[PhoenixAzul]

see, those things like wearing a specific shirt or a specific color on a certain day are things that initiates do anyways, so why not the pledges? We call them Pledges because we use the term "new members" to refer to first year actives. I think the difference in my GLO is that we CANNOT wear letters at any point during pledge period, unless it is pledge/active switch day, where you become "Active" for 1 day, get to give your big pledge duties and what have you, so earning the right to wear our letters is a HUGE deal, and we differentiate that. I think that some of the "duties" or activities are mostly just eccentric. They don't have any mean intention behind it, it's meant to be something that's fun. It's also, to me at least, demonstrates what our sorority means...it means that you will never be ashamed to tell the world that you are a Delta girl. (not tri delt, tau delta...we're the Deltas here, or Delta Kittens). Most of the switch day activities with fraternities are meant to be funny...like make them write a children's book with illustrations and it must include certain words or phrases. One fraternity switch day active made me ask tthei pledes for information and ask their adviser things too. It was like a scavenger hunt, very fun and I got to talk to a lot of the guys that I had never met before.

Bad Ideas:
-VERY inappropriate pledge names.
=alcohol as a pledge duty (this should be a no brainer, but some people need to be told outright)
-Unrealistic requirements. Don't make your pledges memorize the room and cell phone numbers, room address, hometown and major for every active and pledge, especially if you have 100 girls in your house. That's just not right, it's unrealistic. Plus, these girls already have so much stuff to study!
-Anything involving girls crossing their own personal moral lines (ie, unchristian if they are religious, forcing Jewish girls to do things on Shabbat, asking muslim women to remove their headscarves), that's just not right. Their moral identity is a huge part of who they are, and you accepted the whole member, so respect that.

Good Ideas:
- make certain distinctions, IE the "smartypants" award, if someone got an A that week, or the "Princess" award if someone went above and beyond for a sister that week...etc etc. Recognize these girls at chapter! Give them a sucker or something
- Random little notes and things. I saved all of mine from pledge and put them in my scrapbook!