I have a challenge for you

[James]

Giving as much detail as possible, design an event that would accomplish the folowing objectives:

1. Completely raise your profile on campus, especially among the unaffiliated.

2. Raise money for some type of philanthropy.

3. Involve non-members (a recruitment tool)

4. Be fun for you and everyone else involved.

You should describe the following:

1. The event and how it is set up.

2. The personell needed.

Basically we should be able to use your description as a blue print to tell us how to set up your event, all the way down to ticket sales and advertising.

The only limitation is that all the money you put up will have to be reimbursed to the chapter AFTER the event and before the Philathropy is paid.

Obviously you can use an event you already know about if you believe it meets those objectives or modify one.

[James]

A lot of replies on this one :. So just to make it interesting, if over 12 people post realisitc and comprehensive plans I'll mail 50 dollars to the best one.

Sorry to offer a bribe but it would nice to see the serious threads get as much attention as the threads about the taste/smell of male genitalia.

[PKTSU01]

Can't believe you are attempting to bribe us dude!

Anyways, a rather simple event we started up last year was a 3 on 3 ultimate frisbee tournament about 2 months prior to spring rush.

We put out an ad in the school newspaper notifying the campus of when it was going to be, set a deadline for entries and talked it up at the bars, within the greek system, our friends, pretty much wherever we could.

After we got the entries totaled 2 interested prospectives would be paired with a brother as their coach and teammate. This allowed the brothers to kind of scope out the guys as well as have them learn about the group on a more informal basis, which is a great way to inform about the fraternity as opposed to sitting them in a room during rush and telling them about the history.

The entry fee was 10 bucks per guy and it went directly to the childrens miracle network. The total only came to around 300 dollars, but this wasn't our main philanthropy event, so it was cool either way.

Material wise, it cost us nothing. Seeing as we are allowed to check out stuff from sports and recreation of the university, we got cones to mark off the scoring zones and likea half dozen frisbees for no cost. The field was free, all we had to do was reserve it. We had some ladies from a few of the sororites referee for us, which is always a nice visual attraction

Overall, we met about 30 new guys and over a dozen of them ended up getting bids. We helped out some kids with the donation and all the brothers had a great time. And it didn't cost a cent!

[Kevin]

Last year a lady from Alpha Xi Delta was diagnosed with a rare illness that caused her ribcage to keep growing to the point where it could pierce internal organs. Her insurance at the time said that the only operation that had been proven successful was still "experimental", cost around $75,000 and was therefore not covered.

Many GLO's on campus answered the call holding auctions and things of that nature. The time was around Thanksgiving so we decided to put on a flag football tournement called the "Turkey Bowl".

This made the front page of the campus newspaper and many teams signed up at $100 per team. There were less than 10 of our guys that refereed the game and marked the lines, etc.. We even fielded a team (eliminated in the first round). The University's football team entered the tournement and won and the trophy now bears the name they submitted "Kappa Slappa Ho" but we raised I believe $750 (someone donated $50 I guess). It cost us nothing except for our own entry fee.

I can end the story on a good note! Eventually, her insurance caved and she got the operation. She just finished serving out her term as President and is doing great.

LHT,
Kevin

[IowaHawkeye]

Thats easy My school, and may others out there, already have something we do annually as the greek community, we raise money, lots of it too , for a philanthropy that affects us all, hundreds of greeks participate as well as hundreds of non greeks - its Dance Marathon!!!! Here's an article:

Greeks raise more than $200,000 for Dance Marathon

The Greek community raised 41 percent of the total funds for the 2002 UI Dance Marathon.

Approximately 700 participants from 29 chapters raised $217,815.59. The total amount raised at Dance Marathon was $519,990.70.

The three chapters that raised the most money were the sororities Delta Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta, and Pi Beta Phi.

Phi Gamma Delta was the top fund-raising fraternity.

There was no fund-raising goal for the Greek community as a whole, but individual chapters encourage their members to participate, said Cece Baldus, the Panhellenic vice president of public relations.

"I would hope that (Greek participation in Dance Marathon) will keep growing," she said. "We're working on things to get participation higher."

Bonnie Winslow-Garvin, whose daughter has leukemia, said she was impressed with how much the Greek community raised to help patients like her daughter.

"It's amazing how hard they are willing to work for people they don't know," she said. "I'm so appreciative of their efforts."

-- by Lyndsay Gross


What it is: a 24 hour dance-a-thon - filled with entertainment (this year we had 2 live bands, DJs, a performance by greek housemoms, talent shows, a drag queen show, theme hours - 70's, luau... and so much more)
Who it's for: we work with the Children's Miracle Network to help children and families struggling with childhood cancer and lukemia
Who participates: over 700 greeks participated this year and 400 non-greeks - gives a good mix of people who want to help (also an excellent recruiting tool)
How it's setup: We have already started planning the Dance Marathon for 2003 - and this years just happened 3 weeks ago - it akes a lot of people who are dedicated and energetic. A lot of them are greek too - the Execuative director this year is an ADPi, the Business Director is a Delta Upsilon, Event Director a Tri-Delt, Assistant Morale (Me!!!) - DZ and sooo many more people! If anyone wants more info on DM check out www.CMN.org

[Senusret I]

Well, here is what the Mu Alpha Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega did in Fall of 2000:

We are more a "doing" chapter of the fraternity, preferring to get out into the community and serve than raising money and sending it to others. However, I was more of an event planner as an undergrad, and that's a field I'd like to get into.

Anyway, there was a fund at Georgetown for students who couldn't afford books and had other emergencies that required that they travel home unexpectedly. We chose this fund as our area of focus for the "Retro Jam."

We wanted to throw a dry event, to give APO a good name. We wanted it on the main campus in a free room that was often used for parties anyway. Having it on campus made it accessible to a lot of people and made it a kind of neutral zone.

We chose "Retro" 70's and 80's music because it was culturally diverse. Heck, everyone likes old school music, whether it is old disco, rap, or rock. We wanted to raise awareness of APO to all groups of people.

The room was free, and the DJ asked for two hundred dollars, which we paid for out of the gross profits of the party. We had roughly two hundred left for the fund.

All we really needed was a bunch of Brothers to post fliers and about two at the table to take money and stamp hands. We switched up every hour between 10pm and 2am.

Basically, the event succeeded because we had fun, brothers from other chapters had fun, the guests had fun, the DJ had fun, and we raised 200 bucks to add to that fund. The party happened like a week before our rush began so people had a better idea of who were were.

Oh, two more things.. . . Brothers donated their own posters from 70's movies for decorations. Also, the DJ, who was a Sony rep, created gift bags for the top three best costumes. Okay, so I FORGOT to mention that this was a Retro Jam with prizes for the best costumes. IT'S LATE and I'm tired. . ..anyway, in a lot of ways we lucked out with the DJ and free room, so this might not translate well to every school out there.