Co-Ed Fraternity needs ideas for new member period
 

I'm in a co-ed fraternity, and in the fall we're going to start having official new member periods, and are doing bigs and littles for the first time

I'm the new Pledge Mom, and am looking for ideas for the new member period, especially for big/little revealing.

Any ideas?

What were you doing "unofficially"? How were members educated previously?

We didn't really have a new member period. After people turned in their applications, they were just regular members and we had an inductions ceremony towards the end of the semester.

A lot of our members are in social fraternities or sororities as well, so previous leadership hadn't wanted to do bigs/littles and new member period. But our organization has grown a lot, and we've decided to start doing these this year.

Is this Alpha Phi Omega? If so, and even if not so, it would be best if you not call yourself "pledge mom." That reeks of sorority and will alienate men who want to pledge. Pledge trainer or pledge educator or pledgemaster are fine.

If this is a service fraternity, pledges should have to complete a certain number of service hours.

I'm not sure how men do big/little in fraternities, but again, stay away from anything that is too sorority like (string, squealing, etc) or it will alienate men who want to join.

Some *large* Alpha Phi Omega chapters have both a pledge mom and a pledge dad in a given semester. All of the chapters I've seen that have that are on pretty liberal campuses and have pledge classes on the high side of 30...

Well, considering that apparently people just signed up and paid their $$ and were automatically members by doing absolutely nothing, I'm hoping to heaven this is NOT Alpha Phi Omega.

*Unless* this is a newly (re)chartered chapter of Alpha Phi Omega, and what she described as happening before is the situation of the Petitioning Group with a Petitioning Group Ceremony at the end of the semester. That is possible, but for an APO chapter to start using pledge mom immediately would be somewhat unusual...

I hopefully await information on whether the co-ed fraternity is Alpha Phi Omega, and if it is, which of the chapters it is...

Randy

uh we have a ritual ceremony for Big/Little revealing. idk how other fraternities do it.

So.. unless you want to go write up a ritual...

Wear matching costumes or tshirts for big and little reveal.

We don't know.

In APO we use a pledge program, but each chapter is free to develop their own specific program, so long as it follows our 20-point 'National Pledging Standard'. Many chapters have big/littles (we just rolled out an optional big/little ceremony that chapters can use, if they want). I've never heard the term "pledge mom" in APO. Its usually pledgemaster, pledge trainer, or the like.

Now, because some schools may not allow our chapters to use a proper pledge program, we do have an 'alternate new member education program' that can be used. At those school, they are basically forced (by the school, mind you) to do exactly that: induct people directly as members of APO, afterwhich we then have to educate them into what APO is all about. AFAIK, this is done at only a small number of schools.

It's not APO, it's Phi Alpha Delta, a pre-law fraternity.

And the official title is New Member Educator, between our all female exec board though we've been calling it "Pledge Mom."

We have national rules that as I have been told basically say, if you pay, you're a member.

In co-ed groups, it doesn't matter if the officers are male or female, office titles should be gender neutral. Especially since different officers are elected year to year. Quit calling it "pledge mom" and stick with "NME" if you must have a nickname. Males do not want to pledge a group where their only educator is a "mom."

QFP

Phi Alpha Delta is a professional fraternity, and you're in a pre-law chapter. If your International Organization wanted you to have these traditions or operations
a) you'd get them from Phi Alpha Delta HQ
b) it wouldn't state on the pre-law membership form that "this is a Professional Law Fraternity, and not a Greek organization http://www.chaptertools.net/site_fil...1231292279.pdf
c) you wouldn't have to ask us
d) your previous leadership wouldn't have been able to be against it, as it would be standard operating procedure

This isn't even mainstream Phi Alpha Delta, it is a pre-law chapter and there is absolutely NO REASON for you to pursue this. I suggest you drop it before Phi Alpha Delta HQ finds out, as it is clear and plain on this form http://www.chaptertools.net/site_fil...1244659165.pdf that they are not okay with "pledge education" events, even though your spirit and intention may be different, is it worth having your chapter shut down? Even if all of you want to do it, that doesn't mean you can, or should.

Um. Wow. This definitely falls into the category of

"Posts which should only be read *after* getting into Radiation Suits"

:eek:

I wasn't ready, either!

GC is finally getting back to what it used to be. At least a little.

If it wasn't on the web, I wouldn't know. I mean honestly, that isn't the purpose of Phi Alpha Delta. I told a friend who is a member at a Law School Chapter, and their facial expression was :confused:. I used google and found the information out, why couldn't the OP?

Open Membership Policy
 

Phi Alpha Delta is proud to be a professional fraternity that embraces inclusion, not exclusion. We were the first of the law fraternity's to welcome members of all religions, races, genders and, in 1980, pre-law members into our midst. Our Open Membership Policy precludes chapters from requiring an interested student to do anything to join other than:

1) Complete the official membership application;
2) Submit their International Initiation Fee;
3) Submit any local chapter dues that have been duly adopted and incorporated into your local by-laws; and
4) Take the oath of membership.

The bonds of Fraternalism in P.A.D. are created as we pursue our common interest in the law, regardless of whether you are a Pre-Law, Law or Law Alumni member. There is nothing to be gained by requiring interested students to memorize greek letters, the Fraternity's history or the like and only your chapter charter to be lost.

Please go to www.pad.org and take the Open Membership Policy Course at our online learning center - P.A.D. University. I think you will find it enlightening and very helpful (along with the other courses available on our Alcohol Policy, our Anti-Hazing Policy, and our Financial Policy).

As an officer of the chapter you will be receiving an email from the Executive Office in the next week or so with your first course assignments at P.A.D. University. Please make sure that you and the other officers have your most current email addresses on file with the Executive Office so that we can ensure you get the email. Chapter's whose officers fail to take, and pass, our required P.A.D. University courses risk the suspension or revocation of their chapter charters, so it is important to take these. That being said, the courses are very short (10 minutes or so each) and the quizes after them are less than 10 questions. In the history of P.A.D. University less than 10 out of 1000 tests have failed.

I'd also like you to contact the Executive Office to discuss any questiosn you may have. We are happyt to set up a conference call with the officers to answer your questions. You should also plan on attending the Leadership Symposia nearest you, as well as the Pre-Law Conference. You can find more information on both at the website.

Fraternally,

Byron K. Rupp
Director of Pre-Law Operations

You can try a jeporady game to educate the members about the chapter information.

For big/little you can have the bigs leave a gift and clues about who they are for their littles for a few days then think of some sort of ceremony to reveal the bigs to the littles.

Duct tape 'em to light poles and make 'em say they're pledges of another co-ed fraternity.

Play "Duck Hunt" with 'em.

Echoing what 33girl said:
I know I'm something of an old timer, but gifts and games about who your big brother is squeels sorority to me.

Ok, so maybe I can help you out....

I'm the New Member educator of a co-ed profession chemistry fraternity, as well as a member of a social sorority.

For Big/Little revealing: We have the bigs deliver "bids" to their littles the day after our final rush event. We get their dorm numbers, or apartment numbers and tell them to be there and available from Xtime-Xtime. Somewhere in there they get a knock on their door and surprise! It's their big :) I know I had so much fun both finding out my bigs, and revealing to my little bro.

As far as games to learn to material, we do worksheets weekly, but towards the end (we give them an exam at the end of their pledge period) we play games like trivial pursuit, and this one game... not really sure what to call it but everyone loves it! You split into teams, and ask a question. The first team to run to the whiteboard and answer correctly gets a point.

Hope some of these ideas help!

I know many people in sororities think that a co-ed Fraternity shouldn't be calling their "pledge trainer" a "pledge mom" because it might scare away the males, I have to beg to differ. Speaking from experience, I was in a co-ed Fraternity and we had a pledge mom. It was usually women who filled the position, anyway, but if men did, they were pledge dads. The guys in my pledge class did not mind whatsoever, they in fact LOVED their "MILF". :D

Also, in addition, for our Big/Little Reveal we just held it in a large lecture room on campus. All of the Brothers sat in the upper rows, with the new pledges in the first few rows. The pledge mom went in the front of the room and made up a cute and short poem about each big(s), and in alphabetical order, called each pledge to the front. They stood in the front of the room while the Pledge Mom read the poem about their big (ie. "Your big loves football and hopes you do too, when you're with her you won't feel blue. Your big is ___ _____" - That of course is really bad, rough example). Then, they would play a song that their Big picked out (some even had family songs which were tradition) and they big would come down, give them their gifts (mainly ridiculous outfits to wear, so it was fun to put them on your little in front of all the Brothers/pledges), take pictures with just the Big/Little and then the whole family. It was very exciting as a pledge!

33girl was also in a co-ed fraternity as well as a sorority, so I'm guessing she speaks from experience too. Speaking from my experience (as a guy), I'd pretty much agree with what she said.

'Cause that's the dynamic you're going for. :rolleyes:


FWIW, we (in my non-co-ed fraternity) had a very simple way of telling probationary members who their big brothers were -- your big brother pinned your probationary member pin on you at the pledging ceremony. I liked that way of doing it.

I hadn't realized 33girl was also in a co-ed fraternity, my apologies to her. I wasn't trying to be condescending or mean or anything, just making a suggestion from my own personal experience. And the MILF thing was a joke, just trying to show that it didn't really scare the guys off....

Gotcha.

Our APO chapter had enough problems with "incest" without calling anyone a MILF. Bwah.

At any rate, padprelaw (who is a poobah in the OP's org) has put the kibosh on any squealing or big/littling, so I don't know why there were any posts after his.

I'm not sure I really understand what "squealing" is, then?

OMG THAT IS THE CUTEST SWEATSHIRT OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PUFFY PAINTED CUP U R 2 AWESOME OMG I LOVE MY BIG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lol. I was wondering as well, but that explains it.

Lol, so what I described is constituted as squealing? Just curious, never knew.

I not only married another brother, I started dating her while I was a staff member and she was a member of a Petitioning Group/Pledge (Her "pledge class" was petititioners who joined after the charter application, so at chartering, they became pledges).

(take the issues of brothers dating pledges and get the RD involved. :) )

Randy

Now I got a question. If two brothers have a kid, would it considered a double legacy?

Although we don't have an official definition of what "legacy" means for APO, I personally would consider that child a double legacy.

I guess David, Joshua and Nathan would be. I don't know of any APO brothers who had both parents as brothers, but its possible (First women officially in 1976 as full brothers). (My oldest will enter college in 2014.)

Randy

^^^ Jerry's daughter is technically a double legacy

And the funny thing is she didn't tell him she was pledging until after she was initiated...

Not quite. He was invited to the initiation ceremony in which she was initiated, as a surprise to him. I think he pinned her.