Scavenger Hunts?
 

What do y'all think about scavenger hunts? Most of our organizations RM policies specifically forbid them of course, are these a form of hazing? Are they particularly risky?

Do lawyers play too big a role in your organization's new member program?

Like many other things, they are what you make them. They can be perfectly innocent or really hard hazing. It's crappy that the groups who use them to the good (i.e. as a way of helping pledges learn the history of the GLO and/or the chapter) are punished with the a-holes who use them as a hazing tool.

Lawyers play WAY too big a part in everyone's NM program, IMO. If clearer guidelines were established by the HQs there would be no need for the amount of lawyering. "Uncomfortable" isn't a legal term, as far as I'm concerned.

No, it's a purposefully vague term used to give HQ broad discretion in punishing anything they think is bad juju.

Picturing lots of crazy people looking for ska music...

I knew something didn't look right about it...

Fixed. Oops.

No wonder my spell check kicked it out.

As 33girl said, it depends upon how they are conducted.

In general, I don't think that a scavenger hunt is terribly risky. And it certainly has the potential to be a fun activity.

But, as with anything, there are people who take it too far. There was a group of high school students not too long ago who were charged with felonies after being found with stolen property acquired during a scavenger hunt (street signs, etc.): http://www.courttv.com/people/2007/0...venger_ap.html

Eek...while trying to find a link to the story above, this one turned up on the Google search. Apparently one of the highest ranking items on this list was an "unrelated human baby" :eek: Talk about taking things too far...

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...52C1A960948260

I don't think they're risky, either...and it's a shame that others have spoiled it for the rest of us.

When I was a collegian, we wanted to do a scavenger hunt as a fun program for our new members. My then CA told us that the last time my chapter did a scavenger hunt (shortly after we were established in the early 90s when my CA was pledging), AGD IHQ immediately told them that they weren't allowed and we haven't done one since.

That's what they get for trying to procure unrelated human infants... ;)

Our liability insurance company forbids them. I've seen them get out of control and I've seen them be OK, but if the liability insurance company says no, then it's no. Also, it's not necessarily a hazing thing, but more a risk management thing (although I've seen it be a hazing thing too). We had an alumnae club that did an annual road rally and that was canned also, so it's not just collegians who can't do these things.

My chapter doesn't do a scavenger hunt, but some brothers offer a free lunch to the first Candidate that finds the bench on our campus that was dedicated in memory of our advisor, DK Marchand (Gamma Pi chapter initiate #461, and alumni advisor for Eta Chi chapter).

DK's bench is right in the middle of campus, in a well lit area at night, and many folks sit on it daily without reading the plaque... not a scavenger hunt really. It usually takes them a half hour or so after our Sunday meetings and is completely volluntary.

But, as typical, GLOs go above and beyond the call of duty in this type of game and that is why Most if not all GLOs said no, no!

It can put members or other citizens in jepordy.:o

Scavenger Hunts & APO
 

Some Scavenger Hunt things about APO I've seen.

Positive
I was at a section conference for Alpha Phi Omega where the icebreaker was a scavenger hunt. All attendees (other than the host chapter) were given lists (random 15 out of 30 or something similar) and told to go around campus (small campus) to find them. Asking other attendees for help was just fine. Then when you found them, to mark on the map where they were. RD was fine with this.

I've seen scavenger hunts with digital cameras go pretty well especially where the groups had both brothers and pledges in them...

Negative
The only criminal death in APO that I'm aware of (This was from the early 1990s) was from an underground chapter who gave their pledges a scavenger hunt list and when a pledge went to go steal a rocking chair off of someone's porch the group was chased and one pledge was killed by a guest of the owner of the house.

One chapter in NJ had their charter revoked after the pledges as part of a scavenger hunt sawed the head off of a statue. The brothers, in putting "Head of a Statue" on the list, intended a different statue in the area which did have a removable head.



Scavenger Hunts can be done well, but just sending off the pledges with a list of things to get can have some pretty ugly results.

Randy
Alpha Phi Omega

Part of the reason they are forbidden by so many HQ's is PERCEPTION. If a chapter does a scavenger hunt, and both pledges and members participate, and they are just doing things like "get your team picture taken at the alma mater" or "get napkins from Pita Pit," the fact of the matter is that others on campus still see a group of girls running around completing a list of tasks, and it can easily look like hazing of some type.

Also, after a few highly-publicized incidents, people assume the worst about what is on your list. So my list says "get a picture with a guy in an orange t-shirt," and we stop a Hispanic guy in an Illinois t-shirt to get a pic with our team, passersby familiar with earlier cases may think our list says "get a picture with a funny-looking spic". Sorry for the use of a hateful word; that was one of the items that got a certain chapter at another Big Ten school in trouble.

pledge pins
 

I guess trying to nab a pledge pin from the opposite sex is a no go as well? Example: a DG obtains an SAE pin. The SAE pledge class has to sing as a group for the DGs. It was a way to meet other pledges. ???

Sorry, but it can escalate.

It seems a Fraternity took down the Lighted Pin off of the AGD House that cost @ $300.00 to replace and it was stolen by them and destroyed. Boy was that fun!:mad:

Fun can turn into not fun very fast and can get dangerous!:(

yes, especially if the list was created by someone with no sense at all and one of the items is something like, "Take a digital photo of one of your pledge brothers flipping the bird to a Hells Angels member."

The biggest reason they give us at our yearly sessions is that scavenger hunts have a tendancy to escalate. The first year, it's find a bench (just as an example, not to pick on that chapter), two years later some brother steals the plaque to make it more interesting, then the new members have to guard the bench for the afternoon, then all night, etc.
That's kind of a ridiculous example, especially given that the "find the bench for free lunch" thing seems to have been going for a while, but it's that sort of escalation that gets IHQs a little leery of allowing scavenger hunts.

Agreed. The slipperly slope argument is a strong one when it comes to RM.

FIPG Policy
 

I was the VP of Risk Management for a year, and my old officer's manual contained the FIPG Risk Management Policy that my chapter and all the chapters on my campus follow:

No chapter, colony, or student or alumnus shall conduct nor condone hazing activities.

Hazing activities are defined as:
“Any action taken or situation created, intentionally, whether on or off fraternity premises, to produce mental or physical discomfort, embarrassment, harassment, or ridicule. Such activities may include but are not limited to the following: use of alcohol; paddling in any form; creation of excessive fatigue; physical and psychological shocks; quests, treasure hunts, scavenger hunts, road trips or any other such activities carried on outside or inside the confines of the chapter house; wearing of public apparel which is conspicuous and not normally in good taste; engaging in public stunts and buffoonery; morally degrading or humiliating games and activities; and any other activities which are not consistent with academic achievement, fraternal law, ritual or policy or the regulations and policies of the educational institution, or applicable state law.”

Sadly, because some chapters in the past have gotten so out of hand, these policies can get a bit excessive. It's to the point where members of the chapter think we can't even make new members come to chapter... (ridiculous, right? why would you join if you won't even go to chapter?)

A few good rules of thumb are:

if your chapter members aren't willing to do it with the new members, you shouldn't be doing it.

Ask yourself, "how is this enriching their orientation experience?" "how is this helping them to become stronger chapter members?" "how does this teach the ideals of our chapter?" If you can't reasonably answer those questions, don't do it.

Kate
Alpha Chi Omega
Theta Omega, Marquette University
www.kristinsstory.com

On my campus scavenger hunts are considered hazing and we do them every semester in SAI. We use them as an educational tool to go over the history of the org and stuff--no hazing involved! In fact, we order pizza afterwards. Anyway, we get around the hazing rule by calling it a "cross campus educational tour".