getting rid of bigs/littles?
 

A friend of mine mentioned this morning that her (NPC) org's HQ was beginning to discourage the practice of big and little sisters because it promotes seniority. Does anyone know if their HQ's are actually pushing for this?

I haven't heard of orgs discouraging the big/little program altogether, but I have heard of orgs using terms other than "big" and "little".

I can understand the move to different terms (although I'll probably always refer to them as bigs and littles, but I'm still struggling to hop on the "recruitment" bandwagon), but I would be disappointed if my org abandoned the program as a whole.

This to me would be a very foolish idea as the bigs are there to help their littles.

Maybe they are just going through a name change?

If I'm not mistaken, KKG got rid of big/little then brought it back. (Please correct me if I'm wrong, KKGs)

The "seniority" argument is silly. If a big is doing things like saying "you have to do my laundry because you're my little" it has nothing to do with seniority or the big/little program - it has to do with her being an a-hole. A-holes shouldn't have littles.

No matter what, we are going to have members who have been in the chapter longer, and cliques within chapters. Getting rid of big/little or families doesn't change that, it just makes it take on a different form.

I agree. I think it's silly to put different names on it. No offense, but whether you call them diamond sister, mom-kid, or big-little, it's still a sponsor member-new member relationship. Calling it by any other name doesn't change that.

I can understand wanting to discourage anything that would appear to put new members in a subordinate position or imply hazing, but I have yet to meet an ADPi who doesn't say, "This is my big diamond. Or this is my great-grand-lil diamond."

Things can look great on paper by proposing to change the name of the mentor/sponsor program, but let's keep in mind that these organizations have had big-little programs for longer than most of us have been alive. The name isn't going anywhere--- case in point: Rush has been "recruitment" for more than 20 years and most people still call it rush.

Hmm.
I know the Phi Sigma Sigma Chapter at my school doesn't do a big/little program...I can't remember what it is that they have instead(so the girls don't feel left out 'cause all the other chapters here have Big/Lil's of some kind), But I think, because our chapters aren't super huge, they have something that just encourages New Members to think of all actives as mentors...like "you can ask any active for anything and she'll help"
I mean I'm not certain..but I kinda remember that from recruitment.

Yes and no. With the implementation of the shorter new member program, we switched to something called Kore groups, which is basically like a pledge family. It's a new member, sophomore, junior and senior who are grouped together. The sophomore or junior member is call the "Key Sister" and acts as the direct mentor to the new member, but the other actives in the Kore group still interact with the new member.

In theory, it's supposed to be different than bigs/littles/families, but most of the time, it still ends up being similar.

Humm... I've not heard of a chapter not doing Sapphire sisters ( it's bigs/lils, but that's our "new" term for the program) but that doesn't mean there's not a chapter that doesn't

This sounds like a great idea because it ups the chances that the new member will have close connections in the group from the beginning. It also sounds great because it keeps seniors involved and values their role in a different way that just expecting them to take another little sister.

I can't imagine doing away with bigs/littles in some form.
In both theory and practice it works pretty well.


In fact my son's school just started a "mentor family" program for the new parents to the school. The principal even described it as a "big/little type program". I have my first mentoree family and next year, they will take a mentoree family and so on until we have built a network of older and newer families. in theory, when my son reaches 8th grade, there will be 8 other families that we are linked with as part of the mentor family.

I think it is sad that we have to be so careful when it comes to certain aspects of Panhellenic life. This just seems like another example where people are going too far to insure other's feelings are not hurt. I am not suggesting that any NPC sorority haze. I am just saying that getting rid of bigs and littles is silly and ignores the positive things that bigs and littles do. I think people need to quit complaining and loof for the positive!

Kind of a hijack - I am confused when people say how many littles they have. Like I was talking to an AXiD from another chapter and she asked me how many littles I have and I said one. She looked absolutely puzzled. I asked how many she had- she had 3. When people say they take more than one little - are they talking about taking twins or their little taking a little (which would be the original bigs grand-little)?

Did I confuse everyone with my question?

They're talking about taking twins. Her chapter experience just may have been such that having only one little was the exception rather than the norm.

For us it's 2 littles at one time. Rarely happens.