Co-Ed Fraternity needs ideas for new member period
 

I'm in a co-ed fraternity, and in the fall we're going to start having official new member periods, and are doing bigs and littles for the first time

I'm the new Pledge Mom, and am looking for ideas for the new member period, especially for big/little revealing.

Any ideas?

What were you doing "unofficially"? How were members educated previously?

We didn't really have a new member period. After people turned in their applications, they were just regular members and we had an inductions ceremony towards the end of the semester.

A lot of our members are in social fraternities or sororities as well, so previous leadership hadn't wanted to do bigs/littles and new member period. But our organization has grown a lot, and we've decided to start doing these this year.

Is this Alpha Phi Omega? If so, and even if not so, it would be best if you not call yourself "pledge mom." That reeks of sorority and will alienate men who want to pledge. Pledge trainer or pledge educator or pledgemaster are fine.

If this is a service fraternity, pledges should have to complete a certain number of service hours.

I'm not sure how men do big/little in fraternities, but again, stay away from anything that is too sorority like (string, squealing, etc) or it will alienate men who want to join.

Some *large* Alpha Phi Omega chapters have both a pledge mom and a pledge dad in a given semester. All of the chapters I've seen that have that are on pretty liberal campuses and have pledge classes on the high side of 30...

Well, considering that apparently people just signed up and paid their $$ and were automatically members by doing absolutely nothing, I'm hoping to heaven this is NOT Alpha Phi Omega.

*Unless* this is a newly (re)chartered chapter of Alpha Phi Omega, and what she described as happening before is the situation of the Petitioning Group with a Petitioning Group Ceremony at the end of the semester. That is possible, but for an APO chapter to start using pledge mom immediately would be somewhat unusual...

I hopefully await information on whether the co-ed fraternity is Alpha Phi Omega, and if it is, which of the chapters it is...

Randy

uh we have a ritual ceremony for Big/Little revealing. idk how other fraternities do it.

So.. unless you want to go write up a ritual...

Wear matching costumes or tshirts for big and little reveal.

We don't know.

In APO we use a pledge program, but each chapter is free to develop their own specific program, so long as it follows our 20-point 'National Pledging Standard'. Many chapters have big/littles (we just rolled out an optional big/little ceremony that chapters can use, if they want). I've never heard the term "pledge mom" in APO. Its usually pledgemaster, pledge trainer, or the like.

Now, because some schools may not allow our chapters to use a proper pledge program, we do have an 'alternate new member education program' that can be used. At those school, they are basically forced (by the school, mind you) to do exactly that: induct people directly as members of APO, afterwhich we then have to educate them into what APO is all about. AFAIK, this is done at only a small number of schools.

It's not APO, it's Phi Alpha Delta, a pre-law fraternity.

And the official title is New Member Educator, between our all female exec board though we've been calling it "Pledge Mom."

We have national rules that as I have been told basically say, if you pay, you're a member.

In co-ed groups, it doesn't matter if the officers are male or female, office titles should be gender neutral. Especially since different officers are elected year to year. Quit calling it "pledge mom" and stick with "NME" if you must have a nickname. Males do not want to pledge a group where their only educator is a "mom."

QFP

Phi Alpha Delta is a professional fraternity, and you're in a pre-law chapter. If your International Organization wanted you to have these traditions or operations
a) you'd get them from Phi Alpha Delta HQ
b) it wouldn't state on the pre-law membership form that "this is a Professional Law Fraternity, and not a Greek organization http://www.chaptertools.net/site_fil...1231292279.pdf
c) you wouldn't have to ask us
d) your previous leadership wouldn't have been able to be against it, as it would be standard operating procedure

This isn't even mainstream Phi Alpha Delta, it is a pre-law chapter and there is absolutely NO REASON for you to pursue this. I suggest you drop it before Phi Alpha Delta HQ finds out, as it is clear and plain on this form http://www.chaptertools.net/site_fil...1244659165.pdf that they are not okay with "pledge education" events, even though your spirit and intention may be different, is it worth having your chapter shut down? Even if all of you want to do it, that doesn't mean you can, or should.

Um. Wow. This definitely falls into the category of

"Posts which should only be read *after* getting into Radiation Suits"

:eek:

I wasn't ready, either!

GC is finally getting back to what it used to be. At least a little.