Bid day is the only chapter event with an audience who has never been inside your house. Your new members are meeting the chapter for the first time, and the two hours after they run home set the tone for their entire first semester. It is also the event with the least flexibility: the date is fixed by recruitment, and everything either exists by then or does not. Here is the checklist.
Why bid day is different
Every other event you plan is for people who already chose you. Bid day is for people who just did, and who are nervous, overwhelmed and trying to work out whether they made the right decision.
That reframes the whole thing. The measure of a good bid day is not how impressive it looked. It is whether a girl who knew nobody an hour ago has spoken to five people and knows one name by the end. Plan for that, and the photographs take care of themselves.
Six weeks out: theme and merch
The theme drives everything printed, and printing is the one part of bid day with a hard external deadline you do not control.
- Lock the theme. Get it approved by whoever needs to approve it now, not after the shirts are ordered.
- Order merch. Shirts are the long pole. Design, approval, production and shipping all take real time, and rush fees are steep. Include your new member count in the size run, and order a margin above it.
- Check licensing. If your design uses university marks or Greek letters, there may be an approval process with its own timeline.
Theme ideas in bid day theme ideas.
Four weeks out: the plan on paper
- Confirm the location and, if it is outdoors, decide the wet-weather alternative now. Not on the day.
- Decor and photo backdrop. The backdrop earns its cost. It is where most of the day's photos happen and it is what gets posted.
- Food and drink, with the emphasis on water. Bid day is frequently hot, long and emotional, and dehydration is the most common problem of the day.
- Music and sound. Confirm whether you have power where you need it. Outdoor spaces frequently do not.
Two weeks out: people and timing
This is the part that separates a warm bid day from a chaotic one, and it costs nothing.
- Build the run of show. Arrival, the run home, photos, food, any chapter tradition, and a clear end. Written down, shared with exec.
- Assign greeters. Name specific members responsible for specific new members. Not "everyone be welcoming" — that reliably produces a room where existing friends talk to each other while new members stand at the edge.
- Assign roles. Photos, music, food, water, and one person watching for anyone standing alone.
- Brief the chapter on what is expected of them. Most people want to help and simply do not know what the job is.
Week of
- Confirm merch has arrived, not shipped. Open the boxes and count.
- Reconfirm any vendor arrival times in writing.
- Check the weather and make the call on the wet-weather plan early enough to tell people.
- Send one message with the timing, location and what to wear.
- Charge everything: speakers, cameras, phones used for photos.
On the day
Set up earlier than feels necessary. Bid day runs to recruitment's schedule, not yours, and if the run home arrives while you are still hanging a backdrop, that is the moment your new members walk into.
Have water visible and abundant. Have a shaded or indoor spot for anyone who needs a minute, because on a hot day someone will. And have one person whose only job is to notice a new member standing alone and go and talk to her. That role matters more than any decoration you will buy.
What goes wrong
- Merch ordered late. The most common bid day failure, and completely predictable. Shirts arriving the following week is a real outcome.
- No wet-weather plan. Deciding in the rain, an hour before, with nowhere booked.
- Nobody assigned to new members. The chapter has a lovely time together and the new members stand at the edge.
- Sizing run too narrow. A new member without a shirt on the day everyone is wearing one is a bad first hour.
- Running long. New members have been through a week of recruitment. End while it is still fun.
Common questions
How far in advance should we plan bid day?
Four to six weeks, driven almost entirely by merch printing and shipping lead times.
What is the most common bid day mistake?
Ordering shirts too late. The second is having no wet-weather plan for an outdoor bid day.
How do we make new members feel welcome?
Assign named members to named new members rather than asking everyone to be welcoming generally, and give one person the sole job of spotting anyone standing alone.
How long should bid day last?
Shorter than you think. New members have just finished a week of recruitment, so end while the energy is still high.
If you want it handled
Bid day is short, fixed-date and unforgiving, which makes it a good candidate for handing over. Tell us your recruitment dates and your new member count and we will build the whole thing around your schedule.
See how we plan bid day →
