Heart Sis was the woman that Pref'd you. You get her on Bid Day.

Big Sis - usually about 4-5 weeks in to pledging. The NM would submit her pref list of who she wanted as her big. The VP-NME would then match up bigs/lils. The lil would find out who her big was at revealing at the end of Mystery Week.

Violet Sis - the NM would pick the NM that most inspired her. During Inspiration Week the NM would leave poems/clues for the member and after initiation the NM would reveal who her Violet Sis was.

OMG thank you.

My friend is a Sig Kap and tried to explain all this to me and I didn't get it.

Yeah it can be very confusing! I was always confused and curious by chapters that had the Big Sis be the girl that Pref'd you. It just seemed unfair to the other chapters that they weren't constantly getting another ___ Sis. ;)

My Chapter did it a bit differently.

Heart Sis: Random match up on Bid day, served as your "big" for the first half of pledging. They were matched based on "broken hearts" (like the BFF necklaces). The active made the heart cut it in half and at the Bid activities the NM would pick a half and find her match.

Big Sis: Same as what SoCal said. Often the Heart Sis became your big (my little was my heart sis)

Violet sis: A more senior active who leaves you notes/presents/encouragement durring I-week. She is revealed on "Violet night". I think you were just assigned to someone, don't quite remember though.

I think my chapter now has pearl pals too. Not sure though.

see our Heart sis was the woman that got you on bid day - but it was only for a week. and it wasnt the girl that pref'd you. random selection for all the active members to be able to get to know the NM's. and every week the NM would get a new Heart sis.
thats how it worked at my school. As for Violet sis .. dont even think we had that. just Heart Sis, Big/Lil Sis, and ... i think thats all i recall.

We had Heart sis and Big/little

Heart sis was much like SigKapBling's except that you would often get the girl who preffed you as your heart sis the first week. Then a different girl each week.

Then you listed the girls you'd want as your Big (but didn't know until a revealing of some sort)

Oh, I so win this game I think.

I started with a heart sis, then after pledging in, you get your big (mine posts on GC which is pretty damn cool, I had no clue till afterwards. Love you Big!), then we do Secret Sigma, where you're left clues up until I-week before the revealing. Finally, we did do mother/daughter, which is sort of like the big/little pref listing. You don't find out your mom until I-week either. Now they've changed mom/daughter to Sigma/Kappa, which kinda made me mad because it was considered a divide between new members and initiated sisters, which I don't agree with.
So...
Heart sis
Big sis
Secret Sigma
Mom/Sigma.

No wonder I was inundated with so many gifts! Oh yeah, there was a spending cap on mom/daughter gifts too. Moms can only spend $150 tops on their daughters.

And that's why the UMASS chapter rocks like they do!

Goodness!! This certainly has become the hijacked "Sigma Kappa" thread now hasn't it? :D

we have something like that, secret sigma, but its the secret senior - you get one your "senior" year, or whatever year your going through order ... you get one sister to pair up with a senior and they give her gifts all semester long.. its so sweet. and at the end you reveal yourself to the senior at order i believe?? its so much fun :)


haha yeah i noticed that too.. its become the "what kind of ??/?? does your sigma kappa chapter have"!!!!

Sigma Kappa FTW!

How are spending caps enforced? Do the girls have to show the receipts from their purchases? And does everyone strictly keep to these limits? I mean, is it unheard of for bigs to give their littles gifts "behind" the chapter's back and is this approved of?

Wait, you have Big Sis's and Mom's? I don't get the difference? :confused:

We have violet sisters (which seems to be what all the other SK chapters call heart sisters). You get one on bid day and get a new one after a bit - supposedly. I had 2, and but this years nm's only have one.

and big sis's and the whole family that goes with that (Gbig, aunties, cousins, twins, etc etc).

You get your big straightaway and then you pick your mom/Sigma, who gives you your paddle/first set of letters etc.

No, I meant, instead of waiting your entire NM period to find out who your big is, you wait to find out who your mom is instead. Then, right after initiation, you get your letters and paddle and other cool stuff from your mom. NMs, in turn, make their moms a pillow.

When I was an undergraduate my chapter didn't have a spending cap and things were insane. The semester that my friends and I all took lil's we went NUTS! In retrospect, I spent entirely too much money, and I was probably in the middle of the pack.

Now the chapter has a spending cap for each Initiation. They enforce this by reimbursing for it. And yes, in order to get reimbursed for anything, you'll have to provide a receipt. For the most part this helps make things more equal and the members tend to stick to it. The amount includes enough to buy gifts for the week and the cost of a sweatshirt.