How are bigs and littles matched up?
 

Hey I know there's a thread out there that asks how the new members rank but this is for the sisters out there...

How do you match up your big and little pairs? In my chapter, both the bigs and littles rank and the New Member Ed, the Asst. New Member Ed and our VP of Membership Development finalizes. However, at my best friend's sorority, she and her big matched up cause their names were picked out of a hat. How do you all match them up? Usually there's a couple of pairs from left field and sometimes people are upset that they didn't get the little/big that they wanted. How do you all deal with these problems? Our Standards board tries to calm everyone down but it doesn't really work - it's like telling the rain to stop.

Are there ever any problems with the actual big little matching at other chapters? It can be a tooth and nail fight sometimes. There are usually a few bigs and a few littles that are popular and sometimes people can be really hurt if they don't get who they want. Any advice?

I'm a Phi Mu. We do it like this:

1) Sisters list their 3 favorite new members, in order
2) New members list their 3 favorite sisters, in order
3) Pledge educator, with the help of her assistants and possibly other members of exec, matches them up.

No one ever know what "might have happened" or who was listed where on so-and-so's list.

When I pledged, my class kinda screwed the system up :-) not realizing how things worked, we didn't want to compete with each other, so we worked out who wanted who (there were only 7 of us pledges that semester) before writing out our lists.

When I had been in the sorority long enough for a little, I told the pledge educator who I wanted. She agreed, so I got her. In future semesters, we matched bigs and littles the way that HotDamnImAPhiMu described. Each chapter has to figure out what works best for the sisterhood. :)

At my chapter, the new members rank at least 8 older sisters, in order, who they would like, and the older sisters also fill out cards (although twins can be taken, so it works slightly differently for them). Then, the New Member Orientation Chair, the assistant NMOC, and the president match them.

However, I know of a chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta, either at my school or somewhere else in Florida (I can't remember) that does pull names out of a hat, then switch them, or something like this. It sounds strange to me, but whatever works for that chapter works.

-Alison

in my chapter
the bigs are called in seniority order and asked who they want, you can pick anyone who is available.
it works out pretty well for us.

when i was a new member, we picked our bigs. it was a slightly crazy process, where the 19 of us met with the president and 2 sisters not on the big list.

we went around and each said our 1st choice, those who said the same person then talked it out, or rock/paper/scissored it. there weren't too many of us who wanted the same person, so it worked out well. from what i remember we were all happy with our bigs and no one was really upset.

the next year we went to a matching and have been doing that now, the potential bigs and littles each wrote out our top 5 and the new member mom and president matched. again it works pretty well, but there are some unexpected pairings.

The VP Education of our chapter gives all potential new Bigs a note card. They rank their top 3 choices for Littles in order. They turn the cards in and at the next New Member Education meeting the new Littles are given note cards. They rank their top 3 choices for Bigs. Then, the VP Education and the President start the matching. 1 to 1 matches are paired up and then it goes down the line from there, with the Little's preference trumping that of the Big. Then the VP Education calls the Bigs and lets them know who their Little is. If the Big is truly upset she can refuse the Little and the Little will be reassigned to the next best match from her card (this is VERY rare and often results in twins).

The pledges don't have any say in who their big sibling is. First we look at who hasn't had a little yet (and wants one this time), and then we go by seniority in pledge class, and then by order of initiation (for example, if in my pledge class someone went through the bid night initiation first, they get to pick first). If we go through everyone who hasn't had one, then we use the same criteria for people who have already had a little. And finally, the last rule is that you can't have a little who you already know well, we like to match people up who don't know each other.

Why does your chapter do it that way? I would be worried that the new Littles would be intimidated by a Big who is a total stranger.

We want to make sure that the littles get to meet people in the chapter that they don't already know, and it's a good way to bring together the people who don't know each other. I know when I picked I really wanted a good friend of mine, but I ended up loving my little sis who I didn't know at all. Also, our chapter is pretty small, so its nice to bring together the people who haven't met before.

Ohh, ok. That makes more sense. I was envisioning some enormous chapter.

PM's are your friend.