New Member & Icebreakers

[Bmjorden0]

Hi! I am Brandi and I am in Alpha Sigma Alpha at FSU. I am recruitment chair and I really want to bring some different ice breakers to informal recruitment this year. Any ideas? I would like some that could go with a spa theme recruitment.

Heres what I've brainstormed so far:
We play a clock date game. This is when each sister and new member has to go around and find sisters to date with for each time on the clock. Then, the recruitment chair will ask questions for sister's to further get to know each PNM

We play a gribble ball game where we all sit in the circle and in the gribble ball there are question you answer it and then roll the ball to someone else in the circle

Voice Concerns- Pass around a piece of paper to each potential and then pass around a jar and this is their chance to voice any concerns or questions they may have about sorority

Yarn Ice breaker - Recruitment chair for the party starts and says something they like (i like the color "purple") and anyone that agrees the yarn gets passed to that person until a web is created.

Move you butt - if there are 25 people in the room, and then only set out 24 chairs. 1 person stands in the middle of the circle of chairs and states a states a fact like anyone who has "blue" eyes, move your butt. Everyone with blue eyes must change their seat, the last person standing in the middle will then make the next statement like anyone one wearing the color "pink" move your butt.

Place random facts about each sister on a bingo card and the potential new members used it as an icebreaker to meet the sisters.

[JohnnyCash]

Originally Posted by Bmjorden0

Hi! I am Brandi and I am in Alpha Sigma Alpha at FSU. I am recruitment chair and I really want to bring some different ice breakers to informal recruitment this year. Any ideas? I would like some that could go with a spa theme recruitment.

Heres what I've brainstormed so far:
We play a clock date game. This is when each sister and new member has to go around and find sisters to date with for each time on the clock. Then, the recruitment chair will ask questions for sister's to further get to know each PNM

We play a gribble ball game where we all sit in the circle and in the gribble ball there are question you answer it and then roll the ball to someone else in the circle

Voice Concerns- Pass around a piece of paper to each potential and then pass around a jar and this is their chance to voice any concerns or questions they may have about sorority

Yarn Ice breaker - Recruitment chair for the party starts and says something they like (i like the color "purple") and anyone that agrees the yarn gets passed to that person until a web is created.

Move you butt - if there are 25 people in the room, and then only set out 24 chairs. 1 person stands in the middle of the circle of chairs and states a states a fact like anyone who has "blue" eyes, move your butt. Everyone with blue eyes must change their seat, the last person standing in the middle will then make the next statement like anyone one wearing the color "pink" move your butt.

Place random facts about each sister on a bingo card and the potential new members used it as an icebreaker to meet the sisters.

FSU doesn't have ASA.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by JohnnyCash

FSU doesn't have ASA.

OP didn't specify which FSU she attends. One of them does have ASA.

[JohnnyCash]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

OP didn't specify which FSU she attends. One of them does have ASA.

Ohh. Okay. Sorry lol

[Alumiyum]

Originally Posted by Bmjorden0

Hi! I am Brandi and I am in Alpha Sigma Alpha at FSU. I am recruitment chair and I really want to bring some different ice breakers to informal recruitment this year. Any ideas? I would like some that could go with a spa theme recruitment.

Heres what I've brainstormed so far:
We play a clock date game. This is when each sister and new member has to go around and find sisters to date with for each time on the clock. Then, the recruitment chair will ask questions for sister's to further get to know each PNM

We play a gribble ball game where we all sit in the circle and in the gribble ball there are question you answer it and then roll the ball to someone else in the circle

Voice Concerns- Pass around a piece of paper to each potential and then pass around a jar and this is their chance to voice any concerns or questions they may have about sorority

Yarn Ice breaker - Recruitment chair for the party starts and says something they like (i like the color "purple") and anyone that agrees the yarn gets passed to that person until a web is created.

Move you butt - if there are 25 people in the room, and then only set out 24 chairs. 1 person stands in the middle of the circle of chairs and states a states a fact like anyone who has "blue" eyes, move your butt. Everyone with blue eyes must change their seat, the last person standing in the middle will then make the next statement like anyone one wearing the color "pink" move your butt.

Place random facts about each sister on a bingo card and the potential new members used it as an icebreaker to meet the sisters.

I don't get the clock game.

Be careful with "gribble ball". If someone writes questions that could be too personal it could scare off PNM's. If you play a game like that make sure the questions are neutral and won't make a PNM uncomfortable. If you wouldn't ask a stranger, don't ask them.

I wouldn't have PNM's voice concerns about joining the sorority. That could get uncomfortable fast, and chances are they won't want to participate and say anything that might offend the sisters, even by accident.

Yarn sounds most promising...but think about how close everyone will get. Don't do the big untangle thing at the end, just let them drop the yarn. Some people really dislike being too touchy touchy with strangers.

"Move your butt" sounds like the same game as the Yarn game, but it sounds pretty safe. On Bid Day my chapter played "I love all my sisters who..." which is the same game, but remind them not to say things like "...have been to jail". Yes, we've had that happen. On Bid Day. The new girls were a little taken aback.

I wouldn't play this last game, either...let the PNM's get to know the sisters through conversation. They probably won't get all that involved in the game if it's just about the sisters.

Icebreakers can backfire for two reasons: questions get asked that put people on the spot, and they can get boring. Stick to only one or two icebreaker games, then have an ice cream sundae table or something like that so that no one gets burned out on the games, and you quit before anyone gets bored. For informal recruitment my chapter had an ice cream social, makeover night, dinner at a popular local coffeehouse across from campus, and a Guitar Hero night to think of a few. Do activities like that for the second half of the event, and make sure to gauge the group of girls you're recruiting well. If you have a group that seems really girly, a makeover night might go over really well, but if they for the most part seem more the play-games type Guitar Hero might be a better choice.

You can also modify sisterhood events. We had a scavenger hunt at the mall one time for a sisterhood activity and you could easily turn that into a campus event by having groups of four (two PNM's and two sisters...I wouldn't have a PNM be alone in a group of sisters) or so find a few (like five) items on campus, so that it doesn't take too long. Then everyone can meet back at one location to play an icebreaker event...that way the PNM's have met a handful of girls on a more personal level and they still get to meet the rest of the group and each other.

[ree-Xi]

Originally Posted by JohnnyCash

FSU doesn't have ASA.

A simple Google tells us which FSU it is.

OP - you might not want to use your full, real name on a public website. Even if you have nothing to hide, you have your school, chapter and now your recruitment theme out on the interwebs. Isn't this something that you might want to keep to yourselves?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

OP didn't specify which FSU she attends. One of them does have ASA.

FSU = Frostburg.

I agree w/ only doing one or two icebreakers - the point of them is to "break the ice" not to consume the whole party. After they're done people should just naturally gravitate into chatting with each other.

The butt game sounds the best and the gribble ball IF you stick to benign questions like favorite musician, toughest class etc. Nothing regarding boyfriends, family, religion or politics.

Please stop over in the ASA forum and introduce yourself.

[ScarletBlueGold]

You struck a chord with me on this thread. I am a former orientation leader, and a current fanatic lover of ice-breakers/team builders/energizers. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Links - In this ice-breaker you will need one person to lead the group and explain the game.

The person who is the team leader is going to start off the game by stating random facts about himself/herself. They should be saying things like, "I play the violin, I am a legacy to XYZ, and I played volleyball in highschool" until he/she says something that someone else in the group has in common.

When someone hears something that they have in common with the group leader; that person walks up to the person talking and links arms with them, and at this point they begin to talk about themselves (the same thing the leader did).

The activity repeats until the very last person says something that the person who started the exercise has in common with them, and then they link arms creating a circle.

At this point the whole group will be linked together forming a giant chain. You can point out how, despite the fact that almost everyone walked in as a stranger, you all are connected in one way or another.

**My chapter did this exercise, during a time of strife within our organization, at a brotherhood retreat a while back. Instead of talking about ourselves though we talked about our dreams for our Fraternity (linking arms when you share a dream with another brother). I know it seems a little gay, but it actually helped us prioritize our goals as a Chapter over our petty arguments.

2. Lost at Sea - This one might not be that fun for girls, but it is still one of my favorites. I can't explain it as well as the website can: http://dsa.csupomona.edu/osl/studentmanual/files/Lost_At_Sea_327.pdf

But basically you split the group up into smaller groups and you try to solve the problem. It's a lot of fun, and it's really interesting to see how people answer it.

**Google actually used to do this exercise during their interview process. It really is a good way to see people's decision making process.

3. The Human Sandwich Board - I work for my campus activities board, and we use a lot of sandwich boards to promote our events, so I'm a big fan of this one. It's very simple. You tie two pieces of poster board together with yarn, and then you pair people up in twos.

Each pair is instructed that they have to create an "ad" for the other person using the sandwich board as their canvas. At the end everyone puts on their sandwich board and the artist explains why they drew what they did.

**It might sound pretty simplistic, but it actually allows for a lot of creativity and personalization. You can also really quickly identify which PNMs have artistic ability quickly.

Let me know if any of these help.