Ideas for Alum meetings
 

Ladies,
We have started a new group in our area and I have a meeting at my house in January. Do any of you have any GREAT program ideas to make the meeting fun and interesting. We had thought of a white elephant swap.

are these meetings going to recur? or is it a one-time thing?

Congrats on your new group! Try www.deltagamma.org. There should be a list (or lists) of program ideas posted, or in your handbooks. We always got the best responses with a mail-out AND calling people individually. You can also encourage people to call the local DGs they know and invite them to the meeting. Good luck!

The first alumna meeting I attended after moving to this huge area had all the attendees use pushpins to find their houses on a map. Then we broke into groups by area and discussed the best restaurants, plumbers, doctors, dentists, remodelers, winemakers, bars, whatever in that area. It was easier to get to know one another than trying to go by entire city or school. Probably works better for large metropolitan areas.

Our wine tastings are always popular, too. Serve the wine from a bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag, and have each sister (or group, chosen by number) try to determine what kind of wine it is. (May be easier in CA, where people in general know more about wines).

Or put 3 copies of each sister's name in a hat. Each member draws 3 tickets, and asks each sister a "normal" biographical question (where'd you go to school, where were you raised, how many siblings, etc.) and one oddball question (what did you want to be when you were 5? What artwork are you? Shoes or boots, and why? What's the one thing you don't want anyone else to know about you?)

We are trying to get the group up and running strong. We have already had three meetings: two at restaurants and a planning meeting at a home. I am doing a small dinner and we are talking about our part in a regional Founder's Day event in March. DGTess, I loved all your ideas and AnchorAlumna, I will be checking on DeltaGamma.org for ideas as well. Thanks so much.

Something else to try - go to alumnae Web sites listed on www.deltagamma.org, and see what they've done for programs. If there are e-mails listed, you could even ask about the programs and responses. Heck, you could even go to other sorority alumnae Web sites and get ideas! a great idea deserves to be shared...

If you log into E-ops and check out the idea bank, you can search many alumnae programs by region, city etc. See which ones are popular, what they did to host them etc. The e-ops database is where I put the entire alumnae calendar for my chapter as well as reports on the attendance/success of each event. This is required of all alumnae (and collegiate!) chapters to be in good standing.

http://eops.deltagamma.org/

As an alum member of a group for several years I can give you some ideas:

--download the listings of alumnae in your area and find out the age brackets and areas they live in
--plan events that appeal to all ages (i.e. don't always meet in a bar/restaurant/home). Typically the bar scene is only popular under say 25
--plan events for a set day of the month (say every second Tuesday) and at the same time--don't let it be a moving target
--events with food are always winners! we did a wine tasting, chocolate, cooking demo etc
--incorporate a little foundation in every event, even if it is just mentioning something you saw on the dg site. Share Alumnae Anchorline newsletters, pass out shop and share coupons etc (if your grocery stores do those)
--email people and set up a phone tree. I find emails are grossly out of date for anything ending in .edu--collegiate emails always bounce for me.
--Check with your regional director--she has copies of all the newsletters for alumnae chapters within your region. Or contact them directly via email and get them to send you a copy to get ideas (email me and I can send you mine).
--involve the collegians--can you meet once in the chapter house? Alumnae like to come back and see "what's happened to the place"--have the girls give the alum a tour?
--SouthernLiving at Home/PartyLite/Longaberger baskets--don't go crazy with these as they are $$$ but one a year is good for interest
--Send out a survey via email to your member list and ask them what they are interested in! Or not interested in!


Here is my site--click the calendar for events ideas:
http://www.geocities.com/deltagammaalumnae/

Wow! That is a GREAT website!!!! I loved some of the things you are doing.

The meeting will be at my home. I know we will have some business but since this is only our second "real" meeting, we do not have a program. I had thought of a white elephant swap, but frankly, that would not draw me to an event if I was on the fence. I also am not sure that having a Southern Living Party would be a pull, especially right after the holidays. We did the wine pairings at our last meeting (great turn out for that one) so I was hoping for something unique. I will check out the E-ops. Thanks so much.

Who did that great website for you??????

do you mean my website? I did it. It is a continaul work in progress (I just noticed the calendar did not format right on the site---grrr!)

I do our newsletter in Pagemaker and the site in Frontpage, but my Frontpage skills aren't great.

try this ice break game:

Everyone gets an index card and writes on it three things that no one knows about me (ex: you're in MENSA, a private pilot, love to garden etc). Then you draw one from a hat and read it and everyone tries to guess who that person is. It isn't as lame as it sounds, promise! We found this to be really interesting!

Idea: do you guys do a Founders Day basket raffle? A good theme we've done is Christmas in March (in honor of our Christmas time founding). We collect Christmas items marked WAAAAY down and assemble them into a basket. You can get tons of stuff for cheap. Ask everyone to bring something for the basket.

Right after Christmas, we have a Mother-Daughter Tea at an alum's home. It's always the Thursday after Christmas so we can pull in alums and collegians who may be home visiting as well as the usual alums. As long as you are a DG, you can bring a mother or daughter! Everyone brings snacks and wine, and we serve cokes & spiced tea for the collegians. The collegians who are from our area will come and bring their moms. We just had ours and it is really a boost for alums to see the cute new DGs that joined. One mom had brought her cute twin daughters who are seniors in high school, so they met the DG collegians from the school they are interested in.

DG4evah:

How do you get your event checklist signed off on for this type of function since alcohol is served in the presence of collegians?

We invite collegians to our functions even if wine is served. However we note they must be 21 to attend those functions. So far we haven't had any collegians come to make it an issue.

Well, what would you do if collegians came since you can't have alcohol? We can't figure out how to handle that!