new member education

[amanda6035]

Hi everyone,

I tried doing a search for this, but didnt have much luck. I was recently appointed as new member orientation chair, and I was wondering if anybody had any out-of-the-ordinary advice, suggestion or ideas for this job.

We have to do a new member retreat in which the new members, and the initiated sisters learn (or relearn) about the founders, and I dont want to do something dumb and boring about "okay divide into groups, read this paper about this founder and teach everyone about her."

I'm also looking for new ideas on how to do big/lil revealing.

Also, if your chapter does worksheets, and you ask questions, what kind of incentives do you give to the new members for participating and answering questions? I dont want to do candy all semester and rot their teeth

Basically, if there was anything really special about your new member experience, or if you have held the office and have any ideas, I would appreciate them. Thank you!

[KatieKD]

For big little revealing, what we did when I was a sophomore was have the pledges look for clues that would eventually lead them to a room with a bunch of balloons. They had to pop the balloon to find their big sister's name and where all of the big sisters were. It was so much fun seeing them run into the room to greet their bigs!

[adpiucf]

Congrats on your new role in the chapter!

My favorite revealings were done as candle lightings. The initiated sponsor sister gets two identical candles; perhaps home made or decorated by her.

She keeps one and one is earmarked for the new member.

Everyone comes to chapter dressed in a solid color-- black, white, blue, whatever-- dressed to pin.

The new members are given their candles and are escorted to the outside where the initiated members are standing in a circle, serenading them. The new members candles are lit, and they walk inside the circle. When they come upon their sponsor sister, the sponsor holds out her candle so the new member can see and light it. The new member stands beside the sister until all the new members have found their sponsors. Then blow the candles out and have a cake and punch reception to celebrate.

You can also lead up to the reveal by clues and gifts being dropped off at the new member's home or in the chapter house (within reasonable hours of the day).

For your retreat, split the chapter into "stations" where small groups get together to review policies, learn songs, talk about the founders, etc. This will help keep attention from waning as they walk from project to project. They might be working on completing a craft project throughout the retreat-- IE-- give everyone a piece of yarn-- as she completes each station, she gets a bead to symbolize completion. At the conclusion of the retreat, everyone has a sisterhood bracelet.

You can make your retreat interactive-- get the groups to act out the sororities standards policies-- gives everyone a good laugh. Or when discussing ethics and morals, ask each group to design a coat of arms to represent their group.

Regarding your founders, something I really enjoyed about ADPi was when we learned about the founders, our NMC read aloud a diary entry from one of the founders. Then other sisters "played" the founders-- each wore a sign around her neck with the name of the founder and read a short bio. We also learned some mnemonics for remembering names and important dates. You can even make up a song.

Making a trivia game like Jeopardy and offering prizes is a good way to encourage participation and competition.

Get your seniors involved and have them help out, teaching songs, being recognized and sharing their experiences as new members 4 years ago and what has changed on campus.

Get members to attend new member meetings to get facetime with the new girls, and to help the NMC.

Make your plans very interactive and offer incentives and small prizes.

Good luck!

[frathole]

Een Kazakstan, we eh lock the new member een small room with no weendow, make them dance like homosexeeeuul, thena we shoot dog in field, and have a party!

[JenMarie]

Give the littles a pair of funky socks. Tell them to find their big wearing the same socks. Works for nail polish too. We did both.

I don't know if string/yarn trails are considered hazing now, but I thought they were fun. (A big sis is at the end of a string trail while the maze goes through someone's apartment. Good for really small classes... not big ones.)

[amanda6035]

Originally posted by adpiucf

For your retreat, split the chapter into "stations" where small groups get together to review policies, learn songs, talk about the founders, etc. This will help keep attention from waning as they walk from project to project. They might be working on completing a craft project throughout the retreat-- IE-- give everyone a piece of yarn-- as she completes each station, she gets a bead to symbolize completion. At the conclusion of the retreat, everyone has a sisterhood bracelet.

I LOVE THIS!!!

Thank you to everybody for your ideas, they are much appreciated.

One thing I wanted to add, in case someone else does a search in the future, is that one of the things we're planning on doing to teach the code of conduct (in regards to dress code, etc) is we're going to make a slide show, or maybe even a video if I can find a camcorder, on "What not to wear" - I'm going to see if I can "steal" the logo from the TV show website. We're going to try to make it fun, show the girls whats trashy and inappropriate in Quill attire, or casual meeting attire, etc (wear block letters and hold a paper cup that says "beer" on it - instead of actually holding a real beer) - and then also show them what IS appropriate to wear. The idea sounds fun. I cant wait to do it.

[adpiucf]

Good luck Amanda!

What Not to Wear sounds like a fun idea. At one convention, there was a skit along the lines of "Trading Spaces" where chapter Alpha exchanged keys with chapter Beta and learned about good policies vs. bad policies. TLC is full of great shows to get ideas from!

And... the yarn trail was fun in its day, but has been 86'd by many groups, ADPi included, as it could carry the connotation of a scavenger hunt. And per NPC resolutions, we can't do anything that might be or is a scavenger hunt or quest.

I think the best way to make sure your new members are receiving the best sorority-appropriate experience is to make your plans on paper and get your exec and any regional directors to review and approve them. Don't spring any surprises into the plan without first getting approval to CYA.

[dznat187]

we also did a fun 'newlywed game' thing when I was new member educator. the bigs and little were paired off and then they had a chance to see how much they knew about each other/learn more about each other. it was really fun. we did stupid questions like fav color if they were a candy, which would they be, etc. Then int eh end every team gets some sort of prize (but of course the winners got a better prize)

as for incentives for the quizzes.....anything from sorority pencils to plastic cups would work. or do a running contest througout the whole period and the person who has the highest score at teh end gets a set of letters or a certain amount off their dues (this works for my chapter since we do monthly dues-a free month of dues is like $35). we also had a fun thing our nationals gave us called a turtle race i think. there were tons of ways to earn points (if new members wanted to, they didn't have to do it) like for wearing the sorority colors they got a point, or community service like 10 points per hour, 5 points for an A on a quiz, 10 points for an A on a test or project, 5 points for every non-greek extracurricular activity the NM is involved in, 1 point for going to a Panhell or Greek council meeting,1 point for going to lunch with the sisters, etc. It could be alot of fun if you have a larger new member class. you can even let it up to the new members to keep track for the week and then hand in points lists. this a great way to encourage honesty and integrity. this activity really didn't work for small new member classes when i was NMEd (we had a class of 2 and 1 and my NMclass was only 2), but for a bigger class it can create some HEALTHY competition. be sure to have some sort of prize for everyone who participates, even if the 'winners' get something bigger, be sure to recognize all the women who took time to do it.

[amanda6035]

Originally posted by adpiucf

And... the yarn trail was fun in its day, but has been 86'd by many groups, ADPi included, as it could carry the connotation of a scavenger hunt. And per NPC resolutions, we can't do anything that might be or is a scavenger hunt or quest.

So...nobody has ever been able to explain to me why you cant do a scavenger hunt. I did a search, and the only reason I could see that it was "bad" is because some people would take things that weren't thiers but if it were the kind of hunt where the clues were OBVIOUS and the objects were planted there FOR the scavenger hunt purpose, then why is it wrong?


DZNAT - turtle race is giving me some ideas. I'll have to think about it and tweak it for my chapter, but it sounds fun

[Atlanta_OPhiA]

Originally posted by amanda6035
So...nobody has ever been able to explain to me why you cant do a scavenger hunt. I did a search, and the only reason I could see that it was "bad" is because some people would take things that weren't thiers but if it were the kind of hunt where the clues were OBVIOUS and the objects were planted there FOR the scavenger hunt purpose, then why is it wrong?

I was always told that scavenger hunts are considered hazing (just because of the structure of what a scav hunt is). That could be why they always nix them. Just a thought.

[JenMarie]

Originally posted by Atlanta_OPhiA
I was always told that scavenger hunts are considered hazing (just because of the structure of what a scav hunt is). That could be why they always nix them. Just a thought.

Large scale scavenger hunts could be deadly if you are speeding around in your car looking for the next clue. I'm guessing the safety of it was questioned. And I guess when you nix one, you gotta nix 'em all, even if they are on a smaller scale.

[KatieKD]

Yes, scavenger hunts these days are a big no-no, but we always found them so fun! But of course I pledged...well slightly over half a decade ago

[angelove]

You've got to be kidding me. Yarn trail = scavenger hunt = hazing? Puleeze.

[flirt5721]

Originally posted by angelove
You've got to be kidding me. Yarn trail = scavenger hunt = hazing? Puleeze.

I know that when we do our Big/Little Rev we've used yarn trails. We don't consider that hazing. As for scavenger hunts, thats considered hazing.

[frathole]

Yarn trails sound pretty brutal, I hope they do an expose soon to stop this terrible absuse of innocent pledges.