I was just wonderin'...
 

Hi!

As many of you know, I'm not in a sorority (yet!) and so I'm still a little clueless about some things. I was just wondering if you helpful, friendly GCers could answer a question that I've yet to figure out an answer to.

Ok, this is kind of a random question, but hey. :) I was wondering if anyone can explain to me the deal with presentations, ribbon pledging and pin pledging. At my uni, right after rush, one sees the new members wearing little ribbons in the sorority colors. This seems to go on for a while, like two weeks. I don't really remember seeing them with pledge pins, though I'm sure they wear them at some point. Is there a difference between the ribbon and pledge pins - or is the reason something mundane like they have to wear the ribbons until the pledge pins are received from the national office? Then again, I thought that new members had to return the pledge pins at initiation; so, the chapter should have a bunch handy.

Also, my freshman year, one of my dorm suitemates pledged Tri Delta. I remember that she came back one day with her mom and dad and she said that they had just come from "presents" (presentations, I assume). I get the concept, to present the new members to the parents and community. I just kinda don't get how it fits in. I've only heard of this concept a few times.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks!! :)


......Kelly :)

answer to first question
 

Hi Kelly,

I can answer your first question. When I was a DZ pledge, we could wear our pink and green ribbons with anything, but could only wear our pledge pin when we were dressed up. That may be why you saw the ribbons more than the pledge pins. We had to return our pledge pin when we got initiated, but we kept the ribbons to wear underneath our badges on special days (like Founders' Day which is coming up in a couple of weeks). Please remember that this is how DZ does things, and other NPC groups may have other traditions.

Hope this helps!

Carrie :)

when i was pledging at my school, most of the other sororities worse their ribbons all the time...even on top of letter shirts. My sorority thought that was pushing the limit a little bit. If we wore our bid day shirts or any other AZD shirt, that was good enough. (We aren't allowed to wear letters until we are initiated...how can you wear something, if you don't know what it means?). But on other days we wore little buttons we get at the campus shop that just said "I love AZD" and thats it. They are the same pins that the sweathearts wear too. Our pledge pins were only worn whenever we got dressed up or had a ceremony that we had to go to.
-Maggie

Not only does it depend on the National, it depends on the individual chapter. Some chapters have their NMs wear the pledge pin with the ribbons. Some allow you to wear the pledge pin with the badge (mine actually looks really good with both). In addition, a lot of chapters are currently wearing their badges with black ribbons, red/white/blue ribbons, or the sorority color ribbons.

"Presents" is a thing that happens regionally, I think, and sometimes it depends on when Rush is.

Pi Beta Phi has similar rules. We are also not allowed to wear our letters until we are initiated. I know we can wear our colors anytime, but we can only wear our pledge pin when we are dressed in "Pin Attire". When wearing the pledge pin I would just take my colors off and put them on my bag.

I have no clue what "presents" are since my chapter never did it.

In my sorority we have a ribbon ceremony for those girls on bid day and a formal pledging ceremony in the next two days. At the formal pledging ceremony they are given their pledge pins. Most wear thier ribbons on their bags or where ever, but pledge pins are only worn with badge attire as we call it.

Usually my chapter doesn't use ribbons, but this last Recruitment, we had more NM's than pledge pins (a good predicament, lol). So the girls got ribbons until the new pledge pins came in.

I learned about a "presents" ceremony from my Hawaiian AGD Sister (aka OTW). After Initiation, there will be a party/ceremony where the new initiate will meet her "Alum Chum"..sort of like a Grand Big Sister! We are discussing doing it at our chapter if we can find enuff Alums! :)

My sorority has a ribboning ceremony when you first join, followed within a few days by a pinning ceremony. In my chapter, new members generally wore their ribbons all the time until pinning, then their new member pins until initiation. Pins would only definitely not be worn if you were *really* dressed down (exercise clothes, old jeans, etc) - otherwise it was up to you, but you were strongly encouraged to wear them.

AEPhi also has the rule that only initiated sisters may wear letters. If you don't know what the letters mean, you shouldn't be wearing them. Anything with the letters, or at least the "phi", spelled out was ok.

I find it odd that you'd have to return your new member pin upon initiation... I still have mine... but I guess you wouldn't really have a reason to wear it once you're initiated.

At my Alpha Gam chapter (and I think it is the same for most chapters at my school, not just AGD), we all got ribbons to wear on bid day. Then there was a formal ceremony where we received our pledge pins. I was initiated 6 years ago (WOW, first time I have counted in a while) and still have my ribbons. However, we gave our pledge pins back the week before Intiation in a cermony. We were no longer considered new members, but were not full sisters quite yet (to be honest I forget what we were called that week, bad memory). Pledge pins get reused every year. They belong to the chapter/IHQ not the new members.

Presents!!!
 

The Presents event we have every Fall was an idea that we got from our AGD-UCLA (now inactive) chapter. I think many other CA schools had something similar to this and they too called it "Presents".

What Presents is, is--like you said--a presentation. Parents of our new members are invited, and it's somewhat like an afternoon tea. The alumnae chapter usually handles it. Most of the time, our NM's parents are unable to make the trip (since we are a 5 hour flight from the West Coast), so one of us will try to videotape the event.

The NM is presented to the campus community (sometimes school officials are invited), the AGD alumnae, and other guests (parents, husbands, SERIOUS SO's, etc.) Her full name and hometown is then announced. After that, she is paired up with an "alum chum", which is basically like a sister-mother (or big sis), and she'll be there to guide the NM through her NM-ship and throughout her collegiate years.

The Spring NMs don't go through Presents during their first semester, so they are presented the following Fall.

For all you alumni/ae out there, this is a fabulous thing to do for your collegiate chapter nearest you!

I hope this helps!

Wow... PRESENTS sounds like a fabulous idea... I'm going to have to bring that up to my chapter!!

When we got our bids and accepted, the first night of pledging, we had our ribboning ceremony. About three weeks into pledging, had we completed all we set out to, we got our new member pins. It was sort of a reward for all we had done. We wore our ribbons with our pins EVERYDAY we were a new member. Once we "got in", we were allowed to wear letters, and then when we got initiated, we got our badges, only to be worn in proper attire, and then you could wear the crest.