[SigmaNuHX766]

Fraternities on my campus are prohibited from involving women in our rush events directly, and alcohol is strictly prohibited at recruitment events...

This really limits the obvious ways to recruit, but Sigma Nu has found that the most effective way to recruit isn't to draw in the random skirt-chasers and booze hounds, but rather to have brothers invite their closer, non-greek friends to casual, bring-your-own-beef (or food provided for walk-in people) cookouts on campus around the start of the fall semester.

If nothing else, it's fun, and it's a good welcome back for our friends and brothers.

We're working on the carnival concept for next semester, entitled "Inflatable Fun with Sigma Nu" (incorporating a moon-bounce and american gladiator sparring type attractions), in addition to a poker tournament, a Guitar Hero II and 16-person Halo tournament in the student center, an outdoor movie showing of stereotypical fraternity movies (i.e. Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds, Old School, Going Greek) using an LCD projector.

Our most successful event last semester was hosting an open mic night in our student center... about 45 musicians showed up in addition to the 30 of our brothers that were there, and it turned into an all night jam session with everything from Spoken Word poetry, rap, country, bluegrass, Jazz, and Rock! The event was supposed to last from 8:00 to 10:00, but it went until about 1:45AM/2:00 AM-ish before they kicked us out, and we moved the jam session elsewhere! Half of our now-initiated brothers from this past semester's pledge class came out that night.