Photo by: laffy4k
Whether you already have your retreat venue or are still deciding, it’s never too early to plan out your retreat schedule. Just like the actual recruitment events, planning and scheduling each day of your retreat will make things run smoothly, more efficiently, and give you less stress and grief in the end.
Major Events Come First
Plan out your major events first as these are the most important and will most strongly dictate the schedule. For example, if you have alumni coming to help with mock recruitment at 1:00pm on Saturday, don’t plan Saturday’s lunch break at 12:45pm. Additionally, make sure to give enough time to all the major events. While you may be a seasoned veteran at recruitment, some of your newer members may have little to no recruitment experience. Plan extra time for questions, longer explanations, and extra practice to ensure your members know exactly what they need to do.
Give Plenty of Breaks
Although recruitment retreat isn’t as hard as the LSATs, remember that your members will need breaks. Give them plenty! Breaks can be brief five or 10 minute slots in between activities, or longer time periods if needed. While you might want to get through things as fast as possible, your members will be more willing to learn and practice if they get a few minutes every now and then to relax. Keep in mind that your recruitment retreat should be a marathon, not a sprint: a slower pace will get you and your chapter to the final goal faster, and in a better mood, than a fast one.
Keep ‘Time-Fillers’ on Hand
While you may plan your retreat down to the minute, it’s inevitable that you’ll find times when your members have nothing to do. Maybe they finish something early or things take longer to set up. Whatever the case, make sure you have something for your members to do if this happens. For sororities, a great standby is to practice songs. Although you may have scheduled “song time” later in the day, practicing songs is something everyone can do and benefit from. For fraternities, brushing up on chapter history is a great time filler. Hand out information about the fraternity and your chapter at the beginning of recruitment retreat, and, if there’s extra time, have your brothers quiz each other (this is also a great exercise for sororities).
Plan For The Unexpected
While yes, planning for the unexpected is hard to do, it’s not impossible. Once you have all your major events planned out, think of alternatives to each event. If your alumni don’t show up for mock recruitment, if the food isn’t delivered on time, if the venue is locked when you show up, what will you do? Planning for these improbable but not impossible problems will help you deal with the situation if it does occur. It will also remind you of things you might otherwise have forgotten (i.e. having the catering company on speed dial), and think of things you might otherwise have forgot about (i.e. confirm dates and times with alumni).
Have Help… Lots of Help!
One of the easiest ways to stress yourself out and cripple the recruitment retreat is to not have help. While your chapter may have put you in charge of organizing and running the retreat, nothing says you can’t have an assistant, or even two… so don’t be afraid to ask! Make sure to have your assistants chosen before the actual retreat, and make sure they are involved in every step of the planning process. That way, if you forget something, or need something, they know what it is, where to get it, and who to call if necessary. Assistants are also key if (knock of wood!) you get sick, have a family emergency, or something happens that stops you from attending retreat. Just remember: your assistants are also your fraternity brothers or sorority sisters. Treat them with respect, acknowledge their good work, and listen to their ideas. Don’t get a big head about having people to boss around, otherwise, you’ll soon find yourself with too much to do and no one to help you do it.