Good VS Bad New Member Activity Ideas
 

Inspired by a recent thread, I invite all sorority women to add their ideas onto this thread regarding good ideas for new member programs versus bad ideas you should avoid. I'll ask the guys to refrain from posting, as fraternities have a different view on new member education than sororities.

Thanks!

GOOD IDEAS
- Song Camp (initiated members come into new member each week to teach a new song)
- New Member Awards (each week, new members are nominated for simple spirit awards, putting a face to the name for the older sisters!)
- Getting all new member education planning and activities approved in writing by exec board and your national office.
- New Member Mailboxes (using a manila envelope, a recent photo and collage materials, the new members create a special "mailbox" that is hung in the chapter room. Members contribute notes each week and the new member checks her mailbox for these small inspirations!)
- Treat them like peers, not like cattle and not like 5 year olds. They are adults. So are you. Act like one.



BAD IDEAS
- Blindfolding or enforced silence
- Keeping dates of initiation or activities secret
- Calling new members in the middle of the night or forcing them to wear special attire that the other initiated members are not required to wear (obviously, new members wear a new member pin; initiated members have an initiated member badge. I'm more talking about requiring them to constantly wear their hair in a bow and wear all pink for a week, etc.)
ETA: Anything that could even be construed as a scavenger hunt, as it against NPC policy. (Yes, we used to be able to do them, but too many abused the privilige with sadistic motives and now, scavenger hunts or anything that looks like a scavenger hunt are not allowed in the national sororities).
Other ideas?

Re: Good VS Bad New Member Activity Ideas
 

Along these lines, at my alma mater we had "sister pockets" and "new member pockets." The sister pockets were a large quilt that we hung on the wall that had a pocket w/ a nametag for each sister. Inside these pockets we'd put candy, notes, important information, etc. The new member pockets were a smaller version of the sister pockets, but it was made from the same material. They were hung in their own corner so the new members had someplace of their own where they could go.

Good
We had "secret sisters" in addition to our Sis-Moms. These secret sisters were responsible for sending good thoughts to the NMs via cards, poems, or notes during the NM period. For Initiation Day she was the one who made the keepsake box for the new initiate.

Bad
First of all, calling them pledges. I was a pledge as it was called "pledge" then, but it's not the same anymore. ;)

Requiring the NMs to address the initiated sisters by something other than her given name and being forced to address initiated members in a certain way should you come in contact with them. (for example, you see Suzy Sister across campus and you run up to her and you're required to greet her "Good morning, Miss Suzy Sister you're looking beautiful today") -- I see this done all the time

Good - NM Sleepovers!
- NM Surprise box - if it's tradition for all the NM to spend the night together before initiation - send them a surprise box! Fill it with goodies, letters, bracelets - anything. Then, at an appropriate time during night - have a group of sisters send it over. This is actually a lot of fun for both sides - the initated sisters get to create the box and the NM get to receive it.

see, those things like wearing a specific shirt or a specific color on a certain day are things that initiates do anyways, so why not the pledges? We call them Pledges because we use the term "new members" to refer to first year actives. I think the difference in my GLO is that we CANNOT wear letters at any point during pledge period, unless it is pledge/active switch day, where you become "Active" for 1 day, get to give your big pledge duties and what have you, so earning the right to wear our letters is a HUGE deal, and we differentiate that. I think that some of the "duties" or activities are mostly just eccentric. They don't have any mean intention behind it, it's meant to be something that's fun. It's also, to me at least, demonstrates what our sorority means...it means that you will never be ashamed to tell the world that you are a Delta girl. (not tri delt, tau delta...we're the Deltas here, or Delta Kittens). Most of the switch day activities with fraternities are meant to be funny...like make them write a children's book with illustrations and it must include certain words or phrases. One fraternity switch day active made me ask tthei pledes for information and ask their adviser things too. It was like a scavenger hunt, very fun and I got to talk to a lot of the guys that I had never met before.

Bad Ideas:
-VERY inappropriate pledge names.
=alcohol as a pledge duty (this should be a no brainer, but some people need to be told outright)
-Unrealistic requirements. Don't make your pledges memorize the room and cell phone numbers, room address, hometown and major for every active and pledge, especially if you have 100 girls in your house. That's just not right, it's unrealistic. Plus, these girls already have so much stuff to study!
-Anything involving girls crossing their own personal moral lines (ie, unchristian if they are religious, forcing Jewish girls to do things on Shabbat, asking muslim women to remove their headscarves), that's just not right. Their moral identity is a huge part of who they are, and you accepted the whole member, so respect that.

Good Ideas:
- make certain distinctions, IE the "smartypants" award, if someone got an A that week, or the "Princess" award if someone went above and beyond for a sister that week...etc etc. Recognize these girls at chapter! Give them a sucker or something
- Random little notes and things. I saved all of mine from pledge and put them in my scrapbook!

bad:

using the phrase "Making" as in making them (the NMs) do something

Scavenger hunts are considered risk management liabilities waiting to happen, and when IHQ found out that my chapter did them years ago, let's just say they were NOT pleased.

But that's the difference between locals and NPCs. What's okay for one group may not be the same way for the other.

are you serious? Wow. It was just like...."find out why they call so and so this nickname and then find nickname", or "ask Joe Brother what this means". It was more of an introduction game.

I think 'scavenger hunt' by OohTeenyWahine was meant along the lines of traveling all over campus and town to find/purchase/steal items.

Though I only know the official standpoint of my IHQ regarding scavenger hunts, I can only imagine that many of the other NPC orgs share the same views.

There are some great "good ideas" here - as well as some bad "bad ideas".

Another good idea: Participating in your own or other GLOs' charity fundraisers as a new member class. One sorority at my school did a lip sync contest every year, and another did Late Night; there was a third sorority that always entered two acts, a sister act and a NM act. Putting together an act was a great way for the NM class to bond.

A related bad idea: Actives telling the NMs that they WILL put together an act and that all NMs must participate or else!

Regarding scavenger hunts: I was under the impression from my school's Greek Life Office that they are only hazing if they are held off campus and didn't pertain to the GLO's history. If this weren't the case, then how come it would be ok to have scavenger hunts during Greek Week.

I love scavenger hunts. They're super fun. I know a couple chapters do mixers of them...where bigs/littles from a fraternity and sorority are paired up (so teams of 4) and you have to do things like....take a picture with a Food Service staff, find out which house used to belong to ATO, take a picture of all 4 standing on the spirit rock, get your picture taken with the dog walking lady, use your body to spell out your greek letters, take a picture with Captain Crosswalk, find the greek collage in the library, etc etc, just randomness.

I don't believe in calling them New Members. It is misleading. Members are those who are initiated. Pledge is only hazing if it's used in a derogatory manner, and you can just as easily use any other term that way.

Good - activities that help the pledges get to know the sisters as individuals, like interviews or coke dates. Learning the history of the national and the chapter, not under duress - the sisters should show this is important to them so the NMs think it is important to them as well.

Bad - a program consisting of nothing but group activities that never allow pledges and sisters to spend one on one time. Forsaking teaching any history or other important info (like officer duties) for fear that it's hazing.

good v. bad
 

bad-allowing new members to attend chapter. if someone needs to air dirty laundry, they can't do it because it could upset the new members(read harriet saying to ozzie, not in front of the children), so things just keep festering week after week instead of getting resolved.

having get to know you games between new members and members considered hazing. in my day, we pledges had to get each sister to sign the back of a wooden crown that our big sister would later take away and decorate as an initiation gift for us. we got to know every sister in and out of the house on a personal level, and all we ever had to do was go talk to them a little and ask them to sign our crown. there was nothing mean or derogatory about it. it is now considered hazing because the new members would be doing this and the sisters would not be also having crowns signed, as they already had done this when they were new members. political correctness sure does take the fun out of a lot of things.