How long is your bid day?

[LAblondeGPhi]

Definitely check with your panhellenic advisor - s/he usually has a good idea about what the other chapters do and what events seem to be successful. Also, check the facebook pages and social media from the other chapters to see their bid day photos - you should get a good idea about what kinds of activities happen.

Keep in mind:
-Spending lots of money doesn't necessarily equal quality bonding time. Resist the urge to have a big splashy event if you'll be spending a ton of money and time on a bus.

-Being a new chapter means that there will be bumps in the road that hopefully get worked out in subsequent years. If you can, get feedback from the younger members in your chapter about what they think would be fun to do - it will be helpful if you establish a good event that's continued in the following years so it gets perfected over time (ditto everything else in a small chapter). In the early days of my re-colonized chapter, we'd change philanthropy events, recruitment themes, and bid day events pretty much every year. It made it really hard to make incremental improvements.

-Try to provide both "bonding activities" (events in which the sole focus is on getting to know each other), AND fun activities in which women get to know each other naturally.

-Consider providing the new members with something distinctive to wear, so that they can easily recognize a sister from another new member.

-Popular things I've seen: having a party at the house - lots of candy (think candy buffet), food, a dj, etc.; bringing a food truck to cater food; photo booths (with props, of course), casino/carnival themed events, taking limos to a local restaurant, bowling/skating/theme park/arcade/etc.