Big Sisters/Bid day

[girlinmn]

I am wondering if you gals could help me out with something...
I am the VP education in my chapter and I am trying to find a new way to do a few things:
First, I am wondering how your chapters reveal the Big sisters to the new members (you know the second person they receive)
Second, I am wondering what your chapters do for Bid day, any fun teambuilders or activities out there?
Thanks a lot for your help, our recruitment week starts the tuesday after labor day.

[MandaAXO]

Well, we don't do anything spectacular for Bid Day but I may be able to help you with some Big Sis Rev ideas. In the past couple semesters our chapter has done some fun things. Last semester we had each sister wear a plain white T-shirt that could be written on and we all wore Mardi Gras masks. On each t-shirt we wrote one name in a pair of names and the girls had to find their match. For instance, on a new member's shirt it may have said Salt and she had to find the sister that had a shirt that said Pepper. It was really cute. We've also strung string all through the house and the new members have to follow their string all through the different floors of the house until it leads them to their big sister. I hope these two ideas helped you if you hadn't heard them before...if not, good luck with it! LITB

[Texas Alum]

Hi girlinmn!

Our house also did what we called the "string thing" (i.e. buying the biggest fattest ball of green or red yarn you could find and winding it all through the house)... until two years in a row we broke lamps or vases and the House Corp. banned it!!!!

Here are a couple of "Big Sis Revealing" activities that we did as well.... (this was for the final Big Sis - the one you receive after the mystagogue matches prefs)...

1) Take two paper grocery bags, and decorate them identically as masks.... the little gets hers when she comes to the house, and then has to put it on and go find her big among the group of girls wearing crazy paper bag masks... (sounds silly, I know... but when your little recognizes you and comes toward you and you get to take it off and reveal yourself, it's a great moment).

2) Literal revealing - get all the bigs and littles together at the house... the littles receive a t-shirt (of any kind - could be a party shirt, or a t-shirt you painted, or even a crazy tee such as one you purchased from a local restaurant or even a Harley-Davidson shop!!!! I saw this once, no kidding. As long as it is UNIQUE, it doesn't matter) which she has to put on....

Meanwhile, all the bigs put on an identical crazy tee and boxers. THEN, they put on layers and layers of crazy clothes over the tee and boxers... jeans, sweats, football jerseys, Halloween costumes, prom dresses, wigs, masks, anything! And then, while all the littles gather and watch, the bigs strip off their crazy clothes to "reveal" their t-shirt. This is even better when done to some sort of fun song like RuPaul's "Supermodel", during which all the bigs act like they are in a crazy fashion show (only they happen to be taking off wigs and prom dresses).

then, when it is all done and the bigs have revealed their "true selves", the little has found her matching t-shirt, and of course, her mystagogue!

Our house has had lots more Big-Lil revealing activities.... let me know if you want to hear more!

LITB!

[cash78mere]

hey everyone!

when i got my big sister, all the littles lined up outside a room and were given a piece of cardboard that was decorated by the big. we then went into the room where a sheet was hanging from the ceiling separating us from our bigs. on the sheet was a match to our cardboard and we had to stand in front of the one that matched ours. on the count of 3, the sheet was lowered and we met our bigs! it was great!

unfortunately they don't do that anymore. now, all through lyre week the littles are given a piece of a puzzle that had been decorated by the big. every day they get another piece. by big sis rev they have gotten all the pieces except for the one that says their big's name. on rev day the final pieces are placed in the middle of a circle where the bigs are standing and the littles have to come in to find the final piece to their puzzle. this doesn't work well (in my opinion) because the littles don't always know all the older sisters. we have had several littles have no idea who "mary" is when they find their matching piece. but they do have fun all week putting their puzzle together waiting for that final piece!

another sorority at my school does something fun. the bigs get boxes (like refrigerator boxes) and they decorate them and hide inside them. then they jump out to reveal themself. i have NO IDEA where they find like 30 of these boxes and i don't know how the boxes are decorated. i have just heard about this from one of the sisters.

we don't have a house so we can't do the string thing but that seems like a GREAT idea!

[AXO Alum]

We had a hall, but we still did the string thing - since it was just one hall, we had string everywhere! It was awesome...but...something I like even better with my advisory chapter goes like this. During big/little week the littles get all kind of crazy clues (they don't know they're crazy though...) They say "I've got blond hair and blue eyes" then the next says "I'm in the picture on the hall that is from our philanthropy last year" (so when the little goes to look, no one in the picture has blond hair)...etc...it goes like this all week! Anyway, the night of revealing is great because all the sisters park they're car in an empty lot. The big sisters cover their inner car windows with newspaper but everyone covers the outside of their car (entirely) in newspaper and signs, etc. Then they hide...in another car so no one knows their car...and the littles have a key to the car their big is in. They have to remove all the paper from outside each car, then use their key until it fits. Then they get to remove some more paper!

It sounds complicated, but it is so much fun for both the bigs & littles.

The biggest problem, for us, is the shortened new member period. At my chapter of initiation, we had 12 weeks so we didn't get our bigs until after 4 weeks so we could really get to know each other. Now that we only have 6 weeks, the bigs are just matched on paper so no one fusses about who got who.

Anyway, hope this helps...let us know what you end up doing!

LITB to ALL my fabulous A-Chi-O sisters!

------------------
"Alpha Chi Omega - If you only had 2 wishes, what would your second one be?"

[Texas Alum]

AXO Alum - I hate to date myself like , (and you young whippersnappers will really hate to hear about this) but I was the last pledge class of my chapter that had the FULL PLEDGE PERIOD... I mean, I was bid on August 28, and was initiated on January 26.

So... we didn't even start any Big/Lil stuff till two weeks after Bid Day, so that the sophomores and juniors could really meet all the pledges. Then, you had an Alpha Sis for a week, then a Chi Sis, then an Omega Sis (selected by the Mystagogue based on who the big sisters had gotten to know). THEN you preffed, and a full week of Big/Lil activities, with Revealing on Sunday.

Another thing I really liked about the longer initiation... we also had class mixers - Pledge/Junior and Pledge/Senior, which were usually an ice cream or pizza party at the house... so that the older girls could really get to know the new members one-on-one. There just isn't time for that sort of thing anymore now, unless you could do it after Initiation.

[Texas Alum]

p.s. please do let us know what you end up doing, girlinmn!

Alpha Chi love and mine!

[gena7180]

Hi, for bid day our campus has a no men or alcohol rule...so we start the day by meeting the girls at panhellinic induction with banners and balloons and then we walk to the house singing fun alpha chi songs...then we bring the girls in and we do whole house pics and pledge class pics..one serious and one fun..we then eat pizza..then we do some form of introducing new exec to the girls...one thing we did was have out going officers dress up incoming officers in costumes to fit their new roles in the house...then we play some kind of ice breaker...one year we had all the soph and new girls pick a movie character then you got a random one put on your back and you had to ask upper classman questions to see who you were then you had to figure out who orginally wrote that person down...it was fun...finally we do some kind of outing...usually bowling or rollar skating or ice skating or whatever but we always ahve a theme and all dress in costume of some kind..it is usually like disco or 70's or 80s..hope that helps

[lyrelyre]

We did the string thing when I was a pledge and it was awesome. We had to stop because it was getting out of hand. We average 50-60 in a pledge class and there are three floors in our chapter house. On the night of my big-lil (which we call mom-dot) it took me over an hour and a half to get to the end of my string. We changed to a hunt through the house. We give them clues that lead to more clues. Eventually they find a basket of presents, their bulletin board, photo album, and a set of pajamas. They change into the pjs and head to the formal living room. The people in the same pjs are their family. It's so fun.

[axo<3]

What we did is every family has like a theme and the big anonymously tells you a certain thing to wear, and then when you get to the house, you follow clues on little cards to each room and in the rooms there are parts to your outfit. Eventually you end up in a bedroom where your big and the rest of your family is waiting and dressed the same as you. Then we go out and party.

[msd0009]

For Bid Day, all the chapters at Auburn are required to have their new girls at bid night 'til midnight. Don't know why (probably to prevent partying) but I was at Theta until then. During actual bid day, we just took a bunch of photos and met our executives. They told us to come back at 5 in cute dresses with a change of clothes, and we had a pinning ceremony and then just hung out. Probably the funniest thing we did was that the older girls decided to show/tell us about awkward rush stories, and then some of the new members got up and told our stories. It was great just to relax and blow off some steam after the craziness that was SEC rush week.

For Big/Little Reveal, this year we had a week of big/little gifts and clues, which led to the reveal. Each little received a sock, and then walked into a room of sheets with just the socks peeking out. You went and stood in front of "your sock" and then our pledge mama dropped all our sheets. Each girl got a little kite necklace from our big and then we all went out to dinner