.jpg)
I speak to many Greek audiences, and many of the places I speak put sign up sheets in the back of the room for attendees. I am not a fan of sign up sheets.
First, it's easy to sign a couple of names for people who aren't there. Second, people sign in, take a left turn to the rest room, and run away. Third, it causes a huge bottle-neck, because everyone shows up at the last minute, and then you need to start the program 15 minutes late while everyone signs in. This in turn is a penalty for all of those students who bothered to show up on time!
There is a better way, my friends.
All you really care about is how many from each chapter attended. You don't really care WHO attended from each chapter, right?
As each person arrives for the event, give him or her a ticket. You can buy huge rolls of these at any office supply place for next to nothing. People need to be in the room by the start time of the program to get a ticket. Use a different color ticket for each event.
Then, when the program is over and people are leaving the auditorium, they deposit their tickets in large envelopes, boxes, or other containers decorated with their letters. All the Delta Gamma's drop their tickets in the DG envelope. All the Sig Ep's drop there's in the Sigma Phi Epsilon envelope. It takes mere seconds.
Then, you close up the envelopes, and count up the tickets. Do it right then, or do it the next morning. Whatever.
But what if they bring non-members to the program and these individuals drop their tickets to artificially boost the chapter's attendance number? Well, I think that's a good thing. Encouraging chapters to bring guests is a great way to provide some positive PR to your Greek community (particularly if your speaker is really good). Maybe they'll even bring young men or women whom they are trying to recruit. Hooray!
Another advantage of this system is that it forces people to arrive on time (to get their ticket) and to stay for the whole program (or they cannot drop their ticket in the envelope).
If you're feeling really ambitious, you can combine this attendance system with a door prize contest. To do this, simply buy the kind of "two part" ticket rolls that allow the attendee to keep one half and you keep the other half for the door prize bucket.
But, please, stop the sign-in sheet madness.
