Sober Sister Program

Little E · #1 12-07-2003, 05:04 PM

Heya Ladies. So I have a question for everyone out there.

My school allows underage drinking, in that they won't ticket or call the police unless someone is unable to take care of themself. There is the whole theory that more alcohol poisoning occurs when people shut doors and sit in rooms and just get really drunk then go out because they just don't realize how drunk they are until they stand up.

Anyhow, my chapter has a number of lightweight drinkers. Traditionally, our chapter has pre-partied together at the house before heading to the fraternity parties. However our drinking is getting a little out of control and we don't really have a lot of restraint. I was wondering if you had any suggestions to help with providing alternatives and addressing the issue. As their Sister and a Residential Assistant, I mention that if they can't walk straight or even stand up straight with out help, they cannot go out, they have to go to bed. We always have the enablers that are like, 'No she's fine, I'll watch her.' But that means we never truly address the mentality of 'Let's get fucked up.'

So, I'm hoping you might have a suggestion. We've had unhappiness over the 'atmosphere' of the house on weekends, in that it is a drunkerd tank. I'm not opposed to drinking, I drink, but I don't like how we are going about it, it just isn't safe.

If you have any suggestions I really appreciate it! Thanks!
Erinn

aephi alum · #2 12-07-2003, 06:18 PM

Forgive me for crashing your forum, ladies

This sounds like a risk-management nightmare.

Does AST have anything to say about the issue of underage drinking? In AEPhi we are expected to abide by all state, local, and university laws/rules/regulations regarding alcohol. Violators can be called to standards. If AST has a similar rule it might be time to give your sisters a nice friendly reminder of that fact. It doesn't have to be a hard and fast "thou shalt not drink" - it can be closer to "be careful if you do drink".

You could also try making sure there's less alcohol around the house. If it's not there, they can't drink it.

Little E · #3 12-07-2003, 06:35 PM

Yes AST has rules about underage drinking. Any liquor in the house is bought by sisters personally. We have 10 women living in the house and 15 living out. We understand the idea, and risk, of allowing people to drink in the house, however, to ban it, would also create major issues, in that they would then be getting drunk in dorms and fraternity houses, which is just as bad PR. Allowing them to drink in the house at least helps us help people who drink too much.

We also don't have a standards board...are we supposed to?

The houses here who do not allow alcohol at parties suffer recruitment, so in addition, we are trying to find healthy alternatives. At this point we are considering a program off of SG&D which does informal programing. Looking to do one alcohol alternative each week, alternating sat and fri. Additionally, this group will help organize sober drivers. This is the mode we are looking at. Our DP is helping us with the alcohol in the house question and where that will go. But we are looking for ideas like the alternative progs which are non-mandatory.

What do other houses do to curb the drinking culture?

Tau Love
Lil E

aephi alum · #4 12-07-2003, 08:12 PM

You have a good point in that banning alcohol could lead to situations where a sister is off getting drunk elsewhere - where at best there isn't a sister or good friend around to take care of her if she overindulges, and at worst there is someone present who takes advantage of the situation.

I think you've got a good plan, having dry sisterhood activities and sober drivers. I still suggest that when you do get together to drink, you limit the amount of alcohol that is available, and be sure that there's plenty of soda, water, coffee, etc. to be had. When the booze is gone, it's gone.

We also had a segment on alcohol as part of our new member education. If AST doesn't already do that, you might want to consider adding it.

There was a fraternity at my school that had a brother who was a recovering alcoholic... They made sure that one party every semester was dry. It wasn't well attended - but it was a great show of support for their brother.

I'm not sure I can be of much more help. My chapter didn't have a house, and most of my sisters either don't drink or only drink socially.

You asked about standards... AEPhi mandates that each chapter have a standards board that addresses issues ranging from a sister representing herself (and hence the sorority) badly in public, to a sister not meeting her obligations (like skipping out on recruitment events), etc. I thought most orgs had something similar... though with only 25 sisters it's probably not so necessary unless it's mandated or there are specific problems.

Little E · #5 12-10-2003, 03:30 PM

do other chapters not do any specific non-alcohol programing?

ASTDD2002 · #6 02-19-2004, 08:26 PM

We have a sober sister program. For each social event that we have, we have 6 sisters who stay sober, 2 of whom must always be at the event in order to make sure that everything is running well. We had 4 sober sisters until the last semester, but now we are at 35(?) girls, so we decided to raise the number. It's great, because you always know that there is someone you can count on who has not had anything to drink during the night.