Upcoming Rush Ideas

[WJasonHines]

It seems our University hosts a semi-non-traditional Rush Week. Basically, most of our Fraternity and Sorority Houses are all on one small road, on University property. Our Rush, as a breakdown, is 3 days of Rush events followed by one Bid Day, then Pref Night. Our Rush is moderated pretty strongly by the University in the sense that we only have 3 hours a night to have contact with the PNMs, completely "dry", and we have to stay on campus. Of course, some don't follow these regulations completely, but we like to hold our standards.
So, I'm looking for some fun events, themes, food ideas, etc. for the 3 nights of Rush events. I want to do something a little different than our traditional things. So far... I'm thinking of one night being a 'Crazy Cajun' night of sorts, and having jambalaya and boiling some crawfish (something different), maybe a BBQ night... I don't know. But as for fun events, I'm a little lost. I would like events that encourage closer contact with the Brothers and PNMs. I've been thinking of a "Beat a Brother" type of competition between possibly incoming member and established members. Everyone likes some friendly competition. So far, the only real challenge I could come up with that I liked was an eating competition...

I'm open for any ideas, so please, shoot them my way. Thanks, everyone.

[CrackerBarrel]

Do a low country boil for food. A+ rush event. I dunno for things to do, we just do mixers where all the rushees talk to brothers, but we have a big chapter and a different rush structure that makes that work. The goal is just kinda to have rushees and brothers shoot the shit, so to speak, so the rushees can ask questions and get a feel for the house and you can ID the rushees who can and can't hold a conversation and those with good personalities/backgrounds vs. those with no personality or interesting background.

[WJasonHines]

What exactly do you mean by "low country boil"? But yea, that's what we've always done in the past... just have the rushees come into the house and mingle while we shuffle them between Brothers. But I wanted something fun and exciting to not only draw rushees out, but to provide entertainment for both active and PNM alike. And I want to see the rushees in more environment than just conversation. We've had a few problems with them becoming a little too cocky when they were emerged into certain environments. So I want to make sure we don't accidentally recruit these type of guys any more.

[CrackerBarrel]

Low country boil is where you get big pots and boil: shrimp, sausage, corn, potatoes and crab boil all in the same pot, and then you can add other stuff like crabs, crawfish, onions, carrots, whatever else that's similar to stuff already in it that you want. There's a recipe for a small batch of simple low country boil here: http://www.coastalliving.com/coastal...609731,00.html

And for events someone else can provide better ideas since we don't really do events, but my one caution would be if you're looking to make it a little more fun, make sure the focus stays primarily on conversation or you'll end up with worse problems pledging kids you didn't want because people are voting on bids without having really met the kid.

I guess low country boil may be more of a coastal GA/Carolinas thing and wouldn't be as big of a draw if not that many rushees know what it is, but it is delicious and will draw in a lot of rushees if people are familiar with it in your area.

[Elephant Walk]

I agree with the Low Country Boil...

[pledgemaster]

low country boils are a good way thing to do. They're really popular here, I guess that comes with being next to the ocean in South Georgia

[ClassicUNC]

if you want to stick with the southern theme but do something a little easier there is the good old fashioned pig pickin'. one pig feeds A LOT of people. i know my chapter would never have allowed someone in who didn't love good North Carolina style que.