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  #76  
Old 05-04-2012, 07:04 PM
Psi U MC Vito Psi U MC Vito is offline
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Originally Posted by jazing View Post
Why can't they just call pledges "pledges"? Fraternities have no issue with this. Is NPC the one giving this PC order to call them "baby [whatevers]" or new members?
Actually there is at least one NIC fraternity that calls them officially New Members. Unoffically is another story of course. And slight tangent, I remember being confused as hell when a sorority woman asked if I was a New Member during a mixer. "um.. I'm a pledge.."
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  #77  
Old 05-04-2012, 07:40 PM
DeltaBetaBaby DeltaBetaBaby is offline
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Originally Posted by KSUViolet06 View Post
We changed from the NM ed program to total member ed (Essential Sigma) for the same reasons you guys are talking about.

The Arc sequence (NM sequence) of the program is based more on preparing NMs for active membership.

NMs are required to attend chapter with everyone else (outside of things that are ritual based) serve on a committee, etc.

Don't get me wrong, there are some fun things, and there is still Big/Little, but the focus isn't on NM worship and thinking they're the best thing that ever happened to the chapter and having them not be responsible for anything.

It definitely cuts down on the huge letdown that comes with going from having to do NOTHING to having active membership responsibilities.
I feel like we went in the other direction. We had an entire committee devoted to "Keep Rushing Our Phis", and while there were some women who were unsure about staying, and could really make connections in those first few weeks, begging women to stay long enough to be initiated doesn't do anything except ensure they'll drop out right AFTER initiation.
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  #78  
Old 05-04-2012, 07:59 PM
carnation carnation is offline
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NM worship. Good term; I swear I've seen the Keep Rushing Our Pledges of my day devolve into that. I've seen big sisters spend hundreds on their littles. One of our daughters, who would've been the best big ever, wouldn't take a little because her sisters did spend so much on their littles and she couldn't keep up. Another daughter was given incredibly expensive presents by her wealthy big and we wondered if the other bigs or littles were getting upset.

And the NM I wrote about yesterday, whose new sisters were loading her FB with compliments and invitations? I started thinking about that--I knew 2 of those older girls when they were in high school and they were about as likely to heap praise on someone as my cat is. I have to wonder if the sisters were given instructions: "Okay, we think that Poopie Mae is about to depledge so here's the schedule for telling her how great she is. You 3 take Monday, you 3 do Tuesday, etc., and here are some things you should say." I mean, it was awfully obvious and now there's nothing.
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  #79  
Old 05-04-2012, 08:38 PM
jazing jazing is offline
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Originally Posted by Psi U MC Vito View Post
Actually there is at least one NIC fraternity that calls them officially New Members. Unoffically is another story of course. And slight tangent, I remember being confused as hell when a sorority woman asked if I was a New Member during a mixer. "um.. I'm a pledge.."
Now that you bring this up, I know some fraternities have names for them, like Phi Delt has Phikeia. I only know of that one cause they are on the same campus as I'm on. I'm sure others have a similar trend as well. Some go a step further (ZBT, Sig Ep, Lambda Chi) and don't even call them pledges at all, but new members. I don't know if they know ritual stuff cause it's not my business though.
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  #80  
Old 05-04-2012, 08:39 PM
KSUViolet06 KSUViolet06 is offline
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Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby View Post
I feel like we went in the other direction. We had an entire committee devoted to "Keep Rushing Our Phis", and while there were some women who were unsure about staying, and could really make connections in those first few weeks, begging women to stay long enough to be initiated doesn't do anything except ensure they'll drop out right AFTER initiation.
I served on a committee and found that the research done by other NPCs about terminations says that the summer after initiation (if a girl is a freshman NM, the summer before soph year) is the average termination time (meaning that most of those who terminate, do so at that point.)

It makes sense, as you are no longer a NM, you have been initiated long enough to see that being an initiated member is vastly different from being worshipped as a NM, so you quit.

So, if you want to improve retention, you don't start with the NM period. It's all about that critical sophomore year and ensuring a good transition from NM to initiated member. I think Total Member Ed does a good job of that. The sophomore sequence activities are designed to do just that. NPC groups who implement Total Member Ed type programs experienced a large increase in 4 year retention.
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Last edited by KSUViolet06; 05-04-2012 at 08:42 PM.
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  #81  
Old 05-04-2012, 09:07 PM
DeltaBetaBaby DeltaBetaBaby is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jazing View Post
Now that you bring this up, I know some fraternities have names for them, like Phi Delt has Phikeia. I only know of that one cause they are on the same campus as I'm on. I'm sure others have a similar trend as well. Some go a step further (ZBT, Sig Ep, Lambda Chi) and don't even call them pledges at all, but new members. I don't know if they know ritual stuff cause it's not my business though.
ZBT and Sig Ep (balanced man chapters) don't actually have a "New Member" period anymore.

Quote:
Originally Posted by KSUViolet06 View Post
I served on a committee and found that the research done by other NPCs about terminations says that the summer after initiation (if a girl is a freshman NM, the summer before soph year) is the average termination time (meaning that most of those who terminate, do so at that point.)

It makes sense, as you are no longer a NM, you have been initiated long enough to see that being an initiated member is vastly different from being worshipped as a NM, so you quit.

So, if you want to improve retention, you don't start with the NM period. It's all about that critical sophomore year and ensuring a good transition from NM to initiated member. I think Total Member Ed does a good job of that. The sophomore sequence activities are designed to do just that. NPC groups who implement Total Member Ed type programs experienced a large increase in 4 year retention.
Well, I think it's both. You need to do the NM period right, but then you need to keep women involved. It's like, there's a big gap between the NM period and the "I'm in the pledge class that is actually running sh*t" period. I think that's what you're talking about. What is a woman's role in the chapter at that point? Maybe a smaller office/chairmanship, but that alone won't do it.
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  #82  
Old 05-04-2012, 09:19 PM
DubaiSis DubaiSis is offline
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Originally Posted by KSUViolet06 View Post
I served on a committee and found that the research done by other NPCs about terminations says that the summer after initiation (if a girl is a freshman NM, the summer before soph year) is the average termination time (meaning that most of those who terminate, do so at that point.)
That's surprising to me. I'd have guessed the biggest loss would be in the summer between junior and senior year. What you're saying tells me that "summer rush" (stealing from another thread) should be devoted to retention of those freshmen. The Facebook contact, summer events in cities with lots of members, etc. And I can see that being a big benefit for the following fall's real rush. We used to have "summer chapter" where we'd get together to do work on the house, like painting and other projects that are hard to do while girls are living in. Most of our members were from within a few hours of campus, so getting together in July was an easy escape from home. But I never thought of that as a member retention tool. I just saw it as a way of getting crap done. On the other hand, we did have excellent member retention, so maybe it was good for both things.
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  #83  
Old 05-04-2012, 10:10 PM
LAblondeGPhi LAblondeGPhi is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KSUViolet06 View Post
I served on a committee and found that the research done by other NPCs about terminations says that the summer after initiation (if a girl is a freshman NM, the summer before soph year) is the average termination time (meaning that most of those who terminate, do so at that point.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by DubaiSis View Post
That's surprising to me. I'd have guessed the biggest loss would be in the summer between junior and senior year.
I think both. For the rising sophomores, I've noticed it's almost exclusively with the girls who didn't get a spot to live in the house. Borderline sophomores might get pushed into resignation because of the additional financial burden of another year of live-out dues, and those who live in the house will probably stick it out (and hopefully bond more fully with the chapter) because it'd be such a hassle finding other living arrangements.
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  #84  
Old 05-04-2012, 10:33 PM
HQWest HQWest is offline
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I see two groups where we see the most drops or thinking about drops. The rising sophomores are for lots of reasons - not what they thought, didnt realize about the commitment, didnt make grades, didnt get a spot in the house or not sure about living in the house... It is a bigger problem in unhoused chapters.

I think the truth is though in how Panhellenic sells recruitment. They were told as freshmen that its a great way to meet people and get involved. OK so they met people and decided they didnt really want to be THAT involved. They cant unmeet people?

The other time people think about dropping is rising seniors - senioritis = they turned 21. A bunch of people have a midlife crisis about then - this is just one more symptom. I could write a book.....
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  #85  
Old 05-05-2012, 01:00 AM
33girl 33girl is offline
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Originally Posted by HQWest View Post
I think the truth is though in how Panhellenic sells recruitment. They were told as freshmen that its a great way to meet people and get involved. OK so they met people and decided they didnt really want to be THAT involved. They cant unmeet people?
I understand that at a huge school, the idea of "if you pledge a sorority before you even step foot in a class, you have a group of friends" is very appealing. But wouldn't sororities be better off to wait a semester and bid the women who took the initiative ON THEIR OWN to get involved with their campus and community? If you have someone holding your hand from the jump, how do you learn to make friends from scratch? I'm thinking of the girl who lived in the same town all her life, grew up knowing everyone, and then pledged a sorority right away. She has never ever been "alone." We all know women who dated the same guy all through jr high & high school & college, married him, divorced 10 years later, and now has NO idea how to have a relationship with a man who hasn't known her since age 12. Are those really the women we want in our groups, or do we want self-starters? (Ugh, I can't believe I corporatespoke there) Plus, the schools themselves provide programs to get freshmen acclimated, and have for quite a while, so the concept of the froshie alone in the big scary university is largely a fiction of bygone days.

The original idea behind KROP was, I thought, to make sure that the pledges know they are appreciated when they're feeling overwhelmed - like when they're trying to get it together with managing class and all the new activities. It's NOT supposed to be a present-fest with no thought behind it.

As far as length of pledge periods, I think that honestly should go back to a chapter by chapter basis. 6 weeks was perfect for us, but I'm sure the ASAs at James Madison (a chapter 3-4 times our size) would love a full semester. It makes no sense to basically say to chapters that we understand and support that what is one chapter's ideal rushee may not be another chapter's ideal rushee, and then turn around and say that all pledges have to be educated in exactly the same way.
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Last edited by 33girl; 05-05-2012 at 10:36 AM.
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  #86  
Old 05-05-2012, 09:38 AM
AZTheta AZTheta is offline
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As far as length of pledge periods, I think that honestly should go back to a chapter by chapter basis. 6 weeks was perfect for us, but I'm sure the ASAs at James Madison (a chapter 3-4 times our size) would love a full semester. It makes no sense to basically say to chapters that we understand and support that what is one chapter's ideal rushee may not be another chapter's ideal rushee, and then turn around and say that all pledges have to be educated in exactly the same way.
Thank you. Those are exactly my thoughts. We are at a campus where total is 200, and most chapters are considerably above that, and we are preparing for new member classes of 90+ again in August. I meet with other chapter ABCs, and we all say the same thing (except for the Chi Omega advisor): "we want to have a semester long new member period". Why not be proactive and try it and see what the results are? What is the harm in trying that? Honestly, we all have struggled with various disciplinary issues with these new member classes (academic and behavioral). The new members themselves complain that they don't know the other members in their class, let alone the rest of the chapter. The cliques are ugly. A semester would afford the opportunity to do much more support and integration of these new members, and they'd ideally have more education about the "WHY" of sorority membership, and not just the "WHAT".
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  #87  
Old 05-05-2012, 10:31 AM
33girl 33girl is offline
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Honestly, we all have struggled with various disciplinary issues with these new member classes (academic and behavioral). The new members themselves complain that they don't know the other members in their class, let alone the rest of the chapter. The cliques are ugly. A semester would afford the opportunity to do much more support and integration of these new members, and they'd ideally have more education about the "WHY" of sorority membership, and not just the "WHAT".
Oh you silly goose, you must be imagining this. Integrating the members into the chapter immediately and lessening the emphasis on pledge class unity COMPLETELY eliminates cliques.

/sarcasm

And just for fun on a Saturday morning, here is an actual silly goose.

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  #88  
Old 05-05-2012, 10:45 AM
AZTheta AZTheta is offline
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^^^^^^ THANKS a LOT. *wiping coffee off the laptop screen*

have a great Saturday, 33! :-)
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  #89  
Old 05-05-2012, 06:38 PM
ree-Xi ree-Xi is offline
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Originally Posted by 33girl View Post
Oh you silly goose, you must be imagining this. Integrating the members into the chapter immediately and lessening the emphasis on pledge class unity COMPLETELY eliminates cliques.

/sarcasm

And just for fun on a Saturday morning, here is an actual silly goose.

I love this picture!!!
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  #90  
Old 08-22-2019, 01:03 PM
carnation carnation is offline
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It's not always a matter of a top tier house at a competitive campus refusing to affiliate a member transferring from a "lesser" chapter. Here are a couple of other circumstances I have seen play out:

-An intensely academic chapter has maintained the highest Greek GPA for many years and are very competitive about it. Mary Marginal wants to affiliate and her GPA is barely at the national minimum and far below the chapter's minimum.

-At a strong chapter at a smaller regional school where almost all students come from the same general area and everyone seems to have known everyone since high school. Hannah Ho wants to affiliate but her antics at the new college already reflect her legendary patterns of behavior from high school and her previous university.
Somehow I just saw this post years later. LOLOL!!!
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