alternatives to the word "pledge"
 

For the NPC members, when did the term "pledge" (or other term specific to your GLO) stop being used in favor of "New Member?"

For the NIC members, do you have a different term that is used instead of "pledge?"

am sure someone will jump in with the exact year but it seems like about 10 years ago??? Around the time of the advent of RFM

We started using "pearls" around 20 years ago in ASA, now it's supposed to be "pearl member."

I think it was in the mid-90s.

The correct Phi Tau terminology is "Associate Member".
However; I am "old school" and sometimes refer to them as "pledges", sorry!!!

I guess some habits are hard to break...

In the early 1990s, I pledged a local sorority. I was a pledge. My pledge sisters and I were initiated ~6 weeks after pledging.

At the time, there were 4 NPC sororities on campus. One of them referred to their new members as pledges, and held off initiation for a full semester, for grades. The other three called their new members "new members" and initiated them within a few weeks.

When my local became an AEPhi colony, we were "new members", not pledges, and we were initiated after ~6 weeks.

In NPC-land, I believe all new members are called "new members" these days.

I don't see anything wrong with "pledge" or "rush" but I'm an old fogey, what do I know?

I was a freshman in 1991. We were pledges. My senior year, fall 1994, our chapter went to "New Member" and the shortened pledge periods. Our chapter was one of the last in my organization to convert, but only the 2nd (out of 9 at the time) on my campus to do so. I think by 1997 all on campus were in the new terminology and shortened pledgeships.. except ChiO.

ADPi was the first on our campus to convert, and they did so in 1992 or 1993. That was the trend at the time for their organization too.

So, yeah, early to mid 90s.

Provisional Member

Know the feeling all too well!

Alpha Delta Pi went from pledge to Alpha/New Member in 1992. At first, the newbies were the Alphas, the initiated sisters were Deltas, and the Alumnae were Pis. You can only imagine why so many alums didn't go for the "Pi" appellation.

Bwhahah. That's why AXiDs don't like to be called Fuzzies. lol

I recall being told, when I became a province officer in, oh, 1998, that the change was agreed to by all NPC groups.
Personally - the old terms are simple, one syllable, and everybody still uses them. I think we should go back.
But that's just my opinion!

Not NIC, but Sinfonia uses "probationary member" (sometimes shortened to "PM" or "probate"). We were transitioning from "pledge" to "probationary member" when I pledged* in the early 80s.


*We still use "pledge" as a verb to refer to the act of becoming a probationary member.

This was 40 years ago: sometimes pledges in our group were called neophytes, an appropriate term but somewhat unusual terminology within an NPC group.

My opinion coincides with yours.

One of those things where the majority (or all) were simply wrong.

George Carlin did a really funny bit years ago about our need to add syllables to words. The example he used was Shell Shock became Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. And he contended that by adding syllables you diminish the intensity of the word/phrase. I think that can be true in this case as well. A Pledge was an important stage in the membership process. The New Member? Meh. It's a 6 week party en route to a lifetime of membership that is completely disassociated from the first part.

I think it was because membership was down (aka the 1970s redux) and they were trying to make it sound as easy and un-selective as possible. I initially said pandering but then thought that was too harsh. Oh wait.

It would be nice if rush could truly become recruitment - it might help a lot with retention - but as it stands now, it's just a 5 year old dressed up like an astronaut. Saying you're something doesn't make you it.

I dislike both the term, "New Member" and the shortened "New Member Period". LXA calls them Associate Members, which imo is better than New Members.

They aren't members until they are initiated. They have pledged to the group, they are associated with the group, they are involved with the group, but they ain't members until they know the meaning of the boney hand, the three stars and the snake and get pinned by the Big Giant Head wearing her Green and White Pearl Encrusted Cat Suit. So there.

The shortened pledge period is a mistake that I suspect the National Councils will never acknowledge. It was all part of the 90's branding and positioning movement. Yea, we all got shiny new updated corporate logos and tag lines, but we are initiating women who can't say the creed, don't know the motto, can't name the founders, don't know basic information about the actives and can't appreciate the history because in 6 weeks they haven't yet learned it.

That extra 8-12 weeks that comes from initiating after Christmas Break is huge in terms of familiarity with the chapter and organization, bonding and retention. I believe that the current bubble of never-ending expansion, gigantic chapters and enormous recruitments will eventually burst, or at least deflate, and then we will need to really get to some basics of good recruitment and retention. My own org is expanding so rapidly that most of the Leadership consultants are involved in recruitment and colony support rather than strengthening and supporting existing chapters.

Shakes fist at whippersnappers...

The shortened new member period, etc. are probably just FIPG initiatives to mitigate risk. So long as we are getting away from hazing, new member periods are not inherently risky, and culturally, they are important.

Calling someone "pledge" isn't demeaning if we would just stop saying it's demeaning. People treat words like they are concrete, immovable things with immutable characteristics sometimes--an incorrect approach.

Wouldn't it be refreshing to see fraternities which had "pledges" again instead of "associate members"? Pledging instead of "new member education." I hate the phrase "new member" because it seems like initiation is a guaranteed thing when it absolutely should not be. Getting a bid should not mean you have any certainty of lifelong membership.

While I'm sure that stuff is covered in ritual and "new member education," I don't see the utility in trashing our past in order to evolve.

Greek Life is supposed to be elitist. We are not Circle K or the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. We are not academic honors societies. Using words like "new member" and whatnot in order to distance ourselves from our past almost says to the world that we feel like we have to apologize for who and what we are.

Since there's no more pledging period in SigEp, closest thing is the Sigma and Phi folks.

I believe (and am pretty sure I was told) that the terminology change and the shortened pledge/new member periods for NPC groups came about due to pressures from university administrations in an effort to reduce hazing. We can all probably query our international NPC reps to find out the background.

For NPC sororities, hazing incidents are not the norm. When they happen, they are against all teachings of that group and chapters are generally dealt with vigorously and swiftly. But administrations don't differentiate between fraternities and sororities, so the same changes were demanded of both.

At any rate....our pledge class did not get initiated until mid-February after a September pledging, so I was glad to see a shortened pledge period....but six (official) weeks? It's insane! I've been surprised that the lack of a grade requirement hasn't backfired. But I think a longer new member period would do a world of good toward properly educating our new members and to them bonding with their sisters.

But many fraternities still use the word "pledge." If the change really was something that university administrators demanded, it would appear that the demand was ignored by many fraternities.

Chi Omega remains the only NPC group who waits for grades to initiate the following semester (except with deferred recruitment -- they've already "made" their grades). I believe we started using the term "New Member" in the early 2000's.

I don't think that administrators demanded a new word. I think they demanded an end to hazing, and NPC sororities tried to distance themselves from fraternities.

Or in other words, it wasn't even throwing the baby out with the bath water. It was throwing the baby out because flat tire. Solution had nothing to do with the problem. And in the meantime rushees think that they have very much of a say during rush (their opinion is minimal) and they get cranky when the singing, clapping and tears stop. And yes, they think initiation is automatic, but in reality it pretty much always was. Still, I don't see a problem with making the girls think they need to earn it. Not via hazing, but in having to learn the history, policies, tenets, etc. and dare I say get tested on it.

I say turn them back into pledges and turn down the gifts. Not off, god forbid, but just dial it back to something less of a 24/7 party for 6 weeks.

Yes, that I could easily believe.

^^Although that will never happen, as much as so many NPC big cheeses would love it, because the plain fact of the matter is that most women in sororities like to associate with men in fraternities.

WE used to call them "Candidates" back in my day. But I always simplified it to "CandyAsses".

Wow, I never thought of it that way!

For what it's worth, I don't find anything insulting about the word "pledge", I didn't mind wearing a "pledge pin" and the process I completed to receive a bid from my sorority was "rush".

^ What KR said.

I went through formal rush, pledged a local sorority, was a pledge - not a new member, wore a pledge ring (the founders of the local thought outside the box and decided that they would use a ring rather than a pin) ... and here I am. I still wear my pledge ring occasionally, even though Sigma Iota Phi has been absorbed by Alpha Epsilon Phi ... I'm glad that I had the opportunity to be a member of both sororities, and I'm happy to be able to count myself among the 12 women ever to be SigIPhi sisters.

And of course now with pledge gone all the "baby bugs" or whatever talk has come about, which is IMO about 1000 times as demeaning as being called a pledge. If ever an initiative backfired, it's this one.

The fact is, regardless of whatever else it means, "new members" is dry and clinical and boring. I mean, I didn't join a sorority for members. I joined a sorority for sisters.

Besides, I liked the idea that I was pledging - making a vow of sorts - my sorority. I wasn't new member-ing it, or even Alpha-ing it.

Mainstream media still uses the word pledge, so the newer terminology hasn't exactly changed many minds.

Yes, but unfortunately the only time the mainstream media mentions greeks it's always something like "Pledge Caught Sodomizing Sheep"!

So many great responses, so many chances to stay classy!

Kappa Delta announced the change at the 1993 convention in Dallas at the same time they announced the shortened New Member period.

DaffyKD

For Alpha Phi Omega, the default is pledge but some chapters use "new member", mostly due to the school being unhappy with the term.