athletic involvement!

[babyblue45676]

I am the new athletic director for my sorority and previously our athletics have been pitiful. we have no shirts, no spirit and very little involvement. girls will say that they will show up for games but somehow they all come up with better plans. i want to make the athletics sooo much better than they have been but i need some ideas to get the enthusiasm going! any ideas?

In my chapter most girls aren't that into competitive stuff. We like to be active, but not in the traditional way. For our greek day games, we make sure it's not about winning because well, we never win. We just emphasis the fact that just participating is fun. I would think the first step would be to not say anything about anyone or the chapter at whole being pitiful. Instead, focus on the positive things you can get from participating like sisterhood, memories and a positive image. Just that fact that after never winning greek day and coming in last at a lot of the games, we still participate and are fun throughout the whole thing and never get a "this sucks, we never win, everything is rigged, those girls cheated" type of attitude makes people have a lot of respect for us.

As far as other athletic activities goes, we don't really participate in flag football or pick up basketball. It's not us. Instead, we play dodge ball with fraternities, take yoga classes. My advice is pay attention to what is going on: members aren't enthused for a reason. Don't try and change your members, change your program.

Also, if girls are saying they want to participate and then don't maybe you should make a sign up sheet for that event. In my chapter the event planner works out the details: time date place and what the event is going to entail. Then she has people sign up for that event. If enough girls sign up she goes ahead with the plans, if not, then it's dead. Even though she put in effort for nothing, it's not as much effort as if she planned the whole thing and only two people showed up. Also, it's helpful for any organization that we are planning the event with if they are concerned about a number, mostly because the fraternities don't realize how big we've gotten. Once the girls have signed up for the event, they are committed to go. What happens if they don't depends on your attendance fines and whatnot. Girls are still permitted to go even if they don't sign up, but they should also realize that if not enough sign up the event might not happen. It just kind of forces people to decide one way or the other if they want to attend an event.

[babyblue45676]

thanks for the tips!

[greyhoundrescue]

I know some chapters would hold a raffle to encourage involvement in athletics (and other events). If you signed up, you got one raffle ticket. If you came, you got another. If you actually participated, you got a third. Next Chapter meeting, a ticket (or maybe a few) would be pulled and a small but popular prize was won (maybe a gift certificate for a manicure? or for the local Greek store?). All the old tickets would be left in the container, so the more events you participated in, the higher your chances of winning.

[DS_Castro]

One way I am trying to get my brothers to do some more athletics is simply to use what you have going for you, support.

I started up the school's boxing club which died a few years back. I am the trainer and 'coach' for the trainers. I told all my boys that I think it would be really good for them, and I didn't want the club to fail. All the guys were excited about it, not only to go hit one another (thats what boys like to do after all), but because they were also helping out their brother.

It didn't take much effort, and now all my boys are active, and still spending tons of time together. They talk about each other's weaknesses and strengths in the gym in the middle of the day on their way to classes and what not. It adds another discussion topic for the boys. Its great