BIG BROTHER/little brother Questionnaire

[19SigEp01]

So I think matching BIG and little is extremely important in any fraternity or sorority. Obviously your BIG serves as a guide and mentor to help to you through your pledge process and eventually becomes one of your best friends. This semester my BIG brother and I will be in charge of the incoming Rush Class, one of our jobs is to make sure they are paired with a good Big Brother. I just wanted suggestions of questions I can put on a questionnaire for the new guys to fill out that can be given to all the older members so that they can get to know them a little better:

ex: Favorite sport?
Favorite team?
Favorite movie?
Celebrity Crush?
Dream job?

[33girl]

I don't think things like "Celebrity Crush" are a good indicator of who would be a good big/little team at all.

Give the pledges and brothers a couple weeks to get to know each other and then have them both write down their top choices and match them that way (kind of like girl bid matching). They can have a "sponsor" from the latest pledge class for the first week or 2, but that person doesn't necessarily have to end up being their big.

[19SigEp01]

Allow me to clarify. The questionnaire is not used as a tool for matching. This is more so for after the BIGS and little have already been matched to learn more of their interests. I would never pair guys up because they both think Jessica Alba is the hottest thing since sliced bread. I would love to institute something like a "Big of The Week" where each new member is assigned a different fully initiated brother each week as a mentor where they sit down and talk about the fraternity and their expectations, go out to lunch, go play sports, catch a movie etc...so this way the new members are seeing different faces up until the point they pref their actual BIGS. The only thing is we have many more initiated brothers than we do new members so some guys wouldn't get a chance to fully participate.

[CrackerBarrel]

Yeah, have them write down their top 5 choices then go to those brothers in the order they are on the list and ask if they want that pledge as their little brother.

[CrackerBarrel]

Originally Posted by 19SigEp01

Allow me to clarify. The questionnaire is not used as a tool for matching. This is more so for after the BIGS and little have already been matched to learn more of their interests. I would never pair guys up because they both think Jessica Alba is the hottest thing since sliced bread. I would love to institute something like a "Big of The Week" where each new member is assigned a different fully initiated brother each week as a mentor where they sit down and talk about the fraternity and their expectations, go out to lunch, go play sports, catch a movie etc...so this way the new members are seeing different faces up until the point they pref their actual BIGS. The only thing is we have many more initiated brothers than we do new members so some guys wouldn't get a chance to fully participate.

Make the pledges meet the brothers (go to their rooms and talk to them) with either a signature sheet they have to get filled out or getting and memorizing stuff about the brothers (hometown, major, pledgeclass, big brother, positions held, etc.). I don't know if Sig Ep would consider that "technically hazing" (or why you would care if they did, do it anyways it's pretty clearly harmless) but it seems a lot more meaningful than a survey and a date. Plus then you can make them learn the same thing about everyone in the house (however many a week X however long your pledgeship is) instead of one brother a week. And don't assign when to meet brothers, just tell them they have to have met them all by a certain point.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I don't think things like "Celebrity Crush" are a good indicator of who would be a good big/little team at all.

Co-sign. Especially for a fraternity.

Originally Posted by CrackerBarrel

Yeah, have them write down their top 5 choices then go to those brothers in the order they are on the list and ask if they want that pledge as their little brother.

This is how my organization does it. We have a few weeks where the pledges and brothers get to know each other. We then ask the pledges which brothers they feel the best connection with and do our best to match accordingly.

Originally Posted by 19SigEp01

Allow me to clarify. The questionnaire is not used as a tool for matching. This is more so for after the BIGS and little have already been matched to learn more of their interests. I would never pair guys up because they both think Jessica Alba is the hottest thing since sliced bread. I would love to institute something like a "Big of The Week" where each new member is assigned a different fully initiated brother each week as a mentor where they sit down and talk about the fraternity and their expectations, go out to lunch, go play sports, catch a movie etc...so this way the new members are seeing different faces up until the point they pref their actual BIGS. The only thing is we have many more initiated brothers than we do new members so some guys wouldn't get a chance to fully participate.

Pledges can hang out with brothers without the title of "big" attached. Assign the bigs, then consider hosting some kind of function or program that allows interaction with others.

[LAChick10]

Hmmm... try things like why did u decide to rush us over someone else, positions held and their fav, Life goals, what being a big bro means to you...