Need help with ideas for NM events

[rao_aopi]

My chapter is trying to make New Member events really fun and memorable (like Bid Day, Big/Lil Revelation, & Pinning/De-pinning). We came up with a few new ideas, like having pinning on the beach, but I was hoping to hear about how other chapters hold their events.

We don't have a house, so anything we do would have to be in a ballroom or meeting room on campus or simple location.

Thanks for sharing!

[SigmaNuHX766]

Well, for bids, there's always a bid-walk, where you get everyone from your chapter to go door to door as a group (in formal attire) to present the bid personally. The trick is telling folks to stick around between X and Y time so you round 'em all up in one go!

Pinning is when we reveal who bigs are. If you get pinned by someone, they're your big. Usually no surprises on who takes the honor of being someone's big, but occasionally we'll have people's older brothers come back from being alumni for 4 or 5 years to pin their real life little brother!

New member social events pre-initiation that we've done in the past actually resulted in finding a creative loophole in the limit to the number of socials between fraternities and sororities per semester. If you have an official event for the pledge classes of two organizations, since they aren't brothers/sisters yet, it doesn't deduct from your social "allowance". It's a good opprotunity to build community ties and have a lot of fun! Barbeques are great for this, as are things like go-carting, minigolf, etc.

We don't have a house either, but doing pinning on the beach sounds like a blast! A few concerns with the beach however: Weather, privacy, and sand + formal wear... If you can handle a bit of wind, ensure your privacy so your ritual remains secret, and can deal with a little bit of sand, it's fun!

Good luck to you!
-Jason