Sisterhood Retreat?
 

I think it would be really fun and good for our chapter if we had a sisterhood retreat as an annual event. I haven't talked about it much with any of my sisters except for one (mainly because everyone is out of town for the summer), but have any of your chapters done one? I am looking for ideas for bonding (like real bonding not just ice breakers, although if you know any fun ones I would love to hear about those too!) and to just because closer as a chapter? I feel like we don't do much together other than just hang out, but I think we can be much closer and have a deeper sense of sisterhood. Any and all suggestions or ideas are welcome! Thank you so much!

Love and Roses!
J2

OMG!!!! I feel the same way about my chapter!!! I'm close with my little and two other girls and that's about it. I have also had the idea of a sisterhood retreat boiling in my head. :rolleyes: We do a sleepover every semester the weekend before the MITs take their exam, but other than that, we don't do much together at all.

I wonder what some other chapters have done. :confused:

We loved this activity in my chapter:

everyone gets 3 notecards. Everyone writes one fact about themselves on each, but doesn't put a name. The cards are shuffled.

Everyone sits in a circle. Someone reads what a card says, and the other sisters have to guess who that fact is about. Then they pass the stack to the next person, and this keeps going til the cards are gone.

The fun part is learning so much about your other sisters. Some things on cards in the past have included:

"I once took a nap in the trunk of my car in Rhode Island."
"I'm secretly addicted to the Golden Girls."
"I really want to travel to New Zealand."

It's more fun to be creative with the facts; not just stuff like "I have one sister."

Try it out. It's a simple activity. We've done it at rush, during sisterhood events, after meetings...try it out!

Also, the best way to increase those bonds of sisterhood aren't just by a one-time event like a retreat (which is a great idea!!). The best way is to increase sisterhood activities. You don't have to plan something big for it to be a sisterhood activity.

You can do the above mentioned note card "get to know you" thing at the end of a meeting. In fact I'm a big fan of sisterhood events at the end of meetings. Especially if you do a new one every week. It gives sisters something to look forward to, and it makes meetings more fun.

Some more good ideas, all of which are simple and you can do in a meeting:

--often times, sisters form "cliques" and don't know some sisters as well. In a meeting, write everyones names on little pieces of paper. Then pull them out of a hat or something and put them in groups of two. Those 2 people are instructed to do something together that week. It's a fun way to branch out and talk to sisters you don't know as well.

--go in a circle, and everyone has to say three things they love about the sister to their right.

--or, have everyone draw a name, and write a list of things they love about that sister. When everyone is done, everyone takes turns reading what they wrote.

--you can also have people draw a name and write a letter to that person.

Hope some of these help.

Thank you ladies! I have some great "getting to know you better" ideas. Does anyone know of any trust building activities? I know that seems broad but I know I have played some I just can't think of them!

Thanks everyone!

Another question. Did you guys do an overnight thing? Or just a few hours?
I think it would be really cool to do it overnight, but I am not sure where to have it and how that would work out.
Thanks so much!

at my chapter we have sisterhood retreat every year in the spring. We rent a huge cabin and stay over night. we have a large chapter of 60 girls and it gets expensive but it is well worth it and amazing to see the girls together after words. but i would defiantly suggest going over night if you can-

Sorry for the crash. We rented ski condos during the summer. I was definitely worth it.

We have one ever semester right after exams. It got cancelled this semester because lack of interest due to money, gotta love the economy. We had a picnic at our local park instead. I loved the one in the fall though and it was a lot of bonding time. We did Secret Santa, a Rose Tea *but not what you would think*, shirts, made new calls up, and made shirts!

We also rent a cabin, and everyone sleeps on the floor and isn't allowed to take showers. Makeup is strongly discouraged, too. It sounds kind of weird, but we try really hard to maek it just about sisters instead of anything else. At our last retreat we did this really great exercise. We sat in a circle with our backs to the middle and our eyes closed. Then a few girls would quietly get up and our sisterhood chair would read out little statements like "I really look up to you," "I have so much fun with you," "You live our ritual," "You're always the life of the party" different things like that, and the girls in the middle would tap three girls that they thought fit the description. The statements were all really different so everyone fit at least one thing. With our backs to the middle and our eyes closed no one knew who was complimenting them so you realy could forget about any cliques. It was really great!

one of our sisterhood events we had a sisterhood picnic. We paired up a new member with an active and had them do traditional picnic activities i.e
*potato sack race
*shaving cream with balloons
*three legged race
*tug-of-war
*popping balloons to find numbers (if you want more explanation on this just ask!)
and other things!
it was a great way to have fun with new members and get to know each other!

i just contacted our eboard about potentially doing retreats in the beginning of every semester to get the girls together and gather ideas and just bond. we have a lodge type place that i know we can use for the day for free but i don't think overnight. have any of you done overnights and found them to be successful. i feel like most girls wouldn't turnout if it was.

also! we started that notecard activity and the picking names for people to hang out last spring and it was a fan fav! haha the girls loved it. thanks so much.

Incase anyone was curious about SAI specific retreats I know for a fact that at least one of our chapters has set up a yearly retreat in Asheville (city that houses headquaters). They rent a house for the weekend and do all kinds of fun stuff. Plus they get to work in our ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS new national headquarters!!! If you want to know more about it (or just which chapter it is) contact me and I can tell you, since it is not my chapter I don't want to advertise anything that isn't my business publically. I am trying to get one started for my chapter (UNCG's Kappa Gamma) based loosely on previous chapters' retreat sucesses!

We did something where we were given a ball of string. Our pledge mom had wound the string around the entire house, and once we got through the maze, we saw her at the bottom of the stairs. It was lots of fun!

our chapter has an alumnae weekend/sister retreat chair, where every spring we either have alumnae weekend or a sister retreat. It rotates years, but we're thinking about making it that we have a sister retreat in the fall and alumnae weekend in the spring. We're talking about the positives and negatives of these moves, but it's always a good way to get people closer.