[FSUZeta]

i was going to suggest that you try to reserve a room on campus(in the student union if possible) to hold your events-it will be much easier for girls with no means of transportation to get there if your events are held on campus. good advice, barb.

you threw me when you said that you will give the prospective new members(pnms) a quiz to answer about your founders during rush week. why would you do that? that is something that you should save for the new member education period. you need to entertain pnms.

first, if you have not already done so, decide how many new members you want to take. decide how your group will go about choosing the new members, but think carefully-if you want to offer membership to 12 girls and 13 girls come out, be willing to be flexible and bend your rules, if you think that they would all fit in. imagine being the 13th girl and not being offered membership, just because the chapter decided that 12 was the magic number. DO NOT tell the pnms how many girls you hope to extend bids to.

decide if your parties will be open to all, or if later in the week you will be inviting back only those girls who you are really interested in. maybe have two events where anyone can come and then for the third night extend invitations to those girls you are most interested in. if you will be extending invitations later in the week, be sure to say so at each of your open events, so that the pnms understand how it works. in fact, typing up a schedule and giving it out at the first party would be really helpful to the pnms.

you need to have a list of girls who attend your events-make sure you get contact information-full name, local address, phone # and email.

decide what the sisters will wear each night-will you wear slacks and sweaters one night-will they all be the same color? will they be different?what will you wear on the other nights?

at your first party, plan some kind of ice breaker or maybe more than one. in addition,you could have one of your sisters share some information about your sorority in a short speech-things like the date you were founded, your purpose, explain how the rest of the week will work, , gpa requirements. have her write down what she is going to say and practice it before hand. no ad libbing!!keep it fun and brief. serve a snack-chips and dips/salsa, veggie tray, water and lemonade.

for the 2nd night you could do some sort of craft or activity that would benefit a local charity. you could then have a member give a short speech about the charity(ies) your group plans to support and how you will be supporting those charities. serve something to eat-maybe make your own sundae-you could call this b.y.o.b. night-bring your own banana-you would supply the ice creams and toppings. serve water to drink.

for the 3rd night you could present a skit based on a movie or tv show-approx. 10 minutes long. have a sister write a script that models the show, but that is catered to your sorority and its sisterhood,or have a movie or board game night. rewrite some popular songs to incorporate your sorority and sing them to the pnms. on this night you could talk about the fun things your group will be doing on campus and within the chapter. maybe serve pizza and soft drinks tonight.

on the 4th night you could have the sisters dress up(church type dresses) and ask the pnms to do the same. serve something a little fancy-cheesecake, or iced cupcakes with the pnms name written in icing on it. present a short,solemn ceremony that does not divulge your ritual, but is just as serious. this would be like an npc sorority's pref. night. you could ask a few sisters to share what your sorority means to them-again, have them write it down and rehearse it!!

pair a sister with a pnm-sisters may have to play hostess to groups of pnms depending on how many come to your first party.have the sisters form a line by the door to pick up the pnms as they come in. have your president or another sister welcome them into the room. it is each sisters job to learn the name of each pnm in her group and engage them in conversation.at the end of each party, thank the pnms for coming. if there are sisters without pnms, they should try to visit with each group-the more members who meet pnms, the better the decision will be whether to offer them membership or not.

assign tasks to each sister- someone needs to make sure that snacks are replenished, someone will need to buy paper goods, name tags(or someone creative can make them out of card stock-maybe a different themed nametag for each night?). you could make enough for the pnms to have the same as you, or you could just get plain nametags for the pnms.

if you can, make all these decisions before everyone goes home at the end of the semester. make sure all your sisters understand how the new members will be selected and try to hold a dry run of each night so that you are all comfortable with the procedures. if you are going to do a skit, it should be written so that sisters can practice their parts over the break and then rehersals should be held when school starts up again.

is this the kind of advice you were looking for?