Your Favorite Alum Events!

[DZviol]

Hey everyone! I am in charge of starting a new Alumnae Chapter, I'm in the process of planning the first event. I just wanted to hear about you favorite alumnae events or get-togethers. TIA!

[SthrnZeta]

We recently had a yard sale in which all the members of the collegiate and alumnae chapter donated items and all the money raised went to our philanthropy. It was fun and a great philanthropy event! We are also planning on going to a Japanese steakhouse sometime this month so that should be fun too (as long as no one's eyebrows gets singed off!) Many girls have Pampered Chef or Beauty Control parties as well, but I'm not much into that stuff.

[Kevin]

Formal and homecoming.

[lauralaylin]

1154 Lill event. It's a make your own purse place, although I guess in the cities they don't have a store they'll come to your house. We always did it in the store though, one of our most popular events.

[SWTXBelle]

The North Houston Alumnae Chapter had a neat Christmas meeting tradition -we met at a member's house who had a large kitchen with a marble topped island and made home-made hard candy. LOTS of fun - and you had a neat bag of Xmas goodies to take home.
I wonder if they still do it . . . it's been at least 14 years since I was a member of their group.

[cuteASAbug]

We did a post-holiday tacky gift exchange.

[ComradesTrue]

I, too, just started an alumnae chapter. We were fortunate that our Founders Day fell just two months after being granted a chapter charter, so we planned that for our first event and really played it up. If the calendar lines up well for you to consider this, I would highly recommend it.

We had a tremendous turn-out. There were quite a few women who were clear that their lives are busy and that they can just do "one event a year." Well... I knew that those women who just attend "one event" will most likely make it Founders Day. The funny thing was... they came and had such a great time that they can't wait for our next event in March. Sold!

The other thing that I did was to personalize the initial alumnae chapter letter that went to all members living in our area (170ish). I did a form letter, but then hand wrote a personal note on the bottom of each letter. I looked up to see how many other members were from their chapter, from their part of town, or from their generation (new grads and 50/75 year members)- this was all info that HQ gave me in an excel sheet. While this was time-intestive, it definitely worked, as it piqued their curiosity and made showing up to an event not knowing anyone feel a little safer. Definitely worth the time.

Our next event has a caterer (one of our members) demonstrating how to have nifty/unique tablesettings, decorations, and snacks. We liked this idea because it could appeal to various generations, as everyone wants to be a fabulous hostess!

[Benzgirl]

This doesn't give my favorite, but it gives lots of ideas...
PROGRAMMING AND COLLABORATING:

Goodie bags for an Active Chapter

Pampered Chef

Teacher/Lakeland/Speak on Civil War

Speaker from your Philantrophy

Just Claying Around

Girl's Night Out

Jeweler - at a store, at home (Marlen Jewelers - west side)

Walk/Run in connection with a philanthropy

Salons / Spas

Beauty Color & Hair Programs

Loretta Paganinis Cooking School

Nordstroms

Catherine Gibbs - herbs

Dinner and a Movie

Millionaires Row program from Western Reserve Historical Society

Book Night

Music / Art Therapy - Wellness Center

Art Museum

Game Night

Lakeview Cemetery Tour

Pasta Part

Ritz Carlton High Tea

RAISE FUNDS:

Silent and Live Auctions

Indians (Jacobs Field) Tour / Terrace Club

Cook a dinner for 8 or 10 or 12

Golf, Bowling, Sporting Event

MORE PROGRAM IDEAS:
Should all programs of interest to retain members and attract new members.
Programs should be appealing to all ages; one group had 2 program chairs - 1 older / 1 younger.
Consider joint meetings ( east and west side chapters; other sororities, guest nights, include children and grandchildren for some programs where you need more people.
Some meetings might be only social with no business meeting or business concerns on a printed hand-out to be read later.
In one group, a survey of younger members revealed that they liked to do service projects as programs.
Programs on personal aspects have been successful as well as hands-on activities, philanthropy or projects.
One group had a different person in charge of each meeting. (Responsible for planning speaker, refreshments, and order.)
Read newspapers and programs from other groups for program ideas, all members could be on the look-out for programs they enjoyed in other groups.
SPECIFIC IDEAS:
Girl's Night Out: dinner in the Flats or restaurant; brewery, sporting event, play.
Seasonal projects; bring materials in and prepare at meeting. i.e. stocking stuffers to prepare Christmas stockings for a nursing home at Christmas; prepare an Easter basket.
Christmas meeting with hors d'oeuvres (one group had people bring 10 copies of their recipe so people could take one if they wished); might be a good one for guest night for husbands and significant others.
Make Christmas gifts for a nursing home.
Decorate T-shirts with iron-ons and fabric paints for children's hospital.
Make cloth toy bags and fill with crayons, coloring books, etc. for children in hospital or City Mission.
For Ronald McDonald House - cook dinners, make gifts for children in hospital.
Hands on Fall arrangements.
Line dancing and an ice cream social.
Do a project at Just Clayin' Around (cost involved).
Have a nurse come in with props and demonstrate how to do a breast exam.
Go to a beauty parlor or spa for a facial, etc. (cost)
Have a member in dialogue; travel, share their job, investments, finance, etc.
Program on personal hygiene or health; grooming, contact a hospital to see if they have a speaker's bureau.
Am Track has an office in Solon and has great program on training in America.
Speaker from Plantcrafters; showing plants, telling what to plant, how to plant and care for plants.
Bed and Breakfast speaker
Craft Night - have several members bring examples of crafts they do and demopnstrate (knitting, needlepoint, decorating boxes, making note paper.)
Auction of donated items as a fund raiser.
Players from Clague Play House put on the play "The Women's Committee" - contribution.
Brenda Koos Gallery at W. 6th and St. Clair (have cheese and crackers there)
Loretta Paganini - cooking demonstration
Wave from WWII gave a talk at the Woman's Aviation Museum and had a box lunch there.
Take a tour: Garfield's Home, Lakeview Cemetery, behind the scenes at the Science Center, a museum, the Art Museum, theatre, etc.

[Canadian]

We love formal. Lots of alumni show up to welcome new initiates. It doubles with initation, so there is a big dinner, dancing, drinking and speeches.

We also like the yearly camping trip.

Tom

[DZviol]

These are great suggestions!

[Thetagirl218]

The Founder's Day activities are my favorite!

[crashtheparty]

When y'all say formal, what exactly are you talking about? The only formal we have at our school is our winter formal, which is a dance.

[Canadian]

What we call formal is any event where the brothers get together in suits (or the closest approximation, recognizing that many brothers can't prioritize enough that 50 beer = one low end suit) and we have either initiations, awards or a major ritualistic event. We mainly limit formals to initiations, because we group such events to cover a wide range of things, but we've had other occasions we call formals.

The university itself does not hold formal "formals" or homecomings. We simply don't have the interest or the local alumni base.


Thomas