motivating sisters
 

My chapter is trying to figure out some fun ways to keep all the sisters' spirits up & motivate them before recruitment...any ideas??

Do you have a work week before recruitment? If so, get your sisters in "Sunshine Groups" (or whatever silly name you want to give them) and give each group one day during work week to do something fun. Think of it as rushing each other! One group might arrange for a great breakfast, another might make up little goodie bags, one night you might take a break and do karoke or see a film together, have a funny award ceremony the last night of work week, giving every sister some recognition on a certificate - HTH

My chapter has this problem too. Many of the girls lose motivation as rush winds down. Its understandable because the weeks leading up to rush (we have recruitment about 3 weeks into the semester) we have lots of rush practices, which to some get either boring or stressful or both!
Our chapter tries to do fun stuff together during these weeks, like going out to dinner at a restaurant or the dining halls (wearing letters, of course! :D). We also go to a lot of the beginning of the year school sponsored events like the comedians, hypnotists, fairs, etc.

I love the sunshine groups idea, thats really cute.

motivation
 

get a bunch of balloons and have the sisters blow them up. then everyone throw them in the air and try to keep them from hitting the floor. we did this at kappa delta national leadership conference last summer and it was a riot! everyone had fun running around keeping the baloons in the air. it's supposed to show how we are all part of keeping our sisterhood in good standing. :)

another idea is to have envelopes for each sister and everyone can write notes to the other sisters and put them in their mailboxes. then between recruitment parties or whenever they have a bit of free time, the girls can read them for a pick me up.

We had a spirit chair and a spirit committee. We'd give out daily awards during "work week" (we call it spirit week, actually!), start singing songs and chants and had sisterhood mailboxes where we'd leave one another insipirational notes. And presents.

Assign committees to do specific tasks. If you just have a random "Everyone needs to decorate the chapter room," you will have chaos. Having a committee (and committee chair) to hang lights, another to wash dishes, another to sweep and dust, another to practice a dance, etc., is more constructive.

Break up the day-- give members a schedule. But BE FLEXIBLE!!!! And make sure people have something to do. If they're sitting around waiting for the next thing, they're going to be bored and resentful.

One night, we started a conga line down Greek Park, singing ADPi songs! Just silliness.

We also did certain dress up days during spirit week-- wear a blue and white shirt, dress like a twin (pick a sister to be your twin), Bow Day, Silly Slippers Day, etc.

Food, soda/water, and snacks (combination of healthy and junk food to satisfy everyone!) are key to keeping people happy.

I hate to be the rush nazi... but... Do not let people leave the house for lunch. If you have to budget to bring it in, do it. But if you take a break that lets members leave, you'll never get back on track b/c people will be late, wander in when they feel like it, etc.

Bring an alumna member in to talk about her memories of the sorority during spirit week. This gets everyone pumped when they hear stories about the "old days" and get to see old scrapbooks and photos. It also makes you want to work harder to recruit the best class ever!

Get a book of ice-breakers. Do these thoughout the day, either planned or when there is a lull. IE: Have everyone sit in a circle for a group back rub!

You can also do a daily Sister of the Day or Celebration Letter where one sister acknowledges another in front of the chatper for being a great friend.

This is also a great time to recognize your seniors and make them feel wanted and special... you want them to stick around this year!!!


No matter what, recruitment week is simultaneously the best and worst week of your life!

I hate to go all Advantage-touchy-feely on you...

But, pick a line of the creed to focus on each day. Have a "motivational speech" to go with each line, and at the end of each day, discuss how you lived that line of the creed that day.

Ok, I think I need to go take a shower now...:p

We always did fun stuff during recruitment to keep the spirit high. Our VPR made a really fun mix tape of songs to get everyone excited and we always played it super loud when working on stuff like housecleaning etc.

We also were paired off with a secret sister that we gave little gifts and notes to throughout recruitment.

We played hugs & kisses, with hershey's hugs & kisses. We would all get together in the living room and give one hug to someone and one kiss to someone, i.e. I give a hug to Ashley for picking me up this morning.

My personal favorite was the paper plate circle. We would put on our mix tape and sit in a big circle. You start by handing out a paper plate and marker to everyone. You write your name on your plate and then pass it to the right until your plate goes all the way around, everyone write something positive on your plate. I still have three of mine and I love looking back on the funny comments by my sisters about me.

Call your local alum group and ask them to sponsor a night of recruitment to provide food for. Our local alums provided sandwiches, chips, bottled water and cookies after Theme night because that was the longest night of voting.

Our alum group is also putting together "Recruitment Survival Bags" this year for the collegiates with maribou pens, mints, candy, granola bars, tylenol, chapstick etc.

Have FUN!