Assigning Bigs/Littles

surferman2121 · #1 12-07-2006, 06:04 PM

Hey Guys,

I am a newly elected president of a colony and am wondering how your chapters work assigning big/little brothers (sisters). We've tried a few systems most are haphazard. We're a decent sized colony (45ish) and have a point system in place, I know some houses use this to rank prefs.

Thanks in advance!

ufdale · #2 12-07-2006, 06:15 PM

Each new sister ranks her favorite older sisters 1-10
Each older sister ranks her favorite new members 1-5

The new member educator pairs the two lists together, trying to pair each with their #1 choice.

Drolefille · #3 12-07-2006, 06:23 PM

What she said is a good idea.

At our chapter the new girls rate their top 3-5 and the VPNME makes sure each big is ok with that choice. It's always worked out ok.

Points could give the actives (or pledges/associates/etc) some sort of preference in case they both rate a guy as number one.

It also depends on whose opinion counts more, active or pledge.

KSUViolet06 · #4 12-07-2006, 07:28 PM

Each new member ranks her top 5 choices.

Each active member ranks her top 5.

The VP attempts to match the lists as best as possible.

DreamfulSpirit · #5 12-07-2006, 11:00 PM

with us, we don't rank people because we don't know everyone yet. active sisters first tell the membership director if they would like to have a little. the membership director collects info about the pledges and those interested in getting a little. the membership director then tries, with the information given, to put together who would be best suited as big's and little's. at the first pledge meeting, the membership director will design a way or play a game that will in the end reveal the bigs and littles to each other.

when i pledged...we played this game where the membership director placed an index card on your back, and you had no idea what it said. so you had to ask people around you yes or no questions to figure out what it was. your word went together with a word on an active's back, and that's how you discovered who was your big/little. it was super cute! the next semester our membership director did a thing with song lyrics.

adpiucf · #6 12-08-2006, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

Each new member ranks her top 5 choices.

Each active member ranks her top 5.

The VP attempts to match the lists as best as possible.

I think this is the most equitable way to split everyone up. When you do the tabulating, get another officer or two to help, but do it behind closed doors or you will have people coming up and trying to argue that they should get their number 1 choice, changed their mind, messing up your papers, etc.

SoCalGirl · #7 12-08-2006, 05:04 PM

When I was a NM I didn't realize we were supposed to rank the names. I thought we were just supposed to submit 5 names. So while I liked my big, she was not my first choice.

Drolefille · #8 12-08-2006, 05:35 PM

I couldn't remember the name of the girl who was my first choice for big. Lucky for me I adopted her later! (My big was an absent senior and while she was nice, she wasn't really there for me)

KSUViolet06 · #9 12-08-2006, 06:17 PM

I didn't get my first choice big, but I loved everyone I listed so it didn't really matter.

The girl I put #1 ended up being one of those "absent seniors", so I think it's good that I didn't get her anyway. My big is a good leader and very active in the chapter.

My little and I were both each other's #1 choice so that system worked out great for us.

FSUZeta · #10 12-08-2006, 06:57 PM

my daughter is newly initiated, and i think that her chapter used a novel solution to what could have been a big big sister/little sister problem.

there were more girls participating in recruitment last year(2005) and consequently larger pledge classes than this years. all the girls who were pledges last year wanted little sisters and there were not enough for everyone to have one. at first, the officers were going to use gpa to determine who would get a little sister-the higher the gpa the higher on the list you would be. then they came up with a unique solution-some new members would get two big sisters. my daughter was one of the lucky new members who got two bigs-she was delighted, because she was having a difficult time deciding which of the two girls who ended up being her bigs to list as first. the bigs don't seem to mind that they are sharing one little and they even came up with a term for themselves-they call themselves bigsters.

when the chapter i advise was a colony, they randomly drew names out of a hat to determine matches for "crown" sisters-since they were all new members, there could be no bigs and littles. Crown sisters performed the same functions as big/little would have.

congratulations on your election and good luck with the colonization process!

adpiucf · #11 12-08-2006, 07:10 PM

Also, we gave priority to the most recent pledge class in terms of preference when assigning littles over, say, a senior. This worked well, b/c it meant that you got to be a Big Sister at least once, and it was an expectation that the sophomores would comprise most of the Big Sisters.*

*I avoided ADPi-terminology (Diamond Sisters) so as not to confuse.

Starofsorrow · #12 12-09-2006, 04:13 PM

The way it was done with our chapter (I was a recent pledge) was that the Pledgemaster would assign our bigs to us, and we wouldn't find out for a few weeks. We would have a week where we randomly got little gifts from our bigs to hint what family we were being inducted into, so we could play detective and figure out who our big was. =) It was tons of fun, and we had a scavenger hunt to find our bigs, and then ate out, and we got to confirm our suspictions on who our bigs were!

I'm not sure how they assigned our bigs to us. The important thing was, our bigs could NOT be people we already knew, so we were getting to know a whole new brother, and I think that helped out a lot, in closeness. Some of the littles/bigs got a GREAT relationship going on together. I became very good friends with a pledge class member, and it turns out that my big was her best friend! =) I'm still developing a good relationship with my big, but I already love her tons, so yay!

akdphi_cherry · #13 12-25-2006, 05:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

then they came up with a unique solution-some new members would get two big sisters.

This kind of reminded me of my pledge class- it was pretty small and whatnot, but most of the girls had already had a little, so two of my pledge sisters ended up having the same big! Haha, they got to be such good buddies during pledge we could immediately see why they should be "twins"

But yeah, we put down our top 3 active sisters that we'd like to be our big and I'm not sure how they matched us, but it was probably the same way, excluding those who already had a little or were too busy to have one.

nate2512 · #14 01-09-2007, 03:25 AM

we normally try to match our with someone close to the same major

SigmaPezY60 · #15 02-01-2007, 04:08 PM

We ask our associate members to submit their top 3 choices for their Big Sister. We encourage them to choose sisters that they feel a connection with, would like to get to know better, or someone they look up to. We also ask the members who want to take a little to submit their top 3 choices for littles.

Sisters who are graduating and are the end of their Big/Little Family line get first priority. Sometimes sisters have littles who do not finish the Associate Membership process. Then the Associate Member Educator matches the AM's with their picks. It is rare that the AM's don't get paired with their first choice, unless their first choice isn't taking a little.

When I pledged my first choice wasn't taking a little, but it worked out because my Big is her little!