There are officially 109 days remaining in 2020. While we are all searching for ways to stay connected, the Chapter Services team has put together a list of socially-distant or virtual ways you can continue to grow and strengthen your brotherhood.
Check out 109 ways to stay connected for 109 days!
Community Service:
Participate in a Blood Drive with the Red Cross.
Perform a street or highway cleanup.
Contact the Civic Engagement office (or similar) on campus and ask what volunteer opportunities are available.
Have a “Service Day” where one Saturday every brother performs an act of community service no matter where they are located. Advertise this across social media channels.
Do a park cleanup with your local park.
Make face masks that you can donate to local charities.
Contact your local United Way to see what opportunities are available to help serve the community.
Volunteer as a poll worker on Election Day.
Volunteer for Meals on Wheels. They have great social distancing guidelines.
Host an online voter registration drive to encourage others to perform their civic duty.
Philanthropy:
Fundraise using CrowdChange for SeriousFun Children’s Network and do a peer-to-peer fundraiser. Split the chapter into teams and compete head-to-head.
Encourage brothers to donate to causes that they are passionate about in their communities and track brother’s donations.
Create a SeriousFun Bingo board on social media; whoever gets a coverall first gets a prize.
Host a fundraiser on Instagram Live or Facebook Live and pin a comment to an online donation form for a cause your chapter is passionate about (SeriousFun Children’s Network, Local Animal Shelter, etc.)
Host a virtual 5k or race and encourage participants to do it wherever they are and fundraise for a cause.
Scholarship:
Have “study groups” and encourage brothers to study together virtually via Zoom or Google Hangouts.
Digitize study resources that are in the house so all brothers can access it via a shared online folder.
Revisit your scholarship plan. What needs changed? Or Developed?
Use apps like ‘Studytable’ to connect with others outside your chapter with similar topics.
Invite an academic advisor to speak at your next chapter meeting on remote learning and study techniques.
Risk Prevention:
Discuss how we can do our part to limit risk during COVID.
Host a seminar on how you can have safe social events for when in-person events resume.
Review the risk management policy. How does this change with COVID?
Host a discussion with a campus professional about mental health resources available to members.
Assess event programming around socials and ensure that all members are trained for when in-person events resume.
Communication:
Develop a social media strategy with the PR Chair and brothers in marketing, communications, public relations, etc. majors.
Create a ‘Brother of the Week’ marketing strategy.
Add a LinkTree link to your Instagram account.
Create an ‘Alumnus of the Month’ campaign highlighting an alumnus from the chapter for exciting news (new job, child, marriage, etc.)
Organize chapter photos into a shared folder for you to reference in future years. Drip these through Social media.
Do a social media campaign using #GoFar talking about how joining Phi Tau helps your members go far in life.
Determine your general posting strategy for your Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook profiles.
Ask the Executive Offices for custom branded fraternity graphics for your chapter.
Join the other IFC chapters on campus and do PSAs (Public Service Announcements) around campus policies and being a Good Samaritan.
Create a ‘Throwback Thursday’ campaign ask alumni for old photos to post on chapter social media.
Update your chapter website on ChapterSpot by accessing the WebsiteApp on ChapterSpot.
Alumni Relations:
Send a message to your alumni updating them on what the chapter is doing this Fall and how you’re adjusting to COVID.
Call your alumni and share with them how the school and chapter are doing.
Send alumni hard copy mailers or postcards.
Post on social media via the chapter’s public channels to showcase what the chapter is up to this Fall.
Post in the alumni Facebook group to update alumni on what classes and campus is like during the Fall.
Host an Alumni AMA webinar.
Host Instagram takeovers for alumni.
Do an Instagram or Facebook live interview with chapter brothers or alumni and ask them about why they chose Phi Tau and about what they’re passionate about.
Create an alumni mentorship program for new members.
Find a way to help celebrate the seniors that graduated in May 2020 via your social media or at Homecoming 2021.
Membership Development:
Come up with a strategic plan for the chapter’s future.
Work with individuals to revisit what they want out of the fraternity.
Host a virtual ritual discussion and talk about the multiple Phi Kappa Tau rituals.
Host a discussion about Phi Kappa Tau’s initiation ceremony and review the ceremony. Contact your chapter’s success manager for a resource on how to facilitate this conversation.
Work with your campus to have a presentation on a variety of different personal development topics.
Host a personal budgeting workshop.
Campus & Community Involvement:
Partner with clubs in a virtual setting.
Participate and support campus programming in virtual endeavors.
Have every member join at least one club or organization on campus outside of the Fraternity.
Host a virtual event between the chapter and another organization on campus for this Fall.
Plan an event between the chapter and another organization on campus for the Spring.
Leadership Development:
Host a virtual professional development speaker.
Host a resume workshop.
Have somebody from your career services office speak with chapter virtually.
Start an alumni series where you have various alumni speak about their industry/company to the rest of the chapter members.
Have each member set a meeting with the career services office to talk about their professional futures.
Encourage each brother to take a personality test (I.e. 16personalities.com, Myers-Briggs, DISC) and then discuss it as a chapter.
Host a webinar on life skills.
Start an investment group using a stock simulator online and compete head-to-head with other brothers while learning about stocks, markets, etc.
Host a LinkedIn profile workshop with career services and another organization on campus (I.e. sorority) where you build out your profile and connect with your peers.
Invite a speaker to come present on a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Bias topic and host a conversation around a topic.
Get every brother registered to vote and submit an absentee ballot (if applicable).
Retention:
Host a brotherhood event by having a Netflix Party.
Play multiplayer games online.
Utilize a discord server to connect with guys via gaming.
Learn about each other. Have members showcase their hometowns by doing a social media highlight. You can even do hometown tours on a private channel or public social media.
Play a game together. Use jackbox.tv games
Online card games (Poker, cards against humanity, apples2 apples, etc.)
Host a virtual happy hour get together.
Recruitment:
Social Media ads have been highly beneficial for numerous chapters.
Start a names list of potential new members and distribute among the chapter. This list can be updated throughout the year.
Join campus events (in-person or virtually) and wear your letters and get to know the Freshmen class.
Develop your strategy for Spring recruitment.
Assess how the past 5 years of recruitment have gone to see trends and then do a SWOT analysis on your chapter’s recruitment. Contact your success manager to get numbers on the size of classes over the past 5 years.
Host a recruitment workshop to train members on how to become better recruiters. Contact your success manager for a resource on how to host this workshop.
Perform a name generation game where each brother scrolls through their phone’s contacts and writes down every male student on campus that is not affiliated, offer a prize for the guy he adds the most names. See how many names you can generate and add them to the names list.
Brotherhood:
Implement an early Christmas or secret Santa Event.
Host a Virtual ‘Fun Run’.
Host Virtual campfire chats.
Host Ted-style talks within the brotherhood.
Host a Brotherhood roast.
Host Virtual birthday parties
Host a trivia night.
Do something interesting around meal-time. Breakfast in bed/ Lunch and Learn/ Discussions over Dinner.
Start a podcast.
Build your campus or house on Minecraft.
Host a virtual dinner party where every brother must cook the same meal from a recipe for themselves and then eat together.
Assign weekly “outreach buddies/groups” who are challenged to connect with one another virtually for at least one hour during the week.
Have someone different from your organization or campus council to take over your Instagram story every day.
Put together a playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, etc. for members to share their current favorite songs or artists.
Watch a sporting event together and start a group chat just for the game.
Send out a member survey to all active members asking them about their goals for the chapter and what areas need to be improved.
Finances:
Review your budget to actual for expenses and revenue.
Create a budget for the Spring term.
Improve your chapter’s budget template.
Governance/Administration:
Review your chapter’s bylaws and make any changes while chapter operations are “slow.”
Host chapter officer elections.
Determine if there are committees the chapter needs to add.
Host a Standards Board Training for members that serve on the Standards Board. Contact your chapter’s success manager for a resource on how to host.
Prepare for officer transitions.
Have chapter officers create a “how-to” guide to pass down to the next set of officers.
Hold a retreat between the Executive Council officers and Board of Governors to talk about roles & responsibilities, expectations, etc. Contact your chapter’s success manager for a resource on how to host this retreat.
Encourage your local IFC to host a retreat and talk about goals for the community.