For the first time ever, our AIAS Chapter at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte hosted a craft night. We came up with the event as a way for our chapter to relieve stress and spend some quality time together as final reviews were quickly approaching. The event was completely free and open to members and non-members alike, which resulted in one of our largest turn-outs of the year!
Each officer on our executive board came up with a craft activity. These ended up including a caricature station, origami cranes, architectural coloring sheets, cookie decorating, and of course, pet rocks. Each officer provided the materials for their station which helped us keep the cost for the event very low. Of course, we allotted our budget for the event on pizza so that people could refuel in between craft stations. We have found that one of the best ways to encourage attendance at an event after a long day of studio is to have the event in a central location in the building, increasing visibility, and of course, the smell of pizza drifting through the studios catches some attention as well.
We ended up having so much fun at this event, and the pet rocks have continued to be a funny presence at meetings and events since. Unfortunately, we lost our Executive Board’s favorite pet rock, Gladys, at FORUM this year, but we have a feeling she is still having a blast in Boston. Overall, this event was a great way to bring our chapter together for a fun-filled, low stress night and we hope that this event becomes a traditional for the future of our chapter and yours!
