[23908] in APO-L
[APO-L] Big/Little Brothers Revealed
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sarah Burton)
Tue Sep 9 14:00:28 2003
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2003 15:43:31 +0000
Reply-To: Sarah Burton <sarahapo21@MSN.COM>
From: Sarah Burton <sarahapo21@MSN.COM>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
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<P>The idea of giving out pictures of each pledge then having the big brother locate them and pin them is an interesting idea. I wonder how you explain the photographs to the pledges or maybe they just haven't questioned it?</P>
<P>At my home chapter, we had 'random' brothers pin the pledges during the ceremony. About two weeks into the pledging process (usually by the second or third pledge meeting) the VP of Membership assigned brothers to a pledge based on what they knew of each person (and therefore hoping for compatibility). Sometimes, the VP of membership would ask the brothers and pledges to answer some questions about themselves (where from/major/etc) and then used this information to try to pair people up. </P>
<P>Once the brothers-pledges were paired, a date was set for a 'shower/party' during one of the pledge meetings. All brothers who were going to be a 'parent' and get a pledge son/daughter were asked to attend this meeting and bring some sort of small gift for their pledge. Gift were usually candy and an APO keychains or the like. Brothers were also asked to contribute enough money to buy a small APO paddle. The paddles are all about 5 inches long and have the APO letters down the middle with an engraved plaque at the bottom that says the pledge's name and 'presented by' the parent's name with the date (semester, year). They were not very expensive because we ordered them in bulk (I think maybe $10-12). The paddles were ordered and assembled by the VP of membership during the course of the semester and usually given out near or at the end of the pledge period.</P>
<P>Brothers who signed up to be parents were asked to welcome these pledges, contact them and keep in touch with them. We sometimes had pledge-parent social events (that basically anyone could come to with any parent they ever had). Pledges were asked to introduce their parent during (at-least) one pledge meeting and the brothers were asked to introduce their pledge during (at-least) one chapter meeting. This usually resulted in about 5 minutes of people calling out 'my mom/my daughter/my son etc is here - they are {name}' at every meeting, but I think this made each person feel more included in the group as everyone has at least one (and usually several b/c of 'grandparents, brothers, sisters') connections within the chapter. Often, for parents who slacked off, didn't show up or graduated/left the chapter, pledges were picked up by other brothers and 'adopted'. </P>
<P>When more brothers than there were pledges signed up to get kids, people were assigned pledge-kids in a specific order. The first group included brothers who were non-exec board members that had not had a kid before, then came those who were not execs but had kids before, then execs were given kids last. The chapter president and VP of membership and pledge trainers were the very last on the list to get kids and generally were excluded as to prevent the idea of 'favorites' by people in those positions. All the brothers knew this was the order for getting kids and accepted it, I had never heard of anyone being upset by this setup.</P>
<P>I think overall, we had a good process. Granted, it was not fail proof. There were always a few brothers who signed up to get a pledge-kid and then dropped the ball and there were always brothers who went way overboard, but we tried to tell people what their expectations would be before they signed up and asked them to take this into consideration and not sign up if they didn't intend to follow through and be a 'good parent'. However, there were other semesters, where are chapter went through growth spurts and brothers were asked to take on 2 pledges or brothers were asked to help out even if they might not have originally wanted to, because of a greater need. </P>
<P>Our chapter also kept a record of the 'family trees'. These records are great some years and not so great for other years, but the chapter tries. One year, we had a great time grouping the chapter into family teams then competing for which family would accumulate the most service hours that sememster.</P>
<P>Many brothers from my chapter still maintain close relationships with their sons/daughters/parents. Just ask Charlie Z ... *wink*. As for myself, one of my pledge daughters is one of my best friends (even several years after graduation) and I still keep in touch with the others. However, my pledge mom left the chapter and the school right the semester after I pledged and I have no idea where she is or anything about her, but I guess that's the way it goes sometimes.<BR></P>
<P>I don't know how our chapter did it before my time and I think that they still do it this way (but I could be wrong), but I can tell you this is how we did it for at least a few years ... not all that long ago.</P>
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<P><IMG height=12 src="http://graphics.hotmail.com/emsmile.gif" width=12> Sarah <BR><BR>5375 Duke Street #1216 ~ Alexandria, VA 22304 ~ 703-461-8116 ~ sarahapo21@msn.com</P></DIV></DIV></div><br clear=all><hr> <a href="http://g.msn.com/8HMWENUS/2755??PS=">Get 10MB of e-mail storage! Sign up for Hotmail Extra Storage. </a> </html>
