[DUAPhi]

One thing we did this year was a very successful Open House. Here's what we did:

- Got our annual listing from our EO and sent out printed invitations with rsvp cards and envelopes to everyone on our mailables list (receieved from nationals). To keep cost down I made 4 invitations to a page of 8.5 x 11 paper, and 8 RSVP cards to a page, color copied them, and then used a paper cutter to slice them.....it was time consuming but far cheaper than actually buying and printing invitations.

- Called around to SEVERAL restaurants in fun but easy to get to locations (we are an area that covers both a major city as well as multiple suburban areas) and found a trendy one that was willing to book our group with NO minimum F&B expenditures or booking fees.

- Contacted our EO and our philantrhopic arm, the Alpha Phi Foundation, and explained what we were doing. They were, in short, "phi-nomenal" and sent me a TON of freebie giveaways like car decals, philanthropy information, notecards, etc.

- Created gift bags with the EO/Foundation "goodies" as well as our calendar of events, an interest form, an EO "international dues" form, and an icebreaker game that we played. Each give bag had a nametag clipped to it with a woman's name, chapter, school, and a star or two signifiying a certain fact (gold stars for dues payers, green stars for new graduates, blue for executive board members, etc.)

- Went to a nearby greek store and bought a LOT of cheapie gifts as giveaways

At the actual event, where we normally have 5 girls show up we had well over 30!!! Women recieved prizes for being the first to RSVP, the first to RSVP and pay chapter dues, the first to bring other Phis along with them to the event (one girl brought 8) and basically everyone came away with some sort of token. We reviewed the overall calendar, got emails for people who were interested in helping with specific areas of chapter programming (membership, collegiate support, etc) and spent a good 1.5 of the 2 hours just mixing and mingling. The event was so well recieved that we are doing another one in the late spring to welcome new graduates.

The only helpful hint that I should have done that I would pass along to you - make EVERYONE sign-in with their name and email...I didn't have everyone's contact information afterwards so I had to go through other members to find it, which was way more taxing than needed.

Hope this helps and best of luck to you!!!