ATTN AZD! Someone is copying us!
 

hey out there, a friend of mine happened upon this site, its from Michigan Technological University....i was appaled!!!!!
http://www.sos.mtu.edu/alphaxis/AXZsororityfacts.html

you might want to send the information to headquarters. However, since they don't use the full name (having changed one letter) I bet there's not a lot that can be done.

I have seen that before, and I was VERY, uh, let's just say not happily surprised when I saw it!

Their similarities:
Name: Alpha Xi Zeta
Nickname: Fuzzies
Colors: Rose and blue (ok, rose isn't our color, but we have the pink rose so it gets used a lot)
Flower: Pink rose
Mascot: Al Fuzzie the teddy bear (keep in mind he was our first mascot, created JUST FOR US by the Hensons!)

Maybe they were founded as a local with the intent to affiliate? But that was years ago. (My dad used to work at MTU and it looks like they were founded after we moved out of town, but still it was 17 years ago!) I find it hard to believe they accidentally picked things so close to ours. AXD has a lot of chapters in Michigan.

Board Crash Alert
 

Hi AZD's

Sorry to crash your board, but I wanted to tell you that you should definitely go ahead and notify your HQ. Even if you can't get them on the letters, they may have Al Fuzzie copyrighted and can then force the other group to change their mascot.

That sort of did give me an uneasy feeling.

One of my best girlfriends is an AZD, from IU...she had a great time! :)

I emailed HeadQuarters about it, just to give them a heads up if they didn't already know about it.

I wonder what happened to make them want to copy us? It's not like a mascot named "Al Fuzzie" is common or the letter X is used in a bunch of organizations names. Who know though?

We're just that cool! :cool:

lol :)

Hey, why wouldn't they want to copy us, we rock!!! :D ;) :cool:

NO WAY!
 

I was completly schocked when i saw this i am a Xi from the delta delta chapter at NMU we are about an hour away from Tech, i have even been up there for socials and had NO idea thiswas going on... they HAD to know about us we have been on NMU's campus for 40yrs! i hope this gets fixed and fast!

i emailed nationals about it. they haven't responded to me, but they may be out bc of the holiday. i think if all of us bombard them with emails then they will respond to someone.

They probably just recovered from TLC when the 4th of July rolled around ... I haven't always gotten a quick response in the past but they do respond - eventually.

Oh My God This Makes Me So Mad!!! This is what I got a REAL kick out of......."Our founding members picked many symbols and phrases to represent our sorority and distinguish it from others."

HA! Oh man that pisses me off. Either they are completely not in touch with reality or they did this on purpose. I just can't believe it. I'm still in shock. It didn't piss me off so bad until I read that quote. That's what did it for me. Hopefully Nationals will respond to those emails and do something!

I e-mailed this site to my president and she forwarded it to our chapter advisor. She said that sometimes people will create organizations similar to sororities as an attempt to get recognition from nationals. As in they want to become A Xi D. Huh? That is so not the way to go about it.

Pardon me for crashing your board...
 

I hope you guys get this situation fixed soon. It is totally immoral that a group would take items that have been part of your sorority's history and traditions for probably a hundred years (I don't know when AZD was founded, sorry) and use them. Best luck to all of you Alpha Xi Deltas out there as you get this straightened out.

Nicole

Pardon me for crashing again...

I just wanted to say that I really am not that stupid, that I guess I was just incredibly tired when I wrote my last post... I realize that Jim Henson did not create the your mascot "almost a hundred years ago" (duh, stupid me :rolleyes: , don't I look like a total idiot). I guess my point is that it is unethical of another group to take your time-honored and treasured mascot/symbol and use it for their gain/purposes.

Please forgive this poor, tired girl :p .

Nicole

Hee hee, that's totally OK! Don't worry about it!

Let's join 'em
 

If they want to be like AZD, let's send a national officer up there and affiliate them.

i would just like to get their story as to why they want to be us.

hey..apparently there is some chica on gc who's screen name is "alpha xi" but she is part of a local called alpha xi omicron.... i don't know anything about their org. but yet again, it sounds like someone is copying us.

Maybe ... I mean, there are so many Greek letters to go around. There are nationals that have similar names (ASA and AST, AGD and AXD, AOP and ADP), so unless the similarities go farther than that, I wouldn't worry too much.

I just wanted to mention that at Carleton University (in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), there was a local called "Gamma Omicron Pi". They fully intended to affiliate with Alpha Omicron Pi, and they are now, indeed, an installed Alpha Omicron Pi chapter.
I think the Gamma Omicron Pi's may have chosen a very similar name so that when they affiliated, the name change wouldn't be too drastic or anything.

I guess you can think of it as imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. These girls must think very highly of Alpha Xi Delta, or they wouldn't try so hard to emulate AXi D on their local webpage.

i still haven't heard anything from headquarters. maybe i will send another email about it after the school year settles in.

I think it wouldn't have been so bad in the name...Alpha Xi Zeta is still pretty close...but the fact they're ripping off your mascots and colors and symbols...that's a little wacked!
Keep us posted....

Hootie

Did anyone ever find out what the story was on this group?

nope. i never heard anything from nationals about it.

Forgive my Intrusion
 

I looked at the Alpha Xi Zeta site and notice a major discrepancy besides ripping off your mascot and symbols. They say their are local, but the have a national philanthropy as well as a local one. My question is, and please don't get offended, are they trying to affiliate with AZD? If not, notify HQ and and contact the organization in question. If they want to be affiliated with Alpha Xi Delta, this is not the way to go! They should have learned the appropriate way to go about it!
:confused: http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/rolleyes.gif http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmili.../confused4.gif

I would be surprised if they are trying to affiliate, since they make such a big deal about their uniqueness.

FHQ does know about the group. I don't know what they think about it, or if they intend to do anything, but they have been informed. At this point, it is in their hands.

Re: Forgive my Intrusion
 

I think what they are saying is that the local phil is just in that area and the American Cancer Society is in, well, all of America. But combined with everything else, the way they say it does look somewhat shady.

question
 

i'm assuming that your mascot and colors and letters have special meaning to alpha xi deltas... when this group "borrowed" your things, do you think they know the true meanings behind them? Do you think they are using the same meanings? This is weird to me... (theres also a group called Pi Phi.. not Pi Beta Phi .. that is a local... yuck)

ok good story about the AXZ's
 

I am a axd at northern mich and we are about 2 hours from mtu. so one weekend me and some friends went up there to watch a hockey game between our schools and like the good person that i am instead of wareing a nmu shirt for our team i wore one of my AXD shirts. so i was walking around during half time and i notice that some people where giving me dirty looks. so after dealing with that some of these girls came up to me and started asking me why i was wareing there letters and that i wasnt in there there sorority so i cant be going around wearing there letters. so i told them about us and that i was visiting from another school. so after a few more dirty and a lot of explaining they got off my case about wareing there "letters". heres the good part they where so consernd about the letter in the middle that they dint even seem to notice that Z looks nothing like D......HAHAHAHA......:D

Ugh, I just looked at their website...they still claim "Al Fuzzie" as their mascot. Haha, they must want our reject mascot! Losers. Oh well, Alpha Xi Delta is so much better then Alpha Xi Zeta! Go the REAL Alpha Xi's!!!!

Greetings from an ALPHA XI ZETA
 

Hey ladies, I've enjoyed your concerns with the naming of our sorority. Our chapter, Alpha, was began back in 1985 and during that time, they were in hopes of becoming a chapter of Alpha Xi Delta. I have no clue how joining a national goes, plus I cannot speak for the women who began our fine chapter. Since we did not become affliated with you, everything stayed the same, of course because it made it easy. In no way do we mean disrespect by keeping the mascot and what not the same, but it's what we were founded on locally. Besides, I guarantee that we have many differences. Focusing on this is insane, for the nickname, mascot and what not are merely for show for the public. Behind closed doors of our house and our rituals are what actually matters to our sisters, and we are proud to be local as Alpha Xi Zeta.


Thanks, have a fuzzie week.


"...And that's what we go by."

Kathryn

But isn't that mascot copyrighted by AXiD?

The problem is the mascot isn't just "the teddy bear" or whatever - it's a named mascot that was created especially for Alpha Xi Delta by one of their sisters and her husband. You could MAYBE squeak by with the rest, but using this as your mascot is just inexcusable.

??????????????
 

.........if he's so important...why was he rejected?

Wow, what is this? The "I know you are but what am I" game?

The point is, your founders didnt have enough respect for themselves to come up with their own ideas. Even if they did at one point, want to go national with Alpha Xi Delta, copying is NOT the way to do so. I wonder what YOUR secret meanings behind OUR stuff is...HAH.

Did you forget the tiny bit of info that your organization is violating copyright laws? Trust me, you dont want to screw with us when it comes to copyright laws. I speak from personal experience (aka facebook violations).

Why is it that you only have two posts? is your purpose of coming on GC to piss a bunch of people off? After all, this thread was old...did you go searching for it so you could get under people's skin? Why not have a look around in the local forum or greek life forum and get ideas or contribute, rather than harrassing us?...

Good on ya....

Let's spin this a more positive way....your interest group/local sorority was founded with an interest to join Alpha Xi Delta. Actually, I think that is quite flattering. It's rather common for locals with that intention to have similar/same colors and symbols as the national they want to affiliate with (example....Beta Sigma Chi at SPSU, which tried for 8 years to become Sigma Chi before they gave up and affilitated with another national fraternity last year).

I realize there are the NPC expansion guidelines and such, but has your local continued the desire to affilitate with Alpha Xi Delta, or any other NPC group since your founding or are you content with being local? I'm not familiar with your campus, IF your chapter wanted to affilitate, would your campus be agreeable? How do you interact with the NPC's.

I do find it somewhat disheartening that members of a local group wouldn't be aware that other groups might have similar letters...especially one they were founded to affiliate with. But then again, many students live in the bubble of their campus, so it really doesn't surprise me.