Pledge Education Course
 

Hello Brothers!

I was recently elected Pledgemaster for my chapter, and I must say, I am a little overwhelmed. Any ideas or stories about running a successful pledge education course?
Many thanks!

OK, looked up Zeta Pi (Wayne State), looks like the last 4-5 pledge classes have been in the 8-12 pledge range.


First of all, I'd make sure that someone updates the chapter web page, Having "Rush Winter 2009" isn't exactly helpful to rush...

Other than that...
I'd suggest that the chapter officers give the talks on the relevant area of the pledge manual (leadership for the President, National and Chapter History for the historian, etc.).

There is nothing wrong with having a chapter based pledge manual in addition to the National one, so the pledges learn about chapter history including standard chapter service projects and other related things.

Talk to Eta Pi, maybe one or more weeks the pledge class meetings can be combined, it gives the pledges the feeling that there is a fraternity beyond the chapter. Joint ceremonies are also acceptable...

Just some ideas...

Randy

Cool! I have an addendum to the national pledge manual, I am trying to get the Pledge program of Excellence Award. I have been trying to reach Eta Pi, no luck :(

Our website, unfortunately, is out of our control because one of our last webmasters ran off with the password and we have no idea how to even begin to solve that problem.

My pledge class was seven people, two de-pledged and one couldnt pay....My pledgemaster was kind of indifferent to us, and I am trying to foster more friendship in the pledge class because I am not gonna lie, my pledge class is almost not friendly at all.

What's in the addendum, chapter history and projects? PPoE is cool... Don't stress that you can't contact them over the summer, I've seen everything in Summer activity from *no one* on campus to Summer pledge classes(Rare!). The Chairman of the Advisor Committee is Fr. J. Timothy Hipskind, his phone number and email are at http://www.udmercy.edu/academicaffai...tact/index.htm

The website is still under the school domain. At worst they should be able to entirely move the current web page elsewhere and let you start from scratch, but given that the content is available through the web, you should be able to grab what's currently there. The Director of Student Activities Office should know how to set up new organization websites, the same people should be able to reset the password or clean it...

Make sure the fellowship links go both within the pledge class and to the chapter, big brothers should help with the second, IMO a pledge lock-in can help with the first...

Talk with your Section Chair about getting in contact with neighboring chapters. He can be reached by email at section.55.chair@apo.org, and I know he is quite responsive.

The contact info is soo useful!!!! Love love love!
I am probably going to ask our historian to look into the website.
I am going to talk with the membership chair about how the big/little program is going to be structured; I think lack of structure IS the problem.
Don't mean to sound stupid, but do elaborate on the pledge lock in.....

And yes, I have most definately stayed in contact with Doug, he is an awesome resource, and on our way to Membership Academy in Iowa, we talked a lot. I will be talking to him way more, as I do really feel like our chapter NEEDS to interact with the ones around us.

Not quite sure... I pledged more than 25 years ago, maybe someone who is not as old as Dirt can reply?

Very cool. If you need a little thought to help you through it... Just remember what Epsilon Lambda at Michigan Tech has to go through... And don't feel that you need to be limited by either your section or your region. University of Toledo isn't that far away!

Also, perhaps Alpha Phi Omega can get involved with the Wooden Shoes trophy, Grand Valley State now has a chapter...

re: Pledge Lock-In
 

My chapter had them, though we called it a "Pledge Retreat."

On a weekend night about 2 weeks into the pledge semester, we'd reserve a large room on campus from say, 7pm-2am*. The only people allowed in were pledges and pledge staff. There was lots and lots of food, games (both icebreakers and regular board games), and general silliness. I remember it being a great time for pledges to interview each other for their sig books. The active brothers "crashed" (this was planned) towards the end of the night, after the pledges had had ample time to bond with each other.


*This is approximate. Looking back, it felt like six to eight hours' worth of fun but who knows. I know it always ended well after midnight.

Ahhh! That sounds nice, I would love to plan that activity for the pledge class. Schedules seem to ALWAYS get in the way of things though. Most students at Wayne State University work and go to school, and some (myself included) have families to consider.
That shouldn't get in the way of a great idea though.
I like it!

I noticed that I did not answer naraht's question about what is in the addendum....

There is the requirements for pledge program completion, a syllabus, Interview sheets, service record sheet, fellowship record sheet, chapter history, and trivia. In total, the addendum is 20 pages long.

Now I do realize some of those sheets are in the Pledge Manual, however, my chapter has historically had a problem getting their hands on the actual manual, whether it be from the National Office or online, before the pledge program starts.
Also, my pledge binder had them, and I modeled my binder after my pledge class, seeing as I had to reinvent the wheel after our last TWO Pledgemasters ended their journey at WSU and never looked back.

That's cool. I *might* add a general description of service projects which have been done regularly, but that's about all I can think of.

http://www.apo.org/site/site_files/pledgemanual.pdf

Previous pledge masters... Ouch.

Nice. I think I will include two projects from my pledge class, and one of our annual projects; I have the 2011-2012 Manual, which actually leads me to another question: Is another edition going to be put out?
I plan to assemble my binders for both Fall and Winter Pledge class at the same time, and I just want to make sure before I spend the chapters money on a MAJOR print job.

And yes, officer retention for my chapter sucks :(

As opposed to back in the 1950s, over the last 30 years, the Fraternity has put out one pledge manual for each convention cycle. So a new pledge manual won't be produced until after the 2012 convention. The one on apo.org is good for this fall.

Fall and Winter pledge classes? Is Wayne State on a quarter system or is the Winter pledge class the one that starts in January/February?

As for the pledge manuals, you can order those from the National Office for free, pick a large enough number that you are sure and order them. Beats having to have the chapter pay for printing...

Wayne is on the semester system, The Winter pledge class is the one that starts January/February.
So I am guessing that it would be wise to wait on the winter binder assembly, since convention is in December, right?:confused:

I asked the chapter president to order the manuals for me. I feel like 20 would be a fairly decent number if we are ordering for fall and winter, half that if we only order for one semester.

I should look this up, but just in case I can't find it: Do chapters have to pay s&h?

You are sooo helpful by the way; sometimes I feel like no one in my chapter knows anymore than I do and that I am just shooting wildly into air, hoping I hit something! :)

Chapters do have to pay for Shipping & Handling, so if you have stuff to order it is best to package as much as you can. I always recommend chapters order:

- Enough pledge books for this semester and next (just in case you get a large pledge class, and so you have ex
- 100 of the "Leave college with more than a degree" and 100 of the "Make college more rewarding" pamphlets for recruitment tables
- Enough pledge pins to up the chapter supply to cover your pledges

One of my chapters just made this order, and I think shipping came out to $15 or $18 (they ordered 40 pledge books)

-Justin

Forgot ALL ABOUT the pins. Before I left my post as treasurer, I was supposed to authorize a pin purchase :eek:

That is perfect, that only takes 20 out of my overall budget for pledge education!!! w00t!

Also the recruiting pamphlets are an excellent idea Justin. I will talk to our membership chair about that!

All my Brothers are amazing Lifesavers! I am learning so much from everyone!

Don't wait on the Winter Binders...
 

My guess is that the changes in the pledge manual after convention won't be complete before pledging starts and even if it is available as a PDF, it may not be as a hard copy version from the National Office. Maybe they've gotten better, I don't know.

(If the national board went after chapters for either using old pledge manuals or old pledge rituals in the winter/spring after convention, there wouldn't be much of a fraternity left).

That is perfect, I won't wait then.
My chapter has a requirement that the pledges complete 3 Tests and a Final Exam.
On each test I give 20 questions; half multiple choice and half short answer. The pledges have 30 minutes to complete each test. I haven't gotten to the Final Exam yet.

But are the test requirements reasonable? I don't want to overwhelm the pledges.

General guidance...
 

I've been told that at the *extreme* end that pledging should take no more time than one class, this isn't there. But I've seen things tested for in other chapters in pledging that my chapter wouldn't have even thought about. I know one chapter expects the entire purpose to be memorized (because there is a youtube video of a pledge singing it to Yankee Doodle) and I know of at least two chapters where the pledges are expected to know the pledge class of every active brother and what position they had in it.

I also wouldn't make it that much beyond what the current brothers know. If an active brother would fail the test, its either too hard or the actives need a refresher course. I definitely would test the following: Greek Alphabet, anything on the APO Symbols page(Golden Eagle, etc.), chapters in the section, location of section/region, etc.

I also *thoroughly* support extra credit questions given in advance *with* the understanding that the pledges can share that information among them. These could be things like (at various levels of difficulty)
For 5 points, where is Zeta Pi chapter of APO-Philippines? (Marian College) For 5 more points, on what two days did it charter. 12/3/83 (Fraternity) & 12/7/83 (Sorority)

For 5 points, what section was Wayne State in prior to 55? (54) For 5 more points when did it change (between the Spring 2005 and Spring 2006 conferences, so August of 2005 officially, I believe)

For 5 more points, what section was it in prior to 54? (19) For 5 more points, when did it change (Between Con-con and the 1968 convention).

Note, any pledge who manages to track down the answers to all 6 of these extra credit questions should be initiated on the spot and made historian. :)

Wow, I had no idea about all of that, and I was pledge class historian when I pledged.

Our pledge education course is 10 weeks, and each week, Pledges are asked to read about 10 pages of the pledge manual. I hand out 1-2 worksheets that highlight the main points in the pledge manual, and on those worksheets are 10 questions that can be answered in 1-2 sentences IF THEY READ( as college students usually don't do). We go over the worksheets in the next class. If a pledge completes the worksheets, they will have no problem with the tests, due to the fact that I use the same questions from the worksheets on the test.

On each test, there is one extra credit question worth anywhere from 12 to 24 points.
Those questions ask pledges to write out the Scout Oath, Scout Law, one verse of the Toast Song, name all the chapters in Section 55, write a short biography of The Chief, etc. The points correspond to the difficulty of what the question asks.

Since those are extra credit, they aren't all or nothing type questions; whatever you write correctly is the number of points you get.

The sheets will also be available to the actives; and don't worry; I don't test on difficult or esoteric things that even actives can't be expected to know.

Knowing that, do you feel that is comparable to a regular course, lighter, or heavier?

Don't feel bad. Not only don't they let me participate in APO Trivia contests, they've gotten wary of me running them as well. :)

Sounds *quite* reasonable. Though if you actually test the pledges on any of the three pages in the Graphical Standards Guide (37-39), I will track you down and...

LOL!

Glad you think that is reasonable, and NO WAY will I test on the graphics standards!

I could, however, make that a punishment...... *cue evil laugh*

Hmm. I don't know what Hank Nuwer would say about that....

;) :D :)

Keep us up to date as the semester goes along. BTW, any luck contacting UDMercy?

Sent an email, left a voicemail, no luck.
I will make a quick trip to UDM as soon as the semester is underway to see what we can get worked out.
I will most definitely keep everyone up to date, you all have been so much help!

See if your section chair has information on when meetings are held. Also try contacting the Chair of the Advisory Committee.

GET A ROOM

Chime in anytime...
 

The conversation was never intended as private. Please chime in at any time, and on any point...

I did chime in.

When the level of back-and-forth gets THIS specific, the public benefit is minimal.

UPDATE!
 

The semester is about to begin, and today is actually FestiFall, aka Student Org day.

So far, I have more than a few people interested in the requirements, but I am hearing a lot about the issue of time commitment.


Any suggestions on how to address that concern?

Have the schedule from a previous semester to illustrate number of meetings they need to attend and when the service projects are. Know what the number of required service hours are and any other similar time commitments.

Maybe find someone in the chapter who participates in other organizations as a comparison. "Michaela is both active in the chapter and is Vice president of the Environmentalism club"...

This wasn't as much of an issue for me, APO was the other student group I belonged to my four years. :(

3 weeks and some days until the first Pledge Course!
 

So, I am almost finished with the entire curriculum for our ten-week pledge education course.

I managed to get the VP of Fellowship to agree to speak to the pledge class.
Working on getting the VP of Service to speak about planning a service project.

Still havent gotten my pledge class budget approved though :(

I think in my chapter just about every meeting (other than the first and last?) had a chapter officer as a speaker. Sometimes the connection was a little shaky (corresponding secretary talking about some of the stuff at the national level) but for the most part...

Too bad on the budget. They generally don't let brothers from my chapter (Kappa) talk about fundraising, our experiences aren't useful for most chapters.

Response from Eta Pi!
 

HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY!

I got a response from Eta Pi!
I requested their calender, and I am going to make sure that I send them Zeta Pi's calender.

They like the idea of joint classes and service projects, we just have to figure out what's convenient.

Next, to present my findings to the chapter prez and membership chair!

That's great! I'd drop a note to the section chair as well do let him know that this succeeded.

Make sure that your chapter also likes this idea...

Hence talking to the chapter prez before I actually make any definitive plans. Our chapter is pretty busy and I want to see if joint projects will meet the scheduling needs of both Zeta Pi and Eta Pi. Ultimately it is her say on whether the joint classes and projects happen; my burden was mostly research.

But invites to ceremonies can probably be extended regardless...