The Second half of phase two of Committed To Social Lives of Excellence

So now you and your brothers have the basics of gentlemanly behavior down, time to start doing some socializing. Socials, these can make or break your reputation on campus. While a traditional social is nice, it’s a little boring for a social life of excellence, not to mention carry a huge risk of bad PR for your chapter. Traditional socials normally are driving by one of two forces, consumption of alcohol and/or the pursuit of sexual relations with a sorority member. These types of socials just have danger written all over them. Look at your basic wet social, how hard would it be for an accidental overdose to happen? How about a sexual assault? Or how about a visit from your local police? Why waste all the hard work you have done to get this far by throwing a social like this? Not to mention isn’t the entire purpose of working on this plan to make yourself stick out on campus? Here is my suggestion for you. Publicly announce you will no longer be hosting wet social events. Why would you ever do something like this? Because it will get you some really good PR. Trust me on this one, once you tell a few people that your chapter is no longer planning wet socials, most of Greek life will know quite soon. Okay, so you have announced you are no longer doing wet socials, how do you break that news to your brothers? Bet they are not happy campers at all, well here is the solution. Yes you are only planning dry socials, that does not mean you will not be holding an after party where your of age brothers can consume alcohol with of age members of the sorority in question. This way also reduces your risk of potentially having some really severe MRG violations, like common source and/or slush funds. For more information refer to the original CLE plan. Another great idea for social events is why not invite a sorority to do a community service project with you? With social events you really need to start thinking of non traditional ideas, like community service, or things as simple as bowling or hosting a karaoke night on campus together. 

Here is also the time to start rolling out the new social policies you or your predecessor worked on last phase. Here is an example of what I did while I was social chair for my chapter. 

Socials are getting overhauled this semester. I am not planing any exclusively wet socials. All socials I have planned will have the option of turning wet. Also sisters will not be allowed on the first or second floor during the wet portion of the social. First offense is a warning, second is removed from the social. If a sister wants to join a brother in his room they have to either wait until 12 am when the social ends, or get it approved by the sober socials. This is for two reasons. A.I do not want anything stolen. B. Sexual assault does not happen at the Delt house, nor will I let the opportunity arise.

This is only a small selection of what I did as social chair, but it gives you an idea of what I am talking about when I mention new social policies. While some of your brothers will raise a bit of a fuss about these new policies, it would be in your best interest to remind them that these are not really new policies but actually policies you were given from sororities. So what about other social activities during the semester? You know what I am talking about. Parties. Yes I am going to go there, when done correctly a good party planned correctly can do some really awesome things for your reputation. 

I have a couple of rules for when planning a party. First and foremost follow your MRG, the last thing you want to do is lose your charter.  Now for the other simple rules:

1. Simple themes: people love theme parties, it gives them a chance to dress up and have a blast. But you need to keep your themes simple, and respectful, as well as non-traditional. While a toga party is fun, wouldn’t a Graffiti Toga party be way more fun? Also try to stay away from things like CEOs and Office Hos. While these themes are fun, they are disrespectful, and you just spent all that time learning about the importance of being a gentleman, does throwing an and Hos party really seem like the the gentlemanly thing to do? Also stay away from things like Rubic Cube parties, and ABC(Anything But Clothes). Many girls get weirded out by parties like this. Also be careful when mixing themes, sometimes they work, like Graffiti Toga, other times they are a fail like a Stoplight Office party(that was a disaster). Also do not over do it. Limit yourself to one theme a month.
2. Stay away from open parties: If you are going to throw a party make it a private list party. Give brothers a certain amount of guest spaces, and make them turn in the list before the end of the week. This way you control the amount of people coming into your house, as well as know how is responsible for each person. 
3. Be Exclusive: This has a two fold purpose. The first purpose of being exclusive is it limits the people in your house again. The second thing is that it will get people talking about your party. If you do your party right people will be bragging about how they got in. Get people talking and as long as you are following the rules, you will start getting a better reputation. 

There are my three rules for parties. Keep in mind though, you do not want “throws awesome parties” as your only reputation on campus. You need to make sure you have solid academics and a growing reputation as gentlemen on campus before you start partying. 

Well all of that is well and good, but if you are not one of the “cool frats” not much of these are going to help you very much. Yea if you follow the rules I laid out, you will start to build up a reputation, but as I have said before every brother is so temporary within a chapter, who wants to wait three years to build up a reputation? Well here is your answer. It’s a basic idea of climbing the social ladder, it’s all about who you know! So time for a little homework before you start this project. Make a list of all the sororities on campus. Now on another piece of paper make a list of all the fraternities. Now order these lists in order of how popular they are on campus. Greek life is just like high school, except instead of cliques you have Fraternities and Sororities. Now you have your lists, break them up into three categories. The Alphas(pretty self explanatory) the Betas(the new guys, or up and coming chapters, hopefully you) and lastly the Omegas( the social pariahs, or the bottom of the lists.) If you have not figured it out yet, normally Alphas socialize with Alphas only, and Betas try to socialize with the Alphas but normally socialize with Betas. The Omegas are a whole different ball game, if they socialize it is with other Omegas, but normally only rarely. It is your goal to hold some sort of social event with The Alpha chapter of your campus. This is actually a lot easier then it would seem, but it does take some grunt work. It will be a lot easier if the Alpha sorority has a house on campus, and/or if one of your brothers has a connection with a sister. For example my blood sister was a sister of the Alpha Sorority on my campus, which was a huge step up.  Contact the president of the chapter in question, and instead of asking for a social event( as they will probably give you an excuse) ask them if you can come over and rake their lawn etc. Or if you live in a snow climate, do not ask and just show up during or right after a snowstorm. Shovel them out, and their cars. Do not forget back doors. Either one of these options will get you and your brothers some exposure to the sorority. The key here is to do something nice for them, without making it obvious that you want something in return. Let them suggest the idea of a social event. This might take a couple days of work, but in the end it will be worth it. This way you will be dragged up through the ranks of Greek life on the coat tails of the sorority, without them being the wiser. If you are willing to put in the work, this sort of relationship should turn out quite positive sooner then later. You have to keep an eye out for the hand of friendship from this sorority, normally in the guise of an invite to do a social event. Just make sure you do not sacrifice all the hard work you have done to build up your reputation about wet socials just to get closer with the Alpha sorority. 

Now that you have laid the groundwork, and you have started to build your reputation with your peers, it is time to look at the bigger picture, especially the administration of your college, and the surrounding community. In this phase we will lump these two groups of people together into a big group, and serve that big group with one nice event. This event can come in a couple of different forms, but the most traditional set up is inviting important people down to either your house if you have one or your chapter room. Normally there are light refreshments, and its dry and stuffy. Can you say snore fest? Something you and your chapter needs to realize. Just because you only hold one reception like this a year, that does not mean you are the only one they go to. Think every other Greek org. probably holds a similar event, as does other major student organizations on campus. That is also not including the department receptions, faculty events etc. they attend every year as well. What you need to do is keep this in mind when you plan your reception. You have to do something that A. makes them want to come again next year and B. makes you stick out from the rest of the crowd. Your first decision is do you want this reception to correspond with a holiday, such as Founder’s day, or Halloween? Or do you want to avoid holidays all together? Both have pros and cons to them. Holiday parties are easier to plan, but you have to compete with many other parties happening around that time. Non-holiday events are harder to plan, but if planned right, the risk of scheduling conflicts is reduced. For this phase of the plan I would suggest one of the following receptions:

Option A. Holiday party in early December. Decorate your house in festive decor, sticking mostly to Purple Gold and White. Get a tree, and put a bunch of fake presents under it. If you have a mantel buy a dollar store stocking or 10 to hang off it. Invite everyone down for a early evening(4-6p) get together with light refreshments, like spiced cider, candy canes, and other holiday goodies. Make sure your decorations, and your invitations are all inclusive, or in other words avoid MERRY CHRISTMAS! etc. Make sure you send out the  save the dates a full 6 weeks in advance. I know this seems excessive, but you need to, follow with a formal invitation 3 weeks in advance. Tis the season to be merry, especially if you are part of the college administration. To reduce the risk of schedule conflicts plan it for a weeknight. Make sure to give all of your guests something to take home, candy or goodies etc. Something Delty but not over the top. 

Option B: Fall Harvest in mid October. Decorate the house with pumpkins, and fall colors. Think Mums(Fall flowers) and hay bales if you can find them. Do not go over the top, and do not go crazy scary halloween. Just like option A, do this event early in the evening, 4p-6p. Serve fall goodies, such as pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, bite sized pumpkin pies(store bought is fine) etc. For the invitations you can send them out 3 weeks in advance without a save the date, and you should be fine. Just make sure that you remember that Homecoming is in October as well. 

After the party it is proper to send a thank you card to all the people who attended. Something short and sweet. Make them handwritten and do not say the exact same thing in each one. I know this is a pain, but it will boost your points with everyone by a good amount. This idea also goes for social events with Sororities. For sororities you only need to send one to the chapter, but you should do it with in three days of having the event. 

The last thing to do in this phase of the CSLE is another Formal, but again it’s time to kick this up a notch. So your last formal was low key and went over rather well. For this formal you are going to take all that you learned in the first phase, about venues, DJs, and behavior contracts and add something new to the mix. Invite a sorority to have formal together. This makes things A. so much easier for you and B. a lot cheaper. Find a sorority you are somewhat close with, and ask them if they want to do a joint formal, its that easy. Allow brothers and sisters to bring dates, but also let them know that there will be members of the opposite sex if they decide to go stag.

Recap on Phase 2: Start to watch the Locker Room language, hold an etiquette lesson on gentlemanly behaviors. Cut the wet socials, plan parties that fit the MRG and have simple themes. Find ways to attach yourself to the Alpha sorority, but don’t sacrifice your hard work. Hold a PR reception, and follow the rules for them. Remember your thank you cards and lastly throw a formal with a sorority.