Ideal New Member Program

[BrownEyedGirl]

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[Glitter650]

I think the new member should be all about getitng to know your fellow new members as well as the actives, and learning completely what responsibility you will have an as active sister. My favorite part of my new member period was red rose week. It was our initiation week and we have an event every night. Mondya night is our meeting night, and we decorate the new members doors the night before that. Thuesday night is serenade and sapphire sister appreciation dinner. The whole sorority dresses in all black ritual attire and sings to the fraternities and the new members plan some sort of an event to say thank you to their sapphire (Big) sisters. The next night we have a bonfire on the ocan where we make s'mores and attempt to keep warm and perform a simple, informal ritual event. The last night is study night which is a time for the new members to ask any questions they may have about the things they have been taught during their new member period, we also usually go over all the songs with them and play a small trivia type game with facts about Phi Sig. I think having this week creates lots of memories for the new members and since the whole sister takes part it's a good time for everyone to get to know each other since we spend everynight together for a week.

[maggieaxid]

I think my best time while being a new member where the times we got to bond together as a class. there were 42 of us on an extremely competitive greek campus and it always made me feel warm an "Phuxi" (alpha xi- get it??? ok its the percoset i am on!) to know that we all got along and had some great times together. granted we all didn't get along 100% of the time, but we were kind and respectful to each other all of the time and that was always stressed by the already initiated sisters. and i think that that is very important. one of my fav. nites was learning the cheers and fun songs and also greek week.

it was also nice to know that we were the only new member class on the entire campus that kept all 42 of its new members.

[XOMichelle]

My favorite events besides parties (I know, I know, but I bond in social situations well) are retreats and trips. I love getting off campus with my sisters, and I think the change of scenery and lack of work to do gets the girls to knwo eachother better. Trips to the city to eat, going to the beach, camping... all that stuff is crucial to solidifying a pledge class. Also I think it's important to have the pledges plan something. Our pledge classes are about 15-20 people.
-M

[aephi alum]

I went through two new member periods - one for my local and one for AEPhi.

When pledging my local, we had a pledge project to accomplish - putting together a potluck dinner. Each pledge was responsible for bringing something, and the pledges and sisters enjoyed the dinner together. These days, that would be considered hazing, but I think planning and executing that project (which wasn't even all that complicated) brought the 5 of us closer together.

When we went through AEPhi's new member program as a new colony, we were already bonded as sisters... but one thing that sticks out in my mind is the group of us going out to dinner with a woman who has been very active with AEPhi from the day she pledged, who was a national officer at the time, whose daughter is an AEPhi, whose license plate is AEPHI and who, to me, is an excellent example of what it means to be greek for life. I feel an event with alums should be part of the new member program.

[33girl]

I agree that an event with alums should be part of pledging, as well as activities that help you get to know other members of the greek community. Your sorority is not a vacuum. You will have to work with other groups while you are in college - if you are so antisocial that you don't know anyone in another GLO you won't do a good job.

50 or under sisters, the pledges should (try their hardest to) interview all the sisters....more than 50, the pledges should draw 10-15 names out of a hat and interview them. I think interviews are so important and eliminating them is one of the worst decisions the NPC groups have ever made. Nothing beats one on one contact...you can't make up for that with meetings, philanthropy and mixers. And not everyone is outgoing enough to make their voice heard in a group.

Each pledge should have a "resume" that outlines her basic info and passed out to all the sisters...not everyone is active every semester and I think this would be helpful for sisters who are student teaching or studying abroad, so they know a little bit about these girls when they are active again. We used to also have the sisters interview the pledges, and I was going to say do this, until I realized how doggone sick they must have gotten of answering pretty much the same questions a zillion times.

And for the love of all that's holy, find out about your local history and teach it!!!! Yes, your national history is wonderful and bonds you with 1000's of other sisters across the country, but if it were not for those sisters who began a local, you wouldn't have ever gotten there. This is a pet peeve of mine on websites...if your history page is just a copy of what's on the national site, don't even bother, I'll click on a link.

We had a pledge project also, which was putting together a date party for the sorority (this wasn't that hard) and making something for the house. I think this helps the pledges work together.

I look at pledge programs and it seems like they are either too group focused or too individually driven...you need something in between.

[GtownGirl98]

I look back on my pledge period (aka New Member Period) and think of everything I wisd we had done, but because we were also colonizing so things had to be left out. Then when we were pledging a new member class, we were so afraid of doing anything that could be hazing that we didn't have a lot of events or a program.

If I could design my pledge period, I would have the NM spend some amount of time with every sister. Our NM classes range between 27 and 37 with total around 75 to 100. And not everyone is present or active so we aren't that large.

The current NM period has the NM elect officers. I would also do this but they would plan events like Members do, so that they can learn all the work that different roles intel.

We don't have some manditory events that I think should be manditory. They should know certain songs and have practice hours. Also they should have a new member sisterhood retreat where they go some place off campus for a night and enjoy each other without all the distractions of campus life.

Since this is my pledge period that has nothing to do with my GLO, if i were a local I would maintain the ability to remove pledges from the process if I felt that they weren't living up to the ideals of the sorority. I think that that would solve a lot of dissatisfaction between nm and members. i wouldn't do it like DZO did with Sarah but the other girl (the one that quit), I think I would have suggested a lot earlier that maybe sorority life wasn't meant for her. I can think of a few times this could have saved a lot of headaches, even with other glos on my campus.

I had a lot of other ideas but now I can't remember, maybe I will edit if I think of more.

[Munchkin03]

What my chapter did which ROCKED...

1). We had a New Member project that was a gift that we gave to the house. Our class built--yes, BUILT!--an amazing bench that I was sitting on today, three years after I made it. We were the last class to do one, and I think it was a good experience for us.

2). Our most recent new member class had to interview 10 of us...that was fun for me, as it was a way to continue stories that have been in the house since before I was a member.

3). Sister Jeopardy--still my all-time favorite activity. We were in teams of sisters and new members, and there were lots of cool questions, so I was able to learn more about both my new member class and the older sisters.

4). We had to learn the sorority songs and sing them to the house.

5). Designing paddles for our bigs.

6). The week before Initiation was also great. We had events every single day before we were initiated.

Things that I WISH we had done:

1). Contact with alumnae! Possibly a brunch with the local alumnae chapter midway between the new member education process.

2). Doing things with new members of other organizations. I was Panhel President this year, and we tried to get a BBQ together for new members of both sororities.

3). Events that are mandatory for the new member and their big sister. I think it's easy for older sisters, who are exhausted after Rush, to leave the new member education to those in charge. Of course, the little/big should communicate on their own initiative, but certain events could be mandatory for both...possibly doing Sister Jeopardy with teams of littles and their bigs?

[shadokat]

Favorite NM events:

1. NM Class socials with other frats and sororities: we'd have pizza and play twister or something fun and non-alcoholic with another Greek Orgs. NM class, and it was always fun to meet new people.

2. Presentations night, where we present our NM class songs and our gift to the sorority. We built a bench too Munchkin!

3. Bake Sale Baking: Sisters and NMs baked cookies, brownies, etc. for a bake sale for CF. We had so much fun...and made a HUGE mess!

4. Big Sister Revealing...what more needs to be said

[shadowstar]

our pledge classes were always pretty small, and since i was an open bid, i just went through new member ed stuff with one other girl. most of it was just learning sorority history and such. i really like the idea of having the new members collect info on all the sisters; it forces everyone to sit down and talk to each other and you may find out things you have in common you never would have imagined. i also think there should be all sorts of fun sisterhood activities. we also had a pledge retreat for some our spring pledge class. and at the end of pledging, the pledges planned an all-campus party, which was usually a lot of fun.

[Winterbloom]

When I pledged SAI, we had a 22 member pledge class, the largest in our chapter history. Our sisterhood was about 45 strong, not counting the MITs. We had to go around and interview every sister and our fellow MITs, and then each of them gave us a little task to do or something to make. The second rounds have since been eliminated as they are considered hazing. But we still do the first rounds, and I will tell you, this has been incredbily problematic for us. Some MITs don't take our honor code very seriously, and they will copy information from other MITs, or they won't do it at all, and since there are no penalties for that, it goes unpunished.

What I did love about my pledge period was our MIT Recital. Every MIT performs in this recital for the sisterhood, and we sing a couple of songs out of our beloved Red Book. I loved the picnics with our patronesses and alumnae.

Our pledge period has become lighter now, with developments in SAI Nationals and reviews of hazing policies, but the tradition and the beauty of our rituals as well as the constancy of things such as the recital make it still such a meaningful period in every sister's life at Sigma Omega.