Scavenger Hunts?

[Tom Earp]

Sorry, but it can escalate.

It seems a Fraternity took down the Lighted Pin off of the AGD House that cost @ $300.00 to replace and it was stolen by them and destroyed. Boy was that fun!

Fun can turn into not fun very fast and can get dangerous!

[CutiePie2000]

Originally Posted by Kevin

What do y'all think about scavenger hunts? Most of our organizations RM policies specifically forbid them of course, are these a form of hazing? Are they particularly risky?

yes, especially if the list was created by someone with no sense at all and one of the items is something like, "Take a digital photo of one of your pledge brothers flipping the bird to a Hells Angels member."

[fectin]

The biggest reason they give us at our yearly sessions is that scavenger hunts have a tendancy to escalate. The first year, it's find a bench (just as an example, not to pick on that chapter), two years later some brother steals the plaque to make it more interesting, then the new members have to guard the bench for the afternoon, then all night, etc.
That's kind of a ridiculous example, especially given that the "find the bench for free lunch" thing seems to have been going for a while, but it's that sort of escalation that gets IHQs a little leery of allowing scavenger hunts.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Agreed. The slipperly slope argument is a strong one when it comes to RM.

[axostarlet05]

I was the VP of Risk Management for a year, and my old officer's manual contained the FIPG Risk Management Policy that my chapter and all the chapters on my campus follow:

No chapter, colony, or student or alumnus shall conduct nor condone hazing activities.

Hazing activities are defined as:
“Any action taken or situation created, intentionally, whether on or off fraternity premises, to produce mental or physical discomfort, embarrassment, harassment, or ridicule. Such activities may include but are not limited to the following: use of alcohol; paddling in any form; creation of excessive fatigue; physical and psychological shocks; quests, treasure hunts, scavenger hunts, road trips or any other such activities carried on outside or inside the confines of the chapter house; wearing of public apparel which is conspicuous and not normally in good taste; engaging in public stunts and buffoonery; morally degrading or humiliating games and activities; and any other activities which are not consistent with academic achievement, fraternal law, ritual or policy or the regulations and policies of the educational institution, or applicable state law.”

Sadly, because some chapters in the past have gotten so out of hand, these policies can get a bit excessive. It's to the point where members of the chapter think we can't even make new members come to chapter... (ridiculous, right? why would you join if you won't even go to chapter?)

A few good rules of thumb are:

if your chapter members aren't willing to do it with the new members, you shouldn't be doing it.

Ask yourself, "how is this enriching their orientation experience?" "how is this helping them to become stronger chapter members?" "how does this teach the ideals of our chapter?" If you can't reasonably answer those questions, don't do it.

Kate
Alpha Chi Omega
Theta Omega, Marquette University
www.kristinsstory.com

[AlwaysSAI]

On my campus scavenger hunts are considered hazing and we do them every semester in SAI. We use them as an educational tool to go over the history of the org and stuff--no hazing involved! In fact, we order pizza afterwards. Anyway, we get around the hazing rule by calling it a "cross campus educational tour".