There are no stupid questions.

Say I'm Zeta Lambda 522 (522nd initiate of the Zeta Lambda chapter of Sig Nu).
and ZL 510 is sitting on the couch watching some stupid show.
I would then say "Badge, give me the TV remote kind sir".

We'd probably never do that, but it's just an example.

It's like say I'm ZI #897 well if one of my lower pledge bros or older guys say maybe #889 wants shotgun in a car he'd go "BADGE!" and then I'd have to fight him off to keep my seat. It's a silly little tradition. We get our badges based on GPA so the better the GPA within your pledge class the better your badge.

Also I noticed that colonists wear letters...they aren't initiated but I guess it makes sense since there are no knights to represent on their campuses.

By GPA?! I woulda been screwed.
The intiates voted on our badge number orders, with top honor going to the "model pledge". It's by GPA, house commitment, learning the pledge information, all the intangibles.

Ours is pretty much the same. We vote on badge ranking based on how much of an effort we felt the candidate made during the process. This usually works very well, although I know of one instance where a very hardworking candidate got screwed by the process somehow.

For our badge ranking, we now do the vote thing as well.

Back when we received our charter though, I did devise what I thought was a pretty fair way of ordering the first set of badge #'s. We of course gave 1,000,000 points to the guy who really pulled it together. After that, you were awarded 75 points per active semester (this was a big deal as we took 3 years to get our charter), then 100 points for being E.C., 90 for L.C., on down the ranking to 30.. and you got 30 for any committee you chaired or any really minor officer position.

When you found a brand new chapter, as you might imagine, everyone pretends that they don't care what their badge # is, but that's a total lie :)

It's probably different for a recolonization though.

It's been my experience that when it comes down to it, everyone cares and wants the lowest possible. I bet it's different when it comes to classes that are going for a milestone - then that milestone number probably becomes the goal rather then low badge. example:

500
1000
1500
2000

I mean don't get me wrong I understand the whole badge thing...but to me...well at least in my chapter....badge just means how well you did in your candidate semester....yeah you may have a lower badge, but that doesn't mean shit when you're not contributing to the chapter....we have that tradition too....I mean I see it as a sign of respect to those who came before...but I mean if you aren't doing shit for the chapter and you want to call Badge on something...that BS

I THINK MY POST IS GOING TO BE LONG SORRY GUYS:

Let me give you a little advice. Some guys will rip your head off for calling Sigma Nu a "Frat" and you may hear a little saying that says "don't call my Fraternity a Frat, you don't want me calling your country a c..." I don't want to write the word here but you can figure it out. It is an issue of respect and Honor and the word Frat has a very negative image. It is a personal choice but you may want to pass that on to your Colony Brothers. It adds a little class when people never hear you say the word Frat. One time I actually corrected a Proffesor who asked the first day of class "are there and Frat boys in this class" I raised my hand and said "no sir but there are 7 Fraternity men here and we all plan on earning "A"s in your class." We backed it up and of the 7 (3 Sigma Nus, 2 Sigma Chis, a TKE, and a Sig Ep) 6 received "A"s and one dropped the class. I had the same professor the following quarter and he asked me to stay after class and it turned out that he was a Sigma Nu from an East Coast school and he only asked the question the previous quarter because he saw me and two of the other SNUs wearing letters and he hoped that we would answer the question that way. He actually wrote me a letter of rec for my current position with my Firm.

NOW BACK TO THE BADGE TOPIC:

It has always been frowned upon to call badge within your own class in our chapter.

We use badge for lineup purposes when entering meeting. Badge also comes into play when we have buffet style meals at our preference dinner and at formal. The ladies go first then badge number order.

As for badge numbers order in my chapter each class votes on their own class we have always felt that the class has a better understanding of what the candidates each did our order is as follows:

President of Class
VP of Class
Treasurer
Recorder
Candidate of Class (Voted by fellow Candidate receiver of the most Votes)
2nd most
3rd most
etc...

We have a few exceptions where if a guy doesn't make grades he falls to the Brothered/Neophyte status and receives the lowest chapter badge number. If there are multiple guys that don't make grades they go in order by the votes again.

Our other exception would be if we are going to hit a milestone and the Candidate of the class gets that badge number unless that badge falls in to one of the top four positions. When we got to 200 we hit it on the nose and the brother got the lowest badge issued to his class. He didn't care he gets to wear 200 and he cherishes his number as if it were his left foot.

Badge number is just a sign of respect for your fraternal superiors and I am sure we all wished guys would just respect the higher badges without anything being said.

Right, sorry....that's why I did have the phrase "frat guy" in the quotation marks, though... I accidentally said frat at College of Chapters around Chris Healy and Jake Welshans ... got pulled aside later and was told, "Look, you're a little brother to us since we helped found y'alls re-colonization...just...never say frat about EN again, alright bud?" ...and it's pretty much left my vocabulary since then. ...anyways....

So, those are the main ways of choosing numbers, eh? ....and, Kevin, no, nobody likes to admit it, but, we'd all like the lowest possible number...nobody really knows what it means...but, that's not the issue, it's low and everbody else seems to want the lowest one, so, we do too. lol

SnuKnight, I think that is an awesome way to do it. Let the pledge class vote on it. Nice.

It works for us. And it is all that I have ever known.