Pledge Program

[James]

Brad's right on this one . . . it wasn't until groups got really big did they start doing the whole pledging thing.

Originally posted by Kapsig1
I would encourage each of us to examine our own fraternity/sorority history and determine when "pledging" began. Define "pledging" as anything OTHER than men or women finding people they believed they could bond to, and inviting them to join immediately.

I think you just might be surprised that most, if not all were founded that way AND exisited that way for the majority of our history.

I'm not advocating it, but my guess is that most would not refer to their "founders" as "club starters.

Brad

[fire1977]

I think I know what organization you are talking about as we had a fraternity with that same rule....from what I was **told** so it might not be true, that was their policy for this fraternity. They had to initiate within so many hours after bidding.

Just as a sidebar, it was also said that the brothers weren't too happy about it, but to each his own!

[starang21]

it's a joke

[MenaceKiller]

Most likely, the "initation" consists of making the fellas "new members" in a more politically correct way.

Their initiation is probably very similar in process to our bids to the rushees for pledgehood. Once they become initiated, they probably have a probationary period where they are not FULL members and learn how to properly behave in meetings, find out the history and details, then present a form of history to the chapter at the end of their "probationary brother period" such as a paddle or other politically correct item. Does that sound rather appropriate?

[AngelPhiSig]

As Fire1977 said, Im pretty sure I know which org this post is about - I have "dated" (long story) one of their brothers (we dont have them on our campus) and it IS a NATIONAL policy. The brothers have NO say in wether or not they have a pledge program. They are supposed to be educated after initiation as a total brotherhood thing. If the chapter mentioned does not- thats their call.

So before you start bashing a chapter for its policies, you need to do your research and find out about the national org... there are reasons WHY orgs do the things they do. If the chapter would have a pledge program they would have to answer to the national org.

Just my .02

[moe.ron]

I know about half our chapters doesn't have a pledge program. Instead they utilized the Balanced Man Program. My chapter did not adopt that program but I've seen positive outcome from the program. Check it out in our national website, http://www.sigep.org/bmp/default.asp

[Kevin]

I know about half our chapters doesn't have a pledge program. Instead they utilized the Balanced Man Program. My chapter did not adopt that program but I've seen positive outcome from the program.

Most national groups are advocating something to the effect of the Balanced Man program. While that has its unique aspects (it's the only one I know of that includes some sort of physical regimen) it's really an alternative pledge program.

Sigma Nu for example has the LEAD program (acronym for Leadership Ethics Achievement and Development). These "alternative" pledge programs are great. They are very carefully crafted by professionals to be an ideal (and legal) pledging experience.

These types of programs I think really are where the Greek Community as a whole has to go in order to survive.

LHT
Kevin