Newly Elected Social Chair

[AOPii]

Hi all! I am the newly elected social chair for my sorority and I have no idea how to plan any events or how to set up events with frats. Any advice? ANY advice is helpful & any tips would be greatly appreciated. I have to plan sober and non-sober events as well as formal!

[DubaiSis]

Don't you have a social chair you are replacing? Wasn't there any officer transition training? If you didn't get any of this, you have far bigger problems than how to plan fun parties. I would start with your advisers and if you don't have any, then go to your headquarters. Before you start planning parties you better know about your rules and policies.

[AOPii]

I am replacing an officer and will be having training, but not until we get back to campus in the fall. So I'm supposed to have a "potential" calendar & event ideas set up before then. I have a copy of all of our policies and rules, I am just asking for advice on how to best approach the position and the duties correlated with it.

[AOII*Azra-elle]

Your chapter should already have a calendar set for the fall and have social events already placed on it. If you do not have a copy of that calendar, contact your VP Education to get one. If you have one done already, then think about next spring and the dates for events. TCPC (Total Chapter Programming Committee) will be meeting in the first few weeks of school to set the spring calendar. Get in touch with your advisor!! If you do not have an active social advisor, contact your chapter advisor! When you are transitioned there are several things you need to be aware of, one of the most important and EARF and rules regarding social events (standards, insurance, mileage from campus, etc). You should have contact information for the other Greek letter orgs on campus (not just fraternities) as well as your Panhellenic and IFC councils. Double check with the individual you are replacing. Don't be afraid to ask her questions now and get some transition started.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by AOII*Azra-elle

Your chapter should already have a calendar set for the fall and have social events already placed on it. If you do not have a copy of that calendar, contact your VP Education to get one. If you have one done already, then think about next spring and the dates for events. TCPC (Total Chapter Programming Committee) will be meeting in the first few weeks of school to set the spring calendar. Get in touch with your advisor!! If you do not have an active social advisor, contact your chapter advisor! When you are transitioned there are several things you need to be aware of, one of the most important and EARF and rules regarding social events (standards, insurance, mileage from campus, etc). You should have contact information for the other Greek letter orgs on campus (not just fraternities) as well as your Panhellenic and IFC councils. Double check with the individual you are replacing. Don't be afraid to ask her questions now and get some transition started.

Hopefully they are using TCPC and scheduling social events a semester in advance. So many chapters don't effectively use these tools. SMH.

To the OP, did the prior social chair step down? It's odd to have transition over the summer. I agree with AOII*Azra-elle. Check the calendar first. See if you have scheduled events. If you do, then you know where to start. Come up with themes,etc. If you don't have a calendar of events, you can think of ideas, but actually planning dates will have to wait until you get back and can confer with everyone else.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

To the OP, did the prior social chair step down? It's odd to have transition over the summer.

I'm guessing so since she put it this way:

Originally Posted by AOPii

I am replacing an officer

Reading all this, I am so freaking glad I went to school in the dark ages in teenytown where scheduling fun wasn't such a chore. (Nothing against AOII, I know it's the same for everyone.)

[DubaiSis]

And it's always possible that the girl she's replacing didn't do her job and she really does have to put a social calendar together for the fall. If that's the case, I think we all can feel your pain. I would get together a committee of chapter friends who can help you work over the summer. And hopefully you can find summer contact information for the fraternity social chairs. And if you're not having to make up time like that, I'd still involve a team.

As far as a formal theme, less is more. I wouldn't get yourself buried under some complicated theme that's expensive and hard to decorate. Look through the party favor catalogues. The pictures will depict current themes.

If I were planning a party for this fall/winter, I'd be planning an End of the World party, probably with a Mayan theme. That will no longer be appropriate by Spring, unless you want to plan a "we survived the end of the world" party, again with a Mayan theme.

[AOPii]

I know that this is all super confusing for everyone else, but there were certain circumstances that have caused our chapter to make some switches and transitions during the summer period. All the past social chair has offered to help plan some events, I feel as though the responsibility is on my shoulders and that the chapter is counting on me to make this semester worthwhile and filled with great socials, since our last semester was not liked at all. I am blindly coming into the position. I have no idea how to handle the finances, the social events, the advisers or any of those things. Although I do have her help, as I said, I would prefer to start things fresh. So if anyone can give me any advice on how to start new and make things work or how your chapter made things work, please let me know

[LAblondeGPhi]

Originally Posted by AOPii

I know that this is all super confusing for everyone else, but there were certain circumstances that have caused our chapter to make some switches and transitions during the summer period. All the past social chair has offered to help plan some events, I feel as though the responsibility is on my shoulders and that the chapter is counting on me to make this semester worthwhile and filled with great socials, since our last semester was not liked at all. I am blindly coming into the position. I have no idea how to handle the finances, the social events, the advisers or any of those things. Although I do have her help, as I said, I would prefer to start things fresh. So if anyone can give me any advice on how to start new and make things work or how your chapter made things work, please let me know

So, coming from a place unfamiliar with your campus culture and specific requirements of AOPi, my super-general advice is as follows:

1) Seems like the first thing is to get general dates that work for social events (What days of the week? Are chapter meeting days no-nos for events? Is everyone out of town Friday-Sunday? Is Thursday THE social day for your school? What are finals and midterm weeks to avoid? When is Presents week, and does Presents fall under your planning purvue? etc.)

2) Coordinate with fraternities for exchanges. Once you have YOUR schedule loosely figured out, the next step (I assume) would be coordinating with fraternities and THEIR schedule. Summer is a hard time to get in contact with anyone on a consistent basis, so don't be too discouraged if it's hard to get any response from several of the social chairs. The big concern right now, though, is getting tentatively scheduled on their calendars before they are filled up with other events. If they don't do much scheduling until the end of summer, then circle back then.

3) Figure out your budget - for everything. Don't forget transportation costs, security, security deposits with the venue, food/beverage minimums, food requirements, etc. The lady you're replacing should have a good idea about these numbers, and if she doesn't, then your president or advisors will.

4) Scouting appropriate venues. For my chapter, this was always a struggle to find. Sure, there were always a couple of stand-bys, but the membership got bored with event after event at the same location. If you're totally stumped, ask your previous social chair, President, advisor and Panhellenic advisor for some suggestions.

To me, those are the biggies for now. Themes can be arranged later on, but venues and fraternity calendars can book up fast.

I would also suggest aiming for a mix of events (sober events, dinner events, traditional mixers, etc.). If it's a little late to squeeze into fraternity calendars, then consider dinners with sports teams or fraternities at nearby universities (caveat - I don't know how this will fly at your school and at your Greek system; at my school, it wasn't unheard-of to do mixers with sports teams, fraternities from other schools, and in a couple of cases - members of the business/law schools).

Good luck!!

[Phi Sig Girl]

^^^^^^ I agree.

If you are having trouble coming up with social ideas here are a few things I have done that have helped:
-Send an e-mail to your chapter asking them what socials they would like to see
-If you have a committee, ask them to e-mail you ideas of socials they would like to do if you had no limits. (This usually helped me the most because I could find ways to down size and make it work for my chapter)
-Lastly if you are still having a hard time, ask your fellow officers to help you look for social ideas

I find that creativity is the key. Good Luck!!!

[AOPii]

Thank you all so much for all of your help!