Pledging Ideas
 

Our chapter has several traditions that we use every semester for pledging, and it seems like this semester's pledge class has found out about each and every one of them. we need to come up with some new ideas for pledge tasks and events (that don't involve hazing or alcohol!), and i was hoping someone would have some good ideas for things we could do. thanks!

TKE SK #214

Well if I were you, I'd be more concerned with HOW they've found out. My suggestion for now, I guess it to come up with variations of these tasks? But investigate as to how they've found out about them which is more important in the long run. If it's some big-mouth brother, then the problem needs to be solved.

unity walk, take them a couple miles away and make them walk back.

Both pieces of advice above here are bad.
'Unity Walk' is hazing. Plus if they find out about it then then manage to stuff away some money and hitch a cab ride back home (true story: the money was hidden in an arm cast).

Second, and more importantly, security through obscurity never works. Many groups that I work with as a PA think that their pledge process is super secret and no one outside of the chapter knows what is going on. In a lot of those groups, they are dead wrong. Something always gets out.

Rather, I suggest chapters take a whole new approach to the process. Vary it up year to year and semester to semester. That way, you can tailor the lessons to what your chapter needs at the moment. An additional benefit to this is that it prevents the inevitable slow decay of events into hazing (it happens when chapters feel their process is 'too easy'). After you come up with an event or a task, ask yourself a few very important questions:

1) Would you have a hard time explaining that event to your parents?
2) Would you have a hard time explaining that event to a dean?
3) Would you have a hard time explaining that event to a cop/judge?
4) Would you have a hard time doing that event with your own blood brother?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, reconsider your event. Feel free to PM me if you want to talk more about designing a pledge process.