[littleowl33]

Right now, my school only has one somewhat "no frills" round. Sisters are allowed matching shirts with only the group's letters on them (no pictures), nothing can be served but water provided by Panhel and the only entertainment allowed is a 2-minute slideshow (music, words and pictures only - no video). The other two rounds allow pretty much anything, though Panhel caps the amount groups are allowed to spend (not including matching clothing).

Honestly, I really wish we would go to no-frills. Every year there's drama over checking receipts to make sure no group went over budget, and a few years ago one group caused $2,000 worth of paint damage when they taped decorations to the walls (all parties are held in on-campus rooms loaned to us by the University). Now no groups are allowed to affix anything to the walls, which also causes drama.

On top of that, the amount of work required to put on these elaborate parties is so disproportionate to the benefit. PNMs look around, think "that's cool" and leave it at that. At worst, they prefer groups with better decorations (the problem KSU was mentioning). The sisters don't enjoy the decorations because they're a pain to make, haul around, put up, take down and store. Our LCs are always dismayed at how "all-out" we go, but if we didn't it would look terrible in comparison to the other groups. Finally, the amount of money put into all this just sickens me. Thousands of dollars are wasted every year on these parties. I would much rather use that money for a date party we could actually enjoy or for a philanthropy event to benefit RIF. PNMs wouldn't know the difference, unless this was their second time going through - and even then, I doubt the lack of decorations would make them rethink their decision to go Greek.

I think our Panhel wants to go no-frills, but some girls in other chapters are strong advocates. They think PNMs won't find recruitment fun without decorations and they enjoy the atmosphere. Ironically, I think a lot of the advocates are girls who haven't had to work to put those parties together (whereas my chapter used to be so small that everyone had to do everything). If it was up to me, we would conduct every party like Icewater - matching shirts or dresses, water provided by Panhel and a short slideshow allowed in the first round.

/rant