Spinoff: New Members Holding Positions
 

I was discussed in another thread in Risk Management & Hazing about how anti-hazing laws have gone so far to prevent any sort of distinction between new mebers/pledges/associates/whatever you or your organization calls them, that some organizations allow new members to attend meetings and hold positions. This seems a little bit odd to me. How could a person who just got invited to be in the organization a couple of weeks ago possibly know enough about it and how it runs to be a good leader. In my sorority, according to our bylaws, you have to wait a semester after you are initiated before you can vote or hold a position (unless there are extenuating circumstances) so that you get a chance to see how we work. Has anyone heard of new members holding positions? Has that happened in your org? How did it work out?

In ADPi, our new members may hold certain offices and attend our meetings. We have structured our new member program and sorority so that new members are not exposed to ritual before they are ready. We don't see our new members as having to pay their society dues. They proved themselves at recruitment that they were one of us, and as they go through new member education, they have the same privileges as any other sister, except for the ritual aspect. That will come later.

It definitely works. There are plenty of good leaders out there, and going through initiation doesn't make you an expert on sorority goings-on, nor does a full year on the other side guarantee that you understand all the policies. We've had some new members who have made excellent and conscientious officers. Sure, others haven't worked out, but the same can be said for members who have been in the chapter for quite a longer time! It just depends on the character of the individual and her leadership potential.

Hope this helps to explain! I know every sorority does everything differently. I certainly wouldn't criticize a sorority that does not give new members leadership positions; I hope this thread won't grow critical of those that do (like mine.)

Thanks!

Here's another question. Let's say one of your new members does hold a position. For whatever reason, she de-pledges before initiation. What happens then?

Just as any officer who steps down or cancels her membership, we fill the position with another member. It really does work! I'm sure you've had officers who were initiated members who could not fulfill her duties for one reason or another, or who cancelled her membership. That's the great thing about opening the candidate pool up for these offices to the new members-- it increases the opportunity to fill the positions with qualified leaders.

Another benefit of new members holding office-- it makes the new member class feel included in the sorority goings-on and when they feel a part of the process, they want to make a difference and pitch in. It also helps us identify future chapter leaders. By holding other offices, we are able to see how they might hold up as a VP or President later on.

I was initiated on a Thursday, and took office as Parliamentarian and VP of Alumnae and Heritage on that following Saturday. It was sort of a special situation, though.

It's also nice to have a new member officer who has no preconcieved notions of how past officers of the position have done things. A blank slate encourages new ideas and allows the member to take on the office as their own instead of running it like the last guy/gal did.

I wouldn't encourage a new member to president, but some things can easily be taken care of by anyone in the org and it doesn't take a knowledge of ritual to be able to do it. Philanthropy is philanthropy, intramurals is intramurals and fundraising is fundraising. You don't need to know anything about the ritual in order to run these sort of positions.

EC positions
 

Not sure if it has changed but at SAE one needed to be a full active Brother to hold a house position.
Jon

In AXiD you must be an Initiated member to hold an office. New members are not allowed to hold any positions. Newly Initiated member can hold office. My chapter has had newly initiated member hold Exec. and non exec offices. It has worked out and it hasn't. It just depends on the girls and if they are really good leaders or not. Sometimes one might think that some one is good but it turns out that they are not.

In DZ you have to be initiated to hold the office of President, but a new member can fill in other position. We actually had a new member become our VP of Membership this past election (she was also initiated two weeks later), and she's been doing an excellent job.

In Alpha Gam, you have to be initiated to hold office but it works pretty well for us.
To be President, you have to have been a Chapter Council officer before and normally be a member of the Junior class (school wise). To be Property Coordinator, you have to have lived on the hall at some point. I'm almost positive you have to have gone through Recruitment on the members' side to be VP Recruitment.

Normally we have Initiation early in November and elections mid-November.

Unfortunately there's always the chance of losing an officer or two at the beginning of January or the next Fall.

Over the years, I've seen newly initated members do a terrific job and somtimes the "older" members not, lol. But it evens out.

This may have changed since I was in college.

But in Alpha Phi Omega, though newly initiated brothers could hold staff positions, if a brother with seniority ran for one vs. a neophyte, the senior brother would automatically get it.

In my sorority, you have to be an initiated member to hold a position. If I remember correctly, members have to have been an active sister for at least a semester in order to run for cabinet positions.

There is no way a pledge should have a robed position.

If by "robed" you mean a position that has to do with ritual, then yes, you are correct. No new member could hold such a position as they have not yet been exposed to the ritual.

Oh okay. But the thing is, for some of us at least, that would include the exec board.

I should have just said that. If you have pledges on your exec, save everyone the trouble and just go and ahead and mail in your charter.

I think when you are a member of a small chapter (as opposed to a chapter of 200) you have to roll with the numbers. When low membership occurs it can be a huge relief to get the work more evenly divided. I know AST has had chapters whose numbers were quite small and they've made a fabulous recovery, a key part was the willingness of new members to get involved very early.

I think situation and the person in the position are what makes or brakes it.

:)
e

That is an unqualified statement. Would you care to elaborate?

Everyone's exec board is different. And they've changed over the years. Some positions that used to be on our exec board no longer are, and vice versa.

No not really, but since you seem interested:

Basically, if you need pledges to be on exec board, you have more problems than you can fix and that's like admitting you need someone out side of your chapter to help you. Basically, you need them more than they need you, and that's not good. Things should have never gotten that bad, and if pledges were lead to believe things were actually ok, and built up like "you can even be president" then that's wrong. NOt only wrong for lying but wrong for making the new guys do all the work to save the chapter and then since they are the last exec board, you can blame them and not yourself. Having pledges on exec board is a cop out. If there is only one active brother, then that brother is president, and every other person on exec board, even if has 50 pledges. I doubt one guy would be able to reruit 50 by himself but this is just a for instance.

Plus, its not fair to the actives that have been there longer.

Plus, even if you're upfront with why you need pledges on the exec board to the pledges, its not really fair to have them join a dying brotherhood. ONe that could be rebuilt is one thing, but seriously, as much BS as there is with IHQ or whatever, if you ever needed their help, its when you had to have pledges on exec board. That's horrible.

Not to mention, most exec board positions have ritual duties beyond just being secretary or whatever.

Seriously, if you don't have enough brothers to initatte the pledges, then you shouldn't even have taken a pledge class, you should have spent that semester re-organizing yourself.

I don't know if this is the way it is for Phi Mu everywhere, but in our chapter, we get our new pledge class in January. The next chapter meeting is informal, so the pledges can come, but the next one is formal and that is when elections for 6 of our exec 9 posistions (Pres, VP, secretary, Treasurer, Membership Director, New Member Director) are held. The new members don't come to that meeting, so it would be impossible for them to run. The other three posistions (Panhel Delegate and 2 rotating Panhel posistions) are voted for in November, so theoretically someone who had been initiated just the semester before could be elected to one of those posistions. We install the pres, vp, secretary, treasurer, membership, and new member at the first meeting after the Phis are initiated, and then shortly thereafter, they can apply to be on Jr. Exec (posistions like philanthropy, family involvement, alumni relations, community service, intramurals, campus activities, pr, etc)
It works out well for us.

This wouldn't happen in my sorority simply because of how our quarters are set up. Pledges are initiated right before spring break (end of winter quarter). Officer elections are held in the middle/endish of Spring quarter...they've allready been active for some time before then. We have New Members (girls in their first year of initiation) as exec members, and I think they're going to do a wonderful job, they've allready taken huge initiative.