Numbering Pledges?
 

*After* I initiated (Alpha Phi Omega at Carnegie-Mellon), and we got our membership cards from National, I found out I was #8 in a pledge class of 21 Alphabetically by last name. OTOH, for Alpha Phi Omega at Howard University, they go with the NPHC tradition of numbering pledges by height, and a pledge would know that they were eighth shortest *very* soon after becoming a pledge (perhaps even before pledging???)

I expect that the NPHC fraternities and sororities , NALFO (Latino/a) and pledging non-socials at HBCUs (APO, KKPsi, etc) would number their pledges, but that NPC and NIC groups that didn't come from the African-American/Latino traditions would not.

Are there any NPC sororities that do? Any NIC (non-historically AA/Latino) that do so?

(Apparenly some of the Fraternities/Sororities in the Philippines do so, but that's a topic for another board)

I know my group, Delta Gamma, numbers us and have been told by friends in other groups that theirs do. The first number is the chapter number, in order of installation. Your inidividual number for that chapter comes next. That number is determined by order of initiation with initiations being done in alpha order. So the very first initiated member of a chapter, in alpha order, would be number 001. Whoever followed her in alpha order would be 002. I am the 366th member initated at my chapter which is chapter 79. Our number is on the mailing label of our magazine above the name.

In AOII, we are numbered alphabetically in order to get our member number. That number is a combination of our chapter number and the total number of members initiated by the chapter before you.

Our member numbers in SAI are our chapter number followed by a dash, and then the number they have us listed in the chapter roll, which within each class is done alphabetically, but each class picks up after the last one, of course. I didn't actually know what my member number was until I got my first Alumnae Association card, and it was on the letter above my address. :)

Sounds like we do it much like AOPi and DG do, actually. Exception being that where titchou said DG has it as "001" ours would just be "1" lol.

In my (and many other) singing groups, we are numbered in the order that we were inducted, which has a lot to do with the location of dorm rooms. The groups physically pick up new members all over campus, so two new members who lived in the same building would be next to each other in the numbering.

Numbers *within* pledge classes, is what I meant. But in Delta Gamma would one sister in a pledge class be viewed as having been initiated before another? (or just that the forms get processed in alphabetical order?)

Our pledge class members are not numbered. Each initiated member has a number that she is given from our international office.

We have no numbering until initiated.

Yes, the forms are processed in alpha order which assigns the number. We don't care where in the order you were initiated...that makes no difference to us. In other words, if I could remember who came before or after me at initiation, it would not matter in Delta Gamma.

No numbering here. You're initiated into a certain chapter as part of a certain NM class, and that's that - it's irrelevant whether you're the first person to receive her pin or the last.

We do have numbers assigned to us by nationals, but I've used mine exactly once, to sign up for the sisters-only side of our web site. I don't even know what my number is (of course, I can always call/email nationals and get it).

Ours has no significance other than keeping records. You can't claim to be special because your number is lower or you were initiated earlier in the group. We don't have an honor initiate or anything like that.

Naraht isn't talking about the member(ship) number from (inter)national headquarters or a derivative of membership number.

Naraht is talking about what many NPHC and NALFO call a "line number" or "pledge number" (if the word "pledge" is still used). The number can have meaning beyond height and order of initiation.

Numbering is why many NPHC and NALFO say they are an Ace, for example, and they say "my number/numba" when interacting with Aces from other lines in the same chapter, different chapters of the same GLO, and other GLOS.

We have badge numbers which show the order in which we were initiated into the chapter. Different chapters have different rules for deciding the order of initiation. Ours select someone to go first (as an honorary) and then our chapter has had various means of deciding the rest of the order. There's nothing official. Individual candidate classes are given Greek letter names. For example, I was in the first class of my chapter, so I'm Alpha Class. We're recruiting Beta Alpha class right now.

So, would someone who had a "pledge number" or a "line number" always be that even if they were never initiated? COuld they still use that or would it be unseemly to do so?

I never knew that! So I'm the 292nd member of our chapter, which was nearly 40 years old when I got there. Small chapter. I wonder what they're up to now that they're the largest on campus?