After Several Years: What Do You Think of the New Release Figures?

[ForeverRoses]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

The rationale behind changing the programs to 6-8 weeks from 1 semester was to fight hazing in chapters. If you only had 6-8 weeks as a new member, then you would have a much shorter time to be considered "less than." The reaction to the change is very different depending on who you speak to about this. Some women who pledged an entire semester think that it needs to be re-instituted, but some women (like my bio sister) see no difference and are happy with the change.

I'm curious why you would have loved a longer NM period? What did you feel was missing?

I was in the first year my chapter shifted to the 6 week NM period (it was called Bridges at the time). So maybe becuase it was the first year, but lots of things seemed really rushed. For example, our bid day buddy was our big. So if you didn't click with them, you were SOL. We also busted our butts trying to learn everything- national history, chapter history, etc. We were lucky that our chapter was fairly new, I can't imagine trying to fit everthing in for a 100 yr old chapter! A couple of more weeks would have given a little more time to digest everything. Plus thrown into that 6week process was Homecoming- so that week was a loss in terms of pledge activities, plus mid-terms were another week. I remember one new member meeting lasting 3 hours just so that we could cover everything in the pledge manual. We had 5 manditory new member meetings plus one overnight retreat. Add pledge pinning and then initiation into that.

One other reason a longer pledge period might be good- it might lessen the post initiation let-down. If you can spread out some of the fun activities, then it might not be such a downer when they come to an end after initiation.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by ForeverRoses

I was in the first year my chapter shifted to the 6 week NM period (it was called Bridges at the time). So maybe becuase it was the first year, but lots of things seemed really rushed. For example, our bid day buddy was our big. So if you didn't click with them, you were SOL. We also busted our butts trying to learn everything- national history, chapter history, etc. We were lucky that our chapter was fairly new, I can't imagine trying to fit everthing in for a 100 yr old chapter! A couple of more weeks would have given a little more time to digest everything. Plus thrown into that 6week process was Homecoming- so that week was a loss in terms of pledge activities, plus mid-terms were another week. I remember one new member meeting lasting 3 hours just so that we could cover everything in the pledge manual. We had 5 manditory new member meetings plus one overnight retreat. Add pledge pinning and then initiation into that.

One other reason a longer pledge period might be good- it might lessen the post initiation let-down. If you can spread out some of the fun activities, then it might not be such a downer when they come to an end after initiation.

ForeverRoses,

We pledged the same year, but my experience was far from chaotic as you described. We had plenty of time to get everything done and didn't get Big Sisters until week 3. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) Homecoming was not a huge event at my school...I made our Homecoming "card" with three initiated sisters one afternoon in the dorm. My sister who had been intiated in the last full semester class in my chapter couldn't detect any real differences between my new member training and her pledge training except for a longer waiting period. We had a few people from the earlier classes complain that we hadn't "earned" our letters, but they were quickly drowned out by the sisters who were determined to make it a successful and meaningful experience for the NMs. As for Thetagirl218, I can imagine that the NM time seems short to you, but also remember that your colonizing class had many more responsibilities for setting up your chapter as well as learning the history of Theta. You could never have done all of that in just 6 weeks!

[ForeverRoses]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

ForeverRoses,

We pledged the same year, but my experience was far from chaotic as you described. We had plenty of time to get everything done and didn't get Big Sisters until week 3. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) Homecoming was not a huge event at my school...I made our Homecoming "card" with three initiated sisters one afternoon in the dorm. My sister who had been intiated in the last full semester class in my chapter couldn't detect any real differences between my new member training and her pledge training except for a longer waiting period. We had a few people from the earlier classes complain that we hadn't "earned" our letters, but they were quickly drowned out by the sisters who were determined to make it a successful and meaningful experience for the NMs. As for Thetagirl218, I can imagine that the NM time seems short to you, but also remember that your colonizing class had many more responsibilities for setting up your chapter as well as learning the history of Theta. You could never have done all of that in just 6 weeks!

Actually, I think I am a bit older than you - my chapter was one of the test chapters for Bridges, which is another reason for it being so chaotic. Several things changed the next year (like bigs being assigned on bid day). I don't think the NM period should go back to 11 weeks, but 8 would have been better.

As for the new release method- I like the idea of chapters not stringing along PNMs. However, I think it does need to be explained better to the PNMs (and even the chapter members!)