Chapter Reunions

sigmagrrl · #1 04-18-2003, 01:16 PM

Has anyone's chapter held a reunion weekend to celebrate their chapter anniversary? My chapter is planning our 10 year anniversary, which is next April, and are hoping to have a weekend that starts Friday night with an informal outing, a Saturday night formal event, and a Sunday morning ritual/brunch. We are having trouble planning it and would love some guidelines. Tri Sigma HQ publishes a guide that talks about reunions, but it's more of a guide for a one day event....

Any ideas??

nyrdrms · #2 04-18-2003, 01:32 PM

We just had our 15 year reunion, but it only consisted of the formal. When we had our 10 year, there was a whole weekend of events planned, but I don't know what they did. One thing that we did at formal was have a movie, one of the sisters got a whole bunch of pictures together and put them onto a cd with music to it. The pictures were of sisters throughout our 15 year history, and the alumnae that came to formal loved that they were included in the movie.

ladyj39 · #3 04-18-2003, 01:48 PM

Our chapter is actually having a luncheon on May 4th for our 15 year anniversary. I'm so excited because there are girls going that I haven't seen in a long time! We're going to have lunch, songs, and our seniors will be giving their senior wills. I can't wait!

Tom Earp · #4 04-18-2003, 06:27 PM

A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum!

While we do not observe the month of when we got Chartered, we do it to cooincincide with Founders Day of LXA, some what!

2 things to bring Alums Back: Founders Day and Home Coming!

Brother Jono talked about this on the ma bell!

We are from 2 diff. chapters, I-Ks, He Fl.!

Anyway, I told Him what we did for FD. We hold an honor Assoc. back for FD! Dont tell Internatioaal, please!

They had never done it before! They will be doing it all of the time now!

This is a weekend event, so , if a Soro/Fraternity, you need plans for the Spouse/Bos or what ever to kick around to do something while you may be at Ritual Initiating a New Member!

If this is a new Idea to you, what the heck, try it ASAP!

It really worked for BN as they found one of the Founders of the local who came back and was AI into the Fraternity!

Need more Info, you got my PM Address!

Oh, by the way, when we do this at My Chapter we always fo to the 3-11 and sit and BS till it is time for the Dinner and Dance!

Oh, for those that have Houses and House Corps. we meet 2 times a year----Homecoming and Founders Day.

AOX81 · #5 04-22-2003, 01:35 PM

My chapter celebrated our 10th anniversary in 1999. I pretty much planned the entire event so if you have any questions send them my way.

sailboatgirl · #6 04-22-2003, 01:53 PM

My collegiate chapter is having our 75th anniversary next fall, and we are just now starting to talk about what to do. I'd love to hear what activities you do have planned, though, and what everyone likes afterwards!

I would definitely include a campus tour since there are always new additions to campuses as the years pass. Also, are there any existing activites on your campus that you could incorporate into your weekend? Such as greek week, sporting events, etc. You mentioned (I think) that your event is in April, were you planning to combine Founders Day plans with it? What about having the collegians do their recruitment skit as entertainment? Could you have your formal on the Saturday night?

Okay...enough rambling for now...

AOIIalum · #7 04-22-2003, 04:14 PM

Give your alumnae plenty of time to RSVP! Whatever you do, don't send invites out a week or two before the event. Alumnae appreciate having advance notice for such events so they can attend!

Can you tell one of my pet peeves? Although there are many things I've wanted to do as an alumna, if I don't get enough notice to make arrangements with my family or whatever, I can't go. Once you set the date, start to publicize it through your chapter's website, mailing list, alumnae chapter and even your International Fraternity website or magazine.

Alums expect to make a donation to a chapter project and/or the National organization at this type of event. Trust me, it won't offend us! We also like to hear how we can help--just don't overkill it. You could set up your RSVP sheet to ask for family info (is there a future legacy in the family?), her email address (great way to stay in touch without newsletter and mailing expenses), and anything else your chapter would want to know. If there's a specific area you want help with put that on your RSVP form. I just received an invitation to a chapter's 10th anniversary weekend, and they had a separate line where an alum could make an additional donation on behalf of the chapter. I just thought that was a brilliant idea! Make sure to share any info gathered with your local alumnae chapter, too!

Alumnae members love to hear about what's going on with the current chapter, things you've won and what you've done (alums always like trophies and plaques

), and what you've got planned for the future. We also like to have time to sit down and talk with the current members in an informal setting.

Good luck!
Christin

pinkyphimu · #8 04-22-2003, 04:21 PM

i was a part of a reunion planning, but unfortunatly, it was a flop. there were some things that could have been avoided, but it is much too long of story to retell.
here are a few things i learned from our mistakes.
1. send out a survey to your alums before you start making definate plans. the person in charge of the planning basically, planned everything by herself. then as people started complaining, she sent out a survey about what people would like to do. i think people felt really put off bc they already knew that she had made plans and didn't feel like thier opinions were going to make a difference.

2. get a committe together. try to involve alums from as many different classes as possible. what appeals to someone who graduted within the past 2 years is very different from someone who graduated 10 years ago.

3. get the collegiates involved, too!! the most disappointing thing for me was the lack of collegiate involvement. some of the girls who lived in the house didn't even bother to show up.

4. let people know what they are paying for. honestly, this is the thing that annoyed me the most from my reunion. people whinned and complained that they had to pay $15 to go to a reunion. from the survey we found that people didn't want to spend a lot of money and that they were willing to bring something food wise. basically, the money that people spent went to the main food items (hamburgers, hot dogs, etc.), postage for all of the invites, the favors (that everyone voted to have), a gift for the chapter and some miscellaneous expenses. each attendee had to bring a dessert or an appetizer or drink. no big deal. anyway, i still got emails from people complaining that they shouldn't have to pay to attend a reunion. honestly, there was one girl who was a founding member who said she had worked too hard for the chapter to have to pay to attend. she also said that she was going to be on campus that weekend but wouldn't be stopping by the house. my initial reaction was to reply back that our chapter hadn't heard hide nor hair from her since she graduated and that truthfully, with an attitude like that, i was glad. i, however, was much more lady-like and responded with what the money was going to be used for.

5. understand that everyone will not be happy. one of my very good friends said afterwards, this was so stupid. i would have paid more money to have something in a hotel. i could have slapped her. i know she got the survey bc i am the one who emailed it to her when i noticed she hadn't gotten the initial email. plus, she also sent a letter to the person heading up the reunion to tell her to never email her again. lol, i had no problem reminding her that it was really her own fault and that maybe next time she could get more involved!

6. delegate, delegate, delegate

7. make sure your collegiate chapter is working on alum relations.

sorry for the long rant.

AOIIalum · #9 04-22-2003, 05:01 PM

Oooh, pinkyphimu's reply reminds me of something:

Make sure you're sending out as many invites as you have names & addresses. I can remember a really bad situation once where a collegiate chapter somehow missed a couple of pages of addresses during the assembly and mailing process. The alumnae who didn't get invited included many from the early years of the chapter. A lot of feelings were hurt due to this utterly innocent mistake (a mistake that the chapter admitted to and sincerely apologized for.) It was a really lousy experience for everyone involved. Last I heard there were alums who were still holding a grudge about it. It's sad, but it happened.

So, if you have 1000 addresses, make sure you have 1000 invitations going in the mail. It's not worth it to mess up!

Christin

Tom Earp · #10 04-22-2003, 05:26 PM

No Matter How Hard you try, there are going to be some PISSED People!

As the Active Chapter works at many things, a lot falls on the Shoulders of Alums, much like myself who is the keeper of the Address Book for e-m's.

Nothing is more Frustrating than to have some ones Postal addres and e-m address and they move and give not forwarding of either! It cost us money when they dont do that!! SOOOO you move on to the next topic. If they complain, throw the Ball back into there court! You did not get any info, Da, did you send a update notice?

BSUPhiSig'92 · #11 04-23-2003, 04:03 PM

Our chapter put together a celebration for our 65th anniversary (12 years ago), and had a nice dinner dance at a hotel. We publicized the event WAY in advance, but we made the mistake of saying that the actives were planning on going black tie for the event (one of the brother's parents owned a bridal shop and we got tuxes for $30). This scared off a lot of our alumni who didn't want to go to a black tie event (but did anyone tell us this until afterwards? nooo). So we had two alumni show up and it wound up being a really nice brother-date function.

Since then we have operated under the KISS (keep it simple stupid) system. Casual events and spouse/family friendly works much better for us.

33girl · #12 04-23-2003, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BSUPhiSig'92
We publicized the event WAY in advance, but we made the mistake of saying that the actives were planning on going black tie for the event (one of the brother's parents owned a bridal shop and we got tuxes for $30). This scared off a lot of our alumni who didn't want to go to a black tie event (but did anyone tell us this until afterwards? nooo).

If you do want to do a formal type event, make it "fun formal" - tell the ladies to get out their old bridesmaids dresses, their outfit from the office Christmas party, whatever. We did this and one of the sisters actually wore her wedding gown - everyone had fun with it. And make sure the guys know they don't have to wear full suits/ties if they don't want to (when they have to do it every day at work, it gets real old).

There are ALWAYS going to be people who stress over what to wear, no matter how much you tell them not to fuss, and you cannot please them no matter what you do.

Little E · #13 04-25-2003, 02:02 AM

Wow this is way helpful!
I'm planning our 5 year reunion. I know it is short but it is a big deal to make it to our first reunion. Many of our Alpha Class live so far away we've never met them. This is our big chance!

I really like the survey idea! We've had sketchy relations w/our alumnae, not alot of emphasis on it. It is impacted because they are all in school so few have the time and money to approach us. We are hoping that this will help turn our relations around, not that they are bad, but we could/should be doing better.

How have you guys done invites? What company? Suggestions on this? Our reunion is in April, letters are going out at the end of the summer talking about what is possibly going to happen, we'll send surveys then too

And start letting them know about what we want to do. Formal invites are going out to the chapter alumnae probably nov/dec is that too early? some women live abroad so... Then we'll follow up with regular letters over the next few months leading up. Chapters and nat'l will get stuff in Jan. i'm not sure on our timeline for all this...eek!

ARe there some etiquette things that we should watch for? ie, who we invite? Should we plan a philanthropy event for the weekend? We are gonna do a whole weekend thing it is gonna be a long weekend and we are working on having initiation that weekend.

We are planning on combining our formal with our founders. We've always had our formal that weekend so we are going to combine, also to help us with our dues (eek!) All of our alumnae are young...i dunno you all have me worried at this point about a formal affair...most aren't married so that will help, only two will have babies!!!!!! (our first chapter legacies!!!!!!)

blah so much to think about!

I'd appreciate any help anyone will give!!!!
Tau Love
Lil E

bruinaphi · #14 05-05-2003, 03:52 PM

We had our 75th in 1999 and instead of doing a whole weekend we did one big event at the chapter house and raised money to endow two scholarships through the Alpha Phi Foundation for our chapter. Our event was an afternoon tea where alums had a chance to have a house tour, watch the chapter's current rush slideshow, and listen to some chapter members perform their preference songs. We had about 200 alumnae turn out, and raised well over the $40,000 we needed for our two scholarships. I have posted in other threads about how cool it was to meet some of our founding chapter sisters and hear their stories about becoming Alpha Phis. It was a wonderful event.

Laura

sailboatgirl · #15 05-05-2003, 04:19 PM

Someone asked about a company to use for invitations, so here's an idea...

I do PR for a non-profit and we're always looking for ways to save $$. For smaller events (of the 200-500 guests range), I've used Paper Direct http://www.paperdirect.com. If you use the "jumbo postcards" (the size of half a sheet of paper), they can make nice invitations. You just feed them through your printer, and voila! They're set up 2 per sheet, with a perforation. They come in a box of (I think) 50 sheets which yields 100 invites at about $25 per box (cheaper if you order multiple boxes). If you go this route, you can either mail them with a label on back...OR to make it nicer, put them in an envelope. (When I've done this, I put directions on the back or sponsor information!) Also, another $$ saving tip for this route...buy envelopes at your office supply store, they're much cheaper than the ones in the catalog!

(Edited for spelling mistakes & typos!)