I was surprised when I picked up Texas Monthly to read the Gates article and saw that about half the students on the front were in frat shirts.

I scoured to see if there were any Bonfire shirts and saw none, also I was disappointed that there were only 2 CTs.

It made me think about something I noticed during my 4 years. The number of frat/sorority people has increased steadily and the campus has become more frat friendly.

I think this is totally because of the years without Bonfire. While a few dorms have maintained their communities many have not and tens of thousands of students have no idea what the community was once like. They have looked for other groups to identify with and the frats were there to provide.

I am going to say something that could get me stoned in the town square but... should frats be approached to get involved with Bonfire. They represent a large portion of the student body and they have a committed identity with their organizations. They probably don't feel welcome at Bonfire, and maybe that should be changed. I would prefer that they be involved and then frats won't be necessary once the community is rebuilt.

What I am getting at is that the traditions, the process and the structure of Bonfire have been brought back but the community has not. What can be done to bring the community back to Bonfire and bringing Bonfire to the Aggie community.

The Corps and reslife need to stop putting up barriers to students so they do not fear the University's 'punishment' for participating. Especially for Southside and honor dorms, Hall directors and ResLife administrators (though not all of them) have been rather vocal in their bad opinion of the organization.



[This message has been edited by Predmid (edited 10/30/2006 12:08p).]

Fratties are too busy impregnating things.

To me, Bonfire and Greek seem like they're on entirely different ends of the spectrum

Lew - I just don't see it happening. Even when Bonfire was on campus, frats did little. Being OCA, I went to several frat meetings in the Fall to recruit. I tried to make it a competition between them, thinking that fraternity pride would bring them out in larger numbers. Didn't work. Occasionally, a couple of frat guys would show up to cut, but leave by lunch. I think it was more of a frat dare than any real interest.

That said, there have been Reds who were involved with frats and had their folks out in larger numbers. Only really lasted for one or two years. I remember one year I was assigned to babysit a frat group because the Red who knew them had to leave. Real good guys, and they killed a nice section of woods. Problem was, they were less interested in swamping them to the tractor path than in cutting them down. They all wanted the glory of cutting down a tree, but without all of the other necessary work like clearing brush, swamping, etc. Never saw them again after that day.

I know I'm stereotyping, but the fraternity culture and Bonfire culture just don't mix. Can you really picture Frat types committing themselves to regular participation in something dirty involving hard work? I can't. Maybe there are a few redass ones out there, but not entire groups.

Make no mistake, I don't fault Frats. To each their own. They do what they enjoy doing and I have no problem with that. I just don't see how you sell Bonfire to that crowd.

quote:

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Can you really picture Frat types committing themselves to regular participation in something dirty involving hard work?

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he said it before I could...

Exact experience as YP96 when they came out with me in '91. Very large group of guys. Killed a lot of trees. When I mentioned that now we were going to swamp them to the skids, they said "F this," packed up and left. I will give a few of them credit though, they stayed with the rest of the Hogs and helped finish. Other joyful tasks that day were escorting them through load site (ahem, Walton) and patrolling their woods to head off other dorms efforts to mess with the frats. On the plus side, my numbers looked greeeaaat that day

I have my own issues with frats, but that wouldn't keep me from welcoming them out to Bonfire (again). As always, if you are willing to come out, work hard, and not act like you are somehow better than everyone, then I don't care who you are, I'll work right along beside you.

So, go ahead, extend a hand to them. Once they get out there, then we can convert them to the dark-side and make them drink the kool-aid. Bwahahahahahaha

Scott Coker '92

quote:

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Other joyful tasks that day were escorting them through load site (ahem, Walton)

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Ha!! I remember that day. There woods were right off LOAD site and they had to walk through us to get there. They were "Fightin' Texas Aggie TK's" friends, right? Aahhhhhh . . . .good times.

I can't remember if it was that year or the next that we made "WALTON LOADS FRAT SIGNS" shirts.

Right on the nose, Kip.

"Fightin Texas Aggie TK" -- Good one

Scott Coker '92

Ol' TK. TK was Texas A&M. I think Walton gave him more grief than anyone else that year. Well, maybe "Butt O." Remember him? JRP with the same name as a city in Florida?

Let's see, TK was:

Red Pot
Yell Leader
Corp (Leadership?)
Frat
Student Government (Didn't he run for SBP but lost 'cause everyone thought he was running enough things around campus?)
What else?

That dude was motivational (not really).

Don't rag on TK. TK built Bonfire by himself one year.

Fraternities probably think they're too cool to work on Bonfire

I don't think we'll see large frat participation because your not allowed to wear boat shoes and khaki shorts to cut.

they'd just get confused when told there is no alcohol allowed on site, not know where to drop the rufies, and end up date-raping themselves in the process.


Remember '99.
OC Hogs Build Bonfire!

Every time I read Texags and come across some of you snivelling, tradition hating ladies, I lose a little more hope for A&M. Some of you candy-asses clearly got lost on the way to Austin, Lubbock or Waco. Please buy a map and leave. - Buck Turgidson

TK Hollywood!

Predmid is absolutley right. I just started doing ASB this year, and I noticed how once it got out that I was doing Bonfire, both reslife and honors turned a cold shoulder to me. It started off with one of my RA's writing some BS note on facebook about how ASB was "ignorant, foolish, and selfish", then I started catching flak from my hall director, and finally the honors office went ballistic when they caught wind of the fact that a Nerd crew had reformed. They have no recourse against any of us, but this openly aggressive stance against ASB that they take makes the people who don't know any better think that they do.

As for frats at cut, I just don't see it happening. At least until they (hypothetically) proved themselves, eveyone would be messing with them, and that in itself would probably drive them off, save the fact that they would wind up date-raping themsleves! lolz!

- Werley
------------------------------

Lekner Hall,
Got it made!
We go to class
cuz we get paid!

I was fortunate enough to have RAs who weren't anti-Bonfire.

But this year, I've heard that Clements' new HD isn't thrilled about it.

Really? He is the same guy for Lechner, and he has pretty well left us alone. It is the honors office that is on our ass there.

- Werley
------------------------------

Lekner Hall,
Got it made!
We go to class
cuz we get paid!

Werley,

I know a prof who once said that he would be willing to host a debate between SB and Reslife. Do you think this would be a good idea?

quote:

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Really?

---

I dunno. I don't live there anymore, so I just have to go by what the current students tell me.

was the Yellow at Moore Fire of '95....we had AGR with us....these guys were a bunch of hosses...granted...this wasn't ur typ[ical fraternity....but they were greek none the less...were a great asset to Bonfire...

I think a debate or some kind of open ended discussion between SB and Reslife/Honors would be great, simply for the fact that a lot of people are judging what we do based upon pre-99 Bonfire (or just flat out misconceptions in general). A lot of people I know in staff think that all we do is go out there, screw around in an unsafe environment, and smack each other around with axe handles. I think any thing that would allow the those with worries to express their worries to a group of people who could address and assauge these worries would work.

I would say two things to this, though. 1) Be careful of who goes to speak for ASB. I wouldn't mind seeing a group made up of a Red Pot, a Yellow Pot, and some non-leadership pot who can think quick on their feet (Nerds!) 2) This would need to be done in the off-season (Spring), namely due to the whole 24-Hour visitation garbage. Though it is total BS, it can still be used as ammo against us.

- Werley
------------------------------

Lekner Hall,
Got it made!
We go to class
cuz we get paid!

I for one think it depends on the frat, just as it depends on the dorm, etc. Not all dorms have 100% participation, or even 50% participation.

I fo one love Bonfire, love the people that continue to keep the spirit alive.

I really think that if some of you that are currently working on Bonfire went to a few of the fraternities and asked for participation, you would see them come out. It is a two way street, the more each group talks down the other, the more alienated you become.

All I ask is that you try it with a few chapters, and see what type of response you get. I would recommend the smaller chapters as these are the easiest to work with and usually tend not to be the collar poppin frat daddy's the larger ones have.

Keep up the great work on cut and build and burn the hell outta bonfire 06!

quote:

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Not all dorms have 100% participation, or even 50% participation.

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There are dorms that don't even have 1% participation.

Bonfire was never frat friendly back in pre'99 days. I think it would be great to make an effort to get more of the student body out to cut and stack. One thing that Frats and those that build Bonfire have in common is a crummy reputation.

I would say that it couldn't hurt to invite the frats, or any other organization on campus. The more bodies the better!

I would say they may be a good recruiting pool. I don't think they should be their own crews though.

Hogs, I sort of agree there. To be honest, I think it would be great to see the crews get a mix of members from the student body. This will only make for a better experience for all.

I think it is great that you guys are wanting to get more of the student body involved, frat or not. The alienating of students just because of their social group is a detriment to what bonfire is truly about. There are a lot of great people in the dorms, corps, fraternities, sororities, foreign student programs, etc., that would be amazing additions to crews at the Bonfire sites.

Best of luck this year to all, be safe and burn the hell!

Part of the fuel for Bonfire is competition between groups to out work each other. I think if you live off campus and you happen to be in a frat you are a HOG.

I would love to see more international students out there, it is what sets A&M apart.

quote:

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There are dorms that don't even have 1% participation.

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I live in Aston and we don't do squat as a dorm bonfire wise. I didn't even know that dorms DID things as a group for bonfire until late last year when a friend of mine was talking about his dorm doing stuff for it (I didn't know him int eh first semester).

Does south side just suck community wise? The people are cool but we don't seem to have any rivalries or any of the stuff I hear about on northside.

NSCK
SSES

^ If you don't know what that means then that answers your question. Are you active in Bonfire this year?

Did southside have anything to speak of this year?

I am so sad to hear the a kid belongs to a south side dorm and does not know that it exists. In the little world of south side, it was always a huge competition with Dunn and Aston. Boy did they bring the numbers...

Come on South Side...BUILD THE HELL!

Jackie'00

Ag20??,

Aston did have as many as six Bonfire participants back in 2004 (as did Clements), but afaik none returned in '05.

But, if you want to bring people to Stack this year, it's not too late! You might want to mention it at your next dorm dinner.

[This message has been edited by leknerd2004 (edited 11/11/2006 9:29p).]

Werley,

It seems like reslife is against bonfire because the bonfire people in some dorms refuse to do anything that could be considered anything close to setting a good example.

I don't know what it was like when bonfire was on campus, but 75% of the bonfire guys in walton while I was there were truly terrible ambassadors of the tradition and only got into trouble because of the actual things that they did, not because they were part of student bonfire. As a group they were a pain in the ass, so they acted like they were huge victims when the staff wouldn't tolerate them breaking rules, destroying the building and endangering themselves and fish while on campus.

Trust me, I was there, it had absolutely nothing to do with bonfire itself, it had to do with the unfortunate group of people that decided to participate.

If you guys want to make headway with reslife, get dorms like walton in line. Make sure they people that respresent bonfire in those dorms are the kind of people that intelligent people would want to follow.

As an example, we couldn't keep a hall council president from the bonfire group in office for more than a semester due to grades or disciplinary issues.

Get the crap out of your constituency in those kind of dorms and you will get realize that reslife isn't against bonfire. The organization just constantly leaves a bad taste in their mouth because of discipline problems. NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU WANT TO DENY IT, SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO PLAY BALL IF YOU WANT TO GET WHAT YOU WANT.

totally on a tangent, but sharklady, which dorm were you with? I'm 90% sure I've met you but I can't quite place you.

NoAC Dammit -

You will laugh, but I cut with a little dorm called Underwood. Yes, for several years we actually had dorm chairs and even had about 5 girls out every weekend. We cut with Appelt. Fabulous guys!

On a side note, every time I hear someone say, "I'm not Done (Dunn)..." I think of what was always said from the Aston boys!

Good times!