This is why I said reread my posts. I never complained about learning the greek alphabet for a week. I, at least twice, said that we didn't have to learn the greek alphabet, and I am perfectly fine with that. What I originally said is that my biological sister pledged the year before me when she had a full semester pledge program. I was in the first NM class with a 6 week program. I said that she felt we had no difference in pledge education except that she was required to learn a little more extraneous information and go to pledge meetings for a few more months. I get a little irritated when people take my words out of context or completely misrepresent my words. And...you did say, and I quote, "If your new member program taught you nothing more important than the Greek alphabet, the problem is the new member program - not learning the Greek alphabet, but failing to have any programming that taught you anything more important. Perhaps you should address the issue with your HQ." This statement was inflammatory,rude and yes...critical, especially since nowhere in my posts did I say that I learned nothing more important than the greek alphabet in my NM program. I still contend that learning the greek alphabet is helpful but not the end all, be all of greek life! In the end, if your sorority feels it is important to learn the greek alphabet, that's their decision. I think it's neither good nor bad...

Not meant to be inflammatory, nor rude - simply trying to point out that you made an issue of the alphabet and its place in new member programs specific to your experience and that if it was a problem then rather than complain about it the thing to do would be to address it with your GLO.That's not meant as a criticism in other than a constructive way. I truly believe that if you were unhappy with your program (even though it was some time ago) the thing to do is change it .
Your sister has pointed out that AOII has a new membership program,and given the direction NMPs have taken I think it is fair to say, even with no knowledge specifically of it, that AOII has probably addressed some of your concerns with superficial or trivial material.
You have reacted to me and other posters as though you have been personally attacked. I certainly am not attacking you, and I think the other posters were supporting the idea of learning the Greek alphabet rather than lambasting you. I want to focus the discussion on how different GLOs are addressing issues facing us with shortened new member periods and the implementation of new programs. We're all interested in the same thing I'm sure - how to juggle the demands of preparing new members, keeping them involved as actives, and furthering the experience as alumnae. So shall we get back on topic?

Actually, yes it is. My chapter was Gamma Omicron. Our sorority also has a chapter named Gamma Omega. Our mail got reversed because the person working at HQ didn't know the Greek alphabet and we got in trouble for "refusing mail" when actually it was Gamma Omega who did so.

I'm not sure that your interpretation of spending a week on the Greek alphabet and nothing else in your old pledge program is correct - it would be helpful if we could actually see what the program said.

As Kelli stated, we don't live in a vacuum. You don't just join your sorority, you join the Greek community at your college and around the world. To say knowledge of that community is unimportant to being a good member of your group is untrue.

Learning the alphabet was VERY important. Why?

So that we didn't let the match that our big sisters very holding burn their fingers!:p

From just reading this very interesting thread, I think that, in reaction to risk management issues, many Greek-letter orgs have gone too far afield in membership intake, new member programs, or whatever you want to call them. The raison d'etre of our organizations is brotherhood/sisterhood with a purpose. If you don't have the institutional means facilitiate the building of a certain amount of esprit de corps, your group will degenerate into a social club, which actually suits more young people today who seem to be more narcissistic. As anthropologists tell us and rites-of-passge rituals worldwide show us, these type of initiatory programs are about status transformation,drawing someone out of their previous way of being to broaden them to serve purposes that transcend their self-centered existence which characterized their age of minority. Fraternity/sorority nm programs are in the same general category.

Whoa, Wolfman, You've had your Wheaties today!

Even though young people seem to be more narcissitic in some ways, there is still a tremendous yearning for friendships that are real and lasting, and opportunities to experience a kind of fellowship and family love that many people never do find. Greeks have that to offer! Can we tap into the best part of what we are and sell it?

Odd that we put so much focus on the exclusivity aspect of Greek membership as collegians. After you've been an alum for about one year, most people come to realize that anybody could be your sister/brother. And when you realize that anybody could be...you know that everybody is. What a blessing that realization has been to me in my adult life as I've navigated the workplace, becoming a member of my husband's family, creating relationships with my children's friends and their parents...and involvement in many organizations and activities in my community. Because of my GPB membership experience, I know how to relate to so many people who are so different than me!

I agree with you wholeheartedly.The irony is that the ability to open oneself up to to what you speak of is often directly related to the integral, intentional transformation of human personality through soclialization into real human functioning in community,where one experiences just what you speak of. This often happens through the transformative rituals in society which are meant to do this for the sake of the group. In contrast, much of the socialization in our society is consumeristic and not amenable to this.

Not to sound too pedantic, my experience of pledging opened me up to understand foundational truths about our links with all humankind, but this most often happens through the particularity of a group where one discovers who one is (as a social being) through real relationships, from which one can then generalize to the whole of humanity. (One of my former professors would lecture about this under the term "catholic personality," borrowed from theologian/bishop John Zizoulas.)

Hate to dumb it down, but I'm reminded of Harry Potter and the Sorting Hat. I guess we all have to go thru this sort and identify process as a rite of passage in some way!

I know I'm still learning things about my sorority many years after my initiation, and our membership ed program is constantly evolving. We all seem to be on a shift of talking about "core values" although even that has evolved somewhat since our founding in order to make membership more open and meaningful to a broader group of women. I'm great with that, but we can't talk about values like scholastic achievement and service to community and then put 90% of our resources into social activities. If you want to know what people value, look at how they spend their time and their money. And then you have an idea why our membership ed programs are challenged. We can't "motivate" people to value things that they do not value. So to me, the challenge is to find balance between "social" and "core values" and combine these things in a way that works!

I don't think the social activities are the issue - if you mean mixers, date parties etc - it seems to me that sororities and fraternities these days have LESS of these activities, not more.

Our groups might have evolved in some ways that are beneficial (such as removing exclusionary clauses based on race and religion) but I'd hate to think the purposes our founders had are being changed and diluted to make GLOs more politically correct and palatable to college administrators.

We spent way more time on "business" then we did on socials, etc...
I'd have to say that I doubt our founders meant for us to PC & Robert's Rules ourselves to death.

I agree, there's probably less chapter sponsored socials...but the original question was why are PNMs and new initiates surprised to find out there's more to our orgs than just partying and being showered with gifts?

..I wasn't thinking that our "core values" have been "changed" or "diluted" to please the palate of college administrators (I had a different audience in mind!) but you bring up an interesting point.

and don't get me wrong...I think our orgs have to evolve to remain relevant. Otherwise we'd be having orations, literary or music recitals at our meetings, as they did in the 1870s. eek! The challenge is to retain the founding principles and incorporate them into programming that is meaningful today.

The Gamma Phi PACE program (similiar to many other NPC programs) can be very effective - if it isn't treated as an after-thought, and if the programming is incorporated into the life of the chapter, and not as a 30 minute part of the meeting once a month.

I wasn't sure we were on the same page, so I'm glad you replied. :) So in other words - you think there's a disconnect between the way we market ourselves and what we really are? (i.e., we market ourselves as fun and sisterhood, when really there's LOTS of work involved)

I really admire the Tri-Sigma program concept someone was talking about earlier, with phases that continue throughout your active life. SWTXBelle, you are probably more up on the current GPhiB chapter programming than I am...but I know we have also implemented changes to PACE. Are they similar?

Exactly. I'm not sure we (NPC groups as a whole) do a very good job of communicating the idea that sisterhood doesn't just happen because you put on a t-shirt. You have to work at it. It's through doing things together, experiencing traditions together and working together that sisterhood is formed and cemented.