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We have done things in two ways in the past.
Right after bid acceptance, our members are assigned Jewel buddies. It's a "temporary" big similar to what others have said. They are also assigned an Alumna sister-buddy. They normally communicate with their alumna sister-buddy via facebook, sometimes face to face if the alum is still in the area. This gives them someone "safe" to talk to about chapter operations, especially if they are feeling vulnerable.
As for permanent bigs/littles we've done the process two different ways as our chapter grew.
When our chapter was small (20 actives and less) this is how we did it
Each potential big had to fill out a survey with their major, interests, hobbies, class schedule, out-of-greek-life commitments, and a short statement as to why they wanted to be a big that semester.
New members filled out a shorter survey with their interests, hobbies, major, sports they enjoyed, etc. After about half of the new member period had passed, the membership committee looked at the surveys with the names of the bigs and littles covered, matching them based on interest. After we had made the matches, we looked at the names to determine if they were really a good fit (ie- we had seen them interacting at meetings and functions, etc)
After our chapter grew, we started doing lists with potential bigs ranking all of the littles, and all of the littles ranking the potential bigs. We gave highest priority to those who were a Top-Top match, but 99% of the time we were able to match a little to one of her top two choices for bigs. Same thing- we didn't do a reveal until about half way through the new member period.
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