Scavenger Hunts are Risk Managment NIGHTMARES! At my school Scavenger Hunts were banned from our Orientation week back in the late 1990s. So we had "Havanger Scunts" (called Scunts for short) instead... but with the Scunts came many many rules:
1) No going off campus
2) No stealing, spending money, breaking the rules, nudity, sexual acts etc etc etc...
3) All plans, lists, trivia, must be approved by administration AND the local police station.
4) The full list of rules must be read to the entire group before the beginning of the scunt.
Even with all these percautions - accidents do happen. The university can get away with a lot more than a GLO ever could though.... and without these percautions very very very bad things can occur. My favourite horror story (edit: from the days before the rules, obviously) is someone on a foreign visa taking part in the drop-off event (you're blindfolded and driven somewhere and have to get back with some item from where you were). They dropped the poor block off across the border, and without his travelling papers, it was really hard to get back.
I agree... scunts are fun, but there are simplier and easier way to bond...
(ironically, after several years, scunts are now called Scavenger Hunts again mostly because Scunts sounds a lot like....)
Quote:
Originally posted by honeychile
Adelphean, there was a time when I would have agreed with you 100% about scavenger hunts - and then I served as Chapter Advisor. Among the things that have happened during seemingly harmless scavenger hunts (and this is from other advisors, too, not just me):
*People surprising the opposite sex in the dorm bathrooms.
*Petty fights over petty things (points, etc).
*People straying too far away from campus, causing a LOT of worry with the time period.
*GLOs in general getting a bad reputation for sponsoring a "juvenile game" such as a scavenger hunt.
*A near-kidnapping episode.
*MANY near-car accidents.
*MANY arguements between the teams
Obviously, not a lot of these are life threatening - but some are. Are you willing to risk an entire chapter for one game? Our Executive Office's policy isn't - nor is your chapter's insurance prepared to cover any contingencies (sp?) should problems arise.
There are a lot of ways to bond, and I'm sure that you & your chapter can find some. Save the scavenger hunts for when you're on your own!
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