A history of the end: My experiences in Gamma Zeta and the final years.

[JoinerLxa]

Yes, some fraternities have adopted "new member programs"
which "are not pledges" though they may have different names
for them. When I received my Pike bid in '86 (I'm getting old),
it formally said "You are invited to accept Associate Membership
in Pi Kappa Alpha", though I've never heard a Pike use the
term "A.M."

ZBT has supposedly gone a step further than us....they
require new members to become fully initiated within
a week (or other short period of time) after accepting their
bid....they "skip" pledgeship/AM-ship totally....though I
think some of their chapters "unofficially" still have a
pledge program (as do some LXA chapters).

Very short pledge periods are not unheard-of....
in fact it was the standard before
WWI. Even early LXA's were supposed to be "fully initiated"
within 3 weeks after taking a bid (that was the early plan),
being "partially initated" in stages during that 3 week
period. They were to begin the first stage as soon after
accepting their bid as possible....probably explaining why
we had no "Pledge Ceremony" before 1939.

Phi Mu Fraternity (for women) calls their new members
"Phis", though I don't know if that's really different from
a "pledge"....they have enough trouble explaining how
they are a Fraternity eventhough they are all girls!

I'm not sure the "new names" make much difference.
We could just as easily have said that "LXA pledges are"
what A.M.'s are today...just used the same term.

I think it was GA 2002 that someone sponsored a bill
to change "LXA Fraternity" to "LXA Brotherhood". Obviously
it didn't pass, and it wouldn't have done any good anyway,
other than causing more confusion. Does anyone really
think that Kappa Alpha is "not a college fraternity" because
they are "KA Order" instead of "KA Fraternity"?? LOL