She promised to fulfill those obligations two years earlier when her dad wasn't dead. A heart attack in his early 50s wasn't exactly something the family had been planning on. Unfortunately, her parents had been paying the bills until then, but he died during the summer, and it was too late to apply for financial aid.

Trust me, the chapter understood the situation. She was a double legacy. They just didn't care to make an exception because they were in a financial black hole.

The lack of empathy in your post gives me a lot of insight into why you seem to think of sisterhood as a "business".

We do have a thread on here about reinstating membership. Some groups will reinstate you if you pay off your debts - I think it actually happened to someone on here. But yes, you can be terminated solely for financial reasons. The frequency with which this is done varies GREATLY from campus to campus & group to group.

You can go "inactive" or "special status" in some groups which means your dues are reduced.

But when you're talking about huge chapters w/ huge houses (and even some smaller chapters/houses) everyone is usually required to live in at some point if the space is there. It's something you should know and be aware of before you go through rush, let alone pledge, let alone are initiated.

While some people can't fulfill financial obligations due to the death of a parent, others can't fulfill obligations due to a shopping addiction.

There will always be exceptions and your initial post was quite vague.

Please quit assuming. I do not think of sisterhood as a business, and that is not what I said, but if you are in a huge chapter with a house the size of a dorm, you're stupid to think there is no "business" whatsoever involved.

I have the utmost sympathy for your friend's situation, and if this chapter treated her poorly I'm sorry, but you can't give everyone a pass on financial obligations (which is what you seem to be advocating) because of what she went through.

This is really here nor there, but from my experience it is NEVER too late to get SOME kind of financial aid. And this is coming from someone who spent ALOT of time in the FAID office while I was in school.

I once needed an emergency loan for some reason or another, and was able to get $1500 in about an hour from the university. So, even though it was summer, the school doesn't close down and I think there must have been some way to get financial aid.

But, like I said- neither here nor there.

I sympathize with her situation. Maybe her chapter COULD have been a little bit more understanding- but it still goes that if you can't pay the dues, you shouldn't be allowed to retain membership. That is what financially inactive is for.

That's deep.

Co-sign. If the former member invited former sisters to come over and pick up the letters, that would be appropriate. But just showing up uninvited seems presumptuous. It's the same reason it wouldn't be OK for the former member to just show up at the house or at the GLO's social events.

I think the lack of empathy was with that chapter. 33Girl doesn't know the situation the way you do, and you are give info in bits and pieces as you see fit to make your case. She was merely talking about the rules and regulations.

In the NPHC, if that were to happen, we would be having fundraisers to help our member out.

reading is fundamental
 

HAHA HA HA HA.

You go to People's College of Law, don't you?

A-M-E-N-D-M-E-N-T

I worked financial aid and there are clear deadlines for federal and alternative loans. Emergency loans are based on institutional deadlines and fund availability. So, at the institutions I worked at, we did have students who completely missed the boat on financial aid and emergency loans.

The sooner the better is a good rule of thumb. Most schools' registration and records drop your registration if you do not pay the cashier's office out of pocket (including payment plan) or are unable to show the cashier's office that you have funds preapproved and on their way from an outside source. If you have yet to apply for federal or alternative loans then you technically don't have money preapproved and on the way. If there are no emergency funds available to loan students, there is nothing that can be done.

Blahzey blah...you're right, neither here nor there.

Or, the person would have a yard sale and visit the pawn shop.

holy major hijack batman.

GL Mods, can we split this thread please?

PM I just received from our buddy GoneGreek..

"I'm surprised you didn't pick on the "anonymouse" quote either. As a moderator, you're a representative of your sorority. Do you really think going around and picking on people for misspellings is mature and respectful? Or are you a bitchy, intellectual snob who thinks that they are superior to others? The quote at the bottom of your posts would have me think so "

I <3 GC.

Either she is very judgemental, or she doesn't get the joke, or both.

I can pick you up in my Cherokee if you want, you are on the way! ;)

;)

$5 to whoever can remember what the original point of this thread was! ;)

Somebody impostering my sorority. I accept PayPal. ;)

man I don't know but 3 pages were added while I was at the store! WOW

you found me out

:eek:

Y'all sure are overprotective of your tee shirts.

I understand that if someone disassociates, she is expected to give up ritual items (pin, etc.) -- but that does not, in my opinion, include lettered shirts. To expect someone to give up clothes that they paid for with their own money just because they aren't a member just strikes me as very odd. I mean, I would prefer that they don't go walking down the street in letters singing, "I'm so happy that I am a Kappa Kappa Gamma" or whatever, but if they're just wearing them around the house or to go running or whatever, what's the problem there? It's a tee shirt, for Christ's sake. The amount of lettered stuff I have probably adds up to a couple hundred dollars, minimum, at this point -- if I disaffiliated and you want that back, you can reimburse me. Otherwise I don't see why you have any right to any of it.

Now clearly in Joanna's (Johanna?) case it's a little different -- she's "just wearing the shirts around the house," but she's also on national television. And if she signed her disassociation papers and they included a clause that she had to return all lettered stuff, it's a moot point. She is legally bound to that. However, not all organizations have similar policies, and for those that don't, I think it's pretty tacky to ask for the letters back (and naturally, I think it's pretty tacky to pretend you're a member of an organization when you're not, but I tend to expect that most people can behave rationally in that situation, you know? And those that can't probably won't be giving the letters back even if you do ask nicely).

I also think people need to understand that there are many, many reasons for disassociation and that 90 percent of them don't involve hating the national organization, but that's another thread.

:)

Dude,

I just got a PM from someone too.

" You are a GOD Bobby. Seriousy, you f'in rule. You know in the movie Team America? ' America...&*%$ yeah' . Well, it should be, Bobby The Don...*&* Yeah!. You seriously rule, you are so funny, damn handsome and can eat food faster than Kobyashi. I wish I was as cool as you. "

I f'in rule man.

It's okay, Bobby -- you can tell them it was from me.

HA!!!

Well, yeah, if you don't want to be protective over your sorority's letters then that's on you and those who brought you into the fold. A $10 tshirt isn't the point. The symbols on the tshirt are the point

Even Earth, Wind, and Fire can tell you about reasons. The point is that if you choose to disassociate you need not wear the 'nalia. You no longer need to own the 'nalia as far as many of us are concerned. Once again, simple concepts.

This thread has pretty much remained on topic as far as I'm concerned.

Doo doo DOOOOO dooo dooo doo doo doo....thanks, I now have that stuck in my head, not that that is a bad thing.

I never said that MY CHAPTER or anyone's chapter on here would act in the manner that GoneGreek described. What it sounded like she was talking about was a huge chapter with a huge house that HAS to fill that house or have people pay if they don't move in, or they'll be very broke very fast. When you have a house that large, you are going to have more of a business aspect than if you have 8 girls living in a little house off campus. That's just a fact.

If this chapter wouldn't even help with a payment plan, that was wrong. But you have to consider also, in some NPC groups, there is no "financially inactive" or "special status" - you are either in the whole way, or you're out. Plenty of people have stated that on here. They may have been constrained by national policies as to what they could do.

As far as the original topic of the thread, well, I can think of two very different circumstances:

1. Johanna left G Phi B under bad terms and is wearing the shirts on air as a big middle finger to her chapter and the org in general.

2. Johanna left G Phi B for something her chapter sisters considered relatively minor, like failure to make grades repeatedly or inability to pay dues or just being too busy, and her chapter sisters still consider her part of the chapter and could care less if she wears letters on the air.

But the bottom line is, she is no longer an official national member of G Phi B and shouldn't be representing herself as such on a national TV show.

There are plenty of members of my organization who misrepresent what our letters stand for and they are still allowed to wear them. IMO, someone who lives our ritual but isn't a member is more welcome to wear a crush party tee shirt than someone who is a member but doesn't live up to what the organization's about. (And personally, at least with my chapter, and I HOPE this is true of my sorority on the national level, the organization is NOT about making those going through rough personal or financial situations feeling worse about themselves by ostracizing them from the chapter and demanding that they give you stuff that they bought with their own money.)

Wearing a shirt doesn't make you a member. As long as you aren't misrepresenting yourself (i.e., someone says "I didn't know you're an ABC!" -- as long as you answer, "I'm not, but I used to be" I'm fine with it) I have no problem with it. Your mileage may vary, of course, but I don't see how you have any right to take another person's belongings even if they acquiesce -- unless, of course, they sign a contract stating that they will follow those guidelines upon termination of membership.

i'm under the impression that this chick is NOT a member. am i wrong? i'm clueless as to why this is even this is a debate.

"permission to gain enlightenment!!!"

Most people seem to agree that 1) she's not a member, 2) wearing the letters seems tacky, and 3) the GLO's nationals aren't happy about it.
One of the questions that emerged was whether nationals could actually do anything about non-members wearing their letters, given that anyone can buy letters/nalia.

aren't letters copyrighted, thus their improper use is illegal?

Granted. And perhaps the enlightenment could be shared with the rest of us who are also in the dark.

A GLO's letters might be protected as a trademark or something else. However, these laws usually govern people who are selling merchandise with a logo. For example, selling fake Oakley sunglasses is illegal. The problem in this case is that anyone can legally buy merchandise with Greek letters - there's no effort to restrict that. So the debate was about whether the GLOs had any control over whether nonmembers wore their letters. This is a little different than companies trying to protect their IP. Going back to the Oakley example, the company's not going after the consumers who wear the fakes - they're interested in people who are selling them.

Don't you pay for the ritual items with your own money?

Gamma Phi Beta IHQ is taking action on this.

what are y'alls options?