Pledge Period
 

Greetings.

Gamma Beta Lambda's 'Pledge' Period
is 4 weeks.

Ours is probably a bit shorter than most, but this is because we seldom do 'formal' Rush and prefer year-round recruiting.
As such we are a lot more selective of potential pledges from the beginning.


Mike Wolf
Gamma Beta Lambda Fraternity

my chapter of phi sig uses 5 weeks. Since we are allowed anywhere between 4-6 according to national policy. 4 was too short for us and we felt 6 wasn't needed.

But it looks like 5 is really short compared to others on here. oh well its all good.

some of these pledge periods im seeing were as short as two or three weeks?!?! how can you possibly know enough about the organization after 2 or 3 weeks to know if you want to be a part of it for life? conversely, how do the members of the organization know after 2 or 3 weeks that you are the quality of person that they want to represent them?
i pledge for 10 weeks, our campus is cracking down on fraternity pledging and now only allows us to have pledges for 8 weeks. in my term as pledge educator i instituted a 6 week, project and knowledge intensive period for a few reasons.
a) thought it would help grades to get them done with pledging faster
b) itll help spring rush to have them in letters for longer than other chapters did
c) it lets them get to know the brothers on a stronger basis than they would if they were pledging

Ours is 6 weeks. The shortened pledge program was put into effect nationally about 5 years ago, and it's been interesting to see how different chapters deal with it. For the most part, the feedback has been mixed. Most feel 6 weeks is not long enough for the girls to really learn everything about and get a good feel for the fraternity. It can be stretched out to 8 weeks, if necessary, but I don't think many chapters take advantage of that. It might be currently going under fine-tuning process at our Headquarters.

We have recruitment right away in the fall. My pledge class was the last one to have the semester-long program.

Candidacy (Pledge) Periods
 

Greetings.

Well, I suspect that many of our organizations have various different reasons for their initiation periods.

While I respect the rationale given for the longer Pledge period, I also understand why some are shorter than others. In some cases the shorter Pledge periods are mandated and enforced by a College or University Board.

In the case of my fraternity, the four-week Candidacy period has been in place since we were founded in 1963. As we are what some might term a 'non-traditional' fraternity, our Candidacy period is fairly intensive and serves to educate our future brothers quite sufficiently. We are very selective of Candidates in the first place and this serves to 'streamline' the actual Candidacy process once potential members are chosen.

Regards.

Mike Wolf
Gamma Beta Lambda Fraternity

My pledge period was 6 weeks but one of those weeks were spring break so that week(even though we had assignments) doesn't count. We have decided to that pledge for our next line will be 6 weeks. My brother fraternities line has been going on for I think 7 or 8 weeks now, they saw we got off easy when we were pledged. So our is a minimum of 4 weeks not exceeding 8.

I also wanted to say that I don't agree with 3 week pledge periods. Our 6 week program is really intense with activities almost everyday and every weekend. We are starting in January so that they will cross in February before mid-terms. We did all our selections this semester (we didn't pledge anyone due to personal problems within the sorority). I think our next couple of lines will be big.
I also wanted to know how many nms do you take in a pledge class, that could really determine how long the process will be? or at least one deciding factor.

Our chapter uses the maximum eight weeks simply because its so hard to get everyone together. Since most of our sisters and new members work 20-35 hours a week it is very difficult to get them together more than once a week. If we had a four week program we might only have them all together 4-6 times through the whole program for ribboning, pinning, big/littles, new member meetings etc. Plus we're a commuter school so if a sisters has a different schedule than a new member she may never run into her on campus. We need the time to have enough activities to get to know one another!

My chapter currently has a 7 week nm program, but one of those weeks is basically a "Get ready" week after Bid Day, where they have time to scavenge for white dresses and arrange their schedules to have Sunday nights free.

Gamma Phi Beta as an international organization is transitioning to a new program, called the Complete Sister Program, which has 8, 10, and 12-week lengths. I think my chapter is planning on using the 8-week one because otherwise we'd be waiting a semester to initiate.

My chapter's pledge period is generally 6 weeks but last semester for special circumstances it was stretched to 8 weeks. I really liked the 6 weeks b/c then I was initiated by spring break when I was a pledge.

8 weeks
 

eight weeks, with 1 week of "hell". its not that bad though.

6 Weeks, Including Happy Fun Week.

I pledged for 8 weeks, but that was a long time ago.

Theta's is 4-6 weeks. On my campus, we always did the 6 week option - two times a semester at my campus.

Ours, nationally, must be a minimum of 4 weeks but a maximum of 10. Honestly, there is so much material to learn for the national membership exam that I believe most chapters take the full 10 weeks.

pledgeship
 

pledgeship should be long, hard and tough to pull out.

Go Sammy:D ;)

I was kidding btw.
 

Our pledge period is eight weeks from the time the bid is accepted and then you get initiated immediately after submiting your materials to IHQ and that is at the conclusion of eight weeks which is plenty. Most members unfortunately don't know as much as the people that are being initiated sometimes so why make them wait beyond eight weeks.

Go Sammy House!!!!!!!!!

It's a full semester and then you are initiated early the next semester when grades come out (assuming you made grades).

I am assuming the pledges meet everyday and they have lots of assignments if they are to be done at four to six weeks...... That doesnt sound like enough time. I notice in our univ. its usually two to three months........

Our New Member Program is designed to be between six and eight weeks long. I did eight weeks last semester with my COB crop, and I'm going to do eight weeks again for the girls in formal recruitment. Technically, it is eight weeks plus a "zero week", which is the week after Bid Day. With Labor Day and Fall Break, it amounts to seven meetings. There are eight chapters in the Phi manual, so it makes it so much easier to do eight weeks. Six weeks is doable, but I feel like the girls (Phis AND sisters) feel somewhat overprogrammed, because Phi retreat, revealing, etc. all come one weekend after another.

However, I don't think that any group, no matter how long the pledge period, needs to have their new members meeting every day! We have our meetings on Sundays, just like our regular business meeting. What's the point of stressing them out by having them meet every day? What type of "assignments" could possibly require that much work, even pushed into a four to six week period? Just curious.

Nationally, our MIT period needs to be in between 4-10 weeks. Normally our chapter would choose 8 weeks, though spring semester we have two weeks of spring break, so it drags initiation out just a tad longer... but it's good to wait. ;)

pledge period and grades
 

ADPi has a 4-6 week pledge period. It has never seemed that this was inadequate in covering the essential material. It seems short now looking back, but when I was an Alpha, 6 weeks lasted forever. It was enough time for me to be certain that I loved the sorority (I was skeptical about Greek life as a whole) and to meet so many of the sisters.

It never hurt our GPA...we had the highest GPA on campus for like 5 years (I don't know about this past year since I graduated). There were times when our Alphas had a GPA higher than the sisters. We do have high grade standards during recruitment and we also had several academic things in place such as study buddies, study hours, etc. to help new members maintain their grades and adjust to college life.