Need Sorority Girl Opinions!!!

[mongrel]

Hello~
So I'm working on a philanthropy and I need some female perspective.

How do girls respond to the week long philanthropies based around sorority vs sorority competition? Sick of them? Think they're great? Wish they were longer/shorter? Wish there was more emphisis on _____?

Any and all opinions welcome.

[SWTXBelle]

It would probably depend on the campus - how many are already done on your campus?

[TrojanWoman]

In my experience, it was hard to maintain interest all week long. My favorite was a dodge ball tournament that one of the fraternities hosted!

[deltalove16]

Here we have War of Roses, which is like this >
Monday- meet with coaches
Tuesday- Greek Olympics (Sumo wrestling, jousting, obstacle course, tug of war, etc)
Wednesday - Greek Idol - Serenade/acting competition
Thursday - Kickball
Friday- Powderpuff

It's a lot of fun, but the longer I'm in Greek Life the more I realizes goes on - there's also another one day event that is like the Greek Olympics hosted by Phi Psi, then Delt has Delt Games...and it's fun, but it's taxing. I think one a semester is the max I can deal with, especially when you have to make up those dance routines.

[exlurker]

One issue can be the type and style of the competition. Quite recently the student paper at Ole Miss had an “opinion piece” about one major campus competition for charity. Here on GC , too, from time to time over the years we’ve seen concerns and comments about performances, “serenades,” and so on that may be (as the Ole Miss item below puts it) “provocative, sexual” and perhaps “vulgar.”

I recognize that one person’s “vulgar” may be another’s “just in fun,” but I thought the general issue might be one some people might want to address. I have nothing against the fraternity that has a tradition of charitable fundraising at Ole Miss, or the sororities that participate.

The Ole Miss opinion piece:

http://media.www.thedmonline.com/med...-3319329.shtml

A few excerpts:

We at The DM [the Daily Mississippian] are all about raising money for charity, and we support the fraternities and sororities getting involved in raising money for the less fortunate. However . . . .

The dance competition is a thing of infamy. Girls from most of the sororities practice provocative, sexual dances for weeks.
. . . (the dances are so provocative that some women refuse to participate on religious grounds). We challenge sorority women not to participate in the dance competition if you are not comfortable.

. . . Furthermore, the males on the Ole Miss campus shouldn't encourage inappropriate behavior. It's too much to ask for males not to want to see females dance provocatively, but to do so under the guise of raising money for charity is inappropriate, even vulgar.

Don't support sexual objectification in the name of charity. Our women deserve better.

[Benzgirl]

Sigma Chi Derby Dayz was the only one that I can think of that was successful. My favorite days were "Make a Sig Smile" and the "Derby Chase"

[AOE2AlphaPhi]

The thing that is difficult about that is that it turns into a contest about which house has the most money to throw around. I know that I don't have a lot of spare money and I felt that I was really pressured to give money that I didnt have.

[BabyPiNK_FL]

Whatever you do don't pit the sorority chapters against each other! As a former PC member, it would annoy us to no end. The competition would get fierce amongst certain chapters based on the fraternity. It was very annoying and upsetting and caused problems between chapters over foolishness constantly. If anything, pair them up by which ones have a history of "not" getting along. Maybe it will encourage the to learn they aren't that differernt (in a best case scenario since they should be working for one common goal instead of against each other). On the other hand they might spend the entire time fighting and it'll be interesting to watch. Who knows?

[ouAPhiLiz]

I would check to make sure you are even allowed to host a week long full of events. I believe at OU the longest a philanthropy can be is 3 days.

[mongrel]

This philanthropy is being held at the University of Washington. Large campus, 40,000+ students. 29 Fraternities, 14 Sororities. As far as I know there is only one other week long philanthropy held by a fraternity, Sigma Chi Derby Days (and a few others held by sororities in spring.) We have done this philanthropy in the past, but it's getting a drastic overhaul this year. It's being held in the fall.

So here is the general rundown of ideas I have. The event is called "Old School Days" and it's based around the 90's. Our charity is Northwest Child, a local charity in Seattle read about it here. ==> http://www.northwestchild.org/mission.aspx

During the whole week, a jug will be set in each house living room or dinning room, just to collect change for more fundraising. Also t-shirts which I'm currently designing are going to be sold for profit, where the proceeds go towards the charity as well. Both jug money raised, and t-shirt sales give the sororities points.

(I thought about adding a raffle too, where would that be too much?)

Monday: This is the day most greek houses are closed and have chapter out here so nothing happens that day.

Tuesday: The founder of the charity is going to make an appearance for kick-off of the event to talk a little about Northwest Child. The event is a simple competition that will take place on our basketball court outside.

Wednesday: Simple competition again.

As far as simple competition, do you think I should do one or two for both Tuesday and Wednesday, and the competitions I'm deciding between are: 4 square, limbo, tug of war, hoola-hoop, water balloon toss. Can you think of any other, more appealing? Which of those do you like?

Thursday: Dodgeball competition. (Has had the most excitement around it in the past)

Friday: This is the day we gather all fundraising jugs, t-shirt sales, and total all points from events. The founder speaks just a little more about the charity and then presents a trophy to the winning sorority. Do you think a prize might be worthwhile? If so what would kind of prize would a sorority like to win? (It takes money from the charity to give a prize so it can't cost a lot)

Also two nights of the week I was thinking about a campfire 90's trivia competition and an "unofficial" Old School Days party. What days should they be on? I like the idea of doing the party Friday night after the philanthropy, but Thursday's are the popular party nights here. (People go home on the weekends)

[FSUZeta]

michael,

it looks like most of us who responded have said do a one day event. have you read any of our comments-either in this forum or in the fundraising/philanthrophy forum?

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by mongrel

The event is called "Old School Days" and it's based around the 90's.

Wow. That cuts deep.

Yeah, Michael, I'm going to agree with the previous post, you asked for sorority members' opinions about whether yet another week-long event would be welcome or not, and the answer's been pretty much a resounding no. It sounds like a wonderful charity you're supporting and I'm sure the campus will turn out for a day or two event, but I went to school a long time ago at a big school with a lot of greek orgs and I still remember that the weeklong Derby Days + Greek Week in addition to all of the other individual philanthropies, Homecoming, Dance Marathon, etc., it was too much. If one of the orgs wanted to bring yet another weeklong event onto campus I think we would have rebelled. Go with a shorter schedule. And jeez, the 90s were only 9 years ago! Old school??!??! Ouch!