Rescuing Badges
 

I'm trying to find out which NPC sororities have programs for rescuing badges and what they are called. So far I have:

Gamma Phi Beta - Crescent Catchers
Alpha Delta Pi - Guardians of the Diamond
Kappa Kappa Gamma - Keepers of the Key

Is there anyone else?

phi mu does not have a program at this time.

sigma kappa doesn't either. they discourage us from bidding on badges.

WOW...that's really interesting. I was going to buy one off Ebay for my brother (the really fancy Phi Tau badge with diamonds n stuff) kinda glad I didn't now.

Delta Zeta has a program to rescue badges, but I don't know if we have a specific name for the group. My friends and I call ourselves "The Ladies of the Lamp."

just out of curiosity, how do these programs work??

I know Alpha Phi doesn't have a program (at least not to my knowledge!) and they won't buy a badge from us but we can "donate" it.

Thank you ladies, for the great information.

I think we all recognize the problem with this black market that has developed for the trading of our organization's symbols.

We think Kappa Kappa Gamma had such a great idea with their Keepers program, we are wanting to start one similar (imitation is intended compliments). But are running into difficulties with the "how to make it successful" issues. Any information on how groups make it work would be great.


We have also been wanting to see if other NPC groups would be interested in an "Exchange" agreement. Basically, if we are at an antique store or estate sale, etc and found a pin from a participating organization, the person would purchase it on behalf of that NPC group, under the ladies agreement that only reimbursement + S/H would be expected from that NPC to retrieve the pin. If we had a ring of contacts between groups, solely for the purpose of communication in this agreement, I think it might be worth a try. Any thoughts?

I have a question-

Why do some people feel so strongly that they have EVERY badge ever made?

Yes, I know they are the property of that organization, but what does it really matter if someone has a collection of pins and badges?

Aren't there more important issues facing young women that need the financial support that who owns a badge?

I don't mean this to criticize organizations who have formal programs in any way, I really just wonder why so much money is being spent on getting these badges.

As far as I know AST doesn't have any program, nor have I seen any restrictions on purchasing items. I periodically check ebay for AST items, but I've never seen any badges. I personally wouldn't want a non member to have my badge, and I would make every effort to retrieve it.

Different strokes for different folks. I agree, Little E, that money is much better served on membership programs, expansion, emergency support and developing the organization. But if people want to collect back historic badges, that's their call and their hard-earned cash to part with as they please. I do applaud these groups for one great reason: they give alumnae a real sense of purpose. I feel that our collegiate focus IS the reason we exist, but with the majority of our membership base being the alumnae, there should be stronger programs in place for graduated post-college members. Badge rescue groups form a great basis for alumnae to really dedicate themselves to something beyond a trip to the pet charity or doling themselves out at recruitment to serve water.

Okay, that's several questions, all good ones, and I'll try to answer them... :D

Why do some people feel so strongly that they have EVERY badge ever made?

Well, that's one I can't answer!

Yes, I know they are the property of that organization, but what does it really matter if someone has a collection of pins and badges?

In Kappa's case, badges are not the property of the organization. And in my opinion, there is nothing wrong with having a collection of pins or badges as long as the badges are not the stolen property of someone else.


Aren't there more important issues facing young women that need the financial support that who owns a badge?

The Fraternity is not funding badge rescue, it's individual members who choose to purchase them with their own funds. Safe to say, those same members are also frequent contributors to the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation (which is the best funded foundation of any Greek-letter organization's, btw. ;))

I don't mean this to criticize organizations who have formal programs in any way, I really just wonder why so much money is being spent on getting these badges.

The organizations don't have the formal programs, it's individual members who form groups. So, it's their money!

hum... i never really thought about it as a way to get alumnae involved, but I can see that it would make sense.

edited cause i got some answers while writing.

Then what happens to the badges? They get put into archives with one or two on display at the nat'l museums? or they sit in some box in a members house?

*Some are adopted by their chapters of origin, either to be displayed or used as an officer's badge

*Some are returned to their rightful owners, or legacies, perhaps after being stolen decades before.

*Some are used for education. For example, I have a 1938 pearl badge, purchased on ebay, that I sometimes wear with my own. I use it as an opportunity to tell others about the importance of making provisions for the disposition of their badges, so that their badges don't wind up on ebay like this one did.

*And yes, some do sit in members' jewelry boxes. :)

I dunno, but I suppose that if I ever came accross one of ours, I would get it to an active chapter, and maybe an undergraduate can use it instead of buying a new one, since ours do not have any chapter info engraved on them.

I personally don't see the point of making a big deal of "rescuing" badges. It seems counterproductive, because I've noticed that often the badges of organizations that place a huge emphasis on this sell for insanely high prices. Isn't that just going to encourage people to find them and sell them?

Adelie wrote:
"We have also been wanting to see if other NPC groups would be interested in an "Exchange" agreement. Basically, if we are at an antique store or estate sale, etc and found a pin from a participating organization, the person would purchase it on behalf of that NPC group, under the ladies agreement that only reimbursement + S/H would be expected from that NPC to retrieve the pin. If we had a ring of contacts between groups, solely for the purpose of communication in this agreement, I think it might be worth a try. Any thoughts?"

I would LOVE this idea!!! YES!!!
I think that there is a big difference between returning a badge of "Joe Smith" to XYZ organization and returning a lost or worse-stolen badge back to it's original living owner or their legecies. If someone wants to be a collector, I would hope that they would make a point to only collect those that were not lost by or stolen from living members.

I'm curious who you are and what organization you are with. This could be astronomicaly expensive for some organizations, especially because there is no way to really budget for it. And in a time with very tight budgets it could be close to impossible. Now some loose agreement with alumnae, not the HQ is another story... I'm curious who the 'we' you talk about it though.

Out of curiosity - how would it be hard to budget for and really expensive for the HQ?

The alumnae volunteers are the ones spending their own money rescuing the pins. (At least that's how it is with Guardians of the Diamond... and I believe Keepers of the Key... not sure how it works with Cresent Catchers)

Unless the HQ is paying the volunteers, I don't think it costs the HQ anything.

I guess I could be missing something though. :confused:

I'm just saying, the poster made it sound like she proposed that HQ would pay for the badges. I would think, especially for smaller organizations, that would be too much of a financial burden. If it was a loose organization of these alumnae groups, that is very different. Sorry if I was unclear, but that is all I was trying to say. I guess my belief is that, if this were AST, I would prefer they spend money to give our chapters EC's, and more programing, not save badges. It is more of a priority thing.

thanks for the clarification... I was totally lost :)

I definitely agree with you though.. I would rather EO use money towards more productive things for the chapters as opposed to a pin that is going to sit in a glass case.

I think the pin-saving programs are great. It's not for everyone (as in members of whichever particular org.) but for members who *do* want to make an effort and have the resources to do so, go for it :)

EXACTLY

That's what I've been curious about is who funds them. It is WONDERFUL if people do it for fun (with their own money), but nat'l resources are so scarce it is hard to justify on that level for me.

Just to clarify, the reason I posted the original question is because I am part of a committee in my sorority that is working on forming a similar group to some of the others. It would be made up of alumnae who are spending their own money on badges they would like to own, since our National Office only purchases "special" badges - one of the founders', a past Grand Council badge, a chapter pres badge, etc. They would also look out for other important historical items in order to gather some more of our history for our centennial in 2012.

I was curious to see how many other of the NPC sororities had these programs in place, what their names were, and how they functioned (does HQ pay or do the alumnae?).

Thanks for all the responses :)

We've found, that even though it's the members of the badge rescue group spending their own money to rescue badges, the women who have had their badges lost or stolen and then rescued and returned to them go on to actively support the Fraternity in other ways: be it volunteering as an adviser, becoming a member of her Alumnae group, donating money to the Foundation or becoming a member of our group. So in our small way, we are strengthening our Fraternity.

ISUKappa - I think that's awesome :)

ThetaPhiAngel - If you don't have several alumnae willing to spend $100's, maybe you can pull together a group of women willing to donate even a little bit here and there... say $10 or $20... every little bit adds up! Some members of the Guardians of the Diamond pull resources together to rescue very unique ADPi pins and I believe they even have an unofficial Paypal account for that cause.

That's actually exactly what we had planned on doing! Glad to know it works for someone else :)

Well I can answer for Guardians of the Diamond.

Right now we are just getting off the ground. We do have Grand Council support and approval though.

As of now we have a group set up for ADPi's where we can discuss pins we see on Ebay.

As for money, we take donations via paypal becuase until we get "final" approval from GC I can't really open up an account for sisters to make direct donations to. And that is what it is DONATIONS FROM THE SISTERS.

Another thing that is important to us is educating the collegians about the importance of their pin. Gamma Phi actually gives thier collegians (or alums I'm not sure) a form they fill out stating where their pin will go when they die. I believe thier HQ/EO gets a copy of it and so does the member. Now, I'm not quite sure on this information because I'm not a Gamma Phi.


As for why people really take this to heart. It just varies sister by sister. I am very passionate about our pins remaining in the hands of a sister, while other sisters will not feel as I do. It just really depends.

Hope some of this helped. If there is any other questions I can answer please feel free to PM me.

Brianna

Out of curiosity, what do most women do with their badge when they die? Is their family allowed to keep it? Bury the person with it (if that is allowed)?

And for my own knowledge, what is the "etiquette" on giving a badge to a collegian as a gift? I 'm talking like a fancy one? I know it has to be engraved with his intiate number and chapter letter and such, but is there any way to do this without him knowing so it is a surprise?

I've been told by a former Network Person from my sorority that we have someone at HQ that buys badges off of ebay. I don't know what the budget is or how they set it. But if it is a historic badge, we resell those to members. So it would be easy to get the money back.

Edited to add: also on our little AOII section of greek chat we have our ebay names so that we don't bid against each other.

For Alpha Gam, badges are either buried with the deceased or sent back to IHQ.

Alpha Gamma Delta does not have an official committee that rescues Badges. As far as I know, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, IHQ doesn't forbid us from buying the Badges off of eBay. I've done so in the past, and I know of many others who have done so too. Many of our IVPs keep an eye on the auctions to ensure that the winning bidder is indeed an AGD.

Most (if not all) badges must be ordered through the HQ. Only members of that organization are allowed to order them. If you giving one as a gift (for example if you had an XYZ boyfriend and wanted to get him a blinged out badge) I think the only way you could get it is ask one of his brothers to order it and give him the money. I could be WAAAAAAY off though...

From ASUADPi:

It sounds like Alpha Delta Pi’s are in the same stages of this as we are, and the concept of your operations sounds almost identical too. How has it been working so far? Have you had much luck?



Which is exactly the frustrations with the whole black market problem to begin with. Yes it is true that priorities are and should be collegiate programs. On the same token, without the historical aspects, there wouldn’t be any collegiate programs. I think a lot of people simply do not want to see non-members who have no affiliation with the organization owning something that is such a treasured symbol of their organization. It’s sort of like seeing someone from another country disrespecting an American flag-- I think it is similar in emotional resentment. And you are right, there are some people & groups who do not share those sentiments and do not care about retrieval


From ISUKappa:
that is very interesting!


From Little E:
“we” being Theta Phi Alpha, which incidentally is the smallest sorority in NPC. So yes, it can be very expensive for groups such as ours, or the really large groups who have many pins out in the world. Which is why it would be very important to have an open communication & keep active points of contact between the groups who were interested in participating so that the exchange idea could work. If we knew a name & phone number of a person/people from the retrieval groups of other sororities, if we see something in a antique store, for example, we could call that person & tell them what we are looking at— “do you wish for us to purchase it”? if a group was only interested in certain ones, they would also share that information so that the others would know. It would also be important that communication be the key factor, otherwise the whole thing would be a bust.

And I think it sounds like all the groups who have retrieval programs do so by relying on donations only, not HQ support. So this would be an exchange agreement between NPC alumna.

It's going to vary depending on the GLO. Some engrave badges with chapter letters, initiation numbers and the like, while others don't.

I know you asked earlier about Phi Tau, and according to Burr Patterson Auld's web site, Phi Tau badges have to be ordered from their HQ. That would not apply to e-Bay orders, though. Why don't you ask one of his brothers or e-mail Phi Tau HQ and ask?

We don't engrave our badges, but I think we are either supposed to be buried with it or have it sent back to HQ when we die.

I guess I took the badge buying to be every badge that went up for sale. And if you did that, even buying all the lower end badges, the calculation for the budget would be hard. I really do like the idea of alumnae buying badges as a way to get involved, and totally applaud the women who do that. I just have reservations about a HQ spending money that could go else where on badges, but that is my personal feeling.

When I was dating a Sig Chi the girlfriend of a Sig Chi wanted to get the guy a new badge, one of the nice ones, she had to give the money to a brother to buy it because of the buying restrictions. At least for AST, our badges are made by Legacy or whatever they are called, but you have to order them through nat'l. You can't just call the jeweler and order directly. It really is to control who buys them, and I'm sure how many they buy.

The badges we most care about are the old ones. if a badge is 1950 or older, then to me it should be in the hands of the sorority, in honor of that woman who helped create the sorority we so love. If a twenty-year old girl sells her own badge-- I think it's very sad, but I couldn't care less.

As for saying it is a way to keep alumnae involved-- hrm. All I can say is, I think you will find that most alumna do things for the love of their sorority, because they want to see it loved & preserved.

Re: Caveat Emptor
 

Agreed, which is why our group doesn't do this.

Got those covered!

All I will say to this is WTF??????????

Most, if not ALL, of our Crescent Catcher members were already VERY involved in Gamma Phi Beta when we formed the group.

It is NOT a way to get alumnae involved and I am actually offended that you claim it is.

If anyone would like to know how our group works, please pm and I am happy to share all of our information but I won't do it on GC.

Here, here. That is how our group works.