I've really enjoyed reading this thread. There are some great thoughts here! Thought I'd chime in once again.
I agree that too many people say about hazing, "I had to do it, and so should you" or "it's TRADITION". Well, then start a NEW tradition; one that involves no hazing!
And I understand what a sticky subject hazing is. It's so easy to haze your new members and not even realize it is hazing!! Until this year, my SAI chapter required MITs(members-in-training) to have the sisters quiz them on their learned material of the week and give them "roses" if they did well. Our Province Officer told us at her Official Visit this year that it is hazing and we had to stop. We were a little shocked, but once she explained to us why and we discussed it, we totally understood why.
I remember, as an SAI pledge, it was a little intimidating to approach the sisters for their "roses". And not that they ever yelled at me if I got something wrong...they NEVER did that! They were super nice and encouraged us, etc. But to shyer new girls, I can TOTALLY see how this could cause undue stress.
So, after talking with her, we reformatted this practice. We will now ASK the MIT if they would like us to help them study, but not make it a requirement. We will also have THEM quiz US...after all, some of us may have gotten rusty on our SAI history.
Plus, this will make us on the same level on them.
Yeah, at first we were disappointed. It was a tradition in our chapter. But we didn't want to haze either. So, we changed it into this brand new tradition.
(And before you ask, NO it's not hazing to make them learn the material on SAI because it is a national requirement for them to take the National Membership Exam to be initiated)
I guess the point of my ramblings is this. Most GLOs are against hazing, but I think we all (my chapter included, apparantly!) should review hazing and what it encompasses, regularly. Even if you don't mean to, something might be hazing.
Hybrid Mode
