Respect for your Badge
 

I think she's mistaken or she's referring to a lavalier or the pledge pin.

All GLO's should adopt more detailed restrictions on exactly what you can wear badges with, IMO. The old "something you'd wear to a religious service" no longer works, since a lot of people wear VERY casual clothes to religious services these days.

Our General Regulations state that the badge "is not intended for overt display, but rather is to be worn 'nearest the heart,'" that it "is worn on dress shirts, vests, or pullover sweaters," and "should not be worn on coat lapels, collars, ties, the watch pockets of vests, coat sweaters, or T-shirts."

There are at least two previous threads on this:

Badge Rules?

and

Question for Fraternity Members.

Re: Respect for your Badge
 

Same with DZ.

Our rule is: Above the heart, always on a dress or blouse, but never on an outer garment. This goes for new member pins as well as badges. So you can't wear your pin on a t-shirt or sweatshirt.

I don't think it's specified anywhere what sort of pants/skirt/etc. you should be wearing, but it's implied that it would be in keeping with your top. You'd look pretty silly in a nice silk blouse and sweatpants :p so the implicit rule is no jeans, cutoffs, sweats, etc. A nice pair of pants or skirt would be best.

I don't believe we consider a suit jacket or blazer as an "outer garment". I've worn my badge on the lapel of a blazer and no one's said anything to me. If you pinned it to your blouse, no one would see it under your jacket - and unlike some other GLOs, we don't have a separate recognition pin that we could wear instead.

The member of that chapter must be misinformed about what is appropriate pin attire. Working with various ADPi chapters over the past few years, I am amazed at what different chapters of the same sorority will construe as "dressed to pin."

Our 'badge attire' is businesswear, though that kinda extends to business casual also. No jeans, tennis shoes, etc. No hoochie wear.

Always closest to your heart. I was told that if you are not going to take your (suit) jacket off, you can wear it on your jacket, but not on the lapel. If you might take the jacket off, you should wear it on the layer under the jacket. Otherwise when you removed your jacket, you'd be taking your badge off.

Same goes for both the pledge pin and the badge. Ribbons you can wear with anything except the obvious no-no's or working out, at work etc.

Re: Respect for your Badge
 

That's how Delta Gamma is as well.

I don't recall having anything that was specified, but the only time I saw anyone (including myself) wear our cofa badges (since no one had the pearled pins for TBs) was during formal rituals, so I think it was an understood thing that they were for dressy events. I don't recall ever seeing any badges worn with casual clothes as an undergrad. Pledge pins, yes (obviously, since they were to be worn at all times).

We did, however, have more casual pins that anyone could wear anytime that were letter bars and such-- I usually saw those worn on on band uniforms during performances (which were very appropriate for TBS), and occasionally with polo shirts. I don't ever remember anyone wearing them on t-shirts and the like.

I've seen the rules for wearing our pin change numerous times, with the two constants being always over your heart, and nothing being worn above the pin.

One International Officer once showed us the precise location: put your right thumb on the center of collarbone, and put your pinkie straight down - the pin goes between your middle & ring finger. We all did it, and my pin was smack on the center of you-know-where! I told her that I would feel more comfortable with it higher, and she agreed that "it would be more appropriate, dear."!

For a little while, wearing our pin on the lapel of a buttoned blazer was okay, but I don't think so now. My favorite photo of a ChiO friend shows her wearing her pin with jeans (and a beer in her hand!), but she really does look cute in it. I've also noticed that older alumnae seem to get away with more creative ways of wearing the pin than collegiates!

Needless to say, the rule is now "church or business attire" while wearing the diamond, as most sororities.

Re: Respect for your Badge
 

There are no national rules I'm aware of governing the wearing of badges. However, my chapter is VERY specific (I wrote the rules) as to what attire is appropriate. However, I did not specify where the badge should be worn.

That only applies to actives though technically.

Dressy sundresses are fine with us. We can wear our badge as long as we look nice- it doesn't have to be a business-suit type outfit. But we have said NO denim with our badge, and no t-shirt/shorts with the badge. Basically most nice outfits are badge appropriate for us.

And when I'm saying "us", I'm talking about my chapter.

these are the rules for the iota gamma chapter of phi sigma sigma:

to be worn with only business attire - classy skirt with nylons or dress pants with dress socks, closed toed shoes, and a blose or top that has more than capped sleeves.

placement of badge - over the heart (we do the same thing that honeychile does) and "upper-most/lower-most" which means that you wear your badge as close to your heart, even if it means that a jacket is covering it. you never put your badge on your jacket! also, no other pin goes above our badge... we even place our chapter guard lower, looks kinda funny, but it's the respectful way to wear it.

i know that other phi sig chapters don't have the same rules we do; we're a little firm with our dress code.

oh and our new member pins can be worn with any outfit, as long as it's over your heart... and you're not doing un-phi sig like things.

That is the same for our chapter! I've never heard that we can't wear them with sundresses. But I have to agree with the fact that they have to look NICE.

My chapter tried to enforce rules very similar to this but not everyone agreed so sometimes there were outfits that some of us (the older girls) didn't agree with. Basically though the badge is worn over the heart with nice clothing.


OMG to honeychile's Chi O friend. :eek:

I really debated on whether or not to talk about her - but she really, really looks cute in the photo - and the picture ended up in the yearbook! Of course, she'd look great in a potato sack, though...

She could be repeating what she was taught and she may not have been taught correctly.

When we surveyed our membership on what they remembered about what they had been taught about their badge, I was shocked at the number of people (even actives) who remembered nothing.

We serious lack in education when it comes to our badge......

If she's a Gamma Phi, direct her my way. I am MORE than happy to set her straight.:D

We do the similar location in about the same manner except we just spread the fingers out and the badge goes right where the pinky ends up (same location since I just did the other way).

This method is even worse if you have dangles!

The biggest no-no's we have are no khaki, no denim. We do a fashion show every year for our new members showing Quill attire. Just because it's not khaki or denim doesn't mean you can wear your Quill with it. We also don't wear anything above it.

We find wear to place it by putting the thumb of our right hand in the hollow between collarbones. The tip of the Quill goes between your middle and ring fingers and is slightly lower than the rest of the badge.

We got showed the collarbone trick to...except it goes inbetween the ring and pinkie finger because ::clears throat for best Yankee impersanation of a Southern Drawl "Thats where the thrid delta is, darlin' "

Wow, Kappa's rules seem really relaxed compared to these! As far as I know, there are few national rules about wearing the badge. The major one being that it must be worn by initated members only. I know for certain that the Kappa badge need not be worn over the heart. While we have an official recognition pin, it's acceptable to wear your Kappa badge on your collar or lapel of a suit.

LXA, slacks, no patch pockets, with colared shirts. Worn over the Heart. If a Guard is attatched, it goes below and to the left of the Badge.

Dangles if any are on the Chain between both. HaHA if you have been a biggie, it does look cumbersom but impressive.

If one is not proud enough to respect Their Badge then why wear it. That is not showing respect.

Respect is something earned by you as an individual for what you accomplished.:) :cool:

For groups that can't wear your badge with anything but job-interview wear, does that mean you don't wear your badges to pref? Or that your pref dresses are extremely conservative? I have always enjoyed the web page pictures with ladies looking gorgeous in black cocktail dresses with their beautiful pins.

My chapter's rules are some of the strictest on campus. No denim, no khaki, no short skirts, no tube tops or spaghetti straps, no flip-flops. Same for new member pin.

For pref, our black dresses must have 1" thick straps and come to our knees. It looks really classy and is still pin attire.

We also do a fashion show for new members showing them what is proper pin attire. It always ends up being really funny, and the new members can actually see that, while an outfit may look nice (like khakis and a sweater), it's not pin attire.

No khaki??? Hey Shelia, can you see ASA banning khaki for pin attire...I think my chapter would have NEVER worn pins then.

We were allowed to wear our Quills with khakis. Denim was a no-no, but I think people got away with wearing denim skirts occasionally. Flip-flops weren't allowed, which always annoyed me.

For the chapter not allowed to wear their badges with sundresses, what do yall wear on bid day? I've seen several universities where the all the actives wore sundresses with their badges for bid day.

In the chapter I'm advising, their bylaws state their appropriate pin attire clothing:

* No spaghetti strap shirts, jeans, or denim jackets
* You may wear boots as long as they are in good taste or are covered by your pants
* No flip flops or athletic type footwear
* Pin attire is what you would wear to a job interview: nice slacks, capri's, sweater sets, blouses, skirts below knee length. If your skirt is above the knee you must wear pantyhose.

I'm glad this topic came up, so I would be prepared with what to wear for chapter meeting on Monday (I'm the advisor scheduled to be there!)

PS I was also taught the pin goes between the ring and pinky fingers when the thumb is resting in the hollow of your collarbone (is that the right terminology?)

My chapter didn't allow it - no khakis, no cords, nothing considered "sportswear." I wore mine with a corduroy mini and got quite the tongue-lashing. That meant we hardly ever wore pins, but we were in letters and our letter jackets all the time, so we definitely were showing we were proud to be sisters.

I guess my chapter was just more casual then most.

Or maybe it was just our Parlimentarian when I pledged who showed up to initiation in a white dress that A) she wore pants under until the ceramony and we all thought it was a shirt and she was going to change... B) Was almost compleatly see through espcially where her undergarmets were and C) showed every flaw of her body (this is the nice way to put it).

I tried to break people of this when I was parlimentarian the next semester, but I got Isht when I told the VP of Programming (who was also my Big Sis, so I was a double monster for that) she needed to change and couldn't wear jeans to the Founder's Ceramony (If it was just chapter, I probably wouldn't have said anything)

Guess if you respect your GLO, Your Sisters/Brothers and Yourself, then good sense should dictate how Your Badge is worn.

Esteem for all of the above might just be the key on how and when to wear your Badge.

We can wear our badges to Pref provided the dress is tasteful & has been prior approved by our EC and our alumna group that help out.

I understand where this thread came from . . . Once, while I was at work (at a Wal-Mart-esque store), a group of sorority girls came in. They were wearing letter shirts (sorry, can't remember what it was anymore) and jeans and they had pins on too - They were shaped like a lion? I didn't ask about it since it was busy but I also wondered about other GLO's pin dress rules. Maybe someone can tell me what group it was? And their rules?

We usually wear them to meetings. Our definitiion of "badge" differs from other GLOs. We call ours "pins" and we wear them on "badges" (ribbons where all of our pins belong).

Our current degree goes first, above everything else. Since I'm a pledge, my pin is the only one I have. It goes over my heart, like many GLO pins. When I get my Ritual of Jewels degree, that will go above my pledge pin.

Hrm. If it looked like a lion's head with letters that looked like BYA, then it may have been an Alpha Delta Pi new member class. Our new member pin looks like that.

There are different rules for new member pins-- for fraternities and sororities most new members or pledges wear their pins with just about anything during the day or night except for workout wear and sleepwear. The initiation or full membership pin, on the other hand, is usually worn with business attire (or darned close!) by members of the respective organization.

We can only wear our new member pin with "pin attire".

Ditto for AXD.

This is correct as far as what's stated in our Fraternity bylaws. However, there are the unspoken, traditional rules of proper dress, etc... that most members adhere to. Many chapters do put in their chapter bylaws what is necessary for proper badge attire.

I suppose sundresses would have been alright as long as they weren't uber-strappy/strapless. People have worn Quills with spaghetti-strapped or strapless ones, which irks me. We only wear our badges for Pref though, with sleeved black dresses. We have a section of our bylaws that lays out what is and what isn't proper attire.