$$$ for little/pledge daughter gifts?
 

I was just curious if part of a NM's dues goes toward gifts during big/little pledgemom/baby week in your chapter. I've heard things about $50 from each NM going toward their "gifts" during this week, while at other schools it's all out of pocket from their bigs/pledge moms.

Just curious what policy you have for your chapter :)

(If this is touching upon something too secretive I'll delete this thread or ask that a moderator do so please)

Jen


ETA: how much on average do people spend at your school total? Lots and lots of outrageous gifts or just a few tiny things?

It was out of pocket for me.

It's out of pocket for our chapter. I don't know the average amount spent per little, but I know I spent a BUNCH on my little ;)

Our NM dues are only $35, so all the Big/Lil gifts are out of pocket. I think it really varies among the Bigs how much we spend on our littles. I know that last semester, I spent more than other Bigs did and a lot more than what I originally intended to for that matter. ;)

Hehe, I think my chapter has it all out of pocket too. I was thinking about possibly taking twins, but I think that could get really expensive. Maybe I'll just take one and spoil her ridiculously :o

You could take twins in different semesters, my Big has another little and she pledged a year after me. Or if you want, you can start acquiring gifts to give them now. I know that I was so excited to get a little, that the summer after I was initiated I already started buying small things that I saw and thought would be cute. If you're really crafty, you could also buy a lot of things and decorate them with Pi Phi stuff, some things can actually be kinda cheap. Good luck!

My sorority has it out of pocket too. Usually, everyone spends different amounts, but this semester, I think we're gonna try imposing a max. That's probably a good thing, since I'm taking on two more lils this semester.

Out of Pocket for my house. However, we get a lot of stuff handed down to us. I have a cute little cat and block letters sitting on my desk that have been in my "family" for 5 generations. We're supposed to try to pass on some stuff, but there are certain items that are strict tradition that every girl recieves.

we were out of pocket. I have 3 littles (different semesters) can we say B-R-O-K-E?

It used to be out of pocket but is now budgeted in the NM Educator budget so Key sis' should not have to pay anything themselves. But it's easy to do that when you have 90+ women paying (the money for the budget comes from the active members, not the new members)

It was always out of pocket for us. Most stuff like this always ends up being that way. But I agree with the posters who said about making things for the littles. I had a huge box of puffy paint and that kind of stuff under my bed when I was in college. And the stuff my big made me, I still have around my apartment. My letter shirts have since "yellowed" and most of them I ended up throwing out. Even my jacket got something yucky on it and I just ended up tossing it a couple years ago. If you buy these things for your little (or multiple littles) you can end up going into debt, especially on a college student salary.

Unfortunately my school only has rush in the spring, so this spring is really my only chance to take a pledge daughter(s) as I'm a junior who rushed last year.

Taking a daughter the spring semester of senior year is very rare since you'd be graduating in a few months and leave them "orphaned."

I found a greek store with a lot of stuff on clearance, so I started stocking up. 2 gorgeous glass block container thingies w/ Pi Phi and an arrow on them ($2 each, down from $18.99), a Pi Phi pillow case ($1, down from $10.99), a Pi Phi painted ceramic mug ($2, down from $16.99), and 3 sets of small iron-on stitched letters (3 letters for $1). Yay I love bargains! I was thinking about buying out their stock and selling it on eBay but I ended up just buying PiPhi stuff --- probably should have gotten other stuff too though :rolleyes:

I am very artistic and look forward to making lots of stuff for my baby too. I wish we had fall rush! lol still, as I've never taken a daughter before I have no idea how much this will cost me -- although I do have a lot of stuff from my own pledge mom that I can "regift" :o

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what kind of stuff do people do during big/little (pledge mom/baby) week at your school?

I took 2 littles while I was inschool and I have grand lils and great grans while I was still there, so I spent lots of money. I regifted lots of stuff I had been passed from my big, and from senior pass downs every year. each big event where they got lots of stuff, i would try to mix the old regifted letters and stuff with some brand new stuff. I think making the paddle was the most expensive single gift I gave them. Also, screen prints from past semesters make great gifts for meetings and stuff. Also cookies candy and that stuff. Michael's was my best friend, I made lots of stuff thats still floating around sorority. Chack Ebay too, they have good stuff sometimes.

Imposing a max is a great thing. We have a gift each week of pledging, and the big sisters can only spend $5 or less. The max on the I-night present is around $20. That way, during pledging, so one gets ridiculously spoiled and no one gets shafted, either. :) After initiation, you can spoil your lil as much as you want. :D

And ours is out of pocket, as well.

We pay out of pocket and the VP Social makes "reccomendations" of things to get them so that no new member gets more stuff or less stuff than others on big sis pick up. We are famed around campus for spoiling our new members and our little sisters! I picked up my little last spring and probably spent about $150 on big sis pick up night and $100 on initiation gifts, including active test gifts (gift baskets we give them the night they take their national active exam). Most of the money is spent on embroidering: I had a zip-up big sis hoodie (everyone does), a bath towel, a fleece blanket, a letter t-shirt, and a letter sweatshirt embroidered for her, among all her other gifts. We also "make" a lot of our gifts: puffy painting a candy jar, painting a cute trash can, painting letters on a picture frame, etc.

However, I was just discussing this with my roommate earlier, actually. One of her good friends is a Kappa here, and part of their new member dues go to the big sisters who are picking up.

I'm so excited !!!! I know exactly what i'm giving my little (if I get one). I definitely have to giv her my hawaiian shirt and leigh, and even though it isn't our tradition, I'm going to give her a paddle. My brother's fraternity the littles give bigs paddles and bigs give littles paddles when they activate. I just think it would be cool. And I loved the paddle I did for my active. It was super cute and I can't wait to do another one! My mom is allready planning letters for my brother's little and mine. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhh! Recruitment needs to start allready

Ours is all out of pocket. Our chapter tries to set limits at $125 or so, but some people go crazy. I've heard of some girls spending about $600, which I think is crazy. Because of that, we have our ceremony, then we take our littles back to our places to give them their baskets. It kinda takes the fun out of seeing what everyone got, and it makes some girls feel badly because they can't afford gifts that are expensive. I wish some people would listen to the limits.

I think I spent around $125-150 on each of my littles. I definitely couldn't afford it at the time, but I just saw some cute stuff. I made a lot of things.

ETA: Christmas is a fabulous time to get AXO stuff. Everything is scarlet and olive, and there are tons of angels and lyres out there.

My pledge fam has a bunch of traditions... on the first night someone brings you a cookie cake and milk and has you fill out a card guessing who you think your pledge mom is... then they give it back to you on the last night (i forgot whether it was right before or right after revealing)

we also have "family letters" which are given on initiation day (my family letters are a grey sweatshirt w/ medium wine letters w/ silver blue backing -- we all have the exact same ones from the exact same place)

i'm going to start a new tradition of giving my pledge baby a betta fish (a pi betta phish hehe) on day 1, since that's what i got from my pledge mom. (my fish was wine and blue too.. hehe)

my suitemate's family tradition is to pass down this white bear that has a bib embriodered with "pi baby phi" -- its really cute

i cant wait for rush... too bad its not till january :rolleyes:

I've honestly NEVER heard of a chapter that doesn't buy big/lil items out of pocket.

I have a Kappa Phi little from Spring 2003. Our littles get gifts almost every week throughout their about 6-8 week pledge period. They usually aren't anything elaborate. We try not to go too crazy b/c you don't want some littles getting spoiled, and some getting shafted. When I was a big, there was a $20 max imposed.


They get candy, little stationery sets, inspirational books or cards, etc. Since we don't have items in the stores like the sororities do, we sometimes get creative and make things like quilts and notebooks. After her activation ceremony, the big gives her little a paddle and maybe one more gift (a set of letters, stuffed animal).

In Tri Sigma, bigs and littles are a big deal. We spoil them, but we don't go too crazy because alot of us have other financial commitments like tuition and dues. It depends , one of my sisters spent $75 while another spent close to $200.

We have Big/Lil Week, and the littles get gifts and clues every day. Usually, littles get some handmade things like picture frames, door hangers, and candles. They also get Sigma items from the local stores (mugs, stationery, and things you'd see on Greek 101). We also like to give hand me down shirts b/c those are really cool. Your final gift from your big is your matching big/lil hoodie or shirt (w/ big and lil sis embroidered underneath the letters). You also get your boat shaped paddle a few weeks after revealing.

I don't have one yet, but here's hoping

:) :)

I was active at 2 chapters and each did big/lil a different way.

The first we had themes for our gift like "Car Day" when you would get a keychain/license plate frame/sticker or whatever and "Paper Day" where you would get pens/notepads and such. We would also "decorate" (really trash it-I actually found confetti from my big sis 5 years ago today) her room and then we could give anything that was bigger so the other littles wouldn't see it.

The second we had a very specific list of what to get/make for each day. Bigs pick out a fabric based on things their little said she liked and decorate everything (tote bag, bulletin board, trash can, frame, scrapbook, block letters, etc.) with that fabric and the jerseys matched. It is alot of work but it is so cute. It can also be cheap unless you pick out an expensive fabric.

we don't do paddles at my chapter.. i dont think anyone has one

The way we do it is we have a week where the Bigs leave their Littles presents and notes with clues. Then at the end of the week we do Big/Lil revealing where the littles get even more gifts. We don't put a limit or anything on it. The only thing we do is that the first night of Big/Lil Week the Bigs have to make a poster for their Little and decorate their doors. Some family trees have certain things that it's tradition for them to give to their littles. For initiation, the little decorates a paddle for her Big, and the Big makes a pillow for her Little. In addition, we have to pass down a set of family tree letters, get her little another set of letters (if not more!), gifts for initiation, and make her another poster and decorate her door again.

Now, as I'm reading this, it sounds like you guys don't know who your big is till after you're initiated...is this true?

By us, the Littles find out who their Big is about halfway through pledging.

In Tri Sigma, our girls get their bigs about 2 weeks before initiation. In Kappa Phi, we reveal bigs right after the activation ceremony.

See, we get ours in the first weekend of pledging (like we get hints during the week, then on the weekend we find out who they are).

I'd never thought about that! I bet Easter is a good time for Theta Nu Xi gifts with our colors of lavender and powder blue!! Thanks for the idea!

We pay out of pocket... but we have a suggested budget to try and keep it fair and so that people know what they HAVE to get (we have some traditional gifts that every big gives their little, a mascot, pillow etc)

Here's a policy that is great in theory, but not really working in practice...

The new thing for our sorority is that the New Member Coordinator is supposed to budget for ALL new member gifts, and that the only out of pocket expenses the "big" incurs are writing notes and very small and inexpensive gifts which are optional. We're very big on spending one on one time together, though. The district officers who oversee budgets and the new member program do check to see that new member gifts have been budgeted, but there are still "bigs" who go all out and spend lots of money, and chapters that encourage the "bigs" buying everything.

The reason for all gifts coming from the chapter budget is so more initiated sisters will want to become Diamond sisters (what we call the big/littles) because a lot of the time women are deterred because of the expense.

When I was a collegian, our chapter had a policy that any gifts you gave had to be given off sorority grounds. This way, if Suzy Q got tons of stuff and Amy Alpha didn't, there wouldn't be any hurt feelings because it was a private and discreet exchange.

As a collegian, I embraced my arts-and-crafts side and made most of my diamond sister's gifts. It's very easy to bake cookies and then decorate the container with paint pens in sorority colors, her name, etc. There were some store-bought things, of course, but it was fun to spend the summer making things in anticipation of having a diamond sis!

Also, I made it point to call her at least once a week and get together... all the gifts in the world can't add up to cultivating a friendship and helping acclimate a new member to the chapter!

In the three preceding weeks before Big/Little Week, the new members get one gift per week from their Paw Pal. These gifts are part of the Phi Director's budget and are purchased from the Carnation Collection so that everyone receives the same gift. During Big/Little Week though, the gifts are purchased out of pocket. Each gift has a maxmum spending limit, depending on the item, which is set by the Phi Director. There are ten days of gifts (a week for Big/Little and a week for Initiation), and the total of all the maximum prices is around $115. This is what we consider the average cost of picking up a Little; however, it can be done for much less, considering you can find most of the gifts for less than the maximum. Handmade gifts are also pretty popular. This price also does not include the two dinners following Revealing and Initiation that are paid for by the big sister.

We have a week and give our lils the same things as everyone else on each day ... like if its pic frame it doesnt have to be the SAME exact pic frame but it is a pic frame and we can only spend 100 dollars. Then after that people will sometimes buy their littles more but only when its one on one and not so all the other littles see.

This is what my chapter does. Each NM gets a Bid Day gift (last year it was their shirt, a tote bag, stationary, a picture frame, and a diamond board to hang on their dorm door) out of the NMC's budget. I gave my diamond sister extra gifts, but I had friends deliver them to her dorm so the other Alphas wouldn't be jealous if they had fewer gifts.

I truthfully didn't spend too much money on gifts. I made a lot of things, passed down some old shirts, and wrote a lot of letters to her. The number one thing I did was spend a lot of time with her, inviting her to dinner, hanging out in the suite, going out at night, etc. Obviously it paid off, because even though she had to leave our chapter for health reasons, we still have a very close relationship. She is one of my best friends at Miami.

ETA- We also give gifts throughout the week before Diamond Sister Revelation. Every older Diamond sister leaves a specific gift in the suite for her NM Diamond (like a passdown shirt, or a fleece blanket, etc.). These also come out of the NMC's budget. The idea behind this in our chapter is to encourage everyone to take a Diamond, even if they are short on cash.

We paid out of pocket. I don't think we had a max that we could spend, but people usually didn't go too crazy.

During the first part of the NM period, each NM is paired up with first an Alpha sister (usually whoever preffed her), then an Epsilon sister (usually someone the NM doesn't know that well, to mix things up). Alpha and Epsilon sisters usually get little gifts for the NMs, make sure their dorm room doors are decorated, maybe take them out for lunch or dinner, etc. Then the NMs are matched up with Phi sisters, who are their bigs. Then the spoiling begins :D

ETA: Of course, the NMs get bid day gifts too. These come from the new member educator's budget. We're proud of our NMs, and waste no time slapping a ribbon and a t-shirt on each of them ;)