New Sorority Help!*

[zphid08]

Hi everyone! I'm new here and in need of some help!
I am currently the secretary of my college’s sorority and this summer I, along with a few other members of the executive board, have been trying to get the girls more involved with the sorority. Over the years we’ve been having problems with simple things such as get togethers and we are trying to fix this. Also, we are a newer sorority (founded in 2001) so we are definitely still growing and trying to get new ideas!! Sooo, I would love to get some opinions from other girls about some different things! I’ve asked around within the sorority to see what kinds of questions they would like answered (because we are also trying to contact other local sororities for advice) so here are some questions they had! If you would like to reply to one or all that would be amazing or even if you have any other little tips or advice!! Thank you so much for your help!


* We are at a smaller university and therefore we don’t get the opportunity to conduct a real big rush week. The girls wondered though, how do you conduct rush? What activities do you do during rush week? Overall, how do you conduct rush?

*Also, with Greek Week. What kind of activities and social things do you do around campus?

*How do you decide who would be a good addition to your sisterhood?

*What kind of social things do you do? (Like I mentioned before we are a newer sorority so we don’t have much money to play around with just yet so we unfortunately can’t go all out with events!)

*We are a service sorority as well, so the girls wondered what kind of service projects other sororities participate in!?

Thanks in advance. Feel free to PM me if you'd like.

[adpiucf]

You may want to check out the "locals" section of Greek Chat-- there are many members of local orgs on this site.

Regarding your questions...

*How is rush conducted?
This is a structured week of interviews between Potential New Members and Sisters. At the beginning, the events are open house to anyone who is registered with recruitment. As the recruitment progresses, these events proceed to invite-only. In the case where there is more than sorority, sororities must cut a certain percentage of the applicant pool after each round, and the PNM's may attend a fewer number of events requiring them to rank the sororities in their order of preference.

For your purposes, you might coordinate a week-long meet and greet where you coordinate activities to give PNM's a chance to meet sisters and chat with them. Following those meetings, the members can identify the women whom they felt might be suited for membership. Invite those women to your invite-only event-- following this invitational, vote as a chapter on who you would like to invite to membership.

*Also, with Greek Week. What kind of activities and social things do you do around campus?
Greek Week is a time for the social fraternities and sororities to celebrate being Greek. At my school, a sorority and a fraternity were paired together to compete in all Greek Week activities together-- this helped them get to know people in the other organization better b/c they were working together. Greek Week is a week-long celebration and promotion-- there were contests to make banners and signs. There was also a group service project and the winner had the largest percentage of participants from their chapter. There was also a skit night where the groups performed skits based around a major theme (It's Great to Be Greek!) and a minor theme (IE: Cartoons, Action Heroes, etc-- so one group might perform a skit as The Muppets and the others were Alvin and the Chipmunks).
*How do you decide who would be a good addition to your sisterhood?
This varies by organization and is private. I can say that what you should do is to create an assessment of your chapter with your chapter members-- what are your strengths and weaknesses? What tangible areas do you wish to grow toward?

IE: GOAL- Increasing your group GPA to a 3.1... TACTIC 1- require members to do study hours, TACTIC 2- Form a study buddies group, TACTIC 3- Reward chapter members with good scholarship with special awards and recognition at meeting, Tactic 4- Do a membership workshop on study skills, TACTIC 5- Recruit members who have high GPAs (proof of strong study habits)
*What kind of social things do you do? (Like I mentioned before we are a newer sorority so we don’t have much money to play around with just yet so we unfortunately can’t go all out with events!)

*Socials?
There's a lot you can do on a small budget: ice cream socials, pizza party, an 80's Prom themed party (or any themed party!), bowling, roller skating, a piano bar, a sisterhood tea... Allot a portion of dues to social so members don't have to constantly pay for these things. You should have an end of the year formal or semi-formal banquet-- it is fun to get dressed up and invite a date!

*We are a service sorority as well, so the girls wondered what kind of service projects other sororities participate in!?
Everything! Most social sororities have a pet charity they support, like Ronald McDonald House. The school year is spent performing local service at RMH and holding campus fundraisers and community awareness building events to support them. Do campus cleanups, read to children in an after school program, support other Greek's service efforts, plan a social mixer that is also a service project, etc. One of your recruitment activities can be doing something like creating toiletry bags for the homeless. Etc. There should be resources on campus to help you plan service events-- community service clubs, etc.

[tld221]

zphid08 - check your PM box.