Any secretary's out there?

[phimulady0810]

I am the new secretary for my chapter and I really need some ideas of what others do to keep up with points, attendance, minutes and incentives to get people to attend functions! Please help!

[OUlioness01]

i was secretary at Delta Delta before it closed.

for attendence i used a grade book like teachers in elementary, junior high, and high school used. it works really well and that way all you have to do is show someone their documented attendence if she is concerned. if there was a conflict with an event (ex:class, i did not accept work as an excuse if the event was announced more than 10 days prior) the chapter member was required to send an excuse at least 24 hours in advance to an email address set up specifically for that purpose. if a member got sick within 24 hours it was necessary to call me and explain her absence.

for incentives i held a little drawing at chapter. for every event you attended throughout the week you were given a piece of paper to write your name on. then, at the end of chapter there was a drawing and whomever's name was drawn won a small prize (a bag of candy, a phi mu cup or key chain, etc.)

we really didn't use the point system because we were closing, but my idea for the point system kind of went hand-in-hand with incentives. the way i wanted to do it was to make every event worth a certain # of points depending on importance. For example, a formal business meeting would be worth 10 points, regular chapter would be worth 5, COB/Rush would be worth anywhwere from 7 to 15 points depending on the type of rush event, and sisterhoods would be worth 3 points. to attend a mixer a member would have to earn 80% of points available to be earned for the week. members would not be penalized as long as excuses were sent, however, excessive amounts of excuses would lead to a meeting with the secretary and the president or standards to explain why a member was never able to come to meetings.

my system seems a little harsh, but it was necessary in my chapter. i hope this helps!

[PhiMuLady5]

I was the Sec. of the my chapter last year. We also use the role book thing. We have an excuse box that goes around at meeting. It is a index card box... sisters put why there were absent and then we vote on it. If you have work or class we have a sheet that you fill out and it tells exec. when you are going to miss. We all so tried a "What you came to board" IT was a poster board with everyones name on it and all the events. Man you see a change in those girls that don't come to stuff when a few boxes aren't colored in. I hope this helps.

[phimugzjuju]

we use carnation dollars- sisters earn point by coming to events, which also earns them carnation dollars--that they can use at the end of the semester to bid (auction style) on cute phi mu items. It's a really good incintive to get girls to come to things. We also use a roll book and all that stuff to keep up with points. =)

[DeltaEtaKP]

I'm not secretary--but, our system is effective... so I thought I'd share.
We have three categories of events:
Voluntary-Formals, Movie Nights, Game Nights, Etc.
Vital-You are allowed to miss 2/semester unexcused- Chapter D.'s, some Philanthropy events, Recruitment/Homecoming practices, etc.
Mandatory-You can't miss them at all w/o an excuse-Initiation, Pledging, Formal Meetings, etc.

It works pretty well. What we've found most effective, though, is communicating with our members. Publishing monthly calendars, setting up a chapter-wide e-mail account, having an AIM screen name that can be checked with upcoming events, a whiteboard, announcement sheets, etc. If we keep people in the loop, they tend to come to things!

Hope that helps!

[phimugirl4life]

Any secretary's out there?
I am the new secretary for my chapter and I really need some ideas of what others do to keep up with points, attendance, minutes and incentives to get people to attend functions! Please help!


hey i was the recording secretary for my chapter and what i did, was first of all we had pink events and white events, pink events were mandatory and white events were optional like basketball paint the stands pink night, or a house dinner, cob events, and if the girls attended they turn in a slip and then they get $5 off of a fine that they have.... of course you can't just use them to get money off of you regular bill but if you are fined thats something we did.

i also did star sheets, little incentive charts that had places for 20 stickers, the member had to be recognized usually i tried to take it from exec or our chapter advisor, like if she worked really hard on putting professor files together, or if she helped out another committee then she would get a star once she got her sheet filled up she received $5 or $10 off of her bill.

there were also tiers ibelieve i had it set up into 4 or 5 groups and the top tier are people in like 90-100 and most people dont get there
then it just kept going down do it by what you goal of participation is... like if you have a goal of 60% then make that you cut off line like girls that have betweeen 60-65% will be sent a letter that they are borderline of participation and that if they do not bring their participation up then they will be sent to sisterhood development..
and then try one for girls that fall under give them a list of activities they can do ,give everyone atleast 1 chance to bring it up but after that if you're having a really big problem you can send them to sisterhood, because sisters should want to participate because they are part of the sisterhood.... but what you do with that is realy your decision,

the top 10 % of the chapter you can give them all a candy bar every month do it at a formal meeting, or put their names in a hat and give them a pink legal pad and a phi mu pen... or something cute but inexpensive!

i also like the other girls said for role call ihad a teachers grading book, and you basically list everyone alphabetical order in pledge class and then you can do points for certain events to help with their participation tiers or just put a check that they are at the events..

if they're absent like the previous said, do not let them email you, only if it's an emergency other wise you'll have girls saying oh i emailed you, but in reality you never got it so it must be the fault of the internet! lol ... so if they suddenly get a migraine, or are throwing up, or car accident thats different, but otherwise they should put in a week in advance to the exec meeting a slip that tells name, name of event missing, date, reason why, and then leave a space for you at the bottom for the meeting, exec will vote, and you can write on the bottom if its accepted or not then you pass the names to the treasurer so the treasurer can fine them, but make sure you keep the sheets in a binder someone might forget why they are being billed for a certain date and only you have that info!!

good luck