Preference Ceremony: Seasons of Sisterhood

Preference Ceremony: Seasons of Sisterhood The Seasons of Sisterhood Preference Ceremony describes membership in Alpha Gamma Delta through four tenets: faith, friendship, loyalty and love. During the ceremony, candles are lit to signify each season of Alpha Gamma Delta. Potential New Members also place a long-stem rose in arrangement signifying the symbolism Alpha Gamma Delta members find in the rose. Room arrangement: Speakers Display Table Potential New Members Current members Materials: 4 white taper candles with holders OR 4 white pillar candles with stands (Consider battery-operated. flameless candles if recruitment rules do not allow for the use of candles). One floral display with red and buff long-stem roses One long-stem red or buff rose for each Potential New Member One small table One clean-pressed, floor-length, black or white table cloth that covers the small table Suggested speakers: Chapter President (Narrator) Vice President Recruitment (Faith Speaker) Speaker 3: Vice President Member Development (Friendship Speaker) Speaker 4: Executive Council Officer (Loyalty Speaker) Speaker 5: Executive Council Officer (Love Speaker) Speakers 6 15: Various officers and members Ceremony Space and tone: Preference Ceremonies should be held in a lit or dimly lit room. There should be silence to create a sense of reverence and members should stand at attention throughout the ceremony. Preference is also a celebration of Formal Recruitment; members should be excited and the tone of the event should still be cheerful. Every speaking part in the Preference Ceremony MUST be memorized. Ceremony timing: The length of this Preference Ceremony will differ depending on the number of songs performed, how fast each speaker talks, etc. The long version of the Seasons of Sisterhood Preference Ceremony is designed to last 20 to 25 minutes. When preparing for the Preference Ceremony time rehearsals, including transitions. Timing out a rehearsal will allow the chapter plan out the other components of the Preference Round such as door songs, conversation, opening/closing remarks etc. Language: This ceremony includes language indicating that the ceremony takes place during the evening. If the chapter holds Preference Round during the day, change any references to this evening or tonight to this morning/afternoon and today. Feel free to adapt other portions of the ceremony to fit the chapter s specifications. Seasons of Sisterhood Long Version

Seasons of Sisterhood (Speakers 1 5 assemble behind the table to indicate the beginning of the Ceremony.) Welcome to Alpha Gamma Delta. Tonight we would like each of you to relax and feel comfortable. Listen to our songs, listen to our words and, most importantly, listen to your hearts. (Brief pause) Tonight, we would like to share with you our seasons of Alpha Gamma Delta those of faith, friendship, loyalty and love, seasons shared in our experience with our fraternal family. The first season of Alpha Gamma Delta is faith. Faith is the capability to believe; it is a reciprocal gift shared between sisters. Membership in Alpha Gamma Delta requires faith in your sorority. Not faith that follows blindly, but faith that moves you to uphold its name, its ideals and its standards. As a symbol of this faith, members wear the Alpha Gamma Delta Badge. It is worn with pride and distinction as an outward reminder of the faith shared among sisters. What a wonderful feeling to share this closeness to feel you are a part of a sisterhood and to realize your sisters are a part of you. An Alpha Gamma Delta faith is embodied in the beauty of friendship and enhanced by enduring loyalty. The bonds of love that unite the Greek letters Alpha, Gamma and Delta are symbols of the faith we have in each other and in the sorority we have chosen as our own. I now light the candle of faith. I light this candle with my sisters as a symbol of the faith we all have in each other and in the ideals of Alpha Gamma Delta. (Moves to light first candle) SONG: Speaker 3: Poem: Suggested: Never Alone (Lady Antebellum) The next season of Alpha Gamma Delta is friendship. Friendship begins during your first days as a new member and continues throughout your lifetime. As you glimpse into your future college life, you will find and meet many new and wonderful friends but none will love you as deeply nor feel as close to you as your sorority sisters. Friendship is a binding of hearts, a union of the highest ideals. (Speakers 6 & 7 will stand on opposite sides of the room and step forward during the reading of the poem.) Speaker 6: Speaker 7: There will be days when the sun won t shine When every step is in the wrong direction And no word comes out right These are the days to lean on me. There will come a time when confusion takes over When the world has overwhelmed you And you feel alone These are times to come to me. Seasons of Sisterhood Long Version- 2

Speaker 6: Speaker 7: Speaker 6: There will also be times of great joy When laughter fills our world And everything falls into place These are the moments you share with me. We will not lose each other in passing time We stand together over thousands of miles Bonded by an unspoken connection. There will come a time when we are left without words Left without sign or badge And yet, I will know you as you will me. This is the moment when all the tears and laughter And the love and fears combine To create a single moment that all sisters know Lights their way home. Speaker 3: Speaker 4: This is what true friendship really means. In Alpha Gamma Delta, we have found the essence of a true lasting friendship, one that will last long after college days. I now light the candle of friendship. (Moves to light second candle) The next season is loyalty, a quality we extend to each other at all times. In Alpha Gamma Delta, we find a loyalty to one another that transcends barriers of time and place. In our undergraduate days, our chapter helps strengthen our loyalty. As our love and friendship for our sisters deepens, loyalty gives rich meaning to our lives as members of Alpha Gamma Delta. We are bound together through our loyalty to our Fraternity and each other. We know that wherever we go, we truly never walk alone. ( Speakers 8, 10, 12 and 14 will stand on opposite sides of the room from speakers 9, 11, 13, 15 and step forward during the reading of the poem.) Full Poem: Speaker 8: Speaker 9: Laugh, and I ll laugh with you, Weep and I ll weep, too. For whatever comes to assail you Is there to assail me, too. Laugh and I ll weep, too. For whatever comes to assail you And I ll laugh with you Weep Is there to assail me, too. Work and I ll work with you, Fight and I ll fight, too. For whatever barrier needs breaking Can be broken by me and you. Speaker 10: Speaker 11: Work and I ll work with you, and I ll fight, too. Fight For whatever barrier needs Can be broken by me and breaking you. Seasons of Sisterhood Long Version- 3

Think and I ll think with you, Dream and I ll dream, too. For few ever shared such visions As are shared by me and you. Worship and I ll worship with you, Love and I ll love, too. For these are the things worth doing, And can be done by me and you. Speaker 12: Speaker 13: Think and I ll think with you, and I ll dream, too. Dream For few ever shared such visions As are shared by me and you. Speaker 14: Speaker 15: Worship and I ll worship with you, and I ll love, too Love For these are the things worth And can be done by me and doing, you Speaker 4: Speaker 5: SONG: (Moves to light third candle) I now light the candle of loyalty. The fourth season is love. We never live so intensely as when we love. We never realize ourselves so vividly as when we are in full glow of love for others. Now, we will all grow together in the season of love. Faith, hope and love but the greatest of these is love. To love is to have attained the highest degree of human bonds. In Alpha Gamma Delta, we have achieved that bond through laughter and tears, anger and happiness, failure and success. Through growing with our sisters, we can gain that which only love can bring us. Faith, hope and love but the greatest of these is love. As I light the candle of love, I share this candle with my sisters and we share with you the love we have experienced as sisters of Alpha Gamma Delta. (Moves to light forth candle) I now light the candle of love. Suggested: The Rose (Bette Midler) (Long stem roses are passed out to the PNMs) The form that each season takes may be different for each of us, but the sisterhood is the same. We are a united body working together to make faith, friendship, loyalty and love a reality within our chapter of Alpha Gamma Delta. Tonight we extend these feelings of faith, friendship, loyalty and love to you. These candles symbolize the special wishes we hold for you within our hearts. The rose is a symbol of Alpha Gamma Delta. We look at the rose and see two parables. First, the rose represents each one of us the petals being all the talents, interests, abilities, and goals we each hold and which together makes the whole person. Second, we see a rose as representing our chapter the petals each of its members. Each member is unique and complete, but only when assembled together do we discover our full potential. Just as the rose is no more perfect than its least perfect petal every single Alpha Gam member contributes to the sisterhood of the chapter. In Alpha Gamma Delta we share a set of ideals that define our lives as members. These ideals are beautifully set forth in the Alpha Gamma Delta Purpose. Seasons of Sisterhood Long Version- 4

Recite the Purpose (All members will recite the Purpose in unison) SONG In Alpha Gamma Delta we are bound by common goals. The rose you hold speaks of Alpha Gamma Delta, her high ideals, her deep and lasting love. Each member is a tiny flame of a candle. In the darkness a single candle glows dimly, but as our circle of sisterhood grows, you make our circle of light even brighter. We would like to share the red and buff roses of Alpha Gamma Delta with you and hope that you will come to know the real inner beauty of our sisterhood. Tonight is an important night for all of us. We lit candles of faith, friendship, loyalty and love, symbolizing your place in Alpha Gamma Delta. May the golden light of our candles linger in your memory and guide you in your important choice. We invite you to place your rose with ours, creating the perfect arrangement of sisterhood. Suggested: Feels like Home to Me (Chantal Kreviazuk) (Have Potential New Members place their rose in the vase at the front of the room). It is our hope that you have found your home this week in Alpha Gamma Delta. Seasons of Sisterhood Long Version- 5