Help with Fall Recruitment
 

Our Chapter at Sam Houston State is just a couple of years old and not very well know around Texas. There are three other sororities on our campus:
Alpha Chi Omega
Zeta Tau Alpha
Alpha Delta Pie
all 3 are known a little bit better around these parts. Each year during recruitment, our numbers improve little by little and still receiving great girls, but I was just wondering if there was any way that I could get ideas for this upcoming Fall 06 recruitment (decorating, clothing ideas, activity to do on philanthropy night, skit ideas, etc.). Hopping to add just a little more Sigma spice to it.

Slam,
Lauren Palmour

I'm the incoming Membership Director in my chapter, and a 2 time party head so I've been gathering stuff for a while. Our recruitment is four days (two weekends) each day getting progressivly dressier/more serious. they only specified day is the second party has to have a philanthropy theme.

I've posted these ideas in the Phi Mu section, but they might help for you all if you change some of the stuff. I know most greek organizations have similar values, so most of it should be pretty adaptable.

If you want details or scripts to skits (I have a couple) feel free to PM me! :)

Also, your nationals are usually a grest resource. We have a national chapter consultant, and she was a weath of ideas. Looking at Greek Apparel companies catalouges can help you in finding a theme. really, once you have the theme, the rest is really easy.

A great tip: we are on budgets set by the Greek Life Office, so we keep things like christmas lights, fabric, flower vases, table clothes and set peices to reuse year after year, that way we can spend our budget on extras. Find themes you really like and keep reusing them, it makes running and planning recruitment TONS easier!

Hope recruitment goes well! And really, if you have any questions or need suggestions, feel free to PM me

Phi Mu Ski Lodge
Motto: It Just Keeps Getting Cooler!
Dress: Hats, Scarves
General Ideas: We serve hot chocolate and snowflake cookies, decorate with snowy/winter decorations

Wizard of Oz
Motto: Welcome H(phi)ME
Skit: Dorothy is trying to find a place where she belongs at school, Scarecrow represents Scholarship (she gets brains), Tinlady Philanthropy (she gets a heart from helping CMN) and Lion Leadership (running for king of the forrest but needs help). Glinda shows Dorothy when she gets to Oz that she didn;t have to go looking for a someplace to belong, it was inside of her all along i.e. Phi Mu: Its not what you become but who you always were.
Decorations: Ranbow stuff ranbow balloon arches
Philanthropy Activity: We made rainbow have a great day cards for our local CMN hospital and delivered them there.

Candy Land
Motto: How Sweet it is to be Phi Mu
Decorations: different candyland areas (from the game)

Star Theme
Motto: Don;t Just Wish on a Star, Become One!
Ideas: We put together a slideshow/movie of sisters doing stuff, picvs from the year, sisters speaking about what they love about phi mu and film from different events like our flag footbal marathon and when one of our sisters was crowned homecoming queen and we all went crazy!

Chicago
Motto: We Just Can't Do it Alone or You Can Like The Life your Living, You Can Live the Life You Like
Skit: Velma and Roxie both come into the Phi Mu Vaudville Theatre to practice their routine. They argue about who should get the stage. Velma (representing the leadership/social) says she should get to practice because she has so many loyal fans who always come to watch her (sisters) and she always has SOOO much fun on stage and leading her group of dancers. Roxie (representing philanthropy/scholarship) says she ahouls be allowed to practice because she dances to raise money for CMN and she always works so hard to to her best at her preformances, that's why she does so well (if you have a good GPA stat, transfer it here, i.e. my dancers have been the best at learning for the past 4 semesters). The argue a bunch and then a stage hand comes out and says, you both have so much to offer, why don;t you work together! Then a song and dance number to I just can't do it alone from the musical.

Grease
Motto: You're The One that I Want
Skit Ideas: Pink Ladies and the freshmen at the high school. They show them what they have to offer and then it goes into your the one that I want.

French Country outdoor vineyard/cafe
Motto: J'Adore Phi Mu
Ideas: we did it in light purple and light green. This is a dressier party theme.
SlideShow: For Greek Week we have a greek sing competition where each group sings a song about themselves accapella. Ours was to the Indigo Girls song "Least Complicated" and we changed the words to be about our chapter (I can PM or email them if anyone wants them). We won with this song, so we are using it with a slideshow of pics from the past couple of years and integrating sisters speaking about phi mu, their sisters and all that stuff into breaks in the song.

Since the philanthropy is play therapy...I think something to do with putting together kits for sock puppets would be a great idea, also a viable option would be gameboard kits, but that may be more time consuming --- making the gameboards, game pieces.

More later....

Our chapter made bookmarks one year for the Philanthropy round. The bookmarks were placed in books the chapter then donated to a local children's hospital. It was a lot of fun and allowed for conversation to get to know the PNMs at the same time. Relatively cheap too...You can have the girls in the chapter donate any of their old children's books or go to garage sales over the summer to get some. The paper is easy to get and the markers can be borrowed from sisters :)
The hospital was very grateful for the books too!

For philanthropy night, we are teaching the girls a VERY simple dance to the song "Rockin' Robbie" We are going to talk about our philanthropy then say a good way the kids get exercise is to dance, then teach them the dance.

We have made cards for children on philanthropy night during informal recruitment before. It's cute, easy, and doesn't require a lot of preparation.

During formal recruitment, we fill little goody bags/small tote bags that hold bubbles, a small stuffed animal, crayons, friendship bracelets made by the sisters in advance, bookmarks, door hangers with cute slogans/stickers, etc. There is also a book of coloring pages that goes with it, and the title says "Made just for you by the sisters of Sigma Sigma Sigma." We deliver them to the local hospital later on. We haven't done it, but you could have a bubble machine going in the corner, play kids music, and decorate with stuffed animals/childrens toys/books.

Make sure to have someone speak a little (but nothing long or boring) about the philanthropy. Play therapy is a unique and fun cause to support.