Pref Ceremony
 

I am the Recruitment Chairman for Ole Miss Pi Phi (MS Beta Chapter). I was wondering if you had any ideas for pref ceremonies. We did one called "Flowers of Diversity" and it was kind of too cheesy and outdated.

Thanks for your help!
Kendall

sorry to crash!
But I'm excited to see another Ole Miss Greek on here :)
GO REBELS!

I was on panhellenic exec this past year so I don't know what my chapter did but try PMing Erniegurl00. She was chair of the Pref night committee at our chapter one year and then helped out again this year as an alumna.

Not all the chapters do Pi Phi Heaven?! YOU HAVE to talk to the rush chair from Baylor. It is gorgeous..............white everywhere, it's so pretty. They were down the hall from us one year when I was the rush chair and I asked if I could peak in. It was beautiful.

I thought that all our chapters did Pi Phi Heaven! I never saw a chapter who didn't do it!

I have no idea what Pi Phi heaven is. :) And it's not in any of the manuals that I looked through when I was recording secretary.

We do a pretty basic pref. ceremony which invoves a little reading (I think it's in a manual somewhere) and two seniors give speeches. Then there's a candle lighting ceremony - we stand in a big circle around our dining room with an arrow shaped table in the middle and a tea light on it for each PNM in the group. Each PNM has an active with her, and they each have a candle. As the flame gets passed around the circle, each PNM/active pair steps forward and lights a candle on the table together.

I like our pref ceremony because it was very inclusive. When I was a PNM, it made me feel as if I was a part of the house already, which is I think what PNMs are looking for.

I really thought everyone did Pi Phi Heaven too! I have pictures of it somewhere, beautiful!! And of course the 8 pearls of Pi Beta Phi Ceremony. We usually had seniors speak also and singing.

OOOOH will you post the pictures? I never saw the ceremony because I didn't pref Pi Phi but like I said they let me peak in that year we were next door and I was floored. If they don't all do it, they SHOULD! I've heard from other sorority girls that it was the best pref ceremony they've ever seen, even if they weren't in Pi PHi.

It's been 10 years so I'll have to search but I have a photo on my roomie and I in Pi Phi Heaven. Funny enough she was an affiliate from a chapter literally across the country and said her chapter did it the exact same way!

Pi Phi Heaven, at least in my day, meant a ceremony in which the sisters were all dressed in white and the room was decorated like heaven--all light blue and white and clouds. In our ceremony, the president was seated on a dais in the middle of the room, surrounded by a garden of wine carnations. During the ceremony, every PNM picked one. We had an arrow cake that somehow we arranged so that when each PNM pulled a ribbon, she got a piece with her name on it. We also put arrow lavalieres over their heads, which was permitted then.

To specify what i meant, we already do heaven. We just dont have a "program" or "ceremony" that we do. Like a script or what people say and stuff. Do you have any suggestions on this?

Email the National Office, I heard they have several ceremonies on file.

And...HAIL STATE!!!!!!!:D :D :D

The 8 pearls to Pi Beta Phi ceremony is on the sisters only side of the website in the membership manual.

Ohhh Carnation I forgot about those little arrow cakes! They were so cute!

we did pi phi heaven, but it was on the night before pref night, sisterhood night. It was neat when I went through bc you watched a video downstairs (non decorated) then two sisters came in singing "I believe there are angels among us.." then you followed them upstairs that then became decorated in all white to a room where all the sisters were singing the song. Its arranged so that where they end up standing, their "special sister" is waiting to talk with them. So you already met during rush once before. When I went through after this night I made up my mind that I was going pi phi. Pref night didn't even matter.

now all of rush is done in our own house so its done a bit differently, no going up steps to "heaven" but still works out nicely.

Pref night
 

Hello! My Name is Chelsea... I am recruitment chair for Arizona State University... I am also looking into good ideas for philanthropy day and sisterhood day... we changed the whole way we do recruitment at ASU and before we had themes... now they can only consits of stuff about PI Phi... HELP ME! Good and creative ideas would help!

I always thought that Nationals prefered we did Pi Phi Heaven and can give you outlines on how to setup.
I was under the impression that it was a standard thing for all chapters that do formal recruitment.

8 pearls
 

I think the 8 pearls of PiPhi ceremony is only posted on the sisters only portion of the Nat'l website because it's only meant for PiPhis to hear (at leats at *my* chapter it was). Should we even be mentioning it, ladies?

As for PiPhi heaven, never heard of it. We always held pref at an alum's house (because out chapter only has a small meeting house to call our own) and we would dress in white. Now the girls dress in black because as one sister put it, "white makes you look as big as a barn" :p

If the pearls are done at pref ceremony, then more than just pi phi's will hear it! I personally would not consider that ceremony to be secret although you all may disagree! :)

I loved Pi Phi heaven and all the white because on my campus everybody else did black so it was very different and I always thought unique and beautiful.

We used to do the 8 pearls and then found out from nationals that it is a secret ceremony... so everyone should NOT being doing it at pref night.

We also do pi phi heaven and decorate all in white, cream and sheer golds. With lots of white christmas lights and tulle. It is so pretty, and every other house seems to do black. Of course we are the only house that can pull off the heaven theme because we are angels:):D

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ASU piphiAngel
[B]We used to do the 8 pearls and then found out from nationals that it is a secret ceremony... so everyone should NOT being doing it at pref night.

I knew several chapters that use it as part of pref ceremony

Then why is it in the rituals handbook?? aren't all rituals secret?

secret
 

It is not something that should be shared with non piphis, to my knowledge

I dont even know that the 8 pearl is.
We do "Peals and Gifts" but I dont think that's the same thing.

8 Pearls was the Pref Ceremony when I was going through formal recruitment. That was picked by a TGC at the time I believe and was approved by our AAC. It's not a private ceremony to my knowledge, but it is a ceremony that Pi Phi has. I don't believe it's in the actual ritual book or the guide to initiation as a secret ceremony but I was secretary two years ago and it may have been updated since then.

I know my chapter had two days of ceremonies that were from the IN Gamma heritage and that was one of them, it was secret as in I wouldn't blab the meaning of the 8 pearls to just anyone but they didn't take the final vow of secrecy until Pre-Initiation which was the first "formal"/national ceremony of intiation week.

The 8 Pearls ceremony done during Pref night is different than the one everyone is worried about. Nationals (or at least our old TGC) had a copy of a "watered down version" of 8 Pearls. Basically, we are stressing that there are virtues that are important to us. Obviously this is no secret, especially with the new Leading with Values campaign. :) So, if you're doing the BIG 8 Pearls ceremony with ritual, stop. But, the Pref ceremony does NOT have specific parts to ritual. Also, why would TGCs allow us to do a version of it if it were not allowed?

do you happen to have a version of this "watered down" version? Because I am Rec. Chair and I need to know if I can do this or not. I have rush in 2 weeks and have tried to contact nationals with no reply. I do not want to be sharing a sacred thing with none pi phis but if its no big deal I would like to use it during pref
Pi Phi Love and Mine
Chelsea

You could probably also look at the members only side of the website or give HQ a call and ask them to send you a copy of the ceremony. Now that someone mentioned it, I remember a version of 8 pearls that could be used for prefs. There's also an 8 pearls new member program.

Recruitment ideas and help fall under the regional membership specialist so she might have a copy in her files, also. ASU is in region8 so your specialist would be available at membership8@pibetaphi.org . Otherwise, the person at HQ to contact is Oriana (assistant director of programming)