[20412] in APO-L
new topic -- pledge class sizes / recruitment
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Derek Cashman)
Mon Apr 5 15:06:49 1999
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 12:07:50 -0700
Reply-To: Derek Cashman <cashman@YAHOO.COM>
From: Derek Cashman <cashman@YAHOO.COM>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
Well, let's change the topic a little bit away from
this all-male debate for awhile... ;-)
An excerpt from a recent post by Randy Finder:
> 1) Size. Most of the all-male chapters are smaller
> than the average APO chapter. This is not just
> because they can only take people from the male
> "half" of the campus, I feel that the fact that
there > are limitations on which students can join
leads to > less of a feeling that everyone who wants
to walk in > that door and pledge can. Many brothers
in all-male > chapters I've talked to are
confused/disturbed by the > idea of a chapter with 300
brothers and a pledge > class of 150.
I can see how a lot of brothers may be confused or
disturbed by a chapter or pledge class of that size!
While I see that a chapter size of that magnitude can
work wonders for involvement and keep a lot of variety
in the service program, is there really a large sense
of true, "brotherhood," in such a chapter? Most
certainly, you would tend to hang out in a smaller
group (a "clique" of friends), but how can you really
get to know each and every brother? You really can't!
Are all these brothers really active, or is that
counting inactives and associates as well? Now I have
never been a part of a chapter that big, nor have I
been a part of an all-male chapter, so I am going on
what I've gathered from others,...
I think an ideal chapter size for *optimal* friendship
and brotherhood, as well as still having the manpower
to do some decent sized projects, would probably be on
the order of about 50 to 75 active brothers, with
definitely no more than 100 actives. An ideal pledge
class would have somewhere between 10 to 15 pledges,
with possibly up to 20, but definitely no more than
25. I don't want this to sound like this would be a
way to keep others out of APhiO, or a way to screen
pledges, but I think if you could focus your
recruitment efforts to obtaining pledge classes of
around 15, you will bring in enough pledges to
maintain the chapter, while still allowing each and
every pledge to really get to know their fellow
pledges in a true sense of brotherhood.
===
_________________________________________________________
Derek Cashman (cashman@yahoo.com)
President; Richmond VA Alumni Association
Alpha Phi Omega
_________________________________________________________
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