Pi Beta Phi badges
 

Our Fraternity magazine's summer 2001 issue discussed our badges, and here's the scoop:

" Upon the death of its owner, a badge may be buried with its owner, bequeathed to a member of the Fraternity or to a collegiate chapter or alumnae club to be used as an honor badge or sent to Central Office for such disposition as directed by Grand Council."

So, we can actually leave it to others within the fraternity if we so choose, without it returning to Central Office.

In Tri Sigma, a member is supposed to be either buried in her badge or it should be returned to HQ. I just have to say after learning that during pledgeship, seeing it in actual practice is one totally other thing...one of my pledge sisters passed away in 2000 after a 4-year battle with brain cancer (she was 25 at the time) and was buried in her badge. She'd left specific intstructions for her family...she was also buried with her lavalier and a sailboat necklace, as well as a charm bracelet with a sailboat on it from her lil sis!

sailboatgirl, that is such a heart-wrenching story. I nearly cried. It is so awful to lose a sister so young, but is so amazing to be able to see that she held your organization is such high regard. I hope her actions are practiced with more greeks around the world.

In my organization we are to buried with it (which I plan on doing), will it to someone, or return it to Nationals. I think the most important thing you can do to ensure the safelty of your badge is to tell those that are close to you how much it means to you and the signifigance the organization has had on your life. The reason I feel so many badges are on ebay is not because they were stolen or not cared for. I think that the people who took care of the arrangements for the funral, memorial service, etc. overlooked this important wish because they perhaps were not a greek member and did not know that this was such and important request.

Unless non-greeks know how important the badge is to the deceased greeks, they will not take such care to see it go to it's proper place!

As for my GLO, we are to be buried with our badge, leave it to a legacy, or send it back to our Executive Offices.

Zeta Tau Alpha
 

In ZTA we're supposed to do one of the following with our badge:

1) be buried with the it
2) return it to National
3) pass it down to a legacy daughter or grandaughter
4) leave it to a relative who will keep it safely and not sell it