Quote:
Originally posted by sororitygirl2
Don't make it house too many members (make it about equal to other chapters on your campus), or people will be pissed they don't get to move out when they are juniors and seniors... especially when all their friends in other chapters are moving into apartments.
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I don't know about this, I think it depends on the overall attitudes of your campus. Here, most people want to live in as many years as possible (obviously there are some people who choose to live out), and the probably we are currently having is having to tell people that they must live out. I think that you shouldn't have to force initiated members to live in, unless you are having problems paying for rent, utilities, food while keeping prices proportional to those on campus and the dorms (all houses at Nebraska are cheaper to live in than the dorms). Size also depends on whether or not you have pledges live in. It can be smaller if you have members of only 3 classes live in instead of 4.
Other things to think about, make sure there is a more formal
living room . We have one with a piano and a nice ensemble of furniture and it's used often when waiting to go to a party. Also a lot of the guys play the piano and it isn't uncommon to walk down the stairs to a variety of different songs.
Another thing is a big deck, great for barbeques and just hanging out. I'd also reccomend a nice rec room. We've got one with a pool table, a foosball table, stereo (monster speakers - not surround sound), couches, tv/dvd/vcr. It's usually a place to just hang out and nice to hang out with girls up there.
Make sure you have a really nice womens restroom...make it like one you might find in a really nice resteraunt. Ours has chairs, mirrors, counters for applying make up as well as the normal expectations and most girls agree it is the nicest out of any of the fraternities. Make sure yours is also well stocked with toilet paper always...
The biggest reccomendation I can make is to make sure daily cleaning is done. The way we do this is that our pledges have duties, nothing hard - just about a 10 minute cleanup job that must be done everyday and then be signed off by an active. It might be cleaning a bathroom, cleaning the dining room, or making sure the deck is free of debris. They rotate through the duties during pledge semester and then in second semester (we never have a spring pledge class) they get to choose which duty they will have for the entire semester and this is done in order of roll number. Fines are assessed for duties that are not done. The overall effect is that everyone begins to feel pride in where they are living because they are doing their part, and that pride carries on for the next 3 years. Further, girls in general notice how clean the house is and will almost always make comments about it which further inspires pride in the house. There is also something to be said about a clean house in the eyes of PNM during rush and whenever parents come over.