[20745] in APO-L
Re: Rush and Pledging
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Laura A Costa)
Sun Aug 1 21:05:08 1999
Date: Sun, 1 Aug 1999 20:33:03 -0700
Reply-To: costal2@JUNO.COM
From: Laura A Costa <costal2@JUNO.COM>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
On Sun, 1 Aug 1999 16:53:04 -0700 Derek Cashman <cashman@YAHOO.COM>
writes:
I'm not an active brother at the moment, but I'm a fairly recent alumni
and I know what my chapter (Radford University, Alpha Beta Zeta, Section
81) did when I was there (I graduated in 1998). I can't really comment
on the first part of this message because I was never really involved in
planning rush and the pledge period and I don't keep in touch with my
chapter. My chapter hosts sectionals next spring (YEAH!!) and I will
definitely be there. I can't wait!!!
BTW, I'm not sure of the exact dates of our sectionals. It's either
March 24-26 or March 31-April 2. The second set of dates would be really
cool because March 31, 2000 will be my chapter's 16th anniversary! Does
Malcolm or anyone else know for sure?
>
> Also, how does your chapter handle the pledging
> process? Do pledges attend a separate meeting, or are
> they allowed to attend the chapter's general meeting?
At my chapter, the pledges attended a separate meeting. My chapter was
very adamant about keeping it that way, saying that the whole structure
of the brother meeting would have to be changed in order for pledges to
be able to attend.
I personally think that pledges should be allowed (but not necessarily
required) to attend certain parts of brother meetings. It would help if
they were allowed to attend the service and fellowship reports, for
example. There are certain things that need to be discussed among
brothers; however, like a pledge or the pledge class as a whole. If you
have the pledges attend the entire brother meeting, then what's the point
of distinguishing pledge from brother? Why not just initiate the new
members the day they get their bids?
> Do pledges participate in "chapter politics", or are
> they basically isolated from those discussions?
Pledges do not know what happens at brother meetings except for what they
are told by the pledge master and their big brothers. Things do have a
tendency to make their way through the grapevine, however.
Are
> they active participants in committee meetings, or do
> they basically sit back as observers?
My chapter required pledges to attend some committee meetings (I don't
remember exactly how many anymore). I think that in the beginning they
observe, in part because they are new and they are trying to get a sense
of what goes on (some brothers are like this, too). As they progress
through pledging, some pledges do get active in the brother committees.
Does your
> chapter have a listserv, and if so, are pledges on it?
> Do you have a separate list for pledges?
My chapter did not have a listserv when I was there, and as far as I
know, they still don't have one. The last update to the chapter web page
was done by me over a year ago. The chapter does have an e-mail account,
which I checked until recently until I got sick of doing it. There were
many brothers in my chapter who didn't check their e-mail accounts on a
regular basis, so a listserv or mass e-mails were not effective forms of
communication with chapter brothers.
Laura Costa
alumni, Alpha Beta Zeta chapter, pledged Spring 1993
Radford University, classes of '94 and '98
Section 81, Region III, Southwest Virginia
now currently residing in Fairfax County, Virginia
http://www2.crosswinds.net/~lcosta
