i need suggestions badly!!

[EE-BO]

Originally Posted by barefootsie44

i decided to take on a position in my sorority. i took on the Fraternity education position. so once a month at chapter i have to talk about oursorority. so this coming chapter im doing it on how our chapter got founded since all the new members are going top be there. but i want to spice it up i dont just want to stand up there and talk and then go sit down! does anyone have any suggestions on how i can make it a little fun and more intresting!!!!!

Starting with the founding of the sorority is a good idea. And going forward I would perhaps suggest talking about different individuals and telling their stories.

For example, if you have a series of 9 lectures to deliver- maybe make the first one about the founding of the sorority, and then each time thereafter do an "era" of the sorority focusing on 1 or 2 distinguished alumni.

Your second lecture could cover the 1930s and talk about what sorority life was like during the Depression. What were women majoring in back then? What was sorority life like? How big was the chapter? etc.

Then the 3rd could be about the 1940s. Maybe some of the sorority sisters joined the WACs or were Rosie Riveters working in the War effort. There was rationing as well back then. How did that affect sorority life? A minor detail, but there could be some interesting stories there.

And then you just go on- each time picking a more recent era and finding out all you can about your chapter at the time plus details about an alumna or two and what they did during and after their sorority days. Especially good choices are alumnae who worked with the sorority after graduation since you can research what the chapter meant to them as adults.

And the newer the eras get, the more luck you will have tracking down living alumnae to give you some first hand accounts.

The big picture goal is to show how your chapter and its ideals have endured through several generations. Do this right and you might have some alumnae start showing up for these events- or ask them yourself. Let them give part of the presentation by telling some stories. Or you could write a standard list of questions that each of them will answer at the end of telling their own stories- like what James Lipton does on Inside the Actor's Studio.

That would be my suggestion. The goal is to avoid history that you learn in the easy places- pledge manuals, general American history etc. It will take some digging, but I am sure there are 100s of untold stories that your chapter would enjoy hearing. And the more you can get alumnae who were there to come and tell the stories first hand- the better.

If your chapter has the budget for it, perhaps you can have these lectures after chapter dinner and make it a special dinner each time where the alumnae invited to join in the presentation have dinner with the chapter.