new member programs preparing you for life as an active

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Learning the Greek alphabet takes no time at all - and being able to identify other groups, or even other chapters of your own GLO - is important. If you are going to belong to a GLO, you should at the very least know the Greek alphabet. Who would want to remain willfully ignorant of the meaning of letters used by your own organization? And any one who had to learn Greek letters as part of their new member program would NOT be asking stupid questiions (at least not if they had truly learned it.) If your new member program taught you nothing more important than the Greek alphabet, the problem is the new member program - not learning the Greek alphabet, but failing to have any programming that taught you anything more important. Perhaps you should address the issue with your HQ.
Oh - and the possessive form of "it" is "its", not "it's". One of my personal pet peeves . . .

I'm surprised at the vitriol in this post. It seems as though you are truly offended that my NM program did not include memorizing the greek alphabet in order. The alphabet was listed in our NM book, but we were not asked to memorize it. We didn't have time. Unfortunately, when you have six weeks to prepare for initiation, somethings have to be sacrificed. At the time our HQ apparently felt that giving us a source to find the information was good enough. Maybe you should improve your reading comprehension skills. If you look back at my prior posts, I said we had too many important things to learn to bother with trivial information (ie. we'd have time to learn that after initiation.) I don't feel the least bit embarrassed or "willfully ignorant" for not being able to recite the greek alphabet. As I said in multiple posts, we were very capable of correctly recognizing any greek letter that came our way. If we forgot one of the more rarely used letters, we had a source to look it up. Forgive me if I think placing so much emphasis on this small matter is ridiculous since the way we were taught served us just fine. Just because you were taught one way doesn't mean that everyone has to be taught the same way. As for my statement that people who ask others what their letters say probably had been taught the greek alphabet, that was in reference to other posters who mentioned such events. My point is that most sororities have the greek alphabet as part of their NM education so it doesn't always stick with them. In the end, all of this has been taken out of context. The matter at hand was whether or not our NM education programs should be changed to included hazing to make members feel more special about being initiated. I also suggest that you consider that criticizing what my sorority found important about NM education implies that you think your own sorority is the best. I thought at GC we tried to shy away from that kind of mentality...or was I wrong?

[SydneyK]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

Unfortunately, when you have six weeks to prepare for initiation, somethings have to be sacrificed.

That's exactly the point others are trying to make. Because of the shorter NM period, things have been sacrificed. Generally, when one uses the word "sacrifice", they mean that something important has been given up for something else. Unimportant things aren't considered sacrifices. So, most of us see proper Greek-related education as important. Thus, it saddens us (maybe even angers some) to see it get tossed. It's being considered dismissable.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by SydneyK

That's exactly the point others are trying to make. Because of the shorter NM period, things have been sacrificed. Generally, when one uses the word "sacrifice", they mean that something important has been given up for something else. Unimportant things aren't considered sacrifices. So, most of us see proper Greek-related education as important. Thus, it saddens us (maybe even angers some) to see it get tossed. It's being considered dismissable.

My only response to this is that knowing greek trivia has its place, but it's not the most important part of NM education. I think others can make the point that learning the greek alphabet is important without making it seem like it has more importance than it does or getting angry about it. I personally agree that you should be aware of the greek system and its members. Does all of that have to be done during the NM period? No...that's why we have member education throughout the four years.

[bejazd]

Maybe we're sort of missing the forest for the trees in this discussion. One of the most important reasons why all GLOs are having increasing numbers of members not inititate, terminate or resign has to do with the recruitment process as much as the membership education process. Although we've made tremendous strides with dry fraternity rush, and no-frills sorority rush, and efforts to eliminate hazing....we're seeing people treat our lifetime membership organizations exactly the same as a temporary country club membership because that's the way we sell the membership experience to PNMs.

So what can we do to improve the way we market what our organizations really are at their core, instead of the short term party circuit, and therefore attract and retain the type of people who respect and want to make our organizations better???

[SWTXBelle]

A O II Angel - speaking of reading comprehension - I didn't criticize your NM program, and I was not vitriolic. You seem to be rather defensive with everyone.
You implied you were unhappy with the time you spent learning the Greek alphabet in your post, so my point was that instead of arguing whether it was important or unimportant the focus should instead be on improving the program. I know nothing about the A O II program other than what you have told me of your experience with it. I still believe that if you were unhappy with spending a week learning the Greek alphabet that you should take that up with your chapter or HQ instead of criticizing an element of everyone else's NMP. Perhaps you simply chose a bad example in trying to make a larger point - that sometimes the focus is not on what you consider important. Instead of arguing about the Greek alphabet, why not suggest what you would include in a NMP program, or if the new AOII program addresses this problem tell us about it.
I think everyone here agrees that a successful NMP should prepare you to be an involved active and alumnae. What those elements should include is certainly up for debate. I will go on record for believing that the Greek alphabet should be one, albeit one small, element of the NMP.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

A O II Angel - speaking of reading comprehension - I didn't criticize your NM program, and I was not vitriolic. You seem to be rather defensive with everyone.
You implied you were unhappy with the time you spent learning the Greek alphabet in your post, so my point was that instead of arguing whether it was important or unimportant the focus should instead be on improving the program. I know nothing about the A O II program other than what you have told me of your experience with it. I still believe that if you were unhappy with spending a week learning the Greek alphabet that you should take that up with your chapter or HQ instead of criticizing an element of everyone else's NMP. Perhaps you simply chose a bad example in trying to make a larger point - that sometimes the focus is not on what you consider important. Instead of arguing about the Greek alphabet, why not suggest what you would include in a NMP program, or if the new AOII program addresses this problem tell us about it.
I think everyone here agrees that a successful NMP should prepare you to be an involved active and alumnae. What those elements should include is certainly up for debate. I will go on record for believing that the Greek alphabet should be one, albeit one small, element of the NMP.

This is why I said reread my posts. I never complained about learning the greek alphabet for a week. I, at least twice, said that we didn't have to learn the greek alphabet, and I am perfectly fine with that. What I originally said is that my biological sister pledged the year before me when she had a full semester pledge program. I was in the first NM class with a 6 week program. I said that she felt we had no difference in pledge education except that she was required to learn a little more extraneous information and go to pledge meetings for a few more months. I get a little irritated when people take my words out of context or completely misrepresent my words. And...you did say, and I quote, "If your new member program taught you nothing more important than the Greek alphabet, the problem is the new member program - not learning the Greek alphabet, but failing to have any programming that taught you anything more important. Perhaps you should address the issue with your HQ." This statement was inflammatory,rude and yes...critical, especially since nowhere in my posts did I say that I learned nothing more important than the greek alphabet in my NM program. I still contend that learning the greek alphabet is helpful but not the end all, be all of greek life! In the end, if your sorority feels it is important to learn the greek alphabet, that's their decision. I think it's neither good nor bad...

[SWTXBelle]

Not meant to be inflammatory, nor rude - simply trying to point out that you made an issue of the alphabet and its place in new member programs specific to your experience and that if it was a problem then rather than complain about it the thing to do would be to address it with your GLO.That's not meant as a criticism in other than a constructive way. I truly believe that if you were unhappy with your program (even though it was some time ago) the thing to do is change it .
Your sister has pointed out that AOII has a new membership program,and given the direction NMPs have taken I think it is fair to say, even with no knowledge specifically of it, that AOII has probably addressed some of your concerns with superficial or trivial material.
You have reacted to me and other posters as though you have been personally attacked. I certainly am not attacking you, and I think the other posters were supporting the idea of learning the Greek alphabet rather than lambasting you. I want to focus the discussion on how different GLOs are addressing issues facing us with shortened new member periods and the implementation of new programs. We're all interested in the same thing I'm sure - how to juggle the demands of preparing new members, keeping them involved as actives, and furthering the experience as alumnae. So shall we get back on topic?

[Wolfman]

From just reading this very interesting thread, I think that, in reaction to risk management issues, many Greek-letter orgs have gone too far afield in membership intake, new member programs, or whatever you want to call them. The raison d'etre of our organizations is brotherhood/sisterhood with a purpose. If you don't have the institutional means facilitiate the building of a certain amount of esprit de corps, your group will degenerate into a social club, which actually suits more young people today who seem to be more narcissistic. As anthropologists tell us and rites-of-passge rituals worldwide show us, these type of initiatory programs are about status transformation,drawing someone out of their previous way of being to broaden them to serve purposes that transcend their self-centered existence which characterized their age of minority. Fraternity/sorority nm programs are in the same general category.

[bejazd]

Originally Posted by Wolfman

The raison d'etre of our organizations is brotherhood/sisterhood with a purpose. If you don't have the institutional means facilitiate the building of a certain amount of esprit de corps, your group will degenerate into a social club, which actually suits more young people today who seem to be more narcissistic. As anthropologists tell us and rites-of-passge rituals worldwide show us, these type of initiatory programs are about status transformation,drawing someone out of their previous way of being to broaden them to serve purposes that transcend their self-centered existence which characterized their age of minority. Fraternity/sorority nm programs are in the same general category.

Whoa, Wolfman, You've had your Wheaties today!

Even though young people seem to be more narcissitic in some ways, there is still a tremendous yearning for friendships that are real and lasting, and opportunities to experience a kind of fellowship and family love that many people never do find. Greeks have that to offer! Can we tap into the best part of what we are and sell it?

Odd that we put so much focus on the exclusivity aspect of Greek membership as collegians. After you've been an alum for about one year, most people come to realize that anybody could be your sister/brother. And when you realize that anybody could be...you know that everybody is. What a blessing that realization has been to me in my adult life as I've navigated the workplace, becoming a member of my husband's family, creating relationships with my children's friends and their parents...and involvement in many organizations and activities in my community. Because of my GPB membership experience, I know how to relate to so many people who are so different than me!