Interviewing Actives = hazing???

[PiKA2001]

Make the actives have to interview the pledges???

[chideltjen]

Originally posted by PiKA2001
Make the actives have to interview the pledges???

meaning the actives would be asking the questions and the new members would in a sense be signing off? i think...

But i agree with leslie... while it may sound like a good idea, NMs may feel pressured to say the right thing.

[emb021]

Originally posted by chideltjen
Hey all,

I was just curious what you all thought of this. It is requirement in our sorority for all new members to "interview" all of the active sisters in the house and about 3-5 alumni sisters.

In Alpha Phi Omega, its quite common in most chapters to expect the pledges to meet the Brothers and prove this by getting signatures. Many add it that they want the pledges to ask the actives questions (they usually provide guidelines and suggested questions). Its all part of getting the pledges to meet the Brothers.

So, getting signatures is NOT hazing (hazing is making pledges do demaning/degrading activities, etc), and am suprised if any GLO saids that getting signatures in and of itself hazing.

That said, IF you add certain activities to getting those signatures (ie the active asked the pledge a questions, and if they don't answer it they don't get a signature), you have to be careful that that could not be seen as hazing. My chapter used to have the 'active asked the pledge a question' requirement as part of getting a signature, but had to drop it as we were told by our National org that it could be hazing, as the active could ask a super difficult question, which we never intended.

I've also seen some interesting ways of gathering signatures. We use a section of our National Pledge Manual for that purpose in our chapter. Another chapter has the pledges carry around a paddle which is signed.

Hope this helps.

[Iris]

...I think this is one of those fine-line areas. In theory, interviews are a great way for NMs to get to know the women/men in the chapter they are joining. It's also a great way for the actives to get to know the NMs.

We all know the "give an inch, take a mile" thing......which is what turns these interviews into hazing.

It may seem unrealistic to some, but whatever happened to getting to know people by good ol' fashioned conversation? It doesn't have to occur in an interview; it can happen at a social, a philanthropic event, a meeting, lunch, dinner or movie night....it does take an effort to get to know NMs and for them to get to know the actives.

If you aren't MUTUALLY interested in getting to know one another, why join or continue to be a part of it???

I volunteer for my HQs now like many of you do.....I don't ever recall taking a book around at conferences and conventions to interview and get signatures of my fellow volunteers that I had never met before.......why--in reality--should it differ on the chapter level? Friendships occur because of finding a common ground, not because of an interview.

Iris

[33girl]

Iris, I understand what you mean about getting to know each other via conversation, but you usually don't meet dozens of new people at once. With interviews, you can find out a lot of the little things and get them out of the way and start to get to know each other more quickly. Plus not everyone is that outgoing that they will randomly strike up conversations - interviews provide a structured way to do that.

If there are chapters that abuse interviews, those chapters should face the consequences. It irks me that everyone has to be punished (and yes, I do view getting rid of interviews as a punishment - it's the worst mistake national HQ's have ever made, IMO) for something that one lame chapter did.