5 Tips To Plan a Greek Retreat They'll Never Forget in 2023

A college retreat is a wonderful time to bond and spend time with your org members. The success of a sorority retreat or a fraternity retreat, however, fully depends on the quality of the planning.

Lucky for you, we've been working with college organizations (mostly to help with merch and campus employment). All of that engagement has got us knowing Greek org events like nobody else. There are 2 upsides and 1 downside to that. The upsides are: (1) It makes for a cool part trick (2) We're qualified to give event chairs advice on organizing incredible retreats. The only downside is that the first upside might not be as impressive as we'd hoped but the jury's still out.

Anyway, here are 5 tips that will help you plan a chapter retreat that everyone will remember.

Start Planning At Least 2 months in advance

You want to consult your board on exactly how early you guys should be starting the planning given your sorority/fraternity's culture. Asking the previous event chair/president about when they began planning will also help you pace yourself well. Oh and while you're talking to them, ask for their tips and what they'd avoid too. Ultimately, you're the decision maker but it never hurts to hear people out. Especially people who've done it before!

But at least 2 months before the retreat is when you should be getting serious and nailing down specific details.

Ask: What's the point of the retreat?

When it's time, sit down with your exec board and start with questions like - what kind of retreat is this going to be? Is the goal to engage in bonding activities or do you just want to get away for a bit and have fun? What do we want the takeaway of the retreat to be? These questions will help you answer the next ones on venue, activities, etc.

For example, it won't make sense to book a recreational center if all you wanted to do was go play laser tag for a bit.

Get Serious: Budget, Venue, and Dates

Once you know what the purpose is, decide on the budget, venue, and dates. These 3 come together because you want to confirm if the venue is available for the dates you're thinking about and if you can even afford it. Trust us - thinking about all 3 together will help save so much back and forth.

Once all that is set - communicate it to your sorority or fraternity so they block out those dates! Then, you can move on to the actual meat of the plan.

Fill the Agenda With Meaningful Activities

If you want, pick a theme too! 9/10 times the goal of a college retreat is to foster a sense of community and help the members bond. So, what's a cute and snappy tagline that can summarize that purpose? Aphi Forever? Maybe, but maybe there's something cuter.

Once you have a theme and general purpose nailed, think of activities. Lucky for you, we have an article with 10 popular activity ideas for your next retreat. From cookouts to PowerPoint nights, there's a lot you can do.

Start with a rough list of whatever sounds exciting to you and meet the objectives, then start mapping it out. What would each activity look like in the venue you booked? Is it feasible? What time of the day will it work best? For the number of people attending, does the activity work?

Whatever it is, even if the objective isn't sisterhood, brotherhood, or bonding - you want to make sure most of the people attending can find it to be fun.

Figure out what you'll need for each activity

Once you have a full agenda, it's time to figure out everything else you need. If you're doing an improv game that requires creating a story from random props, you'll need random props! Write that down in the list of items you need. Similarly, if you're organizing a cookout, you need to know exactly what ingredients you need and how much of each. Write that down!

Once you have that list, figure out how much of it requires purchasing and how much of it you can get away with borrowing/renting. Make sure to stay within the budget!

Give Out Sentimental Gifts

Make your retreat even more special by distributing meaningful keepsakes - especially after the retreat ends! It wraps up your retreat in a beautiful way - when everyone's had their fun and is feeling great, giving away Comfort Color tees or hats with the name of your org and year will act as the icing on the cake.

Here are some sick retreat merch designs other sororities and fraternities have done with us. You can even ask us to whip up a design from scratch and we'll do it for free.

Thanks for reading this far. We hope these tips help you have the time of your life at your retreat! All the best :)