In Alpha Gamma Delta, we were allowed to wear letters. However, we were not allowed to own or display the armorial bearings. It made it special once we were initiated to be able to put the armorial bearings on our cars and wear them.

I believe there are only rules about the crest, not actual letters. My chapter allowed letters on t-shirts, as long as they weren't embroidered or raised (like a billboard sweatshirt, etc.)

AOII lets NMs wear just about anything, however, the only AOTT jewelry they are allowed to wear are lavaliers and their pledge pins.

On my campus the big thing was a sister's disc (the round disc in silver or gold, usually with crest or letters, you wear on a chain) more people wore them than lavaliers, unless it was your BF's, so our Bigs gave us those at initiation.

pledges were allowed to wear AXO letters, they could not wear the crest or have a lavalier. I received my lavalier from my big sis on initiation night.

In Theta nationally the new members cannot wear letters. They can only wear the words" theta, or kappa alpha theta" of course they can't have the crest. Every year when we get our new girls there is usually at least one excited theta that goes out and buys everything and I always would feel bad telling them to turn their lavalier to their big because they cannot wear it until after initiation. I believe theta and pi phi are the only two sororities that are nationally strick on this policy. On my campus I don't know if it is pi phi nationally but if an active doesn't make grades or is on financial probation they cannot wear letters and have to wear pi phi.
I love the no wearing letters policy until after initiation. In my sorority the letter stand for something beautiful and you shouldn't wear them until you can respect and know about them and as a pledge you can't to that until initiation.

HELL NO!
 

No way a pledge is wearing our letters before becoming a brother, they have no meaning to them, to them they are letters, to the brothers they have mystic meanings, and a sense of pride in earning the right to proudly display the letters, you earn the right to wear them, not everyone is priviledged only the great :)
Ed

Alpha Phi Omega allows only those that have been initiated wear block letters and use our crest and motto. All others are allowed to wear shirts with the name spelled out and/or screen printed letters such as those from events like formals. Our pledges wear only a pin and a pledge jersey with screen printed letters.

maybe I just came from a weird chapter, but I always got to wear whatever I wanted from day one, except of course for the active's badge. No one ever wore any clothing or jewelry with the Kappa coat of arms on it, active, NM, or alum. The fraternity SIGNATURE, however, that's a different story. NM's are not allowed to use it, they have to sign "love" until they learn what the signature means.

i was not allowed to wear letters (doubled stiched) until after initiation...the same goes for lavaliers and the sister badge (obviously) this is just our chapters tradition however as it doesn't go against phi sig nat'l to wear them. traditionally our first set of real "letters" come from our big (sappahire) sisters.

Me too, KSgirl. Not picking on anyone either. While I agree that not everyone is privelaged enough to be a member, you have already chosen the NM as someone you want as a member, they're just not a brother or sister yet.

If you live your ritual, and rush to it, you sign PNM's who already espouse the ideals of your ritual and brotherhood/sisterhood. You cant change soemone to your ideals. You have to sign people who's ideals are simular to that of your orgs. (i.e., patriotism, learning, morality, friendship.) Hopefully you have.

I have always believed that if your brothers or sisters are living their ritual, then the new members can see that. The new members know what your letters stand for. They just dont know they know. I even used tell them when I was Pledge Dad, that its right there in front of them. its in your actions, words and deeds. So I think its a proportional deal, the closer to ritual you live your life, the more comfortable you should be to the NM's wearing regalia.

We dont have any policies inter/nationally regarding when a member can wear what. Just how it is in my chapter.

Wow, that is an awesome way to look at it!

hey
here at the University of alberta, Pi beta Phi has a tradition of only allowing initiated members whre the letters, sice you only find out the meaning of the words during initiations. But this is just us locally, I don't think this is an official rule.
peace,
C.

In my chapter, we definitely weren't allowed to wear anything with the CREST, or CROWN on it until after initiation, because obviously those have no significance to new members. Also, we were allowed to wear letters, but I *think* we couldn't wear stitched letter shirts (had to be iron-on or screen-print I think) until after initiation. I must have a bad memory b/c that was last semester LOL. :D I remember my Big Sis giving me a stitched shirt b4 initiation, but I can't remember as far as wearing it goes.

This is how my chapter does it:

At their first new member meeting, each pledge class votes on whether or not they want to wear letter shirts or not. We do tell them that it is tradition that you only wear letter shirts after being initiated, since you learn the meaning of the letter at initiation. However, they are still given the choice and vote on it as a pledge class.

Same here
 

That is exactly the way that our chapter would do it, also. Although Alpha Gamma Delta allows new members to wear the letters, as far as I remember, every single pledge class would vote to put off wearing the letters until after initiation. It just made them seem that much more special!