With my chapter, we just have big and little sisters. However, we enjoy charting our "geneology". For instance, this semester I got my first little sister as well as became a great-great aunt for the second time. :p

Translation: My big sister had another little sister who was my "twin". She had a little sister, who had a little sister, who had another little sister initiated this semester. Right now, I'm the family "matriarch" because I'm the oldest member of my family (both in terms of age and initiation date).

During the new member program, we assign everyone in the chapter Bear Buddies each week to set aside some special time to hang out with a sister to further strengthen our bonds of sisterhood. It's a great program!

I think each chapter is different on their diamond sisters and any additional sisters. My chapter this year started "bid day buddies" which was a mentoring sister until the Alphas received their diamond sisters within the first week or so. When I first joined, we got our diamond sister within 2 days of bid day, and then we had a violet sister, lion sister, and a pi sister all leading up to our initiation. It was a great way to meet some of the older members of the sorority that I wouldn't have gotten to know otherwise. the chapter has just started the "Alphas pref their diamond sister", and it seems to be working for them. We were assigned our <> sisters (I think), and I personally chose my "little" diamond sister. I've always added big or little in front of "diamond" in order to differentiate between the two of them. I also referred to my "diamond family" as well (I know, not exactly what the TME program advocates! :o )

We havebig/lil sis and unoffically we choose a big and a lil bro...the cool thing about that is that you get to choose your big bro and then accept a li lbro if your asked....I don't have a big bro yet...soon maybe :)

On bid day in my chapter new members got "Guardian Angels" who were usually girls that will potentially become big sis's for the pledge class. The pledge's are the guardian angels' little devils. Then we had mixer/sisterhood things with all the potential big sis's (mostly sophomores or other sisters who didn't have little sis's yet). We wrote down a few sisters who we wanted as our big sis, and they wrote down who they wanted as little sis's, and then someone matched them all up. Then we had a super-complicated process (involving puzzles and the like) for our big/little revealing. It was lots of fun!

Sarah

Phi Gamma Pi and Kappa Phi
 

Phi Gamma Pi:
On the night of pledge initiation Phi Gamma Pi gives their new members an "Emerald Buddy." That girl gives the new member a decorated pledge binder with their new member class on the cover of it. This person is from the pledge class before. As everyone has said, that person is their temporary or pseudo Big.

A week or 2 before initiation week the new member gets a Big. I was lucky enough to have my Emerald Buddy be my Big! I love her so much!

Kappa Phi:
In Kappa Phi we have Bigs and Littles. Usually a Big for a Kappa Phi pledge gets picked within 2 weeks of their pledge initiation and leaves them gifts at every meeting (once a week) until their active initiation where they reveal who they are and give their Littles a paddle. The Littles don't have to return the gift, though I gave my Kappa Phi Big her paddle as a Christmas present.

With my chapter of Alpha Phi, we used to get a "Rosebuddy" on our Bid Day, however, international made us change the name, so we now get "Ivy Linkers" and then we just have Big Sis/Lil Sis.

There is a fraternity on my campus, that is a regional fraternity. They originated at another school, and at that other school they helped to found a regional sorority, so the girls take Lil Bro's and the guys take Lil Sis' which I think is awesome. They have a really tight relationship!!

My chapter operates similar to axotiger's. Our new members receive a Carnation sister on Bid Day and then a Mystagogue at our 1st degree. The also have an Alpha, Chi, and Omega sis, one each week. After that four weeks they get their Big sister. The mystagogue is normally a junior or senior who acts as a "temporary big". They make sure that the NM understand the history and stuff and is there to answer questions about the sisterhood and to make sure that the Alpha, Chi, and Omega sisters are doing their jobs. (Sending them gifts, eating with them, taking them to social and sisterhood events, introducing them to other sisters, etc) My mystagee my junior year ended up becoming my little and my mystagee my senior year ended up being my grandlittle. Funny how things work out!

My last chapter, we called them Moms & Daughters, and my new chapter has Bigs & Littles.

When my chapter was setting up our big/little program, we were told we could use pretty much any terminology we wanted EXCEPT big and little or mom and daughter (because that would imply a superiority/inferiority relationship).

We did the following:

On bid day you got an Alpha sister. Usually, for formal recruitment, this was whoever preffed you.

About a week later, you got an Epsilon sister. Usually this was someone you didn't know as well, to mix things up a bit.

One or two weeks later, you got a Phi sister, alternatively called a Pearl sister. This was your big. New members and sisters each made lists of people they'd like to be paired with, and the new member educator paired them up as best she could.

Officially we used this terminology, but unofficially we sometimes used the terms "big" and "little".

My chapter calls them Bigs/Littles or Active/pledge. Unlike some chapters, we get ours within the first week of pledging. During that week we get "hints" left in our little mailboxes at the house, and we're supposed to take a stab at who it is. Then there's a cute little activity to find out who your big is. Your big then presents you with all the stuff you'll need for pledging (hawaiian shirt, cute little gifts, family hand-me-downs). It's so cool. My big was awesome. I had to miss the big/little activity due to a rowing event. But I got to do a separate activity with the two other girls who didn't get theirs that night. We then have our bigs for all of pledging and they are our bigs forever. Our family trees are a HUGE source of pride, theres' a little rivalry about the biggest tree. But most of us are "related" because the trees branch out in crazy directions.

My chapter of Sigma Kappa has heart sisters, pearl sisters and big/little sisters. On bid day each girl gets a heart sister (like a pre-big sister person) and a pearl sister (but this is kept secret until whenever the pearl sis feels like revealing herself- which in some cases was years later if ever :) ) and then half way through pledging the girls mutually select big/little pairs.
Sometimes girls have unofficial adopted big/little sisters. Me for example. My big sister stopped talking to me once she found out I was friends with a sister she was fighting with. Officially she is still my big, but I was adopted by the girl she didn't like. I think its sad when things happen that way, but sometimes you can't avoid it I guess.

Our EO is really pushing hard for the usage of "Diamond Sisters" as opposed to Big/Little sisters. I never completely understood why until we did a form of that on GreekChat. It really is about being equals, with each Diamond bringing something new to the table. This has been a hard edict for some chapters to accept, but in the long run, I can now see the wisdom and purpose behind it.

When I was an active, we were given Pearl Pals (usually our Pref sponsor) prior to Big/Little sisters, Secret Sisters during Friendship Week, and Alumna Pi Pals during our pledging.

We have key sisters for Kappa...

As for APO it's just big's and little's...

We got a Secret Big on Bid Day, then out Big Sisters, I think we had an Anchor during out Second semester after pledging (we were pearls), and the semester you graduated you got a Rose Buddy (usually a younger sister to help keep you in the loop after grad). The Big Sis/Little sis was how we traced lines, and family trees.

What about when your group starts a colony? Do you still have a Big Sis or is she called by a different name? I'm assuming she'd be a local alum.

I have my little from my chapter, then AST nat'l asked alumnae who were willing to volunteer to be bigs for our colonies (we have like 6 or so) and so now i have a new little in Kansas. Its been fun. I feel bad I live so far away, but it is better than not having one.

I was a founding sister of my chapter and instead of Big/Littles, we took twins. The semester we were colonizing, the education committee put everyone's name in a hat and matched everyone randomly. I liked the randomness of it because it forced me to get closer to someone that I didn't know previously, but I was also paired with a senior (I was a sophomore), so it was a little awkward at times. But my twin and I got along great and now I have a niece, grandniece, and great-grandniece, as well as a little and grandlittle.