NPC Bonding

[Thetagirl218]

I have been reading a lot of posts on how certain chapters are at each others throats on certain campuses. I was just curious, Do/Did any of your NPC chapters do any activities that encouraged NPC bonding. I know at my school this was a problem, until recently when our NPC chapter started to have mandtory NPC events in which all girls had to attend. We also did an event to assign "panhellinic pals" instead of big sisters to the girls of a new sorority on campus. For me that was an awesome experince, and me and my big/pal are close even though we are in different sororities. I didn't know if anyone else had any suggestions to encourage bonding amoung the NPC groups?

[KSUViolet06]

I think our Panhellenic does a good job of encouraging unity between us.

Our Panhellenic Council had All Panhellenic socials each month. Each one was held at a different sorority house and had a different theme/activity. For example, one month, we had knitting lessons at Delta Zeta. The next month was Valentine card making (for the local children's hospital) at Alpha Xi Delta.

To encourage attendance, the sorority with the most attendance at all of the socials got a pizza party at the end of the year.

In addition to this, each year we have a Panhellenic cookout the week before classes start. It is held at a different sorority house every year and each sorority is responsible for bringing an item (i.e. Alpha Phi would bring drinks, Chi O would bring burgers, etc).

These events were good for us because for once we could all just hang out without being in competition. It sounds cheesy, but some of my best friends in college were girls I met at All Sorority events.

[Drolefille]

Each of our sororities had a philanthropy week, and all the chapters helped each other out and/or participated in the week depending on the activities. For our week the presidents of each chapter would help judge our male pageant and everyone would buy raffle tickets etc.

We generally got along even if there were rivalries in competitions. The KDs always helped us out by volunteering for a memorial walk for one of our founding sisters who died. This let all of the SKs walk in the event.

[ForeverRoses]

We had dinner-swaps where once a month 6 women from one house would go to another house for dinner (and we would host 6 women from the other house). We also did that with the fraternities. Oh, and one year we hosted a "Pi" party where all of the sororities and fraternities with "Pi" in their name were invited.

[33girl]

I think one of our chapters used to have a Panhellenic lock-in at the Panhellenic dorm where all the sororities lived (each had a floor). You would need to tweak this, however, depending on chapter size.

[PeppyGPhiB]

When I was on Panhellenic exec, I started a "Pan Pals" program where each semester we'd get paired up with another sorority and encouraged to do a group activity. It was up to the social chairs within the two chapters to plan something for the big group, be it a beach day, a slumber party, philanthropy event, etc. It was up to the groups to follow through, but we enjoyed it. I don't know if the program has continued, though.

[joliebelle]

the panhellenic spirit on my campus is, shall we say a little sparse. i can't speak for the other 3 chapters on my campus but i know that we try to make it out to the philanthropy events of the other chapters. all of the sororities here compete in everything, from who can get the best girls to who can win xyz fraternity's philanthropy week.

last year we had a fallout with the chapter that we were closest to, and to make up for it we had a party for them in our chapter room, and we were assigned a sister and we made them gifts. it went over well, and we're closer than ever now.

[honeychile]

We used to have Junior Panhel, for all New Members and First Year Sorority women, but the short New Member meetings messed that up.

One thing that we did and isn't still done (although I'd like to see it happen again) is the Study Break hour that I've mentioned before.

All the sororities but two are in one dorm, and we used to keep our big coffee urn full of hot water the entire midterm & finals season. We had coffees, teas, hot chocolate, sugar, sweeteners, creamers, and any cookies, fruit, or other goodies we had. We then put a sign in the elevator that all women - and women only! - were invited to join us for a Study Break, from 11pm>12pm. No men were allowed as women came in varying states of dress (usually robes or such), no makeup, etc. An alarm was set, and at 12 midnight, it was over, and everyone was asked graciously to go back to their studies.

More Panhellenic spirit started over a quick cup of coffee than you can imagine!

[JonInKC]

You should all wear your catsuits and do some inter-house pillow fighting.

[allthatjazz10]

we have a social once every semester that are mandatory for the new girls. We ate pizza and played some games everyone is really nice there but usually alot of the sororities talk bad about each other (writing it all over the library's bathroom walls lol)

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by JonInKC

You should all wear your catsuits and do some inter-house pillow fighting.

So what do you think our Study Breaks were all about?

[twinkle555]

We have "progressive dinners"..and basically we all go to each others sorority houses and serve food/drinks that each chapter was assigned to bring/make. we chat,watch each others sisterhood videos and read facts about each others GLO's..its alot of fun

[ΑΓΔSquirrelGirl]

I don't think any chapter is at another's throat, but since there are some competitive chapters here, sometimes we aren't BEST buddies. This year all of the new members (girls AND guys) had a mixer, which helped, I think, especially for the girls. A lot of them make friends with other girls in their gamma rho groups and have a hard time keeping up those friendships when they get so busy, and it's nice to have a time for them to do that. We also eliminated the overall winner from greek week.