Pref

PM_Mama00 · #1 08-18-2002, 10:53 AM

Do all the chapters use the same Pref? I know it's a ritual, but I'm just wondering if we all do it the same way. Rho Beta does the Creed ripple/bouncing kinda thing (you'll know what I"m talking about if you do it too) and then we have all the e-board speaking parts and all that. Then we do the memory boxes, and what Phi Mu means to us. Do yall do that too?

bets · #2 08-19-2002, 01:37 AM

I don't know what the creed ripple is. We do the choral creed, maybe that's what you're talking about

We have about 15 speaking parts, 4 songs ( We are sisters-everyone, Phi Mu Castle-everyone, Pass it On-everyone, and a solo of I will be here--I'm singing it this year

)

And what is the whole memory box thing?

Basically, I guess we can't know if we do them all the same if we don't exactly know what it is that you do.

And according to Carolyn Monsanto (National Ritual Chair), who DRILLED it into us at convention, unless it is in our ritual book, it is not ritual. She said that we can have our "traditions" which will pass from year to year and school to school, but it "ain't no ritual" if it isn't in the "purty" white book.

We call ours a "mock" ritual, though.

So what is the creed ripple and the memory boxes? I'm intrigued.

RoseNWhiteLion · #3 09-30-2002, 01:19 PM

I just heard/did the choral creed for the first time at convention this year, and I 'd like to do it as part of our pref now. No, we don't all do the same pref night. We had an old pref script, I honestly don't know where we got it, but now we use a script i got from Delta Eta chapter. It's awesome and tells a meaning of the letters (not THE meaning, but it's really cool to trace the letters and give the rushees an idea of what Phi Mu means to us and that the letters DO have a meaning)

We sing songs that the collegiates have changedthe words to popular songs, like "There's Your Trouble" "If You Could See What I See" and Vanessa Carleton's "1000 Miles". As well as Sisters, and Part of a Family.

We also do Pref Letters, we share personal stories with the Rushees, and show to them 3 things that mean a lot to us (Our quatrefoils, first set of letters, composite, etc....)

I do wish our chapter could pref really well though...we never know what to say to push girls over the edge to pledge us!

HotDamnImAPhiMu · #4 10-02-2002, 12:00 AM

We always do amazing well at preference -- the other sororities actually come up to us and tell us that. I'm thinking what it could be that actually goes over so well.

We definately stay away from anything the girls don't know. So we don't use the quatrafoils, or anything else where the symbolism will be lost on the girls. I think the idea behind that is they feel more included -- not lost because they were just at sorority XYZ and heard all these refernces to things they don't get and now they feel like outsiders.

We also have a lot of personal stories. We keep them short though. For example, a chapter tradition is that big sisters give little sisters baby blocks that spell out PHI MU (mine are stacked in the living room.) So somebody brings in her letters and then five girls get up and speak about, I don't know, maybe Pride. Then she puts the P up on the table. Then somebody about Honor, and when she's done with her little speech she puts the H next to the P. And so on.

We also keep it short. It's so intense that if you keep the girls in there too long, they'll loose focus -- it is, after all, a bunch of girls you don't know, and there's a thin line between realizing what this bond means to these girls and wondering if they're all just gaga for each other in the strangest way. After all, they don't have the bond yet

they don't know.

HotDamnImAPhiMu · #5 10-02-2002, 12:04 AM

We use the "fake" meaning of the letters too. I think it's OK to say it since it's not actually the meaning of the greek letters Phi Mu, just an idea someone came up with in the last decade or two. Somebody post though quickly if you don't think I should.

If you're confused -- this might help. One of my sisters was lavilered at the Delta Chi formal last year, and I was dating a Delta Chi so I was there too. They described the Delta as standing for the first letter in the greek word for law, I think (D Chi was originally a law fraternity at Cornell) and then Chi as the first letter in the greek word for God, and brought it all together by saying, may God be with you as these brothers be with you, and incorporating their quest for lawfulness as part of their history.

Of course that's not the meaning of the letters a Delta Chi is given at his initation (I don't know what the true meaning is, but I was so shocked I asked the boyfriend if that was THE meaning after the formal.) But they still mean something, and it's a way to "lend" meaning to the letters until you really are introduced to the meaning.

RoseNWhiteLion · #6 10-03-2002, 01:51 PM

For Pref this yead we used some pop songs that we had changed some of the the lyrics, like we did in Skit, in addition to Phi Mu songs. We used:

Soeurs Fideles (Tune of Edelwiess)
Don't Be Troubled (There's Your Trouble, by the DIxie Chicks)
Part of A Family
You Were Meant for Us (Girls in my chapter rewrote the Jewel song)
Thousand Miles (Vanessa Carelton)
Pass It On

And last year we used two great songs...

To Get Me To You (Lila McCann, "Hope Floats" Soundtrack)
If You Could See What I See (Geoff Moore and the Distance, we only had to change one line of the lyrics)

If you'd like to see the lyrics let me know!

shells2613 · #7 12-09-2002, 04:42 PM

Hello all! I'm the new membership director of the Delta Lambda chapter :-) We are really needing to improve our pref night...I feel that we are not getting across the fact that Phi Mu is where we found our place and how much it really means to us. We currently sing some good songs...Sisters, El Shaddai (with different words), My Precious Sisters, and Body Electric (which I am taking out b/c it is acapello and just doesn't work). We have a big/lil pair read a letter to eachother, and we have the pm's light candles and stand in a circle while we do the choral creed. There is a lot of talking by the president about some symbolism about phi mu (obviously not ritual stuff), and some speeches by sisters. It just doesn't seem personal enough! What can we do to make it more personal for the pm's, to make them realize that this is where they need to be!

Thanks

Shelly

PM_Mama00 · #8 12-09-2002, 07:03 PM

We don't do any of that. We do a 15 minutes sister/PM period where the sister shows off her memory box and talks bout what Phi Mu means to her. After that we do the Creed (where differnt people say different parts at different times). The President and Membership Director talk alot about the symbolism. Then the sisters each have a candle, and one sister will start off and say "Phi Mu has given me..." and then passes the light to the next sister, and so on. Then more speaking, then as we walk the girls out we sing Sisters.

It's not all in that order, but I really like our Creed and we ALWAYS have tears!

OUlioness01 · #9 12-09-2002, 07:25 PM

we sing IN My Life (the Beatles) as a duet. it is so beeautiful and the message realyl applies to sisterhood. we also had every sister who preffed a potential member stand behind the member and tell the room why we thought she would make a wonderful sister.

deltaphi94 · #10 12-09-2002, 08:59 PM

PM_Mama ~ question... do the pm's have a candle, too, or is that just something only the sisters do? My chapter did something similar, and we gave a candle to each pm. I don't know if it's still done that way, though. I'm old...lol.

RhoTauTeke · #11 12-19-2002, 04:04 AM

hi Phyllis!!!

PM_Mama00 · #12 12-19-2002, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by deltaphi94
PM_Mama ~ question... do the pm's have a candle, too, or is that just something only the sisters do? My chapter did something similar, and we gave a candle to each pm. I don't know if it's still done that way, though. I'm old...lol.

Only the sisters have candles, and as we light them we step kinda in front of the pm... obviously so we don't burn them!

PS... Hi LeTKE!

deltaphi94 · #13 12-19-2002, 04:50 PM

We gave each PNM a candle, and the sister standing next to the PNM would light her candle as well as the candle of the sister to her other side. It worked out really well for my chapter. We did that so the PNMs wouldn't feel completely left out, and many tears were shed. We scripted ourselves for "Phi Mu means..." It was a special experience. Ah... the old days...

cpayne2 · #14 05-02-2013, 01:55 PM

sisters! I'm the pref night chair for Alpha Gamma chapter and we definitely need ideas! I feel our pref night is too much about us and not about the girls. How can we personalize pref night and draw girls in??