We want your meeting ideas.

It's hard to get people to come to meetings. Our alumnae chapter has been a victim of declining membership for the last several years. We're all busy women- kids, jobs, husbands, other activities. Believe me, it's hard to drag myself out on a Monday night for a meeting. There's always something more important I think I should be doing- cleaning the house, walking the dog, or catching up on my favorite Monday night TV show. Once I get to the home of the hostess, however, I'm always glad to be there. The hour or two that I spend with my AOII sisters isn't just a typical meeting. It's social time, where we eat and drink and share stories of each others' kids and what's going on in our lives. Oh, we usually talk about some type of AOII "business," like who might go to Convention next summer, or how much money we should donate to the Panhellenic scholarship fund. But even those things are fun and not really business-like. This year we're trying to add even more social activities so that the meetings don't seem so much like, well, meetings. Many of these sisterhood events are on the weekends, during the day, and open to famiy and friends. Things like picking pumpkins and touring a brewery. Maybe we could even get some husbands to join us! The results of the poll on this page surprised me. All of the suggested events got some votes. But, the top vote-getting activity was having informational speakers. We've done this in the past- speakers about arthritis or landscaping. Honestly I thought people would get more excited about painting pottery or drinking wine. We have a wine-tasting scheduled for one of our programs this year and it should be a lot of fun. But we can certainly explore different speakers to present topics of interest. What other things can we do to encourage more women to attend? If you have ideas please leave a comment. Do you want to meet at a member's home, or out at a restaurant? Would you rather meet at a furniture store for interior design ideas, or learn a new hobby? We have a really great group of women who regularly attend our events. I know there are a lot more great women out there who could contribute a lot to our group. We'd love to get to know you. Consider joining us for an activity this year. I think you'll be surprised at what you find!