New Member Period

[SigmaPezY60]

It might be a fun activity to make class shirts. Get your shirts, paint, rhinestones, etc together...grab your sisters and your new members, some great chic flicks and have a great time bonding and making shirts.

The reason that scavenger hunts seem to be frowned upon and seen as hazing is because usually the new members are encouraged to steal things or get things that are impossible to get, or encourage illegal activities. The difference between doing a scavenger hunt with your church youth group for fun and doing one as a pledge is that most pledges are made to think that they have to bring back these items or they won't become members. Church groups

I think when its something related to your history and your members it's okay (that's just my opinion...you may want to check with your administrators and/or advisor on anything you think is iffy) And as long as you stress that the objective is to work as a group to accomplish a common goal.

If you want to do a scavenger hunt for specific items, try forming groups made of both active and new members, with a prize for the winning team. This helps the actives get to know the new members better, and helps the new members work as a team with the active members.

hope that helped.

[lauralaylin]

I've personally always loved scavenger hunts, but I think a problem can be that they start out ok, but later turn into hazing. Like five years down the road, they start making the nm's search for inappropriate things.

Good luck with everything. I am very interested in your group's development. I was a charter member of my org (although I joined right after they stopped being a local), and I am from RI and went to URI. There aren't too many RI threads here, it's nice to hear about a school I'm actually familiar with!

[GC2theEC]

Before I started going to my college scavenger hunts were frowned upon because it was encouraged to get drunk as you went around campus (yeah, because that makes it easier to find what you're looking for...). With a local sorority it's not that big of a deal, just keep it quiet if you want to avoid being harassed. People are also more willing to accept it if you go through and plant everything you want the girls to find, this way they're not "stealing" from other people.

[OPhiAGinger]

When you enter a national park, have you ever seen a sign that says "Take nothing but photographs; leave nothing but footprints"? You can apply that same idea to a scavenger hunt.

Instead of making a list of things that the teams must bring back, you should arm each group with a digital camera and make a list of pictures they must take of each other at different places or doing different things. Ideas: washing a car, shaking hands with the university president (clear it ahead of time), carrying grocery bags for someone else at the grocery store, at the campus library, etc. Make the list long and spread out and the time limit tight so they couldn't possibly do them all. At the finish line, have an official "referee" count up how many of the photos each group snapped (either by downloading them onto a central computer or just by flipping through the memory on each camera) and declare a winner.

That way, you don't run the risk of someone taking something they shouldn't. Plus, you get some great photos for your scrapbook or website!

[SigmaPezY60]

exactly. my campus was a short 20-30min train ride into NYC from Jersey. So we would go into the city and our list would have rediculous things on it (Egyptian Pyramids, Paris, Antarctica...one of our sisters that was in Iraq...stuff that is impossible)

We were explicitly told that we didn't have to get everything on the list, and to be creative. We all had cameras. In the city you are bound to come accross the most off the wall things anyways. Sometimes you'll get lucky and find a street vendor painting scenes of Paris. Or you get creative and pick up a tabloid with Paris Hilton on the front....or take a picture of the Hilton.

It was fun because we knew there was no pressure and we knew the point was to work together and figure out creative solutions. I must say though...now that digital cameras are more common...the hunts are more fun! We'd get to see the pictures on the train back to jersey instead of waiting a week for the film to be developed.

[ssuchidelt]

Originally Posted by BlueEyedButrfly

How do you create class tshirts? Would you just purchase plain shirts and have the girls decorate? Any ideas re: this would be really helpful b/c I love this idea!!

We usually leave it up to the pledges to decide what they want to do with thme. Some classes have got together designed them and ordered them, some have done iron on transfers, others have puff painted and all that jazz. It's just a really fun activity that the girls get to do together as a class.

We also ask them to wear them on days we wear our letters around campus and so forth. It's an activity that's good early on to get them bonded. Hope that helped.

[BlueEyedButrfly]

I LOOOOOOVE the idea of taking pictures of different things/activities!!!!

[dreamofpeace]

We did a scavenger hunt and tee-shirts, and they were two of the most fun activities we did during pledging.

In terms of important things to have in a pledge program, I've gotta say that I think the most important aspect of my group's NME was that we were required to spend practically all our time together as a pledge class. It might seem awful at the time, but it really makes you bond with your pledge sisters, which (I think anyway) is sorta the main point to pledging.

[PiRhoPres]

Awww your initiating your Beta class the same day we're initiating ours. That's really awesome.