Pledge Ideas?
 

Hello everyone!
I just pledged a GLO, and while I love my sisters, I've been really disappointed with the pledge period. It's been pretty disorganized, and myself and all of my fellow new members are really frustrated with it. I'd really like to make it a better experience for our pledges next year. What are some fun things that you guys or the pledge chairs for your chapeters have done during your new member/pledge periods?

In my sorority, we do a thing called Fourteen Days. Everyday for the first two weeks of our pledgeship we did something together at the house or had a pool party, kind of like mini sisterhood events. It REALLY helped us feel welcome and we got to know a lot of the active members a lot faster than we would have otherwise. This year they changed it a little and it was only the new pledge class, which I don't think is quite as cool, but it still worked really well.

Also, as actives, we were assigned one girl per week to get to know (take her out to lunch, invite her over to watch movies, just hang out and have fun!) The first week we had an Owl Pal, the next week we had a Straw Sis, and the next we had a Cardinal Buddy...each was a new girl. Then the next week they got their big. It not only helped you get to know the new members, it provided a mentor for them. I can't tell you how many calls I got each week asking when something was, etc. and it was awesome.

My pledge semester we had a huge sleepover with everyone from my pledge class. We played games, watched movies, made food. Ha ha, it sounds kind of middle school, but it was great! We also had a retreat where we did high ropes and low ropes, etc.

Little things help too. I Facebook the new members and try to keep up with what's going on in their life (ha ha, not in a creepy way) so you have something to talk to them about if it's in the awkward getting to know you stage. If I'm going to do something like lay out by the river I'll call one of them up and see if they want to come. It's really all about getting them involved and making them feel welcome.

Good luck, hope this helped!!

Wow...that sounds like programming overload. I think I would have been overwhelmed as a new member if I felt obligated to spend every night for two weeks with my new sisters. When's the time to study?

I think if your pledge period feels disorganized, then it's time to slow down the programming/activities and limit yourselves to less commitments that are more deliberate. It gets chaotic if you're trying to plan 65743 sisterhoods in 3 days. If you put limits on yourselves, and plan 1 sisterhood a week (besides normal pledge meetings), you'll have more time to focus on the actual event and the purpose of the event.

Are you a member of an NPC sorority? Each NPC sorority follows its own national programming regarding their new member programs.

If it seems disorganized to you, speak up to the new member educator. Give her a chance to make your new member period better. Also, you can organize a new member social-- carve pumpkins for Halloween, bake cookies, watch Grey's Anatomy together, have a slumber party together, go to lunch, etc.

Our new member period flew by-- one of my favorite activities was a new member social between the new ADPi's and the new fraternity pledges. We held it at our chapter house (it was a dry event, of course!), had a DJ, snacks, etc. Each year, the event has a different theme. Our new members are called Alphas, so the party my year was called Alpha Stomp (it was a country western theme, and we had hay bales in the chapter room, dressed in cowboy boots and jeans, etc.). Other themes have been Alpha Masquerade (Mardi Gras), Alpha Sock Hop (1950's), Alpha-palooza (1960's), and so on. It's a great way to meet some of the new guys who have just pledged, and a great way to spend time with new sisters.

Our sorority integrates us with the chapter right away, so outside of new member meetings, we didn't do much just as a new member class. We had socials, chapter meetings, committees, not to mention our own classes and outside activities. You don't want to overprogram your members b/c they will burn out and the event planners get frustrated.

In our chapter, once girl get a bid they're given an "Ivy Linker", an active member who's job is to call the New Member make sure they know about things going on, invite them to lunch/dinner or over to the house, and overall make them feel welcome. The New member can also call their Ivylinker whenever they have a question or concern.

Our sorority has a "Day Away" as part of it's international new member education program. For one-two full days about halfway through the new member education program, all the active sisters and candidates go on a trip somewhere. It's filled with games, rituals, and just goofing around.

It helps to both bond the candidate class together and the actives with the candidates, creating cohesiveness in the sorority. Plus, it's a great way to learn about your sisters and your history.

We, like many other houses, assign each new member a Big Sister, but instead of doing it for a week or so, it is for the entire term. Each week at meetings, Bigs leave anonymous gifts for their Littles, and usually give them "pledge tasks." These range from carrying a bucket of candy around for a day to give to their sisters when they run into them to having to learn certain information about their pledge class or other things of that nature. They are also divided into groups and each week, one group has to provide "pledge entertainment" at meetings - it can be a skit, or singing a song, or whatever they want. Towards the end of term, we have our Big-Little reveal event, usually a pong tournament, to which pledges come to the house dressed as one of a pair of things, and have to find their Big, who is wearing a matching costume. At sink night, the pledges make bracelets with our house letters that they are encouraged to wear for the entire term, and at initiation, each pledge receives a paddle, a pledge book, and a house name from her Big.

The pledges also elect a pledge president, a pledge sisterhood chair, and a pledge service chair, and are required to do one service project together.

I wouldn't advertise this information too much....some of this is considered hazing by state laws.

Sorry, I should have mentioned that all of these activities are 100% optional for new members, and plenty of pledges opt out without any problems. We NEVER ask our pledges to do ANYTHING they would feel uncomfortable with.

Good to know!:)

I'm impressed it's basically only been sororities who have answered this thread.
I got some good Ideas to pass on to my Recruitment chair, but here are some other things we have done in the past:

Road trip. They know we are going somewhere, we tell them to pack their bags, and make sure they have the next (2days, 3day, depends) booked off. We pick them up and drive. They don't know where they are going. We tend to go to a cabin in middle of nowhere, and just have a good time for the next couple of days

Lock-in. All actives, pledges and available alumni get together. We drink, play games and have a good time. This is when we primarily teach our chants to the pledges, and by the end of the night we have everyone yelling out the chants, side by side, and it creates amazing memories.

That's about it. I have a few other things which I won't mention here, but overall, I came to this thread so we could be more creative with our pledge program.

Just FYI, some of these may be considering hazing by GLO or school policies, but I don't know of any state law that would consider them criminal offenses, which is what state hazing laws deal with.

hey anybody have any funny ideas to add to a skit for my pledges, they have to do this skit at activities and each sister can add or take out anything they don't like. it's already pretty funny but I want to add something any ideas, oh and they wanted to do this we asked them before we descided to do it.

I'm late.... but this is worthy of a cosign.