Quote:
Originally Posted by cuteASAbug
This quote in another thread got me thinking- with all of the movement to eliminate hazing in any form and to make sure that new members are never uncomfortable and are never made to do anything that's not voluntary- how well do you think your organization's new member program prepares its new members for what to expect as an active? One thing that bugs me about hazing rules is that with the exception of Phoenix and Sanctuary degrees, you pretty much can't make anything mandatory for new members without it being called hazing. However, after you're initiated, just about anything and everything is mandatory, so I don't think that does a good job of teaching new members what to expect.
|
I can only speak about my own orgs idea of pledge programs.
To me, pledge programs should be to train the pledges to become members. Everything the pledge does should have a purpose. I usually speak with chapters to take a look at what they expect of their active members, both explicity and inplicity (pay dues, do service work, attend meetings, live our principles, wear insignia, etc.) and from that base their pledge requirements (pay pledge fees, do service work, attend meeting- both pledge and chapter, learn about our history/principles/etc, wear pledge insignia, etc).
I do not approve of hazing, and neither does my organization. We are very clear on this and have stated what we view as hazing (and its not that much different from other GLOs).
However, I do not agree with this attitude I see in many GLO that 'making the pledges do anything is hazing'. That's BS. We're a service fraternity. We expect our Brothers to complete service as one of their requirements to remain active (the specifics are left to each chapter), so requiring our pledges to also complete service as part of completing their pledge program cannot be considered hazing. I prefer to go with the idea that one should never ask a pledge to do something that we wouldn't ask or expect an active to do. We expect actives to do service work, so we can ask the pledge to do the same (but not more then an active). We expect actives to be knowledgable about our history, principles, operations, etc, so we can ask the pledge to learn this and be tested on it. Same for other requirements we expect of pledges.
We've developed a National Pledging Standard that sets down 20 elements that should be followed by all chapters in developing their unique pledge programs. I've always followed that in my training on pledge programs, because following them will lead to a better pledge program.
If any GLO does their job in developing a new member/pledge program that prepares their nm/p for membership, then this should lead to better retention.