I am reading this thread and am a bit confused. The way my chapter does it is the new members write down their top five choices. The sisters write down their top three choices. If the little and big sisters match up one to one, then they are BIG/LIL. There is usually more than the "pledge mom" doing the matching. Granted there is always some grumbling about who got who. I know that last semester I wasn't going to get a little, because I already had two, plus two adopted. But then I got Crystal. She is AWESOME!!

How exactly do you match up your bigs and littles????

We do it similarly to your chapter.

The pledges list their top 5 (or in bigger classes their top 8) choices for Bigs. Not all actives are elligible though, due to financial obligations unpaid, too low GPA...etc. Then the Pledge Mom and President sit down (although in recent years the Standards Chair has been involved as well) and take the lists and try to give each girl her #1 choice. Of course, that sometimes doesn't work out, because some pledges may have the same girl listed as #1, and then they discuss personality traits.

The Bigs don't get a say in whom they want as a Little. But once all the girls have been matched, the Pledge Mom calls the prospective Bigs and says "Would you like So-and-So as your Little?" And they an say yes or no, but they can't say, "No, I'd rather have Such-and-Such." Did that make sense?

Now, there are unwritten rules like "Becca has two littles already and Michelle doesn't have any, so Michelle should get a little before Becca....." But to me, I think that if it's more for the Littles adjusting to sorority life, then if Becca and the pledge are more similar, then they should be Big/Lil, but that's my personal idea. Some sisters also think that Seniors should get rank above Juniors, and I can see that philosophy as well, but again, if a pledge has a better personality match with a Junior, then I think they should be matched.

Re: Pledge Moms having littles
 

Well, I can only add this.

In my Fraternity, the use of "Big/Little" programs is up to each Chapter, so we have no national policies.

In my Chapter, our policy is that the Pledgemaster (what you might call your VP of NM Ed) and Membership VP (officer in charge of our Membership program, which includes the pledge program and who the PM answers two) do NOT get littles. This is because these officers are responsible for looking out for the entire pledge class and this means they won't be favoring one pledge over another and the like.

Of course for me that meant that as a long-time pledgemaster, I never got a little.

Hope this helps.