|
I, too, just started an alumnae chapter. We were fortunate that our Founders Day fell just two months after being granted a chapter charter, so we planned that for our first event and really played it up. If the calendar lines up well for you to consider this, I would highly recommend it.
We had a tremendous turn-out. There were quite a few women who were clear that their lives are busy and that they can just do "one event a year." Well... I knew that those women who just attend "one event" will most likely make it Founders Day. The funny thing was... they came and had such a great time that they can't wait for our next event in March. Sold!
The other thing that I did was to personalize the initial alumnae chapter letter that went to all members living in our area (170ish). I did a form letter, but then hand wrote a personal note on the bottom of each letter. I looked up to see how many other members were from their chapter, from their part of town, or from their generation (new grads and 50/75 year members)- this was all info that HQ gave me in an excel sheet. While this was time-intestive, it definitely worked, as it piqued their curiosity and made showing up to an event not knowing anyone feel a little safer. Definitely worth the time.
Our next event has a caterer (one of our members) demonstrating how to have nifty/unique tablesettings, decorations, and snacks. We liked this idea because it could appeal to various generations, as everyone wants to be a fabulous hostess!
|