Cleaning and food services in houses?

[FSUZeta]

when i was in school we had a breakfast/lunch cook, and a dinner cook. we had cooked breakfasts m-f. on the weekends the housemother set out cold cereal, bagels, bread and english muffins, milk and juice and brewed coffee and hot water for tea.
we would have a couple of selections for lunch every day. we had one entree for dinner with a couple of vegetables and a starch and a few nights a week we had dessert. there was always a salad bar .dinner was a seated affair, served family style.we were not served any meals on the weekend except the breakfasts described above. we had "servers", male students(usually in fraternities) who bussed the tables and washed up after lunch and dinner in exchange for their meals(lunch & dinner) at a sorority house-they considered it a good trade-off! we also had a lady that kept the house vacuumed and dusted and cleaned the bathrooms m-f. she did not clean our rooms, but we were allowed to use the vacuum to clean up our own rooms. i didn't realize how good i had it back then!

i believe that there is a similar arrangement at the house to this day, although i understand that all meals are served buffet style now. lisa

[Tom Earp]

Okay, two situations, Okay!

When I was a Pledge of a Fraternity, they had a House Mom as ALL Greeks did. Required. She did the cooking, light breakfest, cold cuts for lunch and Full blown dinner at evening meal. All Members who lived in the house ate there along with students living off campus and in dorms, there was no central School food service. Meals were M-F unless a party was planned with food. She got room and board with a little pay for her to do with what ever. Members of the Chapter were bus boys and dish washers to help defrey their costs. She taught many young men manners and decorum about dates, meeting people and dressing. I really loved her.

When I started the local, we broke the House Mother Rule, policed our selves and busted guts to show that we were just as good as the rest. Now, there are no house moms, and sometimes, I think it would be better to have one to keep everything on and in line.

Or three!

The LXA House at U Ks St.was previously a Soroity house, and a member of that Soroitys Father then was a LXA and a Bus Boy at the House. He received his meals for busing tables and cleaning dishes. When the Sority went off of campus, LXA bought it and he lived in it until graduation. This is on GC somewhere back when!

As I have said several times, a lot depends on the size of the School and Greek Organizations.

Presently, all of the Soroities at a my Alma Mater use a caterer for dinner meals only. They have to be competitive with the College food service to get the business.

Another point is, just how close the House is to campus, for the food part!

[lyrica9]

our kitchen gets very little use.
most of the girls have microwaves and fridges in their rooms, so they keep/make food in their rooms, and there's a lot of eating out from what i can tell.
for special occasions when we want a special dinner, either we make it ourselves, or the parents group makes it for us.

also, the cleaning, the girls who live in the house have chores to clean the downstairs area, and of course everyone has to clean their own room/bathroom.

i guess in bigger houses i can see the need for cleaning services in the common areas, and perhaps cooking services as well.. but i kind of like the everyone pitching in and doing things for themselves thing as well.

and what the hell do house mothers do anyway? we don't currently have one, but when we move into the new sorority row house in august we're supposed to have one and i'm just wondering what to expect.

[ISUKappa]

Originally posted by lyrica9
. . .and what the hell do house mothers do anyway? we don't currently have one, but when we move into the new sorority row house in august we're supposed to have one and i'm just wondering what to expect.

Our house mother (actually, her official title was House Director) was a mentor, a counselor, an enforcer and a friend. She was in charge of the day-to-day activities of the chapter house: if things were broken, they were fixed; if the living room needed new curtains, she ordered them; if one of us was very sick she would take care of us/call the doctor/let our professors know. She made sure we were safe, we were following the house rules (no boys, no beer) and cared for each of us. She taught us proper etiquette and graciousness. Her door was always open if we wanted to go in and talk about anything. In a sense, she was a surrogate mother while we were in college. It wasn't that, as college and sorority women, we couldn't take care of ourselves, it just helped that she was there.

I know not all House Directors are like this, we were extremely lucky. This is her 19th year in our chapter and we will hate to see her leave.

So, essentially, a House Director (or house mom) is an employee of your Headquarters who oversees the goings-on at the chapter house and makes sure things run smoothly.

[exlurker]

At the U. of Iowa the practices vary, as the story from the May 6 student paper shows.

http://www.dailyiowan.com/news/2004/...e-678976.shtml

Special Note: In another thread an alumnae house board advisor pointed out (gently chastising me, with a sense of humor) that regularly-fluffed pillows in formal living areas are not her concern. Please see the last paragraph of the student paper story (above) with its reference to the Alpha Chi living room with symmetrically placed pillows. OK, it doesn't say "fluffed," but still . . . .

[AOIIalum]

Originally posted by exlurker
Special Note: In another thread an alumnae house board advisor pointed out (gently chastising me, with a sense of humor) that regularly-fluffed pillows in formal living areas are not her concern. Please see the last paragraph of the student paper story (above) with its reference to the Alpha Chi living room with symmetrically placed pillows. OK, it doesn't say "fluffed," but still . . . .

It didn't say fluffed at all ;D

(I tried to find a happy bouncy smilie out there, but my smilie site is MIA today)

[hottytoddy]

We had a couple of maids, a few cooks, security guards, and houseboys. The houseboy jobs were coveted postitions for all of the boys. They lied doing it because they got to know the girls really well--and usually went to all the date parties & formals.

But I don't know about other schools...at Ole Miss you kinda HAVE to have a staff because the chapters are so large.

[PsiU1833]

Originally posted by Tom Earp
Okay, two situations, Okay!

When I was a Pledge of a Fraternity, they had a House Mom as ALL Greeks did. Required. She did the cooking, light breakfest, cold cuts for lunch and Full blown dinner at evening meal. All Members who lived in the house ate there along with students living off campus and in dorms, there was no central School food service. Meals were M-F unless a party was planned with food. She got room and board with a little pay for her to do with what ever. Members of the Chapter were bus boys and dish washers to help defrey their costs. She taught many young men manners and decorum about dates, meeting people and dressing. I really loved her.

When I started the local, we broke the House Mother Rule, policed our selves and busted guts to show that we were just as good as the rest. Now, there are no house moms, and sometimes, I think it would be better to have one to keep everything on and in line.

Or three!

The LXA House at U Ks St.was previously a Soroity house, and a member of that Soroitys Father then was a LXA and a Bus Boy at the House. He received his meals for busing tables and cleaning dishes. When the Sority went off of campus, LXA bought it and he lived in it until graduation. This is on GC somewhere back when!

As I have said several times, a lot depends on the size of the School and Greek Organizations.

Presently, all of the Soroities at a my Alma Mater use a caterer for dinner meals only. They have to be competitive with the College food service to get the business.

Another point is, just how close the House is to campus, for the food part!

We used to have that back in the day. The house mom would kick you out of the dinner table if you had bad table manners. Now a days we police ourselves, but it would sometimes be nice to have someone teach people some manners instead of having to watch other peoples eating habits and correcting them. You know kids now r lacking in proper ettiaqte(spelling).