Initation Question
 

Hey,


OBVIOUSLY i'm not going to talk whats in my sororities initation BUT I do have a question:

I would like to make initation at my sorority a bit more challenging. I have heard pledges say that the initation is easy. As pledge Ed for next year I would like to make intiation more difficult/challenging. However I do not know how to convince the sisters on how to do this. SO i would like tips on if anyone knew how i could approach this, ect. and anything else.

Thanks.

Initiation is not supposed to be a "challenge" or where someone is supposed to prove something to you. Initiations are supposed to be a celebration of the person entering your membership. It should be a ritual where you welcome them...not make them prove themselves. If you want them to prove themselves, then maybe you shouldn't have chosen them for membership in the first place if you're not accepting of them till they do something for you.

Please think about this, seriously....sounds like you're barking up a hazing tree.

Re: Initation Question
 

I agree with TriSigmaTX, it sounds like you are barking up the hazing tree. Initiation is a ceremony of celebration.

If you are looking to make the New Member Education more challenging, you could have tests on your sorority's history or something. Note, this should be covered in education, so that all information can found, not some obscure fact that no one would ever know. You could also do philanthropy projects, etc.

If you are wanting your pledges to "prove" their worthiness, I agree with TriSigmaTX there too, you should not have chosen them in the first place.

TriSig: Ditto

Dionysus - hate to break it to you but that would be considered hazing. It may sound like fun and the intentions may be in fun but it is hazing.

TriSigTX - You are correct!!!


If you have any questions about hazing and what is defined as hazing, by most schools and organizations, you can check out the site http://www.stophazing.org/definition.html.

I know nothing about your sorority, but isn't the initiation supposed to be an even that marks the change of your new member to a full initiate?

An initiation usually involves the revelation of the secrets of the organization and that's pretty much it. Their new member being challening though is another question entirely.

You must be EXTREMELY careful when laying out a plan for your new members, I'd use a committee and use my time during the summer to come up with something good.

Just be certain that everyone knows where the fine lines are as far as hazing goes.


LHT
Kevin

Thanks
 

Thanks for all the suggestions,

Our iniation used to be almost hazing but nothing close! I wouldnt even dare to try that. I got a suggestion from a sister saying that maybe we could incorporate less talking to the pledges-i think the sisters talk a lot to them and have more individual challenges for them-nothing hazing just something to give them a fuller experiance.

I Just wanted some tips on how i could convince my sorority to accept this because they are resistant to change.

Thanks for all the advice tho!

don't make it too hard or you may loose pledges who have a life outside of what you expect from them. just follow what national sends you and make sure they know local history and traditions.

We dont have national standards because you are local. But thanks for the input!

While, I will not divulge any part of the LXA Ritual, it is basically, a Ritual of explaing to the New Associate (Not Pledge ), the true meanings of our Badge and Coat of Arms.

Each and every part has a significance for the Standard of what LXA means and What It Stands For.

It must be something special for the New Active to stand up and say i am Proud to be a member of XYZ Fraternity/Soroity!

I know everytime I see Our Ritual, I get goose bumps on the back of my neck!

No there is no hazing as it not allowed by our Internatioanlal or my self as having been the Founder! Well of the Local Chapter!

Beat a dumb horse and he will still not drink, just still be dumb!

Initiation is supposed to be exciting. But challenging?
My suggestion is to make pledgeship more challenging. Not by hazing though! :) Have pop quizzes to see if they can remember the creed. Think of new ways that they can remember your sorority's history. You can also have a requirement that the participate in a philanthropy project or a school activity outside the sorority or have a certain GPA before initiation. Before I was initiated, we had to do all three before we were initiated.

We're a local, and our initiation actually is a bit of a challenge. It's a way to use what you're supposed to have learned during your pledge period- chapter history, chapter values, etc. Everyone gets through it together, brothers and pledges. And we change it slightly every year, depending on the experiences of the class- incoporating things that they did.

Something you might want to try to make it more special is having more alumni there. That's a huge thing for us- the majority of our alumni come back twice a year for initiation. Granted, we don't have that many of them, but some of them drive hundreds of miles just for that day.

Also, I don't know if it's practical for your ritual, but try doing it somewhere besides the house. We've done it in a hemlock grove on the edge of campus. It means replacing the candles with flashlights, and posting a guard on the path, but it makes for an interesting ceremony.

You might want to try posting in the locals group- you'll find a lot more variety there than with the stuffy old nationals. :p

Almost everything can be considered hazing these days. I think it also depends on the organization and campus. In some places you cannot give tests because it is hazing. Even pledge olympics are considered hazing because it is something only pledges take part in. Just be careful and research your organizations and campus' rules on what constitutes hazing for you.

Almost everything can be considered hazing these days. I think it also depends on the organization and campus. In some places you cannot give tests because it is hazing. Even pledge olympics are considered hazing because it is something only pledges take part in. Just be careful and research your organizations and campus' rules on what constitutes hazing for you.

A good ritual is a finely crafted work of art. In my fraternity it has a way of putting the initiate, actives, and alumni, all on an equal footing. It's hard to explain without explaining it, which I can't.

Suffice it to say that even after it's over, it takes the newly initiated a little bit of time to come to the realization that this is how it was supposed to happen, and indeed, always has.

No hazing is involved; no one is touched. And yet I've seen alot of guys break down and cry. A bond is formed later on in the ceremony with the explanation of what happened, along with explanations of our symbols and mottos.

An excellent initiation takes a LOT of labor, research, thought, and revisions before being set down permanently. Then it should be standardized and followed to the letter henceforth.

Sorry I couldn't be more explicit about our own, but it's still a pleasure to offer some advice and perhaps help someone else out. Good luck.

Jono

I pretty much agree with all of the other posters, you're not supposed to "challenge" your initates... you're supposed to embrace them into your circle. You earn your pin every day in the way you represent your GLO. not in one night....... It's not the ritual that counts, (i'm not saying it's not important) It's your daily interactions with your sisters (or brothers)

Em

Jono, thank you for explaining what I would like to have said!

I for one know that when a Brother has not seen our Ritual in long time they get the same feeling I do when I see it as I see it at least onece a year!

It is a truely inspiring time for all of us!

The greatest thing is when you go back and talk to some of the Brothers and after they have seen it a few times really come to the realization of what it all means!

All new Associates are scared to death as it is an unknown. But when they see what it means, they cannot beleive how rich and rewarding it is!

Initiation shouldn't be challenging at all unless mentally... It seems that if you're being initiated than you have EARNED your right to be there in the first place.

Initiation is both an end and a beginning.

What if someone were to enter your initiation ritual and then fail the challenge?

I agree with what pretty much everyone else said here.

My sorority's initation ceremony is beautiful, wonderful, and meaningful all at the same time.

I remember every anticipatory moment of it, and I still get a twinge of that feeling when we initiate a new class every semester.

I know that if at initiation I had felt that I needed to go through a challenge or prove myself to the sisterhood, that my pledgeship would have been in-vain and I would have considered walking out right there.

~From someone not in one of the "big" national houses.

Not to change the subject... but what's that supposed to mean?

A few posts back someone called all the "national" houses stuffy.

My house isn't NPC, but we are national, and we have essentially the same rules you all do.

I was just making a point that not only the big houses have rules. AKA...you guys AREN'T stuffy, you're in the norm.

I could see how I could be misconstrued, though.

There ya go.

pledging
 

i just recently went through pledging a month ago so i guess my thoughts on it are kinda new. i don't believe we were hazed or anything like that, although things were "challenging" at times. like some other memebers said it was to teach us about the history what we were about, it also got my pledge class to really bond and work together to get through it. everything we did to become sisters had a reason which we realized in the end. of course when your pledging your like these girls are crazy!, but alot of it is fun too. to make pledging more interesting i guess just get more involved with the pledges. i know time and schedules can be an issue but i really felt closer to the active sisters when we actually went out somewhere and hung out and had activities.
Tiramasu
DELTA PHI MU
the girls in pink and bluedelta

I do not know about your organization but ritual is written and cannot be changed or altered. How can you alter ritual. It is written in your documents and you cannot simply decide to change or add to it. Ritual is what binds all chapters of one organization together they all do it the same. If your chapter does something additional to make it more "challenging" then it would not be the same as your other chapters of your organization. Not to mention all of the other aspects of the hazing portion of the idea of making new members work for initiation.....

Good luck!
 

I know you're a local, which may work a little differently. But the NPC sororities follow a strict set of guidelines. Once new members receive a bid, the only thing that should set them apart from the chapter is that they do not yet participate in meeting ritual and they attend new member education/take a standardized final exam to qualify for initation (and be paid up, naturally). Anything else can be seen as hazing. At no time must they prove themselves "worthy"-- that is what the recruitment selection process is for and why NPC sororities don't "black-ball" new members like fraternities can.

Initation is not supposed to be a challenge; it is supposed to be an evening of enlightenment. The new member period should be a time of getting acclimated and testing the waters. Sisters should do all they can to work on new member retention-- taking the new sisters out with them, studying together, calling them regularly to see how they're doing, developing their friendships and going the extra mile to integrate the new members into chapter life.

If you need a challenge--For an alternative, why don't you plan a chapter-wide event during initation week like a "ropes course"-- an outdoorsy obstacle course that challenges you to work as a team. This will deepen the sisterhood bonds, get the natural leaders to emerge and give the new members a chance to feel fully integrated into the chapter. I think you are trying to make initation feel more like an accomplishment than a challenge?-- this can be played up through your big/littles interaction, in chapter, with little awards, in new member ed, etc. Maybe it is too late with this new member class, but you could certainly start this with the next!

Good luck. And even though you may not be NPC, there are still guidelines you must follow as a GLO on your campus, I am sure. Don't cave in to controversy to satisfy a few because you risk your local getting called into question, put on probation or shut down. And that would be the biggest challenge of all.

I'm sure you'll do a great job! Again, good luck!

I don't believe that ThetokenCanuck was actually trying necessarily to make it more "difficult" for members during initiation, or in any way say she wanted her chapter to haze people. I think she was just trying to make initiation more of a rewarding experience so to speek, to make it feel like more of an accopmlishment rather than a formality. There are ways of doing this without hazing.