That was moi, and moi's niece, lol.

Will pm you her FB name.

It's only a few weeks until I get to see my sisters again! I'm so excited! :D

I was looking through some pictures from my collegiate SAI days. As I looked at the pictures, I realize that some of my sisters did not understand badge attire.

What happened? :p

I was working on a recruitment page for my SAI book (which, btw, only has 2 pages left). Anyway, I have pictures from a night where we were obviously supposed to be in badge attire. A sister (god bless her) was wearing her badge with jeans. Oy!

We sometimes do that, but only if we're wearing nice tops. It's not preferred, though.

^^^At my collegiate chapter, badge attire=nice blouse, nice pants/skirt/dress, and some sort of heel. With the exception of participating in ritual ceremonies, we did not wear any kind of casual shoe with our badge.

Oh, we never wear casual shoes either. We only do relaxed pin when we're doing our alumnae breakfast or 2 other things I can't remember right now. That means nice top, nice jeans (must be in good repair and no pre-made holes), and dress shoes. But as I said, most of the time, we wear regular pin.

It only took me two years after graduating, but I HAVE FINISHED MY SAI COLLEGIATE SCRAPBOOK. I'm debating if I should start an alumnae one.....

We had a wonderful start to our school year here! Two alumni came back and had frozen yogurt with some of us. We got to hear what their first summer after college was like (And how everyone must go to Disney with their friends after graduation). One is now a high school band director and the other is in law school. It is wonderful getting to see everyone since it feels like we only just met before they had to leave. And it was just a wonderful way to start out the upcoming week.

Our first chapter meeting is tomorrow night, and I'm so excited. I'm co-FRED chair again, and I can't wait to work with my co-chair on FRED stuff. Also, our rush shirts are almost done!

That sounds like so much fun! I mean, the history part of me comes out when I think about learning about anything that has a history. And that person is jumping!

And I'm excited about rush! We may actually have a fall rush this year (we normally did but they were thinking about not having it since last year there were only two women...)! 9 women are interested apparently!

Oh, and I want to be a little braggadocios for the wonderful women that were in my chapter last year (since I only got initiated at the end of April). Our province officer showed up to a meeting of the entire music department to present the Collegiate Chapter of the Year Award! There was much screaming, and interest in SAI has skyrocketed in only a few hours. This little school of 2600... we are gonna keep chugging along!

Our rush starts soon, too! We've got a lot fun stuff planned, like an ice cream social, and an open choir.

Some of my sisters and I got to sing with some Phi Mu Alpha men and other people at a wedding yesterday, and the wedding was lovely! :)

I hope all collegiate SAIs on the board, let us know how recruitment turns out!!! I love hearing about new rosebuds!

Will do! It may be a while, because rush is a couple of weeks long. But I'll try and remember to post here.

I'll let you know the instant we decide whether or not to have one. We originally weren't going to do one in the fall for the first time in years. The rush committee had a meeting last week, but we have not heard anything. I'm hoping for yes! One girl in my suite (the only one that isn't a member) wanted to join last year but missed one rush event trying to make sure she could make the financial obligation.

Our rush is almost over, and the numbers are looking really good for fall! I can't give actual numbers because bids haven't been given out or turned in (those fall on this coming Monday and the Friday after that), but I'm really excited! All of the girls who have come to events are wonderful to talk to and really want to be worthy of SAI (which they all are :) ).

We're giving out bids tomorrow! I'm so excited I could squeal if it weren't past quiet hours. Our potential pledge class this year is huge!

I'm going to be a grandbig! I don't know who the girl is yet, but I love them all so much, so I'll be excited no matter who it is.

Okay, I know I keep bumping this, but this time I have REAL news....

We gave bids out to 6 wonderful, beautiful ladies. I hope they all accept their bids!

Yay! Congrats! I'm so happy for your chapter and our wonderful sisterhood!

Roses to our newest buds!

I'm really excited, because this class is like 2-3 times our normal fall pledge class size. Once some seniors graduate in December, we'll have 32 people!

The semester before I pledged, my big was the only person in the fall pledge class. Then, in 2008, we had a fall pledge class of 10.

CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN! 32 is pretty large for an SAI chapter. Yay for a thriving chapter!

I miss my collegiate days. What Province is your chapter in?

We're in Beta B.

Yay for induction tonight! I think our PO will be there, too, so it'll be extra meaningful to the new girls.

Congratulations on the nice class and on having a nicely sized chapter!

We decided to only have spring rush, so we are going to have a few informal rush-ish events this semester such as cupcake making and prefinals hangouts! This was decided because everyone wants to get to know my class (12) better before there are even more new members.

That makes sense. One thing that helps sisters in my chapter get to know each other better is having lunch groups. Our Sisterhood/Archives chairs put together groups of 4-6 girls that are supposed to hang out (they're just called lunch groups because that's what's most often done) within 2-3 weeks of the groups being put together. The most senior sister in each group is the one who organizes the group's hangout time.

We had our alumnae homecoming breakfast today, and I got to see our regional officer and some other alumnae. Then I had lunch with some sisters, which was relaxing and fun.

I will pass on this idea! I actually am on the social committee. With three chairs and me, I get left out a lot, so that would give me something to do! Still trying to figure out the three chairs thing myself...

Glad to hear everything is going so wonderfully!



I have a really random question now. Does anyone have another piece of jewelry they tend to always wear when they wear their badge? My grandma designed a garnet and gold necklace for me a year ago (my birthstone is the wonderfully red garnet) prior to me even rushing. I tend to wear it with the badge since it reminds me of her (she lives across the country, so I don't see her often), the gold tone is such a close match to the pin, and red is one of the colors. Anyone else have something like this? Random things like this make me smile.

I like to wear my sword of honor and officer dangles with my badge. ;)

When I was in college, I ALWAYS wore my SAI badge any time I wore my Phi Sig badge because I firmly believe that I would not have joined Phi Sig if I hadn't first been SAI. If I was just wearing the SAI badge, I didn't wear the Phi Sig one....but always the SAI if I was also wearing Phi Sig.

Does that make sense?

I always wear my pearls when I wear my badge, single strand, almost a choker but not quite that my parents got me when they were in San Fran.

On another note... I'm going through colony recruitment at my school for a NPC. We find out if we're invited to preference tomorrow, about two hours before the event. So nervous!

GOOD LUCK!!!

I'm also in an NPC and it has been a wonderful experience as well! It can really enhance your time in SAI!

I always wear (unless the rules say I can't) wear the ring my dad gave me when the family went to Williamsburg, VA, and this necklace that has a coin with a cross on the front and "Rom 5:8" on the back that my mom gave me to remind me that I am always loved. When I wear all three of these pieces, I just feel all the love from both of my families, my biological one and my SAI sisters.

ETA: I could be in bed right now, since I'm on Fall Break. But nope! I'm sewing 7 sets of letters this weekend in between homework. Probably going to sleep in the next hour or so though.

Good luck to SAIchica! That necklace sounds like it fits perfectly with the badge as well.

To AlwaysSAI, that makes perfect sense. One organization can lead to the other at times. And that is cool!

To Clarinette, I love the associations of the jewelry! I love the idea of your entire family being around you. Now I feel like I need to find something to represent the wonderful trumpet families I have been a member of. And why be in bed doing the whole sleeping thing? Mine also began Wednesday, but I am sitting around researching for a paper.

Thank you for answering my extremely random question. It just hit me yesterday when my necklace went missing and I kept trying to remember when my last pin day so I could retrace my steps. I did find it before posting.

The sleep was because my eyes were getting really tired. I don't know if you've sewn letters or done anything that's really hands-on and minute like that for a long time, but I thought my eyes were about to fall out of my head.

Yay SAI! I joined SAI my freshman year and didn't join Kappa by COBs until fall of my junior year. But I love both of them dearly!

Another dual membership! Yay!

I'm also an Alpha Gam who also joined SAI first. :)

I'm also a member of Phi Sigma Pi. So, really, I'm a triple membership. :)

I have never been so upset about losing one of my possessions as I was when I thought my pin was gone for good this weekend. Thanks to a really great person, however, it got turned in to the student union, and I got it back! :)

^^^My junior year, I left a Phi Sig chapter meeting in the student union and was headed to an SAI chapter meeting in the music building. I got about half way there and realized my SAI badge was no longer on my shirt. I freaked out, turned around and stared only at the ground while I retraced my steps. My badge was in the gravel by the rawk (a place where student groups advertise). It was undamaged, save the broken clasp that made it fall off in the first place.

I felt especially lucky that it didn't get stepped on, further damaged, or snatched because there was also a probate for a fraternity going on the exact location it fell off.

Yeah, the straight pin got bent (I think it might have been stepped on), but one of my sisters fixed it.

It's been an exciting homecoming week here. The Lambda Pi chapter of SAI got 3rd place in our division for homecoming. :) Also, yesterday, the Sigma Delta Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha was installed at FAU, now with 3 groups, we can do more activities together!