[1802] in APO News
Important Membership-like Shtuff (totally)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (S.)
Wed Apr 24 22:48:26 1996
To: apo-news@MIT.EDU
Cc: apocrypha@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 22:46:16 EDT
From: "S." <ajw@MIT.EDU>
Hello all. I've been talking to the chairman of the institute rush
committee for next term, and he seems like a very nice chap. I mentioned
to him the two ideas which we had been batting around 1. having brothers
volunteer as tour guides during R/O week (possibly run out of the office-
double purpose as we'd get people to drop by while they were waiting) and
2. Helping out with baggage movement. He said he thought that the
ideas were 'great' and invited me to have people sit on the R/O committee over
the summer so we could figure out 'how to involve them in the overall structure
of R/O.'
Since it looks like to institute is going to actually be nice to us, we're
in a great position for coming up with good ideas for those first few weeks.
I'd really like to get a meeting of memcom together to come up with all the
things I'm not thinking of because I'm an idiot (and so someone can tell me
what we've already tried and bombed- and why). Could people who are interested
in rush next year possibly meet the week after finals? Or will people be
gone by then? If you are interested, please e-mail me back with when is a
(relatively) good time for you.
In other news, we will, as usual, be presenting membership policies at
next week's chapter meeting. I've included my submission for pledge
policy below. We have A LOT to do at this upcoming meeting (APO-trinidad,
carnival, budget, national carot brigade--oops- wrong group :) so I REALLY
don't want to go through the mess we did this term spending 5 hours bickering
over these. The policies below are exactly what I said I would do if elected
in my campaign speech, so I'm not expecting much trouble. If you DO have
a problem or concern, please contact me BEFORE the meeting and we can chat.
The policies are very close to last terms, with a couple of exceptions:
Changes I've made and rationales (for those of you who weren't there for
elections):
1) I've cut the number of required projects to five and put in a requirement
for interviewing a limitted number of the pledges and brothers. This
has been done before here, and is done at every other chapter I've been
involved with. The rationale is that the major complaint I've heard from
both brothers and pledges was that they didn't feel like they had gotten
to know, respectively, the brothers and the pledges (that scanned badly-
many brothers didn't know the pledges, many pledges didn't know the
brothers, and many pledges didn't know the pledges. This leads to many
brothers not knowing the brothers at which point we never hear from them
again. My goodness, I'm still in parenthesis, aren't I. I had better do
something about that). In any event, the additional time commitment should
be negligible, since the interviews are short enough that they can be done at
fellowship events/projects (maybe five-ten minutes each max). I've seen this
work before folks, and it really leads to a much closer pledge class and
pledge class-brotherhood when you're done.
2) I've included as part of the reccomendations the inclusion of
a pledge-planned fellowship or service project. Basically the
same rationale as the first one. It gives them a chance to work
as a team and practical experience with initiative in planning a project-
a step towards ending our chronic 'SVP has to plan everything' problem.
I plan to push this in my pledge program, but I didn't want to make
it a requirement in case we get screwed over by logisitics.
Ah well, like I said, a couple minor things which most of you knew
were coming, but I wanted to make sure there were no major hiccups
to be on the safe side so we DON'T get bogged down in parliamentary
red tape again :)
-your friendly neighborhood incoming MVP,
your totally hosed outgoing AVP,
-me
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
Alpha Phi Omega -- Alpha Chi Chapter
Fall 1996 Pledge Policy
The purpose of the pledge term is to give the pledge an opportunity to
get to know the chapter and the brothers and to allow him or her to make
an informed decision about his or her future with Alpha Phi Omega. The
pledge term should also give the pledge an idea of what will be expected
from him or her once he or she does become a brother.
As such, during their pledge term, all pledges are required
to do the following:
- - -Attend at least five service projects.
- - -Attend at least two fellowship events, including at least one of the
major fellowship events (e.g. Steak Fry, Pledge Article Meal,
Semi-Formal Formal).
- - -Exchange brief interviews with a third of the active chapter, one alum, one
advisor, and a third of the pledge class
- - -Attend at least two Chapter Meetings and one ExecComm meeting.
- - -Attend at least two-thirds of scheduled Pledge Meetings.
- - -Learn, teach, or practice a Chapter Skill.
- - -Coordinate with the MVP to get an active brother for his or her
Big Brother within three weeks of pledging.
- - -Chair (a.k.a. PC) or sub-PC a service project or fellowship event.
- - -Attend an End of Term Interview.
- - -Attend the Pledge Feedback Meeting at the end of the term.
Exceptions and substitutions may be granted by the MVP in cases of extenuating
circumstances (including but not limited to specific scheduling conflicts).
No personal service will be asked of pledges as part of their pledge
requirements; nor will we haze. This policy will not be changed during the
course of the term.
Pledges should not restrict themselves to the above requirements! Pledges are
free and encouraged to participate in the activities of Alpha Phi Omega to
whatever extent their time permits.
Pledges are further encouraged to:
- - -Attend a variety of service projects, both on and off campus.
- - -Help plan and/or participate in a pledge service or fellowship project
- - -Meet all the active brothers.
- - -Write articles for the chapter newsletter (the APOcrypha).
- - -Attend specialized committee meetings (ServComm, Fincomm, etc.)
- - -Attend Joint ExecComm and serve as a resource of new ideas and
fresh insights for the incoming officers.
At the end of the term, after a group discussion, brothers will vote to
elevate pledges, using these objective criteria to assist their decision.
