Upperclassmen date Party

Pi Beta Phi will be hosting a socially distant and masked date party on 4/16 at The Gallery on Magazine. This is a closed event, and only members and invitees on the guest list will be permitted entry. We are very excited to work within the Tulane and NOLA guidelines to make this work. Guests will be arriving in shifts to mitigate any crowding and allow for proper social distancing. 

Here is our proposed rideshare plan:

We are looking to have a rideshare plan to and from the venue, The Gallery on Magazine, for our junior and senior pledge formal date party. The event is taking place from 7:00-11:00 PM on April 16th, 2021. The venue’s address is 2604 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70115 and is only 4.3 miles from our sorority house at 7014 Zimpel street, being roughly a 20 minute drive. The reason we are trying to get approval for a ride share plan is that due to Covid-19, we feel it is safest and most manageable to have students share uber/lyfts to the venue in smaller groups, rather than squishing everyone onto crowded buses with limited air circulation. Since the event starts at 7:00 and the venue is 20 minutes away, we would have members check-in beginning at 7 until 8, giving them some time to socially distance, call the ride and wait for it's arrival (as in New Orleans, the wait time for a ride usually varies between 2-10 minutes). The event also starts at 7 PM to allow for social distancing outside of the venue. We would require all riders to share the status of their ride with the Chapter President, VP of Risk Management, VP of Community Relations, or the Director of Social Events so that we may get a notification when they arrive at the venue, and we would do this during the check-in process.

Payment for the rides will be coordinated between those members inside the cars. If someone does not have an Uber account, venmo or cash can be used to split the price of the ride. Uber and Lyft are widely used by all students at our University due to the size of our city. The average cost of the ride from uptown to Beach on Bourbon is $15-$19, based on myself calling different ubers (X and XL) between these locations throughout the day. This equates to about $3 a person, if there are 6 people in the car in the case of the most expensive price. We are not charging a fee or admission ticket to be able to attend the event. At the end of the event, we would make an announcement to all the individuals there that they should begin to call their rides back to their homes. We would have leadership team members stand by the only main exit of the venue, and make sure every group shares their ride with the required board member. If any members were to not follow the above procedures, they would receive a chapter unexcused absence. Our attendance policy states that after two unexcused absences, they cannot attend the next social event; therefore, many members do not like to get these absences. We have used this in the past to hold members accountable, and it has worked previously in making sure members follow any rules or procedures.