bigs/littles
 

OK, my chapter has decided to do Big/Little Brothers. We've never done this before, and we're a local, so we're really putting this all together completely from scratch. We've got the basic concept of it- I'm wondering if anyone can give us advice on common mistakes to avoid, or just plain good advice. Oh, and a real specific question- is it a good idea to give someone more than one Little? I have a feeling we're going to end up having to, because I sense a (too) good rush coming.

at my chapter several of my sisters, including me!, have 2 littles. make sure that the new member knows that some of your brothers will be taking two so that they don't feel like they'll get left out. the way we choose is have the sisters write down their top 5 choices for littles and the new members write down their top 5 choices for bigs. then the new member ed matches them the best they can. for us we shower the new members with gifts over 3 days. i don't know how the fraternities do it, so i'm not sure how to advise you in that respect. i hope this helps!

If you're going to give someone two littles during the same pledge period make sure one lil isn't someone the big adores and the other is someone that just needed a big. The second lil will feel left out.

Ok, here is my advice for you. If you guys are anything like my chapter.... people will all pick favorites for littles and start fighting for who they want. Make up interest surveys or something maybe for the new guys, and the older ones, and match them up by personality and things in common. That way, they might find it easier to relate, and have more involvement in the chapter. Don't let anybody take more than 2 at a time, and make sure everybody has one before giving two to some people. Make sure the men that take littles are respectible, and will be a good influence on the new guys.... you don't want to lose them. Best of luck to you!

During the second week of our pledge period we ask the new girls to write down 3-4 names of people that they would like as their big sister. They cannot write down somebody that they know really well or were friends with previous to joining the sorority. This is because we want them to get to know NEW people.

The pledge moms then take a list of the active members who are eligible (caught up on dues, community service, etc.) for little sisters and they match them up. Usually it works out well...

So far I've had three little sisters (one in 1997, one in 1998, and one in 2000). I would have had four but she depledged in 1999 due to a person problem with her parents :(

In the past we have had to double up on little sisters because there was more pledges than active members. I think this has only happened twice. The first time was when our sorority was started they got a pledge class of 20 so a lot of girls had two little sisters and the second time was when we were down to 10 members and we had a pledge class of 16.

Just make sure to give all eligible members a little before giving someone two littles.

Have a nice day :)

We always do a thing called "big/little rap", where the bigs and littles all sit around and talk. You go around the room and say stuff about yourself so everyone can get a feel for everyone else. After the rap, everyone gets an index card to fill out, and you write your top three choices (NMs for your big, sisters for your little). The NME sits with the cards and matches up the bigs and littles based on the cards. It's a little time consuming, but it detracts from the "That's going to be MY little...no MINE!". It also allows for each party to have a hand in deciding their match. The next night we have our ribboning ceremony, and it's then that the NMs find out who their big is. After that, it's important to let the bigs and littles hang out together. We do a thing called big/little getaway where one night the bigs and littles get to go out together, whether it be to a movie, bowling, dinner and hang out one on one. I know when I was a NM, my big had me over to her apartment and cooked me dinner, and then we went out to play mini golf. It was fun! I did the same for my little.

We changed quite a few years ago how our bigs/littles are assigned (just in time for me to pledge). Neither the active nor the pledge has any say - littles are assigned to first anyone who has not yet had a little (we average a pledge class of about 3 or 4, so this is quite common) and then by who is the most senior. So if you had say 3 pledges, a sophomore and two freshman, and 2 seniors and two juniors who'd never had littles, the sophomore would have a senior as a big, 1 freshman would have a senior class big, and the other frosh would have a junior class big.


Unfortunately, at least in my case, it never really worked out - I never became very close with either my big or my little because we were just too different personality-wise (although the two of them would have gotten along well had they ever met!)