Summer Retreat Ideas to Spark Your Chapter's Creativity

As many of our collegiate chapters gear up to return to campus, we know that many of you have your sisterhood retreats planned. Whether you are conducting fall formal recruitment, or holding your retreat to reconnect with sisters, here are 5 ideas for sparking creativity during your Delta Zeta retreat.

1.       Get outside. Not only does playing outside produce more creative and playful children—it works especially well with adults. Get your members out of the chapter house and see the effect a change in physical environment has on mental output.

2.       Stimulate All of Their Senses. We’ve all heard it – people learn and relate in different ways. Make sure your retreat agenda includes a good balance of presentation and learning methods. Use videos and music, pair sisters up to discuss a topic, build something out of blocks, the point is to do something outside the normal presentation method.

3.       Show Them the Castle. When Walt Disney was building Disneyland, he instructed the construction team to build the castle first so the team could share in the vision of the project, even amidst the muck and chaos of construction. Likewise, be sure to kick off your retreat by sharing your mission and vision.

4.       Bring in An Outside Facilitator. Your exec board might know exactly what your chapter needs to do to achieve your goals, but your members will most likely listen and internalize the information more coming from an outside source. This is the best time to ask a campus advisor, professor, residence hall director, or the like to come be a guest speaker and deliver the message you want your chapter to hear.

5.       TISP. Finally, make each member feel Trusted, Important, Special, and Pleased. "When you're hosting a party, make sure everyone at the party feels like they were the most important guest."

Do More, Care More, Be More: The Norma Minch Andrisek Leadership Conference

We asked our Facebook and Twitter followers to share some of their best advice to those attending the Norma Minch Andrisek Leadership Conference this week. We should not have been surprised that they would take to social media and share such insightful advice for those traveling to Oxford, Ohio this week! Find out what our followers had to say over on Storify. 

More than 400 participants and faculty will arrive on campus at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio on Thursday, July 18 for the Norma Minch Andrisek Leadership Conference. This year’s conference features two keynote speakers. Mike Dilbeck, from RESPONSE ABILITY, will kick off the weekend on Thursday night. Pete Smithhisler, the President and CEO of the North-American Interfraternity Conference, will present the Leadership Keynote on Saturday afternoon. In between, participants will be introduced to their personal assessments with Delta Zeta’s partners at Plaid, participate in smaller Homeroom Groups, attend breakout sessions led by our conference faculty and take the Legacy Tour. We end on Sunday morning with our alumnae panel of Delta Zetas who have changed the world. 

To follow along, make sure to use the hashtag #NMALC13 on both Twitter and Facebook. See you in Ohio!

Delta Zeta Alumnae and the Recruitment Recommendation

By Guest Blogger Meredith Purser, Recruitment Committee

In the life cycle of a Delta Zeta chapter, no single season is more critical to its continued growth and health than that of recruitment. Delta Zeta collegiate members work to recruit new members that exemplify the values of our Founders. Their task is to see beyond the résumé and transcript to the woman within. Is she truly a Delta Zeta?

In working with a chapter as a College Chapter Director (CCD), I can tell you, it is no easy task to accurately assess a person’s true character in those precious few minutes granted to us during formal recruitment. It becomes even harder when, depending on the campus, there are several hundred to perhaps a thousand young women participating. Everyone is showing their best face, so how can a chapter spot the ones that really should stand out from the rest?

A key piece to assisting a chapter with this process are alumnae who send in recruitment recommendations!

When an alumna takes the time to fill out a Recruitment Introduction Form for a young woman, it means that she sees something in her that really says, “I am a Delta Zeta.” When a chapter receives an introduction, they can see past the papers and numbers—they can see the potential sister within!

The same form provides the chapter a method for identifying women with legacy status. We afford additional consideration to legacies only if we know who they are. Who would know better whether a potential new member is a Delta Zeta at heart than her own family? It is never “tooting your own horn” to send a recommendation for your own sister, daughter or granddaughter!

Although we do not require the same level of formal consideration for potential new members who are non-legacies, those connections are also valuable for chapters to know and should be included on the Recruitment Introduction Form. Having an aunt or cousin that is a Delta Zeta gives chapter members a great talking point to begin getting to know that potential new member.

Having the loving advice and support from alumnae sisters during recruitment can mean the difference between a good new member class and an exceptional one. If you know of a young woman that will be participating in recruitment, talk to her, encourage her, and then send in your recommendation. Delta Zeta will be richer because of it!

You can find the form to recommend a member on our website at http://deltazeta.org/join/recommendamember