5 Tips to Help You Find a Unique Bid Day Theme
It’s that time of the semester! With Fall Rush fast approaching, it’s time you start thinking of Bid Day themes that will make all your new members feel right at home. Bid Day planning is no less intense than a marathon, so I hope you got a good warmup in. Let’s start you off by finding a theme that will turn heads and have everyone talking about your chapter.
I’m here to help you do just that. Here are 5 tips approved by fellow Executive Boards at the University of Minnesota.
Ask outgoing officers
It’s okay to ask for help! If you find yourself struggling to come up with creative ideas, reach out to the sister who held your position before you.
As a leader in your chapter, you will find yourself going through a whole bunch of themes before picking one you love. Asking the previous officer of your position how they approached this task will help jumpstart your brainstorming process!
Look up Pinterest boards, TikTok, and Instagram
A simple Google search may just give you the spark of creativity you are looking for. By looking up keywords related to bid day, you will more often than not be provided with hundreds if not thousands of creative and unique bid day ideas to branch off of.
Think about what’s trending
Another important factor to consider when creating a unique Bid Day theme is: what’s currently trending? Trends change and morph quickly, so you want to make sure you’re looking at trends that are still popular or trends that your members particularly enjoy.
Was there a meme that became an inside joke for you guys? Maybe that’s your next theme! Bid day is all about showing off how tight-knit your group is, so why not?
For example, Travis Scott’s album, ‘Astroworld’, was a sensation in 2021. A Bid Day theme relevant to this trend may be “Kappa World”! A spin on the words of the album name. See how cute that is?
If you don’t have one that comes to mind immediately, look up popular movies, songs, social media trends, and other cultural shifts that everyone’s talking about right now. And then add your organization’s touch to it!
Reach out to another collegiate chapter
Reaching out to a sister at another collegiate chapter might change your perspective on how to approach Bid Day themes. Many sorority chapters have created large message chains that include all the women who hold the same position in their sororities across the globe.
For example, if you are the Membership Vice President for Gamma Phi Beta, there is a GroupMe message that includes all the Gamma Phi Beta’s Membership Vice Presidents from all chapters in America. This message chain is a great way to reach out to sisters from all over the country to see where they are in the Bid Day planning process and if they have any theme suggestions for you!
What does your chapter stand for?
Ask yourself: what does your chapter stand for? What are your core values and how can you represent these values through your Bid Day theme? There are many ways in which you can take your sorority's values and create a fun and unique theme to represent them.
Let’s say one of your core values is something along the lines of love, loyalty, or sisterhood. Basing your Bid Day on these values, you may come up with themes such as ”Welcome to the Garden – Our Sisterhood is Growing” or ”Strangers to Sisters” based on the popular card game, “We’re Not Really Strangers”.
Sometimes you are even able to hit two birds with one stone, like how the “Sisters to Strangers” theme incorporates both current pop culture AND chapter values.
All of these themes are unique, yet they also all embody the simple core values of love and sisterhood – values you wish to convey to your new members. Ultimately, do not overlook the simple things your sisterhood stands for when trying to find a Bid Day theme; those core values are what you are founded on, and are exactly where Bid Day inspiration lies.
These 5 tips will help guide you in the process of creating a truly unique and unforgettable Bid Day theme for your chapter! Happy planning 🙂