Posted by Russ K

Program Host	Chapter
Host Region and Chapter	Ohio Northern Genesis AZA
Program Type	Brotherhood Education Entertainment Havdalah Judaic Leadership Membership Movie/Film Recruitment/Outreach Retention Social Spirituality
Time Required	5-12 hours
Target Population(s)	Boys (AZA) Members Prospective Members Alephs-in-Training Freshmen Sophomores Juniors Seniors 8th Graders
Folds Targeted	Athletic Judaic Education Social
People Participating	10-30

Program Summary:

The program was to increase the brotherhood of our chapter, to forge a stronger bond between all of the members there. Also, to have a straight up fun and extremely memorable program.

Full Description:

I created this program by combining a few of the best brotherhood-increasing programs on the program bank and adding in many of my own ideas and activities. It's a sleepover program. The program we did was a 12+ hour ordeal, but I entered this as 5-12 hours since you can remove the good & welfare and sleeping parts and make it a one-night program. However, I strongly recommend that you do it all-out with everything: Good and welfare, sleepover, and all.

THE Ultimate Brotherhood Night
EMPHASIZE SERIOUSNESS AT BEGINNING!

7:00-7:15...people finish arriving, talk a little bit. Money collected, $10. (If necessary, wait a little while for everybody to arrive first. It's better to have everybody there and start the programming 15 minutes late than have people walking in onto the programming that you started on time)

7:15…Wolfie, Russ, G, etc(THE CHAPTER BOARD)standing in a line as part of a big circle of everybody. (Lights out,godol w/ flashlight.) Everybody else sitting in a circle, with the line of standing board members being part of the circle.

7:15-7:30…Starting with the godol, going down the board line then down the other, each member holds the flashlight and says a serious fear of theirs. For the board members, written out. Something legitimate along the lines of fitting in, meeting parent's expectations, etc.
7:30…S'gan or godol:(order pizza/food, out of view)
7:30…walk into the smaller room, divided diagonally with tape. One side has a sign saying YES, the other NO.  
7:30-7:40…Leader (advisor) asks the following questions. Group moves across the room and back accordingly.
-Have you ever been let down by a friend?
-Have you ever been let down by a parent?
-Have you ever let down a parent?
-Have you ever seen somebody being made fun of and did nothing to stop it?
-Have you ever been the one making fun of somebody?
-Have you ever been being made fun of while others who could help do nothing?
-Have you ever been disappointed by yourself?
-Have you ever been disappointed in AZA?
-Have you ever talked poorly about one of your AZA brothers behind their backs?
-Do you wish that people in general would be kinder to each other?

(End with a brief yet impactful speech by the advisor)

Say: Nobody is perfect. This next activity could give you a good idea of what you might work on to help yourself, and what about you people enjoy.

7:45...Go back into the larger room. As they go from one room to the other, everybody has a blindfold put on them (all but the advisor) with the knowledge that if they have to take it off they can (BBYO rule), but they’re most strongly suggested not to, and if they do the program cannot involve them, for privacy reasons. The advisor present will lead.  Everybody sits in a big circle, guided by the leader, unaware of who’s around them. (FOR MAKING BLINDFOLDS: I HAD TO MAKE ABOUT 25-30 QUICKLY RIGHT BEFORE THE PROGRAM SO I CAME UP WITH THIS METHOD: TAKE A NORMAL PAPER TOWEL AND FOLD IT INTO ABOUT A 3-INCH HIGH STRAIGHT BLINDFOLD. USE SCISSORS TO POKE HOLES NEAR THE END OF EACH SIDE OF THE BLINDFOLD. PUT A STRING THROUGH EACH END OF THE TOWEL, THEN WHEN YOU PUT IT ON SOMEBODY YOU CAN TIE THE TWO ENDS OF THE STRING TOGETHER BEHIND THEIR HEAD). Also, the room is in total darkness to go along with the blindfolds. The advisor alone has a flashlight and is un-blindfolded.

7:45-8:45…The leader taps one member on the shoulder, and brings them into the middle of the circle. When they are done, they go back into the circle, still blindfolded. The leader picks the next person, and they are the one in the middle.  This goes on until everybody has had their turn in the middle. WHILE IN THE MIDDLE, each aleph will first be asked to speak their name by the advisor. Then, each aleph will be the subject of 5 questions asked by the leader, in the format: “Do you feel that aleph X …”. If the surrounding, blindfolded members agree, they will snap. If not, silence. The questions will be taken from this list:

1. Do you feel that aleph X is trustworthy?

2. Do you feel that aleph X is a good friend?
   
3. Do you feel that aleph X deserves your respect?
   
4. Have you ever had anything against aleph X?
   
5. If you’ve ever had anything against aleph X, do you feel that you can forgive aleph X?
   
6. Would you trust aleph X with an important job? (worried if they had an important job?)
   
7. Has aleph X ever let you down?
   
8. Do you admire specific qualities of aleph X?   
   
9. Would you trust aleph X with personal life matters?
   
10. Do you think aleph X is a good influence? (Bad influence?)
    
11. Do you feel that aleph X is the kind of person who would steal from you or take advantage of you?

(You should make more questions too. Our advisor Sam did a fantastic job with this activity, coming up with more questions as we went along that applied to each individual member)

(Brief speech by the leader at the end...once again, our advisor Sam made a really great speech up on the spot about a look-in-the-mirror moment that that last activity provided.)

8:50-9:00…Eat pizza/food, relax for a little.
9:00-10:15…The movie that inspires brotherhood…Anchorman, while continuing to eat.
10:15-10:30...Do Havdalah (we went outside) and then relax a bit more.
10:30-???...Good and Welfare!!!!
Sleep.
9:00...2 people wake up to go buy bagels, breakfast
9:30…everyone else wakes up, eats breakfast.
10:00…leave!

Try not to give away the details of the program before you do it, maybe not even to all of the board. The more surprising it is, I expect the cooler it is.

All you'll really need supplies-wise for the program is duct tape to tape the YES/NO room into two areas, the signs for that room, and the blindfolds (homemade or otherwise) for the last serious activity. Board (or at least S'gan and Godol) should arrive 15-30 mins early to set up and make sure everybody knows what they're doing.

Submitter's Suggestions:

If done correctly this is an incredible program, so make sure as many members as possible show up for it.

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