Quote:
Originally posted by AnchorAlumna
Gathering those signatures was a great way for a new member to get to know all the older members, and for them to get to know each new member. But...the member could make you do something before "granting" a signature. None of my sisters ever did, though. We had a big emphasis on not hazing.
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Agree & Agree.
We've always made getting signatures a fun way to meet the members. For the pledges, if they just come to meetings and events they wind up meeting a majority of members. (that's how I did it as a pledge) We've also encouraged them to get signatures from Brothers outside the chapter they might meet, say if we are doing a service project and encounter Brothers.
Then we give a nice memento to the pledge who gets the most signatures.
We don't allow for Brothers to quiz the pledges or the like to 'earn' signatures' If a Brother doesn't want to give a signature, that's fine. And as we don't require 100% signatures, it won't affect the pledge meeting this requirement.
Other chapters go beyond signatures with doing interviews to get the pledges (and Brothers) to get to know each other. Those that do this develop interview guidelines to make sure they are done properly.
Our National Pledging Standarda has the point that the pledges should met the Brothers, and these are the ways most chapters do it. All try to avoid things that can slide into hazing, such as 'earning' the signature/interview.
Some have stated they feel that having pledges ask for signatures is hazing. I don't agree. Making them do stuff to earn it can be. Saying that since you won't make an active gather signatures so thus its hazing don't work for me. At our National Conventions we have a contest in which you are asked to met our VIPs and get their signatures. And I always take a copy of our current Pledge Manual to national events to get the signatures of everyone pictured in it as a memento. So yes, there are times that we 'ask' actives to gather signatures.
