[33girl]

Sorry laura, but it came across that you seemed VERY resentful that you had to "waste your time" "making sure you knew every last detail about each founder." That tone translated to me as you were very irritated about having to learn it, period. All we had to know for testing purposes was our founders full (first, maiden, and married) names. If your sorority forced you to learn far over and beyond that, maybe they should have just tweaked that part instead of doing away with tests altogether. We knew exactly what was going to be on our new member exam and didn't have to learn anything we didn't use (although a lot of women were fascinated by the sorority's history and explored it on their own).

Yet another diatribe against separating the new members in any way from the active members....we mustn't do anything that might make the delicate flowers feel the least bit uncomfortable...blah, blah, blah. A lot of times, in a big chapter or even a not so big chapter, your pledgeship is the only time you ever get to feel special! That is how I looked at it....not that I was singled out in a negative way, but in a positive way. Maybe that's hard on women who are on the shy or reticent side, but that is part of helping your sisters to grow. Someone on here has in her sig (pardon me if I screw this up) "I went in meek as a kitten and came out roaring like a lion!" I can so empathize with that...and I think a lot of other people can too. How can we say we are helping to empower and strenghthen young women if we don't give them challenges? And to me taking a new member test is the LEAST challenging thing I did during my pledgeship. If we say that is "too stressful" how can we expect members to take on anything else? As to treating pledges with respect...how could I possibly respect someone more than to ask them to share and learn about one of the things I love most in the world?

BTW - no one is "making" new members study for tests, go to mixers, or anything else. The last I checked, rush was voluntary. A woman goes through rush knowing if she accepts membership she is taking on RESPONSIBILITY. I know that's a dirty word nowadays, but we really need to get reacquainted with it.