For Alpha Gam, badges are either buried with the deceased or sent back to IHQ.

Alpha Gamma Delta does not have an official committee that rescues Badges. As far as I know, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, IHQ doesn't forbid us from buying the Badges off of eBay. I've done so in the past, and I know of many others who have done so too. Many of our IVPs keep an eye on the auctions to ensure that the winning bidder is indeed an AGD.

Most (if not all) badges must be ordered through the HQ. Only members of that organization are allowed to order them. If you giving one as a gift (for example if you had an XYZ boyfriend and wanted to get him a blinged out badge) I think the only way you could get it is ask one of his brothers to order it and give him the money. I could be WAAAAAAY off though...

From ASUADPi:

It sounds like Alpha Delta Pi’s are in the same stages of this as we are, and the concept of your operations sounds almost identical too. How has it been working so far? Have you had much luck?



Which is exactly the frustrations with the whole black market problem to begin with. Yes it is true that priorities are and should be collegiate programs. On the same token, without the historical aspects, there wouldn’t be any collegiate programs. I think a lot of people simply do not want to see non-members who have no affiliation with the organization owning something that is such a treasured symbol of their organization. It’s sort of like seeing someone from another country disrespecting an American flag-- I think it is similar in emotional resentment. And you are right, there are some people & groups who do not share those sentiments and do not care about retrieval


From ISUKappa:
that is very interesting!


From Little E:
“we” being Theta Phi Alpha, which incidentally is the smallest sorority in NPC. So yes, it can be very expensive for groups such as ours, or the really large groups who have many pins out in the world. Which is why it would be very important to have an open communication & keep active points of contact between the groups who were interested in participating so that the exchange idea could work. If we knew a name & phone number of a person/people from the retrieval groups of other sororities, if we see something in a antique store, for example, we could call that person & tell them what we are looking at— “do you wish for us to purchase it”? if a group was only interested in certain ones, they would also share that information so that the others would know. It would also be important that communication be the key factor, otherwise the whole thing would be a bust.

And I think it sounds like all the groups who have retrieval programs do so by relying on donations only, not HQ support. So this would be an exchange agreement between NPC alumna.

It's going to vary depending on the GLO. Some engrave badges with chapter letters, initiation numbers and the like, while others don't.

I know you asked earlier about Phi Tau, and according to Burr Patterson Auld's web site, Phi Tau badges have to be ordered from their HQ. That would not apply to e-Bay orders, though. Why don't you ask one of his brothers or e-mail Phi Tau HQ and ask?

We don't engrave our badges, but I think we are either supposed to be buried with it or have it sent back to HQ when we die.

I guess I took the badge buying to be every badge that went up for sale. And if you did that, even buying all the lower end badges, the calculation for the budget would be hard. I really do like the idea of alumnae buying badges as a way to get involved, and totally applaud the women who do that. I just have reservations about a HQ spending money that could go else where on badges, but that is my personal feeling.

When I was dating a Sig Chi the girlfriend of a Sig Chi wanted to get the guy a new badge, one of the nice ones, she had to give the money to a brother to buy it because of the buying restrictions. At least for AST, our badges are made by Legacy or whatever they are called, but you have to order them through nat'l. You can't just call the jeweler and order directly. It really is to control who buys them, and I'm sure how many they buy.

The badges we most care about are the old ones. if a badge is 1950 or older, then to me it should be in the hands of the sorority, in honor of that woman who helped create the sorority we so love. If a twenty-year old girl sells her own badge-- I think it's very sad, but I couldn't care less.

As for saying it is a way to keep alumnae involved-- hrm. All I can say is, I think you will find that most alumna do things for the love of their sorority, because they want to see it loved & preserved.

Re: Caveat Emptor
 

Agreed, which is why our group doesn't do this.

Got those covered!

All I will say to this is WTF??????????

Most, if not ALL, of our Crescent Catcher members were already VERY involved in Gamma Phi Beta when we formed the group.

It is NOT a way to get alumnae involved and I am actually offended that you claim it is.

If anyone would like to know how our group works, please pm and I am happy to share all of our information but I won't do it on GC.

Here, here. That is how our group works.

We only buy ones (as a group) that are historically significant, according to the criteria set forth by our IC. Those are then donated back to our Foundation Museum as in-kind gifts (for tax deductions).

We have actually reunited a number of badges with their original owners who didn't even know the badge was missing (usually stolen).

Re: Caveat Emptor
 

We do both as well. And we have perfected the art of ebay bidding with the goal of not driving up the prices. We have also gotten to know a number of collectors and have purchased some directly from them.

Yes, there are collectors on ebay, and I am one of them and a Member of their Site.

I collect only LXA Badges while others collect them for various reasons. Mainly they collect them for the beauty.

They will take better care of them than most members of said GLOs do, trust me on that!

Do they buy them for resale, yes, do they buy them for trade value, also a yes.

Do I have a lot of LXA Badges, Yes.

So, what am I going to do with them?

I am going to donate to my Chapter and yearly I donate one for Auction at Founders Day. Several Times, I have given a Badge to a Brother whether it is My Chapter or not.

Have I seen some that I want to bid on that are not My Fraternity/Sorority, YES, but, what would I do with them?

If you please, climb off of colletors backs. Bid or dont Bid.

After rereading adpiucf's post, I've got to echo Mel's WTF.

If you really do think "different strokes for different folks" then don't say something silly like badge rescue gives alum more of a sense of purpose than volunteering at a charity or helping with rush.

Maybe what adpiucf meant was that some alumnae (who don't want to clean up after actives during recruitment or read to elementary school kids) might find it interesting to help preserve a piece of their GLO's history - maybe they're into historical collections or antiques or whatever. (Before I get flamed for that statement, please realize that I in no way think that badges area simply a nice piece of antique jewelry, but they have a special meaning to each of us - which is why I think they should be returned to the orgs if the member doesn't want it.)

And she never said that it gives alums more of a sense of purpose - I don't see what's so offensive about that - it's simply providing another activity for alumnae. Some alums might really get a kick out of a display at nationals that says "Badge of Founder Susie Sorority, donated by Annie Alumna."

Are you really going to be insulted if an alum buys a badge for your chapter and tell her that she should come to the house during rush and serve icewater instead? Why not recognize that everyone has different levels of involvement and respect what they do for the GLO, whether rescuing badges or advising a chapter? I'm just not sure why everyone is attacking her for this statement.

That said, I think that most of the situations in which someone is willing to rescue a badge involve someone who is already involved, like SmartBlonde said. I can't imagine someone who hasn't paid their alum dues in twenty years being willing to shell out for the stolen badge of a national director, or whatever, but you never know.