CAPS by Stephen Ayers

Last night I attended my fourth CAPS, Chapter Assessment and Planning Session.  It was my first CAPS ever where I got to sit on the committee of my choice, or so I thought.   At my first CAPS, I was the webmaster for the following semester, so I sat on the marketing committee.  After that, I was the Secretary meaning that once again I sat on the marketing committee, taking notes.  At my third CAPS, I cannot remember if I had a choice of which committee to be a part of, but either way I sat on the marketing committee.  Last night, I made the choice to not sit on the marketing committee.  Instead I sat on the pledging committee because I wanted the change.
I am happy I made the change.  Sitting on a new committee at CAPS exposed to me to certain issues that I have never voiced my opinion about because it was always somebody else's job.  Ideas that I have held onto since I was a pledge back in fall 2011 resurfaced in me.  My big idea was that every pledge event, including meetings, trips, fellowship, and service events should have an element of randomization in them.  For example, it was common for my pledge guide to scamble our seats at meetings so that we would get to know new pledges.  In my opinion, this helps the pledges get to know each other better.  Seats on APO car rides and even which game a pledge or brother plays at a game night would also be randomized with this CAPS goal, which would make the pledges get to know every brother without the exhaustion and dehumanization of "speed dating".  Many problems sent to the pledging committee were the cliques in the pledge class or brotherhood that could make the shy pledges feel excluded.  Another problem was trying to get littles with the best big.  I think that my idea would help the pledges get to know the brothers and would help solve both problems.  Although I agree that big/little pairs can never be perfect, I think that the randomization would help the pledges/brothers become accepting of who they are paired with.  This idea became one of the 15 goals the pledging committee came up with.
Being on the pledging committee has also made reconsider which committee I will be on next semester.