Mixers are generally one of the more interesting things Greek Life does. Generally, a fraternity and a sorority get together and hold an event, and depending on how well the event is going, the actual “mixing” can go one of two ways. Either the event is well constructed, and the brothers and sisters all seem to get along fine, or the event isn’t as strong and the atmosphere resembles a middle school dance where the guys all stand in one corner and the girls stand in another corner.

This past mixer my fraternity had with a sorority fit into the former of the two scenarios. With a low social budget to start out with, it seemed like this mixer was going to be a dud. Fortunately, with the help of two social chairs and a committed third party, it turned out to be great. The idea was this: Eight people were selected to act out a murder mystery, with clues, false leads and various plot twists. Together in groups of four (two girls and two boys to encourage mixing), everyone set out to figure out who was the murderer. The whole idea panned out to be almost like a real-life version of Clue. As an appointed actor, I had the chance to observe all of the groups working together to solve the mystery and it worked out phenomenally. People were laughing and cheering their way through a ridiculous mystery and were left full of suspense until the very end. Needless to say, it was a very good mixer.

This is a good example of how to run a mixer on a low budget. Not every mixer has to be catered in some large event hall, sometimes it’s fun to be a little more creative and get people to work together towards something. This worked well for us and can work well for you too. Maybe instead of all going to a sporting event, you set up a few board games and have a board game mixer, or carve pumpkins during Halloween time or set up a scavenger hunt. My point is, not every good mixer has to cost thousands, that was proven this weekend.