COB ideas

[shadokat]

Anyone have any really good COB ideas that attract a lot of women and are also really fun?

[Siobhan]

I would to love to hear some ideas too - COB seems to be the thorn in our side.

COB events my chapter has done in the past: Winter theme - basically sat around and talked and served hot chocolate (it worked like a charm); laser tag; bowling; games, etc.

[jillybean123]

Because we are reorganizing at my school, we recruit constantly!! Some ideas that we use are: pajama party, "Friends" night, "Survivor" night, movie night, ice cream, skating, yoga, crush parties, secret setup/my-tie(for the rushees), line dancing(taught by yours truly ), picture frame making, pumpkin carving (in the fall), luau-at a nearby park, socials,philanthropy event-such as making bags of candy for kids or cards for a holiday.

Its also a good idea if you met the girls before to take them out in a smaller group. Get together a group of sisters and take one or 2 rushees out to dinner, to the movies or to a fraternity party. That works really real because the girls get to see the sisters in a relaxed atmosphere and get to have tons of fun.

Email me if you want more info about any of my ideas..Hope this helps

Jillybean441@aol.com

Jill

[NeonPi]

one of the most succesful events we ever did at Calgary was "Grab a Java" - we would have a standing 'day of week' where we would invite women to one of the student lounges to have a coffee. Lots of sisters were coming and going, so PNM were able to meet and see

We also did going to university hockey/football games. When we did dinner before meeing at the Student Union (we didn't have a house), that was always nice.

We also did 'gym rats' - PNM's would join us for a workout - doesn't get anymore real than that!!! but a lot of fun .....

Pretty much if we had an outside event, PNM's were always invited (exchanges/mixers, study tables, philanthropy events).

[Peaches-n-Cream]

This is my 200 post so I wanted to have it in the D Phi E Forum.

You can do the "One Voice" ceremony. It's lovely and very moving. I don't know if it is an international thing or specific to my chapter, but we did it at the last round invitation party and COB. Everyone who participates is affected by the ceremony. I must have seen it seven or eight times, and it never lost its impact. Let me know if you want the details, and I will e-mail you privately.

[jillybean123]

Cream-Please email me about the ceremony. It sounds really interesting.

Thanks-Jill :-)
jillybean441@aol.com

[shadokat]

I have the "One Voice" ceremony. By far, my FAVORITE part of rush. We do this at our second round of parties (night before prefs), and it's VERY catching for PNMs. I'll send it out Cream, you must be older, because MANY groups don't know about one voice anymore By the way, you need some singers for this one!!!

Thanks for your COB ideas...send them to me via email First COB event is January 17th at Kappa!

[Peaches-n-Cream]

Hey, I am not that old! just a couple of years older than you.
I don't know why you would need singers. We read, played a CD, and passed around candles. Was it the same for you?

[Peaches-n-Cream]

Oh yeah, we also had Delta Diamonds and Lovely Purple Irises.

[shadokat]

Oh no!!!! We have singers. Basically, we do the reading part, then the first woman lights her candle from the middle and starts the song...after first verse, a second joins her. This continues through until 6 women are in the middle singing. Then they go back to the circle and pass the flame until each person's candle is lit, and then EVERYONE sings the last chorus.

Cream, you ain't old, I was just teasin ya

do you have the reading part of this??

[Peaches-n-Cream]

For those of you who don't know, a Delta Diamond is a sister who is matched with a rushee and guides her through rush.
I'm pretty certain that I don't have the reading/speech part, but I will double check. I can't believe International doesn't have this. If I recall correctly, the chapter President, VP, and Rush Chair read the speech. We turned on the CD and the music played as we turned on the candles one by one in a circle. (Actually, we didn't use real candles after a couple of years because the campus had rules about dripping wax so we used battery operated candles. It wasn't that different.) When the music ended, the Delta Diamond gave her rushees a 'pearl' to put into a bowl of water, said "Make a wish" and escorted her out. Sometimes we gave them an iris. Almost every year, we had rushees crying because they were so moved. I think that all chapters and colonies should do this memorable ceremony at rush.
I am so glad we didn't have to sing because that song is hard. Funny side note, one year we couldn't find our copy of the song so as the rushees lined up outside two of our sisters drove to the mall to buy the tape/CD. My housemate asked where they had gone and I told her. She said that we didn't have to buy it because she had a copy of her own in the car. She said, "You know me, I love Barry Manilow!"

I was an ACTIVE sister in the late 80's and early 90's. My last rush was a decade ago! Pin an iris on me!

[shadokat]

See, now we have one of those pearl "wishing well" ceremonies too, but that's done only on pref night. I think I will have to find that whole reading part, because it's pretty good. We always had a senior, a middle sister and a new sister read them.

[Peaches-n-Cream]

We had "One Voice" at the invitation only last night of Rush. For us, COB was a one night only party after formal rush bids were distributed. Is that the same for you and your colony? At COB, we had a regular rush party with food and songs and getting acquainted. We incorporated "One Voice" and the wishing well at the end of the party. The Delta Diamonds were usually newer sisters in charge of making sure that we had all the important information about the rushees.

Oh here's another rush theme that worked. We had a big jigsaw puzzle of a unicorn. Every rushee was given a piece of the puzzle which had the name of a sister on the back. The sister and rushee had to find each other and put the pieces of the puzzle back together.

To everyone - Good luck with your rush parties. I hope that these posts contributed to a successful rush!

[shadokat]

For my own chapter, we have COB whenever we want after formal recruitment. The purpose of COB is to take women until you reach total, and our chapter was never close to total, nor were any of the other sororities on campus. In any case, we had COB for at least a week after formal rush.

For the colony, normally they have informal recruitment in the Spring, but this year they aren't having that. So, it'll be all COB. We are planning events once a week through the end of March. We need to get 25 more women to charter!!

I did that whole puzzle theme with the Beta Mu chapter last semester, and it was pretty successful

My opinion: Active sisters, if you could share with us your recruitment stories for this semester, that would be awesome! I'd be happy to share those of my own chapter and of the colony!

Good luck with recruitment!

[Siobhan]

Could someone please send me that One Wish ceremony, it sounds really cool, plus my chapter is looking for a new recruitment ceremony . My email address is siobhanpoole@hotmail.com.

Thank you