be careful about the scrapbook idea... i mean, the rushees don't really know you guys yet, and it's not that exciting to look at pictures of a bunch of girls you don't know. my house makes a 3 to 5 minute slide show (power point) set to cute music with pictures of us at all our mixers, service events, etc. that way, they can see us having fun together but it's not too tedious or boring.
all the sororities at my school have philanthropy night the opening night of formal rush. the craft doesn't take up the whole party, but it shouldn't be difficult to fill, say, 35 minutes max. here's what we do: the rushees come in and we each take one to guide around for the party and to introduce to more sisters... we walk around with our girl for about 7 minutes, then the president announces that it's time for everyone to sit down and do the craft. the girls in charge or organizing that night of rush stand up and talk for maybe 2 minutes, explaining what our philanthropy is and how the craft will be done. we are pre-assigned where we are supposed to sit during this time and we are in groups, so that there will be like 4 sisters (of different pledge classes) and 4 rushees sitting in a circle. this way, each of the sisters in the circle can meet and vote on the others' designated rushee for the party. the craft takes about 15 min. to complete. someone comes around and picks up the finished projects, and then we stand up again and keep "mingling" until it's time to lead the girls out of the house.
in the early rounds of rush, it seems more important to focus on talking and making introductions, rather than on showing scrapbooks or having lots of activities to keep the rushees busy. girls will cut a house where they feel like they didn't know anybody or they didn't connect with the people they talked to. from the sorority's point of view, the more sisters that meet a rushee and know her well enough to form an opinion, the better chance the house has of picking a strong pledge class.
[This message has been edited by twinstars (edited July 26, 2001).]
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