Locals copying?
 

I have a question....
This past weekend I was at a homecoming at another school and this campus had a few local sororities (something that i am not to familiar with bc my campus was all national.) and this one local group had the same exact colors as Alpha Xi Delta (my organization), same type of mascot, flower, and a very similar crest and badge. Is this ok to do?

Colors, mascot, etc. there is nothing you can do about that. However, if their crest or badge are more than 90% similar to yours, there could be a copyright infringement.

That said - it could be that they used to be a chapter of AXiD OR they are hoping to petition your national for colonization.

Most likely not a malicious thing...
 

One of their founding sisters could have had a bio sister or friend who was an A Xi D, or they could have started out wanting to go A Xi D national but never did. Unless they are only a couple years old, by this time that part of their founding is probably not even thought about anymore. One of our chapters started out as Zeta Tau and their colors were light blue and gray (sound familiar Barbara? ;)) probably because they had friends or sisters who were Zetas or wanted to go that way but they went ASA.

Also, I was surprised to find out about Alpha Sigma (a local sorority at UW Whitewater) whose colors are the same as ASA's - my first thought was "copycats!" Boy, did I have egg on my face when I found out they were founded in 1899 - 2 years before we were!!

In all honesty I wouldn't worry about it. There are only so many colors, mascots etc that are suitable to use (and there are LOTS of groups that use shades of blue and gold) and a lot of crests have similarities (Kappa Delta and APO have some identical imagery in theirs). Unless they are representing themselves as an A Xi D chapter, I doubt there's much that could be done.

Re: Most likely not a malicious thing...
 

Yes...exactly what everyone above said and then some..they could have been founded earlier..just like Alpha Sigma at UWW...I have a few friends in that local. There are a lot of locals out there..some that were discovered earlier than some nationals...colors and mascots are going to be the same in some places regardless.

There is more to that story of AS and ASA...some sketchiness went on...until it was clear that AS was founded in earlier..so now...it's all clear...

Just be careful to put blame on groups until you know the scoop.
33girl found out the embarrassing way... (sorry to hear hun)

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Actually I didn't have to get too embarrassed - one of their nice sisters (who I miss seeing on here :)) was on here and I asked her. See, we DID used to have a chapter there, and I assumed that after the chapter closed they stayed local as Alpha Sigma. But we all know what happens when we assume....

and just to complicate things more, our chapter at UWW was the Delta Zeta chapter. It always trips me out when a chapter name is the name of a 2-letter GLO!

yea..I know quite a few girls in Alpha Sigma...lots of history...when did your chapter at UWW close? I know they have a small greek system there...it's in the middle of a bunch of corn fields LOL....Nice, smaller school though

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ASA at UWW
 

It closed in '76, it was only there for 5 years or so.

:(

I know exactly what you mean, 33girl, about chapters having the same letters as a two letter national sorority. Must confuse some girls on bid day...I know that I saw my chapter letters on the bid card before my national letters and was confused for a second or two. (Then again, maybe it is just me)