Rush themes
 

You could pm dphies00 (I think that's her screenname)- she used to be a VPR, or talk to your MRA or RC if you don't have one!

I think dphies00 might have something right up your alley - but no skit!

It's not that I hate skits - but I think that, most of the time, they're a waste of time. They're like a musical - you suspend the actual rushing - getting to know potential sisters and pnms getting to know potential sisters - to wax on about joining Camp XYZ or to Set Sail with ABC. BS in my view.

You only have x many minutes with these women - we used five minutes in a twenty minute party llate in formal recruitment to go over the leadership structure of our house and what each team did. Conversation was stopped and each VP gave a minute long speech about what they and their teams did. Took up no planning time, we didn't need silly props, and then the pnms would have actual questions about their potential houses.

And, also, we never wrote a funny, touching skit while I was in D Phi E. The follow along with the musicals analogy, our Sondheims within never emerged.

Jen, I would recommend keeping your themes simple and inexpensive. I have no idea what your rush budget is like, but those themes - Willy Wonks, etc. - seem difficult to put across without going overboard.

Keep sisterhood as your theme - but this is one theme that I love love love - the Greek Goddesses of Panhel, Delta Phi Epsilon. We wore white tops, jean skirt bottoms, gold belts, green headbands (to simulate ivy). We had fake ivy, white lights, and gold netting everywhere.

I rue the day that my chapter threw out a themed rush. I loved that theme and how pretty our suite looked and how pretty we looked. *sigh* but they're doing a minimalist rush now...

I want to bump this up because I'm having a similar problem! any suggestions?!

I’ve never done formal recruitment, so I might not be completely in the know concerning rounds and themes for each, but here are some suggestions anyway.

Around the World/Across the Country – This keeps things wide open in terms of what you’d like to do.

Seasons – Have each round be a different season. Serve food that goes with each one. For winter, you could have hot chocolate and cookies. For spring and summer, you could have similar food, with fruit, lemonade, and possibly a BBQ. And for fall, you could have pies and cider. Decorate and dress according to the season.

Or base your themes around your sorority! Think of all the different things you could use: colors, jewels, crests, etc. My chapter only does COB, but we’ve started to move away from elaborate themes and focus more on getting to know the PNMs. One of our themes is simply Green and Gold, and everything will be decorated in these colors. The sisters will wear these colors. Food will be these colors (Hi-C, apple juice, green and yellow candy, veggie dip with cucumbers, celery, and green and yellow peppers, etc.)

Be creative without breaking your budget... or scaring away PNMs!

:)

I rushed a long, long, long time ago but I think the above poster has some excellent ideas. I think back on some of the themes we did and I think our efforts would've gone over a lot better if we just kept things simple and focused more on hanging out and getting to know the new girls. In fact, those are the times I definitely remember the most..........

I agree that keeping things simple is important and key. Spend your time getting to know the PNMs. That said, if it helps you present your chapter well, themes can be useful.

I always thought a Wizard of Oz theme (using rainbow colors as the "theme") would be cute. The first day or during informational night, when you may talk more about what its like to be Greek rather than specifically about DPhiE, you could do something in your school's colors or a rainbow. There would be a lilac purple night when you talk about ANAD and do something with the ANAD ribbon. On purple and gold night the evening would focus on DPhiE traditions and pride. The final night would be "There's no place like home" night (black) with the PNM finding their "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow during preference.

We also did an "Oh the Places You Will Go" theme (based on the Dr. Suess book) where each night was a different city--Paris, Miami, London and finally NYC (where we were founded).

We just had recruitment and decided to do a coach theme. We decorated very very simply and classy... like the coach stores themselves. It ended up being a huge success!

Alpha Chi Omega- Beta Phi Chapter