Before ya'll tear me a new one... Let me explain where I'm from.. I'm a transfer student from Montana.. came in as a junior three semesters ago... (yes I'm a super senior)..

I've been in a fraternity since freshman year, and love it.. and when I came here I was amazed by the discourse between fraternities and the rest of A&M...

Last year I joined OC Hogs, got my pot painted, and went to Cut Class... but was really too busy with my upper=-level classes to get into it.. that being said.. since coming.. I've been to all home conf. basketball games (except two), all home football games, and about half the baseball games... Also have been a Howdy Camp counselor and have the utmost respect for all the traditions.. specifically Bonfire.

I am going to participate in Bonfire this year and next, even if I am Greek. I want to be apart of this tradition..

But I've noticed on these boards that SB would love as much participation as possible.. but because of the Greek hate..

I wondering would it be worthwhile to round up a bunch of my friends to participate? Or not?


Just out of curiosity.. and a desire to know a bit more about the history between greeks/nonregs/corps.. when Bonfire was still on campus.. was it common for the chapters that were around to participate?

Gig 'Em!

/preparing for the onslaught.

I don't think it's impossible to grow the level of frat participation at Bonfire, but I think you'd pretty much have to adhere to these traits:

1. Don't act like a frat guy.
2. Don't wear the fact that you're in a frat on your sleeve.
3. Have thick skin.
and above all
4. Work your ass off.

Basically, you're gonna have to prove yourself out of the stereotype. I do believe that hard work and being redass will earn you respect at Bonfire regardless of who you are. But, admittedly, a frat guy is gonna have a pretty steep hill to climb.

BTW, most of that was intended to address your questions about frats at Bonfire on a large scale (i.e., having a certain frat crew coming out). If you come out with OC, you'll blend in and the people in your crew will know you're in a frat and give you some ribbing I'm sure, but nothing hostile like you might get as a separate entity...

Oh, and my opinion of the root of the discourse between frats and Aggies is that it's a matter of priorities. Ultimately, frat guys are more attached to their greek letters than the letters "A" and "M". They care more about their frat than their school. At a place like Texas A&M, that hasn't, doesn't, and won't sit well.

agcoop10,
Thanks for the reply! I definitely appreciate it. As far as doing Bonfire, I'm just gonna join up with OC and go from there. Working hard, and taking a good ribbing isn't something I'm afraid of. Just good to know that putting in the right effort will over ride the hate for fraternities.

As far as seeing the letters over the A&M, I can understand where that becomes a problem. Personally, I feel that Greeks should use the values that being Greek teaches in accordance with what it means to be an Aggie. I think that the two could work pretty well together, butttt that is just me.

Thanks!

the easiest way to shut somebody up at cut or stack is to simply outwork them...

While they're talking, you can point to your flag on Centerpole.

As TexasRebel said, just do work and don't worry about it.

Non-Greeks get made fun of too. It's Bonfire, not Fish Camp.

quote:

---

I wondering would it be worthwhile to round up a bunch of my friends to participate? Or not?

---

Once in a blue moon back when it was on campus there would be a frat or two that came out to cut.

It was a royal pain in the ass.

Greeks will never be generally accepted at Bonfire. Bonfire represents everything that is A&M's culture. Fraternities represent everything that is the opposite.

It is worth noting that there have been Greek redpots in the past, although not many.

The funny thing is that I'm pretty sure no other University promotes extracurricular involvement as much as A&M. So it's not that A&M and diverse interests are mutually exclusive. The animosity between Bonfire and the Greek system is pretty deep. Bonfire, as it is conducted at A&M is uniquely Aggie. The Greek system, by design, is not. They are polar opposites in philosophy and approach, although they both offer the individual similar benefits. Bonfire says we'll take anyone who will bust his butt. The Greek system says we'll select the people we want, and if you're good enough it may be you.

I have many good friends who were frat boys. The friendships they developed in their frats are just as real and valid as the friendships I found in Bonfire. The biggest difference for me is that I always saw my time in Bonfire as a service to the school. It's hard to make that argument for Rush. So when I see a Bonfire kid, I know that's a person who puts the school I love first. He's proven it. A frat boy may be just as dedicated, but his greekness does nothing to demonstrate it. Absent any evidence to the contrary, I'll continue to assume that individual is not as dedicated to A&M.

Over time frats have had many opportunities to be involved and have failed to consistently capitalize on them. So someone made fun of their frat? Wah, wah. Nut up and do the work and it'll take care of itself. We were brutal to the BQ's but they didn't let it keep them from coming out to cut once a year. The Nerds have decades of harassment behind them and they still come out. It's telling that the frats, however many thousand strong, can't even muster a consistent minor presence at Bonfire. Hard work trumps most everything else at Bonfire.

I know a couple frat guys that defy the stereotypical mold and are just normal fun people, and we've had this conversation before. The differences between bonfire dorms and fraternities are really fine lines but damn definitive. Both dorms and frats serve to establish relationships with people living in close proximity and work to better a larger institution. The difference is in the approach (who gets to participate, select pledges vs. anyone in dorm) and the institution bettered (A&M vs. national charter). And KFS143 hit right on the mark.

One thing I would point out is that most bonfire crews have an event at some point in their history where there was a negative sentiment against them, and rather than get pissed off and pout about it, they took it to the extreme and glorified it and shoved it down the throats of the people who originally held them in contempt. And in time it created that crew's culture and traditions.

Point here is that if you're in a frat and want to do Bonfire then I say go all out with it, paint your pots highlighter yellow, wear khaki slacks in the woods and wear pastel fishing shirts. Expect to take [a lot of] crap and then give it right back. Nothing earns respect like working for it, and working at it persistently, for however long it takes. Every post above that says its about working your tail off... 100% true statement.

And FTR, I don't know of any crews that don't give other dorms crap for not being their dorm.

quote:

---

paint your pots highlighter yellow

---

I don't think the SB leadership would like that.

Well they don't like it when I hang trees over the tractor path just as they walk by but it still happens....

Not that I'm making an attempt to glimpse the complex enigmatic mind of a JRP in the woods, but if pot color is the biggest thing they have to worry about then clearly things are going unprecedentedly smooth.

[This message has been edited by Fitch 10 (edited 7/31/2011 3:19a).]

The hatred was pretty mutual in the 90's, at least. I had buddies who rushed or pledged or whatever, and they were discouraged from working on Bonfire. A lot of culture clash, but I think mostly it's that the frat wants most of your free time, and they don't want you to be focused on anything else that asks for as much commitment as Bonfire asks. We mostly only saw them at burn, hence "see you when it burns."

But definitely go w/ OCA. Go to cut class and whatever other training they may do now. Getting that and getting to know your crew early on will make it easier to work around scheduling conflicts. Even when I lived in the dorm, if I couldn't go when my crew did, I'd often head out to stack by myself and find a pot I knew who trusted me to give me some work, whether it was 3PM or 3AM. The kind of hassle Buckley is referring to is when we'd have some greek dudes randomly show up wanting to help, and we'd have to figure out how to use them b/c they hadn't come to any training and didn't know any crews. An attempted "greek crew" didn't last long due to quitters and disorganization. The only ones I remember really getting made fun of and yelled at though were the dewshes who'd come out in their fishing costumes to watch us work for a while then leave.

If you can round up some frat brothers (or any new people, for that matter) who consistently contribute to the productivity of OCA, you might be a hero to your chiefs. I was a transfer too, and Bonfire meant more to me than any other student activity in getting integrated into the community and getting to know a ton of hilarious, hard-working people I never would have met otherwise. Nobody knew me on day 1, but we damn sure all knew each other's names (real or otherwise) by the end.

[This message has been edited by aggro (edited 7/31/2011 5:33a).]

KFS143 is absolutely spot on.

And you might find it interesting that the BQ's have a pretty respectable presence these days throughout Cut and Stack. I'm not sure what they did to make it OK to have more people show up during the week for Stack (an obvious obstacle for those in the Corps, what with CQ, lights-out, etc.), but it sure as hell worked. I think it was a result of a couple years of Band Staff leadership that was sympathetic to the Bonfire cause.

While I have often held the Dorms (and Bonfire) as being the reason why Greeeks were never big at A&M, I have no problem with you guys comming out and working your butts off, if have guys the salt to do so, day in and day out. If you dont......

quote:

---

(who gets to participate, select pledges vs. anyone in dorm)

---

This is not a FINE LINE. This is the HEART of why their is such a disdain against the frats, and IMO, this is the reason that frats well never have a big prescense presence/ever be welcomed 100% at out at Bonfire.

Intrinsically, the orginizations are not on the same page, do not have the same values. Both are pasionate about their beliefs, and thats fine, but bringing some of those beliefs out into the woods - or into the middle of a rush party - is going to raise some tension.

Come out! I Would love for yall to prove me and everyone else wrong, but dont expect to be treated the same as a dorm that has proven themselves year in and year out.

Hell, highlighter pots would really make "beat a greek week" all that much easier

As a non-reg random who worked 5 bonfires, and a greek for the last two of them I can say it only made a difference to the arseholes I didnt want to deal with anyway.

Basically, I left my greek stuff at home when I went to work on bonfire. It helped that I already got to know my dorm and many of the leaders of bonfire before I pledged and when those guys found out, I got some good natured ribbing but no one ever wanted me to leave.

If we end up in the SEC....goinna have to get used to it I suppose......

Sorry for the older thread ttt, just felt like voicing an opinion.... Even if it is just to reiterate what coop said. Dont act fratty, bust your ass, and have a good time.


And secondly.... Did I meet you last year? I don't remember who all didn't manage to make it out after cut class/pot painting...

OCHWFLAKASSOBRTTEFE

This maybe a stupid question but where do i go and how do i get involved with the SB?

@SEC_ag14:

If you live in a dorm that's active in Bonfire, contact your Yellowpot or Crew Chief.

If not, you can just show up at Cut Site wearing a pot and steel-toed boots, and find a crew to go with.

Or if you live off campus (or you DON'T live in a Bonfire dorm), go to offcampushogs.com for more info

/shameless plug

OCHWFLAKASSOBRTTEFE

[This message has been edited by miss_redass (edited 9/2/2011 12:32p).]

SEC, where do you live currently? Where did you live your fish year?

Put your frat on your pot... wear it loudly and proudly... outwork everybody and it wont matter...

Everybody gets made fun of at bonfire... non reg, cts, women, fat people... token... shrug it off and work any you will earn your place no matter what people say

quote:

---

Put your frat on your pot... wear it loudly and proudly... outwork everybody and it wont matter...

Everybody gets made fun of at bonfire... non reg, cts, women, fat people... token... shrug it off and work any you will earn your place no matter what people say

---

This.

Scott Coker '92

quote:

---

outwork everybody and it wont matter...

---

-Repeated for emphasis-

Some things change....some things don't...some will come full circle.

Back in the day (But not so long ago) - There were no greek letters at TAMU. Bonfire was run by the redpots and the redpots were in the Corps.

Like it or not - The Corps is the reason that TAMU is different from every other university in the USA.

Scott and Copenmegan said it. Come out and work your ass off and it wont matter. If you are there to keep our beloved tradition alive then that is all that matters. But I would suggest keeping the frat stuff at home.

Don't have much to add, but don't let the razzing get to you. Keep your head down and bust ass, then dish it back when the time comes.

It would be redass to get your frat buddies out there.

The more the merrier - or at least more interesting!

If your historian kept any records or photos, I bet you could even figure out the correct pot designs. I did with my sorority.

quote:

---

If we end up in the SEC....goinna have to get used to it I suppose......

---

This

Drastic increase in frat membership is probably my biggest concern about our upcoming move to the SEC. It would be better if they were integrated into Bonfire, with either a greek crew, or a "Greek Cut Day," which would probably quickly turn into a "Cut Greek Day." considering most greeks I knew in school hadn't done a day work in their life.

I'll win no fans saying this, but that's actually not a bad idea. Trying to get more students into Bonfire should be an organizational aim regardless if they're Greek, flo, or fishcamp neon hat wearers. Times change, gotta adapt and keep what's important.

quote:

---

I'll win no fans saying this, but that's actually not a bad idea. Trying to get more students into Bonfire should be an organizational aim regardless if they're Greek, flo, or fishcamp neon hat wearers. Times change, gotta adapt and keep what's important.

---

Agreed. As long as they will come out and understand that they are under control of existing leadership and put in the work.

I was OC YP in '91 when some frats decided they wanted to have a presence out there. I think Trent pushed that agenda. Anyway, the were to be under me since they were technically off campus, but they wanted no part of anyone telling them what to do.

Scott Coker '92

That is the issue I foresee.

If they become sly enough, they will keep their heads down a few years and do what is necessary to earn their own leadership, at which point they will segregate and cause orgizational havoc when they decide they are allowed a different set of rules.

No, it would be fine if they came out and worked just like a crew under another YP and then earned their own YP and became their own crew. A group that stuck around long enough to go through that process would "get it" and not be a problem, IMO.

The issues I had were the groups that came out with no experience and wanted to just run off and kill whatever the wanted on their own because they felt no one but the frat leadership could tell them what to do.

Granted, you could get that attitude with other organizations that wanted to form a crew, I am just stating what I experienced within the context of this thread.

Scott Coker '92

Wow! It's great to see the Redass Bonfire Ags still hate the frats geeks! Ha!

Nah, just kidding...kinda! When I was there ('86-'90) and building Bonfire, I had a few buddies who rushed and joined a frat. I just laughed at them because they had to pay money...lots of money...to hang out with one group of guys and, typically, could only hang out with girls in their "partner" sorority. But I could go to any of their parties for free because I knew lots of people, and went to way too many sorority functions for various sororities. It was the good life!

Ultimately, Bonfire is about A&M and being an Aggie. If you come out there and make ANYTHING more important than that, you'll be run off the site. But if you guys want to head out and really bust ass, you will build a comaraderie and leadership skills that no Greek activity can match.

Have fun! Gig 'Em!