It's Spring! Take Your Party Outside

Spring is here! The nice warm weather allows you to add a new dimension to your parties and events...Day Parties! Pick a nice Saturday afternoon to invite some girls over to your house for some afternoon fun. Make it casual and low-key, and you'll find that girls love that change of pace and setting. 

Things to have or do during your Day Party:

• BBQ (burgers, hot dogs, etc)
• Moonbounce (you can rent one for about $60)
• Drinking games (Beer pong, Flip Cup, Boat Races, etc)
• Sports (depends on how much space you have)

If you have the option and the weather is nice, then I suggest going to the beach. Who doesn't love the beach?

New Feature: Music Mixes

Hey everyone! I'm going to put a new feature into the blog that will allow you to sample some great songs for your parties. You can play the songs directly from the site. For starters, I'm going to share a playlist of current songs (some may not even be on the radio yet) that will be great for any type of dance party.

In future posts, I will cater the playlist to certain themes, such as having an 80's playlist of songs you can use for all of your 80's themed parties. Feel free to comment if you like the songs.

New Music Mix

Party Theme: Monopoly

The Monopoly theme is more of a time-consuming theme, but if done correct, girls will remember the great time they had at your Monopoly themed party. The main premise of the event is to create your house's rooms into a Monopoly board. I am assuming that if you are reading this post, you know how to play Monopoly. If you don't know how to play, then you probably had a terrible childhood...haha.

In the game of Monopoly, there are cheap properties (Baltic Ave and Oriental Ave), decent properties (St. Charles Place and New York Ave), pretty good properties (Kentucky Ave and Marvin Gardens), and the best properties (Pacific Ave and Boardwalk). The game's underlying theme is that money is king and gets you whatever you want. Coincidentally that is also the same theme of your party.

Since this event is probably best for a small-medium sized party (no more than 60 people), I will plan the party accordingly. It will be a bit tricky buying alcohol for this party because you will have to buy many different types of alcohol (this is for a reason, trust me). So budget wise, this will be on the more expensive side, which is why you should save this event for sororities or girls who you need to greatly impress.

If you look at a Monopoly board, you will realize that there are four divisions of "property class." I have identified the four classes above in the picture. Each class with be associated with a different type of alcohol. Since money gets you better properties (or access), then the nicer and more expensive alcohol will be in the more expensive property class zone. I will explain later how people get money and the other rules to the party. However, here is the breakdown and suggested types of alcohol:

Zone 1: Mediterranean Ave to Connecticut Ave--the cheapest/worst drinks (Ex: Popov Vodka, Sauza Tequila, and Natty Light Beer).

Zone 2: St. Charles Place to New York Ave--average drinks (Ex: Smirnoff Vodka, Jose Cuervo Tequila, and Coors/Bud Light).

Zone 3: Kentucky Ave to Marvin Gardens--pretty good drinks (Ex: Absolut Vodka, Cazadores Tequila, and Sierra Nevada Beer).

Zone 4: Pacific Ave to Boardwalk--amazing drinks (Ex: Grey Goose Vodka, Patron Tequila, and Heineken Beer).

Just to make it simple and easy, make each "zone" into one room, so you will have four themed rooms. For decorations you can print out a sign of one of the properties from each zone and tape it to the door of the room. Also, you can make the inside of the room match the quality of the alcohol and properties. So Zone 1 will look like a run-down neighborhood or a shanty town. Zone 2 will look very modest, like a simple house with no frills. Zone 3 will have a bit more glitz than Zone 2, like an upper middle class two story house. Zone 4 will be the shiny and gaudy room, like a mansion.

The added decorations and different types of alcohol will make each room a different experience. The goal is have the girls start in the lesser rooms and work their way up to Zone 4 room. Girls want to be in the best room, so they will do things in order to get there. Now the fun part of the theme is coming...

In order for a girl to get into a Zoned room, she has to pay "rent." Each Zone room will have the amount needed to enter. To keep it simple just use a ratio to figure out the pricing to display for each Zone room. Here's a quick example of the costs to enter each Zone room:

Zone 1: Free

Zone 2: $200

Zone 3: $600

Zone 4: $900

Now that the prices are set, here is how your currency system will work. Have someone design a $50 currency bill that looks like a monetary bill, but put your fraternity's name on it. Make sure to print enough money so that there is a good money supply, but watch out for inflation! (Had to throw in an economics joke somewhere!) The easiest way to print money is to put six bills per sheet of paper and use a paper cutter to cut the stacks of bills into individual bills. 

Brothers will be the ones to have money at the beginning of the party. Each brother should carry about $700 in bills. When girls come to your house, have one person give each girl one $50 bill. Make sure to post the room rates and other rules so the girls can see. As the girls will soon discover, they can easily get into the Zone 1 room, but will need to get more money to move up in class. Now you might ask, how to girls get more money?

Well it is up to the brothers to give money to the girls for certain things (I know what you are thinking, and no, I'm not talking about girls whoring themselves out for Monopoly money). You can have different games in your big common room so girls can get money. Example, you can do boat races, flip cup, and/or beer pong for girls to get money. At first, you will see that Zone 1 room is pretty crowded, but girls will want to go to a less crowded room (with better alcohol), so they will find ways to get more money to do that. 

Besides the 4 Zone rooms, here are other Monopoly names to use for other rooms in the house:

*Common Room = Free Parking

*Bathroom = Water Works

*Front Door/Entrance = Go!

*Dance Floor = Jail

*Community Chest = Tub of Jungle Juice

So the girls get money, but then have to give it away in order to get into different themed rooms. So money will be changing hands all night and free-market economics will be in play (the ones with the money get what they want, and those without do not).

Now you might ask about what to wear for such a fun event? The best clothing for a Monopoly party is 1920's clothing. The reason for this is because the origins of Monopoly came out of the Roaring 20's Period of American History. Just look at the Monopoly character--he's got a tuxedo on with a top hat.

So guys should dress classy/cocktail attire and girls should dress cocktail with a 20's flair. However, some people might take this opportunity to dress funny for this event. They could dress up as the Monopoly board pieces or other aspects from the game, such as a jailer, top hat, battleship, etc. These are just ideas, so I wouldn't recommend dressing up as some of the pieces, like a battleship. haha

In conclusion, here's the breakdown:

What to Wear: 1920's theme classy attire

Comfort Social Level: A little bit of comfort, but need to change it up and "wow" the girls.

Total Cost: Expensive 

Party Theme: Twister

The Twister event/theme is great for events where you aren't very close with the sorority. It is a great ice-breaker. It's a very social event and very unique. It takes a lot of effort, so I suggest doing this event when you have pledges to help setting it up. 

The event is basically a big giant Twister board where jello shots are placed on each colored square. You play according to the rules of Twister (the easiest way is to buy a Twister game and keep the spinner). Use your common area/living room as the area for the Twister board. Buy colored sheets of paper to use as spots for the Twister board. I highly recommend duct tape as the adhesive to which you stick the colored sheets of paper to the hardwood floor or carpet. Make this Twister board very large as you will try to accomodate about 20 people per game. 

Place two jello shots on each colored square. When a person puts his/her hand or foot on a square, then he/she takes the jello shot (very simple concept!). Use the Twister Game spinner from the board game as the spinner for the game. Make sure to at least double the size of the regular Twister mat.

This event/theme allows your brothers to interact with girls in a competitive atmosphere. It is easy to create conversation topics, since guys and girls are doing an activity together. This makes it not too awkward for your brothers to talk to girls. Your brothers can strike up conversation about the Twister game, flexibility, jello shots, etc. 

Since not every brother will be able to go at the same time, it is highly advisable to let the seniors or older brothers go with the older girls for the first round. You should probably have two to three rounds of Twister--depends on how many people you have. 

What to Wear: Bright colored clothes (like a Twister board)

Comfort/Social Level: New social environmenta

Total Cost: Very low

Learn how to make Jello shots

How to Solve Party Problems

There will always be some sort of problem at your party. No party goes completely flawless. The question you have to ask yourself is, “Are you prepared to solve potential problems?” You should always have a backup plan or option. For example, if the alcohol runs out quicker than expected, then you should always have a reserve handle to bring out. Here are some common problems and their solutions:

Problem: What if there is a below average number of girls that show up to the social event?

Solution: It is not directly your fault for a below average showing of girls. The girls might have too much homework to do. In another case, that particular sorority may not have the best relations with your chapter, so it will be a few more events with that house until there is a better showing. Sometimes the theme of the party may not be that good. If that’s the case, then it’s your fault. However, you should always learn from your mistakes.

Problem: What if there is a below average number of brothers that show up to the social event?

Solution: This might often happen in your first weeks as social chair. There are a couple of reasons why brothers don’t go to socials. The first reason is that the brothers in the house may not like partying with the sorority that you scheduled the event with. The second reason is that brothers might have midterms or other schoolwork that takes precedence over partying. You should consult your brothers after the poor turnout to see how you, as a social chair, can improve.

Problem: The cops come. What do I do?

Solution: Make sure you turn off the music at it will most likely be a noise complaint. Make sure that no one has any drinks outside where the cops can see. Do not give them a reason to make them enter your house. Your sober brothers and president should talk to the cops. Be courteous and do not argue. The cops will appreciate it that you have sober brothers and are taking steps to make sure that you are partying safely. That doesn’t mean that they won’t give you a ticket, but it can lower your risk of being arrested or fined.

Music/DJ Chair's Reponsibilities at the Party

Music is crucial for the success of your party. No music playing equals no dancing, which equals no excitement. This chain of events can lead to people leaving your party. So make sure that you have a DJ or a long playlist to keep the party going. I recommend having a brother or a professional being the DJ--as you tend to get better music selection, and it’s easier to manage the volume. Invest in some quality speakers so the music can sound like it’s at a club and not in your living room.

In terms of genre and types of song, party music should progress to dancing music, not start with dancing music. A good DJ will know what songs to play that will make people dance and have fun. In later posts, I will let you know certain songs to play depending on the theme or party.

Security Chair Responsibilities at the Party

For any event that you have it is important to have at least two sober brothers. This is important for your risk management. Basically, if the cops come, you have someone who is sober and coherent to talk to them. Also, if someone cuts themselves, get hurts, etc, then you have someone who can drive them to the hospital.

You should rotate a couple of your brothers for each event and party that you have. You should also set the example by being sober for some of your events. A reward system is quite useful in motivating those to be sober brothers. You can reward them with a 12 pack of beer or other alcohol for them to use later in the week. For your larger events and parties, you should have brothers be sober and do security. Depending on how big your house is, the number of brothers you will need to do security. 

You should have three sober brothers at your main entrance or gate. If you have a guest list for the party, then one of your sober security brothers should be in charge of it. Three sober brothers at the gate should be enough to deter any possible unwanted party crashers. There should be at least two other sober brothers roaming your frat house during the party to make sure that no one is doing an suspicious activity (stealing stuff, assaulting girls, putting GHB in drinks, etc). These two brothers should also make sure that no girls are puking in the bathroom or having alcohol poisoning. It is also a good idea to make sure that the music volume is not too loud because you might get a complaint from your neighbors. 

Having proper security is very important as it can save your house a lot of trouble and money. It lowers your risk of being ticketed or cited by the police, and it lowers the risk of damages to your house. For your extremely large annual parties, you might even want to budget in some money for some professionals. Make sure that the professional security guards are bonded so you don’t get sued if they hurt an unwanted guest.

Choreograph Your Party

Every social that you plan will be your social. You planned it, and people will associate everything that happens to your planning skills. With that being said, you must make the effort to make people, at your social event, socialize. So if you see a group of brothers taking to each other, then go over to them, break up their conversation, and take a few to meet some girls. Not every guy in your house is outgoing. Most are quite shy, but it is your job to help them break out of their shells. Also, if you see a group of girls standing by themselves then take one of your shyer brothers and start a conversation with them. The girls will appreciate that you took the time to cross the room to initiate conversation with them.

During the party, it is your responsibility to make sure that there are no problems. For instance, you should make sure that there are enough beverages and cups provided. Make sure you have enough ice for the event. Do things during the party to attain your goal: the happiness of your brothers and the female guests. Be a good courteous host.

Act Like You Are Having Fun

No matter how bad you might think the party is, the worst thing to do is show your feelings about the terrible party. If you and a bunch of your friends are having fun, then people will observe your excitement and attempt to mimic it. Humans, especially females, love doing things that are popular. If a group of girls are having a bad time at a party, but they observe a group of guys having lots of fun, then they will wonder why those guys are having fun. The goal for girls at a party is to have fun. If they see people having fun, then they will do whatever they are doing in order to have fun like everyone else.

Party Tip: Separate the Girls

The best chance you have of your guys meeting girls is to separate them. By nature, girls go in packs of at least two to five girls. You see this when girls go to the bathroom. You would think that a 20-year-old girl is fully capable of peeing by herself. Yet, girls need their friends to make them feel confident and comfortable. Another reason to separate a pack of girls is that they love to cockblock guys. If a guy approaches a group of girls, but only flirts with one of the girls, then the other girls in the group will try to get rid of the guy. A girl doesn’t want to see her friend being hit on by a guy when she’s not getting hit on. It makes the girl who is not being paid attention to feel ugly. 

If a guy manages to take the girl away from her friends and talk to her, then he has a much better chance of getting hooking up with her. In order to break up the pack of girls, a guy will need other guys to talk and distract the girl’s friends, so their buddy can hook up. If all girls are being noticed and talked to, then they will not think about their friend hooking up, but they will be forced to concentrate on the conversation at hand.

A good way to separate girls is to make your party into different rooms. What I mean by this is to have stuff going on in guys' rooms. Instead of having the party in the living room, where girls can remain in packs, have it in a smaller room and girls will be forced to separate due to space considerations. Without her friends around for support, a girl will have to meet guys and talk to them. Also, when a girl is alone, it makes it a lot easier for a guy to talk to them because there aren’t any distractions.

Disecting Girls at a Party

Girls are very complex, and they can change their actions from the classroom to the party. Since the primary reason to throw a frat party is to get girls, then you must understand the motives of girls. Girls spend a lot of time getting ready for a party so they can feel good about themselves and be liked by guys. If a girl is not noticed at a party, but her friends are, then she will understand this, as something is wrong or different about her. She might conclude that she is unattractive (this might be true or false). A girl’s self-esteem plays a big role in the way she acts. Follow these three steps to make sure every girl is noticed:

1. Make sure you acknowledge every girl at a party (A “hello” is mediocre, but a proper introduction with name, etc is preferred)

2. Compliment her accessories, such as necklace, bracelet, or earrings (Why do you think she is wearing it in the first place? She took the time to pick out the accessory so someone can notice it)

3. Offer her a drink (Now she feels that you took the time to do something personal for her)

Act Like a Social Chair

As social chair, you have one of the most important and demanding jobs in the house. If you want to be a good social chair, then you need to be selfless. You must do things for the good of your brothers, not yourself. Even though there can be perks being social chair, such as popularity with girls, you have to be an active presence at all of your events. As social chair, your job is to get your brothers to hook up, and if there is time, then you can hook up with girls. Your first priority is your brothers. Don’t forget that!

As one of the "faces" of your fraternity, people will judge your fraternity based on your actions. In other words, you will have to please everyone at the same time. I highly suggest taking easy classes during your time as Social Chair, as you will probably be missing a lot of classes to spend more time planning parties. You should possess excellent people skills. If you don't, then find someone who does and use them to get your message across.

Get Organized: Make a To-do List

When planning for any party, you should always make a simple list or diagram, so your helpers know what to do. While you should be there for the set-up of every party, realistically that won't happen. You might have tests, appointments, classes, etc that may not allow you to have time to set up. Therefore, make a list. It will take 10 minutes to type up. Here is a sample:

Things to do for Party:

1. Put bar in corner of room

2. Set up decorations (you can draw a picture of the room and label the locations of the decorations)

3. Clean up living room

4. Place trash cans in (put locations here)

5. Put away tables and chairs from the common room

6. Put DJ equipment out

7. Set up lights

Setting Up for a Party

When you are setting up for your party, you need to arrange the room maximize certain things. There are a few things to remember when it comes to setting up the party. These things can change depending on the scope of your party. I will go into detail for those specific situations later when I talk about specific types of parties. For general purposes, I will assume that you are setting up a cocktail party of some sort. For this cocktail party, the first thing you need to recognize is the flow of people and the party.

When you host a party, you need to make sure that people know where to enter, drink, and dance. In order to make it easy for people to do the aforementioned things, you need to move a few objects. The entrance should lead the guests to the main drinking room. When a guest enters this main drinking room from the entrance of your frat, the first thing they should see is the bar (if you don’t have a bar, then build one or use a large table). The bar should never be in the middle of the room, but it should be put in one of the corners or sides of the room. When the bar is located in the corner of a room, it allows people to easily see it and get their drinks in an orderly fashion. Remember that people tend to line up in front of the bar and stay there for long periods of time. To accommodate this, you should never put the bar by the entrance to the main drinking room, as this make the room too crowded by the entryway. 

The dancing room should be in a separate room from the main drinking room. The bar should also be as far away from the dancing room as possible, since you don’t want the music to be extremely loud by the bar. If music is too loud by the bar, then it’s difficult for guests to order a drink and converse with each other. You should have a couple of couches in the room so people can rest. These couches should be between the bar and the dancing room. If the couches were near the bar, then it would make the way to the bar too crowded, and this would make it difficult for guest to get their drinks. The couches are also there to show where socializing area is. The area between the dancing room and the bar will be the place where people congregate to converse and enjoy themselves. It shouldn’t be too crowded in that area, since people will have other areas to go, such as the dance floor or the bar. 

Also, a big thing is have plenty of trash cans. Your Clean-Up Chair will thank you for putting trash cans out. If your guests see trash cans, and they are conveniently located, they will throw away their drinks by themselves. Place large trash cans, next to the bar, main entrance, and entrance to dancing room. Ideally you should use the 32 gallon green trash cans with a liner in them. Trash cans will make your party much better!

How to Save Money on Alcohol

You should always have a budget when it comes to a party. It is important to stick to that budget. Sometimes that strict budget can affect the types of alcohol that you can buy. The best place to buy hard alcohol and chasers for a party (not beer) is Costco. If you don’t have a Costco near your campus, then I feel really sorry for you, but there should be an equivalent discount warehouse center (Sam's Club, etc). Someone in your frat should have a Costco membership card, and if they don’t then it’s always a good investment to buy one. 

Costco has the lowest prices when it comes to buying handles of alcohol. They don’t have sales, but there prices are always low. Some supermarkets might be able to match the Costco price during a supermarket sale, but those prices will increase later. Costco’s prices very rarely change. The two types of vodka that I suggest purchasing for all of your parties would be Smirnoff Vodka and Skyy Vodka. The first can be purchased for $14.99 or $17.99, depending on your geographical area. The latter can be bought for $19.99 or $20.99, depending on your area. In the supermarket or liquor store, there is at least a $5 increase per bottle for both brands. When you are buying multiple bottles, the savings will really pay off.

Now if you don't have a Costco near you, you are probably stuck with just the liquor stores in your neighborhood. Unfortunately you will probably have to deal with a smaller selection and stock--in addition to higher prices. One good way to get lower prices is to speak with the owner of the liquor store about getting a discount if you buy in bulk. If you tell him that you will be buying about X amound of handles and 30 packs of beer per week, he will probably be inclined to give you a discount in order to guarantee your business. You can probably push for at least 10%, but you might be able to get 20% off, especially in these difficult economic times.

How Much Alcohol Should You Buy?

Once you know what types of alcohol you wish to purchase, you will need to know how much to purchase. One handle (1.75 Liters) of vodka will serve about 10 people. I’m not saying that it will get 10 people drunk, but 10 people will get to all have at least one mixed drink and one shot. So for your smaller events at your frat house, you will usually purchase seven handles. Now you might be thinking that seven handles isn’t enough, but you are forgetting about the beer…

When buying beer, you are presented with two choices: keg or cans. If you own your own tap (that means you don’t have to pay to rent one), then buying a keg is less expensive than purchasing cheap 30 packs of beer. While there is no exact science when measuring the difference between the amount of beer in a keg and in the corresponding amount of cans, you have to assume a few things. There is a lot of foam in a keg, and this makes it very difficult to measure how many cups of beer you can pour out of a keg. A solution, though expensive, is to invest in a kegerator, which uses CO2 to get rid of the foam. Also when comparing the two vessels of beer, you have to buy 12 oz beer cups in order to have the same amount as a 12 oz beer can/bottle. The common red Dixie plastic cups are actually 16 oz in size.

So if you want to maximize your keg, I suggest purchasing the 12 oz cups, rather than the large 16 oz red ones. Now the bad part of getting a keg is that if the tap is broken, there is no other way to get the beer out. That means you are out of a lot of alcohol for the party. No one likes a party when the alcohol runs out unexpectedly. Also, having a keg is technically an easy piece of evidence for Police to use if they accuse you of supplying alcohol to minors. So the lower cost of the keg also comes with more risks and potential problems.

On the other hand, cans of beer provide a nice convenience. For one thing, there is no waiting around for the beer to come out of the keg. Also, there is very little or no foam that comes out of an unshaken beer can. You will 99.9% of the time be able to drink the beer from the can, instead of having the possibility of your keg tap breaking. Beer cans also provide the convenience of making it very difficult for Police to accuse you of supplying them. “After all, officer, we had a BYOB party. I guess the girls just put the beer cans in their purses.” A great excuse, indeed! Remember that the equivalent quantity of beer in cans will take up more surface area than the same beer from a keg. Therefore, make sure you have plenty of room to store the 30-packs of beer.

If you are buying the beer in conjunction with the seven handles of vodka, you should buy approximately four to five 30 packs. Since beer is the secondary alcohol choice, you don’t have to buy as much. However, if you are doing an event that revolves around beer, such as a beer pong or flip cup tournament, then you should buy 1 ½ to 2 times the amount beer.

Now that you have some vodka and beer, you will need some chasers to go along with that. The good thing about chasers is that they are cheaper than the alcohol. The bad news is that for each handle of alcohol, you will need at least one to two gallons of juice or two to four liters of soda. Chasers can add up in the long run. Also, chasers are wasted a lot as people tend to fill up their cups with a lot of chaser in correlation to the amount of alcohol in the cup. 

The basic chasers that you should always have are: orange juice, cranberry juice, coke/diet coke, and soda water/tonic. You make a variety of drinks with these chasers and vodka. Also, you can always find these chasers bottles in large quantities, which will save you money. If you are worried about overspending when it comes to buying chasers, I will explain some easy ways to save money.

How to Select Alcohol for Your Party

Finally, we get to talk about alcohol. It is one of the primary factors that can make or break a party. The majority of your cost for the party should be alcohol. The type of alcohol should reflect the theme of the party. For instance, at a Sake Bomb event, you should have plenty of sake and beer. You should have no rum or tequila. Before we get into specifics, let’s look at judging how much alcohol to purchase. 

For non themed parties you should always have the basic types of alcohol. These basics are vodka, rum, beer, and maybe one bottle of tequila. Vodka is the most popular hard liquor bought and consumed in America. You can mix vodka with almost any chaser. For those who absolutely hate vodka, you can offer them rum to drink. Rum is probably the second most popular hard liquor and for the calorie conscious guests, it is a great substitute for vodka. You will need to have beer for those who do not drink any type of hard liquor and/or those who want to keep their “buzz” throughout the night. Beer is also great for drinking games, such as beer pong and flip cup.

In terms of price, you have the greatest discrepancy for vodka. You can find extremely cheap vodka, as well as very expensive vodka. Rum is relatively cheap, but there isn’t that much variety. Tequila tends to be more expensive than vodka or rum. You can always find cheap beer. If you are on a strict budget, then you will need to purchase more vodka than rum or tequila.

How to Buy Fabric for Decorating Your Parties

The most cost efficient and effective way to decorate for your parties is fabric. Yes, I said fabric. You can use large pieces of fabric for different elements. You can change the set up of the room by hanging long pieces of fabric for dividers. Fabric is cheap. You can purchase it buy the yard for $1 to $2/yard. Fabric comes in different weights, designs, and colors so the possibilities are endless. One good trick is to buy a few yards of red velvet fabric and cut it into a long narrow carpet. Tape it down to the ground and now you have a “Red Carpet” for your cocktail party. You can reuse this carpet for all of your cocktail parties. 

You should know a little bit of lingo and tricks before you buy fabric. Most of the inexpensive and stretchy fabric that is easy to use is called “poplin.” So be sure to ask for that. You can usually find poplin for $1 per yard. Velvet, spandex, and other heavier fabrics will be a bit more expensive. Always buy in large quantities and in a variety of colors. For example, do not buy one yard of this and one yard of that. Buy 8 or 15 yards, and you will usually get a better deal. 

The fabric stores are usually in the downtown area of an urban city. If your campus is not located near a big city, then I suggest making an occasional trip to purchase your decorations. There are many fabric stores located next to each other in the same area. This allows you to haggle a bit. You will not find fabric for less than $1 per yard. For most fabric you will be paying about $2 per yard, unless it’s really cheap and ugly fabric. In the downtown area there might be a wholesale decorations place. These places serve professional party and event planners. You can usually find inexpensive trinkets and other things to decorate your party. This would be the place to find your paper lanterns for your Sake Bomb themed party.

You can also go to Michael’s, which is a chain of arts and crafts stores. You can also go to a similar store to Michael’s in your area. They also have little trinkets and such. There is also the online option of www.fabric.com. Click here to look at their Clearance Section
for cheap fabric. This site services party planners, and they have a wide selection. The only problem with going online is that you can’t get any last minute decorations.

Why You Should Decorate Your Parties

Some say that decorations are a waste of money. I agree, but that’s only if decorations are done poorly. Decorations for your parties should be used to set the mood of the party. The theme of your party should manifest itself as decorations. You want to transform your house into the theme. Your guests will have more fun if the party looks and feels unique. After all, it’s not just a regular party—it’s a themed party!

Decorations for your parties can be found at various stores. They should reflect the theme of your party. For example, if you are doing a Sake Bomb event, then you might want to buy some inexpensive paper lanterns. You can invest in specific items that reflect the theme. However, these can run up costs very quickly. You should allot 10-15% of your event’s budget for decorations. For a $400 event, that doesn’t leave you with a whole lot of money.

Advertise to Your Brotherhood/Fraternity Members

If you do not properly motivate and rally your brothers for the social events, then the parties will be failures. After all, you are doing all of this planning and preparation for your brothers. You should email the brotherhood at the beginning of each week with a list of the upcoming social events. Also, you should email the brotherhood the day before and day of the social to remind them. In these emails, you should let your brothers know what time the social starts, what to wear for the social, and how amazing the social will be.

If your fraternity's executive board doesn't have email addresses for all officers, then you should create one for yourself. Here is a list of free email services (I recommend Gmail):

• Gmail
• Yahoo!
• AOL Mail

How to Invite People for Large Parties

In order to insure the success of your large party, you will need to utilize “word-of-mouth” marketing. Do not make flyers! Your party will already be generating a lot of attention on the night of the party, and you don’t want the school having evidence that you were advertising your party. You can utilize Facebook as a supplement to “phone call,” personal, and sorority inviting tactics. 

Make sure that the Facebook event is on private and doesn’t mention your address or any alcohol. This will help you if the school finds out about your party. If there’s no evidence that your party occurred at a specific location or had alcohol, then you can defend yourself by saying that the event was an inside joke, etc.

Make sure that every brother calls up their girls. Word will soon spread and it will be the talk of the campus. You should start spreading the word the week of your party.

Note: All of your cocktail and large parties should be on the sororities’ calendars. This is another way to let girls know that you are having a party.

How to Invite People for Cocktail Parties--Part II

Since no girl goes to any party by herself, then she will bring her friends. If you are getting a lot of calls from girls who want to know if they can come, even though they didn’t get an invitation, then you have succeeded. Remember to tell these girls that they can come. Also tell them that you will send them an invitation for the next cocktail party. Now you have made these girls feel like her friends, instead of feel less than their friends.

Therefore, if you send out over 120 invitations, then you can expect an excess of 300 girls at your party. Assume each girl will bring one to two friends each, and some girls won’t come. These invitations should be sent out no earlier than four days prior to and no later than two days prior to your party. If you send them out too early, girls will forget about the party. If you send it out too late, then they might have other plans for that night.

You should have the younger guys in your frat give the invitations to the girls. The ideal distribution would be to give them to girls in class in front of their friends. You can also go to their apartments and give it to them (if they’re home) or slide it under the door (if they’re not there). Here is an example of a basic cocktail party invitation. Remember to print it on nicer paper with a small design. Also the printed invitation should be easy to read.

Cocktail Party Invitation (in a fancy font, such as Lucida Handwriting. Or download more fonts from dafont.com.)

 

Dear «First_Name»,

You are cordially invited to attend a night of entertainment at: 

[Your frat]’s “[insert theme]” cocktail party

When: [Day, Date, Year]

Where: [Your frat’s address]

Time: [Put time, such as 10pm—2am]

 

Please come in semi-formal attire.

Sincerely,

[Your frat’s name] Social Committee

How to Invite People for Cocktail Parties--Part I

Since these types of parties are only once or twice a quarter (more often if you are in the semester system), then you should spend extra effort to make them more special and unique. These are “brothers-only” or “one guest per brother” parties so these events are more personal. With that being said, you should use invitations as your main source of advertising. Ask your brothers for names and addresses of girls that they would like to invite for the cocktail party. Compile the list and make personalized invitations for each girl on the list. 

Your job will be a lot easier if you utilize Microsoft Excel and Word to make the invitations. There is a “Mail Merge” function in Microsoft Word that will insert and consecutively print the first names of an Excel spreadsheet. If you take the time to do it once, you can do it over and over again for your parties. This saves you time of manually inputting the girls first names. Look for inexpensive themed printer paper at Staples or Michael’s.

Personalized invitations work extremely well for insuring the success of your event. When a girl receives her invitation, she will feel special and privileged that she got a personal invite to your fraternity’s party. She will be impressed that you even addressed the invitation personally to her by putting her first name after “Dear.” She’ll most likely think that you took the time to type a personal invitation just for her. She doesn’t know about the genius of “Mail Merge.” Check out About.com's tutorial on how to use Mail Merge

Not everyone will be getting an invitation, and this boosts the self-esteem of a girl. Often girls will hang up your frat’s cocktail party invitations in their rooms as a trophy to show their friends. If you are worried about offending girls, then don’t be. The whole point is to offend the girls because it makes the party seem more special and exclusive. I know that seems like a messed up idea, but it actually works. More in the next post.

How to Promote Your Party

How is someone going to come to your party, if they don’t know about it? That’s where effective advertising comes in to making people come to your party. Your advertising and promoting tactics will change depending on the magnitude of your party. Any sort of promotion should be done in advance, which means at the very least, one day’s notice. 

The one constant way to always promote your party is the simplest. Personally going up to a girl and telling her about the party is the most effective way of making sure that girl will come to your party. In the girl’s mind, she feels special that you took time out of your busy “social chair day” to invite her to the party. She assumes that you might send out a Facebook event invite or other mass party invitation (which you didn’t do), and she is impressed that you invited her in a different way. Her self-esteem has been boosted by your personal invitation. She will thank you for making her feel special by coming to your party.

Since you can’t find every girl and tell them about the party in person, the next best thing is the phone call. You should call up girls to come to the party. Do not text them. Actually call them on the phone. Believe it or not, this takes a lot of skill and time to effectively do. Most people fail when doing this. Why? When a girl answers the phone, the guy immediately says something like, “Hello, _______. We are having a party tonight at my frat.” Then the conversation ends about 15 seconds later. You think a girl is going to feel special because you “called her?” Hell no! You just did the same thing as a mass text, which girls despise. She’ll be less likely to come to your party now.

The real way to effective utilize “the phone call” takes time and skill. Like sex, you can’t just stick it in. You have to spend some time “revving” her up. When you call one of your girls, the last thing you should say is something about the party. You need to talk about anything else, but the party. Ask her a question about something. See how her day was. Have a five minute conversation about something. After you feel that you are both comfortably chatting, then you should weave in a line about the party. 

Some good lines to use: “I haven’t seen you in a while. Let’s hang out tonight. We are having our ______ party at my frat house. You should come.” You can also use, “Any plans for tonight? Well, we are having our _____ party at my frat house. I would love to see you tonight.”

If you notice, the last line talks about you wanting to see her tonight. This is effective as it makes the girl feel special that you want to hang out with her. If you are really good at the “phone call” inviting, then the girl won’t even realize that the whole point of you calling her was to call her about the party. The “phone call” invitation is most effective the afternoon or couple days before the night of the party. There are many other ways to promote for your party as well.

Types of Parties and Social Events

1. Mixers/Events/Socials—weekly or biweekly events where a sorority comes over to your house for a themed party. Average cost: $300-400 (Usually the sorority will pay half). Number of people: 50-100 (this includes your frat brothers). Executing time: 1-3 days.
   
2. Cocktail Parties/Medium Sized Parties—once or twice per quarter (two or three per semester) where your frat hosts a party for the brothers and girls. If you want, each brother can invite one guest, but usually the party is just for brothers. These are classy parties, and you want to dress up nicely for it. Refer to the themes section for applicable ideas. Average cost: $300-500. Number of people: 200-300 (this includes your frat brothers). Executing time: 1-1 ½ weeks.
   
3. Large Registered Parties—annually or biannually parties that showcase your fraternity to the rest of the school. Start a tradition of a certain theme and repeat that theme every year. Do not copy other frats’ themes for their major parties. See my themes section for some unique theme ideas. Average cost: $2,000-3,000. Number of people: 500+ (this includes your frat brothers). Executing time: 4 weeks.
   
4. Date Parties—once per quarter (or twice per semester) where your frat will rent out a club or bar for the night, and every brother will bring a date. Usually it is a semi-formal theme, but you can even pick a theme for the party. Average cost: $1,000. Number of people: the number of brothers in your house and their dates. Executing time: 4 weeks.
   
5. Dinners—once per quarter or year where your frat hosts a sorority over for a nice dinner. This only works if you have a chef in your house, as ordering in food looks tacky. Average cost: $800-1,000. Number of people: 60-120 (this includes your frat brothers). Executing time: 2 weeks.

Rule 5 and 6: Spread Out Your Parties

Rule 5—Spread out the socials and balance them with brotherhood events. (Brotherhood events are fraternity gatherings to boost the comraderie of the fraternity via events, such as Poker Nights, Broomball, Camping Trips, etc). If there are too many socials within a quarter, then you will burn out the guys in your house. Guys should look forward to socials during the week, so make them uniquely themed and spread out. NOTE: I will not talk about brotherhood events because these are not parties.

Rule 6—The end of your quarter should have exciting events. Try to mimic your first two weeks of the quarter with the week before finals. During this week before finals, there won’t be any tests or quizzes. At most this will be the week of papers, and most people can balance partying with writing papers.

Rule 3 and 4: When to Plan Parties for Holidays or Special Events

Rule 3—Do not plan events during or before three-day weekends or other holidays, such as Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Day, etc. People tend to leave town for a three-day weekend, so having a party or event during this time would only yield a terrible turnout of guys and girls.

Rule 4—Plan your date parties only on Sunday nights. Usually bars and clubs will make deals with you because Sunday nights are their slow nights. Also, there will be no obligation for brothers’ dates to go to another party because no one has parties on Sunday nights.

Rule 1 and 2: When to Have and Not Have Parties

Rule 1—Have events with the hottest sororities during the first two weeks of the quarter. You should probably have events on Tuesday and Wednesday for the first two weeks. The reasoning for this is that there are no tests, homework, or papers due during the first two to three weeks of a quarter. People have just come back from their vacations, and they want to party.

Rule 2—Never have a social during the weeks of midterms. Those are weeks four through six out of a 10-week quarter. Girls and guys will be less likely to party during weeks when they have to study for midterms. Instead, have an event on a Friday because most people will make Friday night their “party night,” and they will choose to study on Saturday and Sunday nights. Another option is to have a nice dinner with a sorority during the week because it gives people a chance to relax, socialize, and eat during a week of stressful midterms.

How to Create a Social Calendar: Intro

Creating and planning a social calendar might seem like a burden, but if you follow a simple formula, then you will succeed every quarter/semester for which you make your calendar. For these purposes, I will assume that your school is on the quarter system. This means that you have three 10 week periods in the academic year. At some schools, there are “invites” or “exchanges,” which occur two to three times per quarter. These events are held at a third party location, so I will not talk about them. At other schools, there are weekly or bi weekly small parties or events where sororities will come over to your frat house to party. Since the location of these events is at your frat house, I will explain how to plan these events.

Lingo 101: Social Calendar

A Social Calendar is an internal memo that alerts a frat or sorority’s members about their upcoming events in the quarter. The easiest way to make one is in Microsoft Word using a table. Remember not to show other people your social calendar, especially other frats. However, if you look at a sorority’s social calendar, then you can find out when other frat’s parties are. This information will allow you to plan around those events.

Your Social Calendar should have a variety of events. You should have weekly events with sororities, an occasional dinner with a sorority (if you have a chef), one or two date parties, and a few larger parties. The Social Calendar will change every term, so you will have three calendars on the quarter system and two calendars on the semester system.

Your Social Calendar will depend greatly on the type of school you go to. If you go to a school that has a popular football or basketball team, then you want to be careful when planning events on gamedays (Thursdays and Saturdays). Since I do not go to your school, you willl have to be the judge on which nights students go out and party. For some schools, everyone goes out on Thursday and Friday nights, but not on Saturdays. For other schools, Wednesday could be the biggest party night of the week. It all depends so adjust your calendars accordingly.

Social Committee Breakdown

Here's a breakdown of the positions and their responsibilities in the Social Committee:

1. Decoration Chair—brother in charge of purchasing all necessary decorations for the party. Decorations will always change to compliment the theme of the party. Sometimes there is no need for this position, as the social chair might prefer to purchase decorations. (There will be MANY posts about different decorations and themes.)
   
2. Beverage Chair—brother in charge of purchasing all beverages and cups for the party. The social chair should try to go with the Beverage Chair as much as possible, in order to estimate how many and types of beverages, etc to buy for the event.
   
3. Set-up Chair—brother, usually a newer brother, in charge of setting up all of the decorations for the party. This includes moving necessary furniture and placing the beverages in the main area of the party.
   
4. Clean-up Chair—brother, usually a newer brother, in charge of taking down all decorations from the party, and he is in charge of throwing away all trash from the event. Also, this brother should return all furniture back to their original positions after the party.
   
5. Security Chair—brother in charge of selecting sober brothers for the party. If wristbands are used for the party, then this brother will be in charge of distributing them. He is also in charge of checking guests in at the door. If your frat uses a guest list, then the Security Chair will be the one in charge of compiling that list.
   
6. DJ Chair—brother in charge of the music for the party. If your frat has professional DJ equipment, then he is in charge of setting up the equipment and putting it away after the party.
   

This is just a glimpse at the positions. I will go into more detail for each position later on in the blog.

Lingo 101: Social Committee

One of the simplest and easiest ways to make your job less stressful is to get others involved. A Social Committee is the group that you, the Social Chair, oversee. Create a social committee that consists of the following positions: Decoration Chair, Beverage Chair, Set-up Chair, Clean-up Chair, Security Chair, and DJ Chair. You should pick one reliable and responsible person to chair each position. Depending on how many brothers you have in your chapter, you can have brothers work under your sub-chairs. For the smaller frats, you might have to take the responsibilities of two or three positions.

You should meet with your committee at least once a week to discuss any problems or suggestions. You, as social chair, are also responsible for your committee members doing their jobs. If any member cannot do his duty, then you must either do the duty yourself, or find yourself a new social committee member. These positions will come up again in the blog when I explain the components of the party in detail.

Organization: Make your life much easier

Inefficient organization can lead to bad parties. I’m not saying that you have to color code lists, have file folders, and anything else that resembles an obsessive compulsive disorder. What I am saying is that you need to have a Social Committee to help execute your party. Your Social Committee will make you less stressed and get the rest of your fraternity brothers involved.

Besides a Social Committee, there will be other ways for you to organize your time and your frat's time. Calendars and e-mail communication are two more ways to keep your social events organized. When things aren't organized properly, you are more likely to forget something important that will be vital to the success of the party.

Why You Need Time

The amount of time that you will need to plan for a party directly correlates to the size of the party. Smaller parties will usually take less time to plan. Larger parties will take more time to plan. For recurring weekly parties, you should allow seven days for planning. For your annual or semi-annual huge parties, you should allow for four to five weeks of planning.

I don’t expect you to be doing something related to the party for every day leading up to it. The allotment of days or weeks is needed for advertisement and purchasing purposes. You need to let people know in advance that you are having a party, so they can come. You want to make sure that girls will know about your party before they hear about competing parties. This time also allows you to motivate your frat brothers for the party. Most importantly, this time allows you to purchase the necessities for the party. Also, if any unforeseen event or obstacle occurs, you can have enough time to cancel it before you invest too much time or money into the party.

SC Tip 1: Plan in Advance

When throwing a party, the first thing you should do is actually plan the party in advance. Throwing sudden or random parties is a very risky venture. In a few instances, you might actually pull it off, and your random party can prove to be successful. If you are a well-established fraternity, you have earned the luxury of being able to throw last-minute parties and have them be successful. (Note: by “successful,” I mean that a lot of girls came and frat brothers had fun and the party was talked about at school.) For the many other fraternities who may not be as established or very popular, I would suggest planning parties in advance to maximize the success of the party.

Planning a party takes time, organization, and proper execution. You will need time to get the monetary funds for the party and properly promote the party. You will need to time to organize your helpers so you can effectively execute the party. If you learn to master these three categories, you will greatly increase your chances of throwing successful parties.

Lingo 101: Social Chair

What is a Social Chair?

The social chair is the face of your fraternity that is seen by the rest of the Greek and campus community. The social chair is responsible for planning smaller social gatherings (themed gatherings) and larger parties. The social chair should be: responsible, creative, outgoing, tactful, diligent, and intelligent. If you, the social chair, have all of these qualities, then you have the potential to be a good social chair. If you lack in any of these qualities, then I highly suggest that you work on these qualities, as it will make your life much easier.

For some of your frat brothers, the main reason they joined the fraternity was for the parties. So in some sense, you have the most important job in the house. Socials are a great way to bring brothers together and get them girls. The social chair is rarely praised, but always criticized. I hope this doesn’t scare you from being a social chair. So now that you understand your role, here’s how to plan for your responsibilities.

Who am I? Why the Blog?

The goal of this blog is to help you, the reader, increase the popularity of your parties. Before your ego takes over and tells your brain to dismiss this blog, just remember that a fraternity's reputation comes and goes very quickly. It only takes a new class of freshmen to benefit or destroy your fraternity. So whether you are a member of an up-and-coming house/fraternity or one that is already established, you will benefit from this blog. Now a little bit about me:

I was the social chair to a large fraternity at a college on the West Coast. I had to plan anywhere from two to four social events/parties every week. I had to expect anywhere from 50-300 people as guests of my social events. These numbers are not including the 70-90 members of my fraternity, who I also expected at the event as well. The budget I worked with was anywhere from $300 to $1200 for an event. While I wasn’t planning and attending my own parties, I frequently went to other fraternities’ parties at my campus and other campuses in the area. During my time at the fraternity, we were known on campus for throwing the best parties. That’s not bad considering the fact that my school was one of the top party schools in the country.