I've had a great deal of success with a retreat. We've gone to my grandmother's beach house, a college retreat (campground with cabins), but any place AWAY will do.
Bring in some speakers who are not involved with the chapter and thus have no "baggage". It would be great if it were a Gamma Phi (and I'm available!
) but any committed alum will do. Have her speak about the importance of not getting bogged down in the day-to-day problems - about focusing on the larger picture. If everyone rededicates themselves to not just saying but living our creed then the group dynamic will change.
One exercise that we used was to "map" the chapters strengths and weaknesses (I discussed this in another thread). A perfect chapter would be a circle - all the points would be on the outside of the circle. Plot the location of various aspects of the chapter on a scale of 1 - 10. So, if sisterhood is a 5, the dot would be half-way from the center. If grades were a 10, the dot would be on the perimeter of the circle.
The paper chain idea is great, as is the candle pass- and getting the sisters to bring favorite pictures or videos of past events is a great way to draw everyone together.
Get everyone to gather their favorite sisterhood poems, songs, etc., to share and make a "sisterhood book". You might have everyone submit the material beforehand and get it typed up and bound at Kinko's or the like to pass out for a fireside. Have sisters read their contributions.
HTH -