COVID-19 FAQ

Q: What should the chapter’s executive committee do at this time?

A: We believe that all chapters (who were scheduled to) held elections for new officers. Since many of our chapters hold elections during the Spring term, we are planning on holding specific sessions during Virtual Convention 2020 geared towards education for the executive board. Until then, we encourage the chapter’s executive board members to start planning over the summer for their Fall semester as most likely things will be different. Even if your university plans to be in-person, there may be more rules regarding in-person gatherings than normal that you will have to account for in your events. If your university plans to be online, this will significantly change your operations and planning is critical to be able to execute successful events in the Fall. Here are some ideas for your executive board members to consider:

• Meetings - Come up with a virtual meeting schedule that works for your membership. You may want to have some meetings during the summer for a jump start on planning. Also, we are not requiring this yet, but we do believe it would be valuable to set up recurring monthly meetings with your chapter advisor. Situations may come up in the Fall that you haven’t come across before and having a regular touchpoint with your advisor could help you navigate these situations. 
• Recruitment - If you plan on having your new members be a part of recruitment it might be useful to have virtual workshops to educate new members on your chapter’s recruitment plans. If you need to move to virtual recruitment, this may be new for all members and workshops to explain the virtual recruitment plans for the Fall may be necessary for all members to participate in. Phired Up has provided free on-line Fraternity/Sorority growth education and we recommend looking through some of their session recordings.  
• PR/Social Media - Now more than ever your chapter should be focusing on its online presence as this will be your main source of information for both PNMs and current members most likely. We recommend partnering with your recruitment chair to increase your social media presence and be able to attract PNMs to your organization via virtual means. Social media is also a good tool to engage current members over the summer and throughout the semester. Alpha Omega Epsilon has been working hard to up their social media game to provide you with resources and content that you can repost to help you get started. Some ideas to enhance your social media are: senior shout outs (if you’d like your seniors to be featured on the Alpha Omega Epsilon instagram account, please fill out this survey), nominate a “sister of the week” and have them take over your instagram account, utilize polls, gifs, quizzes, templates of questions for members to answer, other posts, etc.
• Scholarship - Moving to online learning may mean new ways of learning for sisters. Consider planning on hosting a virtual workshop or study sessions via Zoom, Google Hangouts, where sisters can join at a set time and study together. You could also do a workshop on best practices in taking online learning courses or study tips. We encourage all members to be in close contact with professors when unsure about assignments or classes. Often TAs are also available to help with questions regarding coursework. 
• Philanthropy - Service events across our chapters typically are unique to each group. We do encourage participation with our International Philanthropy Partners: Dress for Success and FIRST Robotics, but do not require events with these organizations. While many of our chapters host events that benefit these organizations, others choose to give to more causes as well. Fundraising online has been successful for many non-profits. We encourage philanthropy chairs to research various online fundraising methods and consider highlighting the donation methods on their social media accounts to get the attention of donors. 
• Risk Management - The health and safety of our members is of utmost importance. During this global pandemic, we are facing many new and unprecedented challenges. We suggest that you check in throughout the summer with all of your sisters to see how they are doing through social distancing and stay at home orders. 
• Sisterhood - We suggest brainstorming ideas to keep sisterhood alive during the Summer and for the Fall term. Many of our chapters have had success assigning buddies (similar to Carnation Conversations) for virtual meetings or coffee chats via FaceTime or video chat. Others are creating scrapbook pages or social media posts about themselves to be assembled into a collective of all sisters. We’ve heard a few chapters have also had watch parties where they can chat live with each other while watching the same show or moving from their favorite streaming site. Another idea for new members is to write a letter to themselves and have them seal it and open it up when they graduate (a sort of personal time capsule). We will continue to gather ideas and communicate best practices to our members. 
• Professional/Alumnae - This is a great time to touch base with your alumnae. Since many of us are at home with freed up calendars, this is an opportunity for chapters to host virtual alumnae panels. You could also set up pairings for coffee chats with your current actives and alumnae where the member could discuss what legacy they would like to leave and the alumnae could discuss where they wish to see the chapter. 
• Membership Educator - With the excellent efforts of your recruitment chair and committee, we are sure that you will end up with a great Fall 2020 candidate class to educate. Planning for membership education should assume that you will have a typical sized candidate class or possibly even larger than normal. Several sororities are reporting higher interest in membership due to PNMs wanting to find a community in college, especially the high school seniors who missed out on send offs and normal graduation activities. We highly recommend you plan for virtual membership education. Alpha Omega Epsilon is working to provide you membership education quizzes online and to give you resources to help support your education efforts. You may also want to think about big/little reveal in a virtual environment. If this hasn’t happened for your Spring 2020 Candidates, this may be the first thing you need to plan as it may happen sooner in the semester.