big/little process?

BootyKBG · #1 11-05-2001, 08:59 AM

Hey kids,
I was wondering how everyone decides on bigs/littles? We're starting up a brand new chapter this semester and don't exactly have set ways of doing things yet. We'd like to start up a "twin sisters" thing (since we're all new to this) but I'm not sure how to go about chosing who's with who. Is it random? Or do all the girls have a say in who they are matched with? Does one person do the final deciding in who goes with who? Any help on this would be great!!

Annie

PenguinTrax · #2 11-05-2001, 10:48 AM

One way to do it is to give everyone a temporary big sister for every week for the first few weeks of school. That way the new members will get to know a variety of members. Then, at the end of the week, have the little sisters rank their top 3 choices for a big sister. Match up their choices with the initiated members.

AOX81 · #3 11-06-2001, 09:09 AM

Usually around our second our third week of pledge we have each of the pledges write down three or four names of girls that they would like as big sisters. Our pledge educators then match up the pledges with the active members.

Hope this helps!

Have a nice day

Heather · #4 11-10-2001, 12:19 AM

The pledges put down their top 4-6 choices (depending on the size of the class) for big sis, the actives did the same. Then the pledge educator and assistant sat down and matched everyone up. It took a little while to do but otherwise it worked great. If you all are getting twins this year you might want to see if an advisor or other alum would match you up so that everyone's surprised. (But I don't know how it all works being a new colony so that may not be an issue!) Good luck, feel free to email me if this doesn't make sense!
Heather

BootyKBG · #5 11-10-2001, 09:46 AM

Thanks for giving me a bit of direction. Seeing as we don't have any local alum and I'm not even sure we have an advisor, (we're brand new on campus this semester) I just did the matching up. We'll see how it goes Sunday!

pirate00 · #6 11-10-2001, 02:21 PM

In my chapter, around the 3rd week of pledgeship, the Pledgemaster, gives the pledges and Brothers who wish to be bigs a questionnaire to fill out on what their interests are and what qualities they would like in a big/little. Then, the Pledgemaster uses compatability though said questionnaires to match the bigs and littles. Usually, he sends the pledges on a day-long scavenger hunt that leads up to finding out who their big Brother is.

douthit · #7 11-22-2001, 12:14 AM

In my chapter, the process of choosing bigs/littles would be one of mutual selection. In other words, after the first few weeks of the new member education process and generally hanging around the house, it becomes pretty clear as to who you best "click" with.

This probably works better for smaller chapters, but I think it would work really well for a new chapter that is just starting up/colonizing. Either way, good luck in your matching process!

KSigkid · #8 12-23-2001, 05:15 PM

During interviews (the last rush event), the guys who run our pledge program pass around applications to brothers, who then choose their top three choices for littles (we call them pledge sons in our chapter). Then, the guys who run the pledge program take those choices into consideration, along with placing a pledge with the guy who seems the most like them in personality, or who they think they will best mesh with. To be eligible, a brother has to be financially current and have attended more than half of the chapter-sponsored rush events (any events by IFC don't count towards that total). I know a lot of other chapters do this process differently, but it's worked well for us, and at this point, I'm not sure if people would be up for changing the system.

Collin

equeen · #9 12-23-2001, 06:12 PM

This one brings back memories for me!

My Chapter was the second ever for my sorority. We were assigned big sisters from our Alpha Chapter - it was neat!

The process my Chapter uses now is a mutual selection process, much like has been described already on this thread.

shadowstar · #10 01-09-2002, 09:54 PM

for us, it's basically a process of the new girls writing down who they want, the girls who want littles writing down who they want, and our VP-New Member Ed matching everyone up.

BootyKBG · #11 01-10-2002, 03:06 PM

ok....another question....
how do you encourage bigs/littles to be good bigs/littles? I think a lot of my girls don't really understand or know what to do with theirs.

AlphaGamDiva · #12 01-10-2002, 03:27 PM

I'm kinda confused about what you mean with "twin" sisters, but it may be like our sister mother/sister daughter thing (sis-mom/sis-dot). when the girls first joined, whatever member they clicked with well during the recruitment process choses them for their dot...and that's how initially we get them involved with everyone. then, about a week b/4 they are initiated, they write down their top 5 or so choices of who they want as a big...normally the new member coordinator just goes around and asks if the person can take them and that's how it goes. it's a fun family creating process. now my family is huge...i have 2 lils, one of my lils has 2 lils, and i now have a great grand lil which just means i am OLD...plus i have 2 dots and one grand dot...it gets kinda weird, but again, it's fun.

i think the "sis-mom/sis-dot" term is an alpha gam thing, but other sororities have variations of it (chi o has owl pals, sigma kappa has pearl pals, etc.) everyone does things somewhat differently, but this seems to work for us. and i think the only thing to make sure that the women are good bigs/lils is to remind them that sisterhood is very important, and the bond made within the big/lil sisterhood is supposed to strengthen that...it's a group within a group, and is something only shared with a few close people. ya know? you're all sisters...but not everyone is within your family. that's why it's special.

hope that at least made some sense...
monica

matthewg · #13 01-14-2002, 01:39 PM

In one of the two chapters I am in the pledges choose their big brother - no way out. In the other, that choice can be actually overruled at the chapter meeting for the initiated brothers. But that rarely happens.
Unfortunately we don't have any regulation for being good/bad big bro - it just happens to click differently, I guess.
I have an excellent relationship to my big brother still after 10 years and have an excellent relationship to my first little brother, I am also still in touch with the two other little brothers but not much more than that.

BootyKBG · #14 01-24-2002, 12:52 PM

We just used the term "twins" for our girls right now because we are the founding group on our campus so we can't exactly use "big/little" since we're all on the same page. I guess we are recieving big sis's though from other chapters, which is kind of exciting! I think we will find out who they are this weekend as we get to officially begin the whole process of becoming an official chapter. I don't know exactly how things work with Bigs from other chapters.

FuzzieAlum · #15 01-24-2002, 02:01 PM

When our chapter started they made "twins" - I guess they bought each other stuff. Each twinset was paired with another twin, and those four girls made a family.

But I don't know who did the pairings - my understanding is that the girls wrote down a few girls they wanted, and then the advisors actually made the families. Then each family chose the name it wanted.