. PM me if you want more help!

BTW, my SAI chapter has Rush next week as well! We are so pumped!

Wow, sairose, those are some good ideas! I was going to say that anything involving ice cream is always a big hit...no matter what. I like the idea of an info night; as a matter of fact, I think it would be a good way to kick the whole thing off, as sort of an introduction. Kayla, how long does open rush last, anyway? Do you start out with a night where everyone who's interested attends a rush event and then the rest are invitationals?

The Bachelorette kicks off next week. How about a "watching" party and give the girls scorecards to rank the guys. Or have Sundae making and watch the Bachelorette...etc...

Oooh, I forgot that we've also had "Progressive Dinner". We start off with appetizers at one girls' apartment, have soup and salad at another apartment, and then have dessert at another apartment. It's usually a lot of fun and fairly cheap.

1. The individual open parties can be as long as the sorority wants and since this is Rio rush does NOT have to be dry. Rush week though lasts tuesday through sunday.

2. Yep, we do the signs thing and whooever comes we hang out with and then the following week we have invite week. After the invite night the next day is normally the bid day. :)

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Those are all really really really great ideas!! I think they did the banana-split thing last year ( I didn't go to the open...or invite..but I was still given a bid :D I was highly sought after, lol )

I may have to take a vote on the Death-By-Chocolate idea.. :D

Keep'em coming!!

Although I don't think it's necessarily a good idea to have alcohol during Rush. Sure, many of your Rushees probably drink, but some may not and may feel uncomfortable.

Maybe a wine and cheese social? Everyone just sits has some wine, cheese and conversation. Talking about your Group, history, the ideals, future as you see it for the Organization,ETC!:)

I would say that even if it can be a "wet" rush that you don't do it. You could come across a lot of issues. There may girls who are 100% awesome for your chapter but the fact that there is drinking suring rush could freak them out. They also might feel that in order to be polite at the rush event that they would need to drink with you and this could put girls in awkward positions. Just my 2 cents but I think it would be better to avoid alcohol unless every person rushing is over 21. Good luck on rush, I am sure you will get some great girls!

Coming from a chapter that did a lot of COB rush... We've done mocktail hours, picnic lunches (everyone brings their own food), ice cream, cookie baking, going to see a movie (everyone pays their own way, and you chat while walking to and from the theatre), etc. I think the picnic worked best... since it's January you could do an "indoor picnic" where you spread out blankets and stuff indoors (this has another advantage - no ants ;) ).

Good luck, and be sure to let us know how your rush goes. :)

Hey! A rush question I can answer!

This semester my chapter is doing a bowling night, a pottery-making night, a info/craft night, and our most Popular Night, Body Soul & Fondue.

On BS&F night we make chocolate fondue and dip fresh fruit into it, then have some spa activities - backrubs, manicures, pedicures, etc. We do this the night before Pref so that way we really get a chance to sit down and chat with all the ladies.

Other popular nights we've done are sledding (in the right weather, obviously), kickball, volleyball, and a cookout. You need to do something that appeals to the PNMs but is also a good way to get to know them - otherwise they'll think you're fun but won't be able to fall in love with you! (We learned this the hard way, unfortunately.)

Per the alcohol issue, we obviously couldn't do it because we're national, but the locals on our campus also stay away from it during recruitment. Yeah, we drink with our sisters, but our sisterhood isn't about drinking. Oftentimes after a recruitment event some of us will be rush hostesses at a fraternity, so we'll say to the PNMs "Some of us are going over to Sigma Pi/SigEp after this to play volleyball/watch football/pick our noses, and it is not a Gamma Phi event at all, but we'd love it if any of you would like to come with us." Tom's wine&cheese is actually a great idea, and that might fly as long as you also had some sparkling grape juice for the non-drinkers.

One thing that I also really stress is to make sure transportation is available - nobody wants to walk to our house from DormLand in the winter, so we say "Call Gamma Phi at 555-1212 for a ride to our house!" We also always make sure to drive the girls home if they didn't drive over.

Good luck!

Yeah...I would err on the side of caution and forego alcohol. I'm sure you all are classy ladies. :)

For our rush, we always served sparkling cider in wine glasses on Pref Day, and I liked the way it looked. When I was a PNM, one house served these cocktail-looking drinks...I think it was just fruit punch mixed with 7-Up, but it was really good and they had them in margarita glasses with little umbrellas to go along with their beach theme.

Oh, when I talked about Rio and their notorious wet rushes, I meant more of a lot of the other sororities do basically keggers for theirs, we don't. I guess it was one of those "I thought it, but I thought I wrote it, but I didn't" moments :p

We've decided on "Italian Night", basically homemade pizza, spagetti, breadsticks, etc :) To drink we'll have Sparkling Cider and some Boonesfarm. So basically, we're doing a Tom Earp type rush, hehe

GeekyP: I'm going to bring that up for our invite..that's sounds so neat to do!! Plus, I always wanted to do the fondue thing, hehe :D

It is really fun - if you have any more questions about what we do, please let me know! It's not like we compete for girls with y'all, so I'm happy to help! :D