Improving sorority relations for mixers

[HQWest]

Throw down for your home town? I have seen it two ways. Either everyone wears a T-shirt from high school or (more costumey) everyone wears something that represents your hometown.

[DubaiSis]

If you're at a very big school, planning for next semester is probably more the rule than the exception. If you're trying to do it in the same semester, you're really at the mercy of them having a free window of time. Now, if a sorority has had a cancellation or they're struggling to have a full calendar they may be thrilled for a short notice invitation, but I wouldn't plan on that.

[gr33kfan]

Hey everyone,

Thanks again for your help. So when emailing sororities, is it better to say "Hey would you be interested in (insert party theme here) on (insert date here)" or better to say "Hey I have some ideas and want to talk to you about them."

Obviously I would reword them but you get the idea of what I'm asking. In other words, is picking a specific date bad because then they can just say "oh sorry we can't that day"? And is it bad to mention a specific theme because they may not like it but they might've liked another one that I didn't get to mention?

[HQWest]

Originally Posted by gr33kfan

Hey everyone,

Thanks again for your help. So when emailing sororities, is it better to say "Hey would you be interested in (insert party theme here) on (insert date here)" or better to say "Hey I have some ideas and want to talk to you about them."

Obviously I would reword them but you get the idea of what I'm asking. In other words, is picking a specific date bad because then they can just say "oh sorry we can't that day"? And is it bad to mention a specific theme because they may not like it but they might've liked another one that I didn't get to mention?

Picking one specific date is bad. You might offer a couple options or leave it more general like "one Thursday in September"?

Mentioning a specific them is bad for the same reason. Maybe they just had a party with that theme? Maybe that isn't the thing this year? Worse - maybe you have an AWESOME idea, and they already have a match planned with someone else. They will gladly borrow your fabulous idea and go have that party with the guys down the street.

[DubaiSis]

I like "hey I have some ideas." Time's clicking on. I hope you're approaching sororities now and not just making your plans.

[SWTXBelle]

bump

[kaeb]

Perhaps irrelevant at this point, but USC has a lovely thing that I guess is pretty specific to our campus: deliveries.

I have no clue how many other campuses do Monday Night Dinner and deliveries. I've talked to Greek friends at other schools, and they have no clue what I'm talking about, so I guess it isn't too common. If you don't know what it is, from 5-6pm on Mondays, all the sororities and fraternities have dinner in their houses before chapter, and all the members who aren't in class or out of town are supposed to be there. During the meal, the pledges/new mems go out on deliveries, where girls send gifts/baked goods to guys in fraternities, and guys do the same for women in sororities. The pledges/new mems are brought into the dining room, announce themselves and their house affiliation, and distribute the gifts from their house. Same-sex deliveries (usually sorority-to-sorority) are dropped off at the door. Also, student orgs et al who want to speak to the entire Greek community go from house to house with announcements, telling the houses about what they're doing or selling or whatever.

I believe it is a common practice at the beginning of the semester for sororities to send out "social deliveries" to the new social chairs of each fraternity, and for the fraternities to do likewise with the sororities. It's a good way to establish good relations and open the door to communication—usually there will be a note with the social deliveries saying "Hey, my name is Jane Smith, I'm the social chair for Alpha Alpha Alpha, and we'd be interested in having a mixer with your fraternity! My phone number is 555-123-4567" or something along those lines (that's definitely not what it says exactly, I can't remember it word for word).

Obviously, that's specific to schools that do deliveries/MND, and if you're at one of those schools, you probably already know about social deliveries, but if you're not, maybe try baking cookies and bringing them with you next time you serenade, with a note attached from your social chair saying you'd like to have a mixer?

Other opinions?

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by kaeb

Perhaps irrelevant at this point, but USC has a lovely thing that I guess is pretty specific to our campus: deliveries.

I have no clue how many other campuses do Monday Night Dinner and deliveries. I've talked to Greek friends at other schools, and they have no clue what I'm talking about, so I guess it isn't too common. If you don't know what it is, from 5-6pm on Mondays, all the sororities and fraternities have dinner in their houses before chapter, and all the members who aren't in class or out of town are supposed to be there. During the meal, the pledges/new mems go out on deliveries, where girls send gifts/baked goods to guys in fraternities, and guys do the same for women in sororities. The pledges/new mems are brought into the dining room, announce themselves and their house affiliation, and distribute the gifts from their house. Same-sex deliveries (usually sorority-to-sorority) are dropped off at the door. Also, student orgs et al who want to speak to the entire Greek community go from house to house with announcements, telling the houses about what they're doing or selling or whatever.

I believe it is a common practice at the beginning of the semester for sororities to send out "social deliveries" to the new social chairs of each fraternity, and for the fraternities to do likewise with the sororities. It's a good way to establish good relations and open the door to communication—usually there will be a note with the social deliveries saying "Hey, my name is Jane Smith, I'm the social chair for Alpha Alpha Alpha, and we'd be interested in having a mixer with your fraternity! My phone number is 555-123-4567" or something along those lines (that's definitely not what it says exactly, I can't remember it word for word).

Obviously, that's specific to schools that do deliveries/MND, and if you're at one of those schools, you probably already know about social deliveries, but if you're not, maybe try baking cookies and bringing them with you next time you serenade, with a note attached from your social chair saying you'd like to have a mixer?

Other opinions?

We had this at Illinois, but it wasn't nearly as regimented (i.e. not everyone did it), so if a fraternity came by and brought treats to, for example, congratulate us on our new pledge class a week after rush, it definitely made an impression.