What's your legacy policy?
 

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Sigma Kappa considers legacies to be any of the following:

* Sisters/step-sisters
* Daughters/step-daughters
* Granddaughters/step-granddaughters
* Nieces/step-nieces

Bio or non-bio mother, grandmother, aunt, sister, etc.

So basically if you have a female in the family who is a Lambda, you're a legacy. (I ended up being a legacy by my now exAunt :) )

Also, we give special consideration for daughters of Lambda Lil Bro's.

Our policy is that a legacy is the sister, daughter, or granddaughter of an AEPhi. Those with other relationships to AEPhis (great-granddaughter, niece, etc.) are not officially recognized as legacies, but are often treated as if they were.

A legacy attending formal recruitment must be invited to the first invitational round. After that round, she can be released. If she attends preference, she must be on the first bid list.

Though I belong to a non-NPC sorority, I thought I'd chime in anyway.

In our vocabulary, a "legacy" is a daughter, grand-daughter, niece, sister or special young lady under 18. Once the young lady reaches 18, she is eligible for full membership.

Husbands, sons, and other special men in our lives qualify for "Envoy" membership. (I wonder if my SO would be classified as one?)

(bio and step)Daughters, (bio and step) Granddaughters, sisters (bio and step), allthough not directly, nieces and cousins are often given consideration based on the recomendation of their family member.

A Tri Delta legacy is any woman who is a daughter or sister of a Tri Delta. Step-daughters and step-sisters of a Tri Delta can be considered legacies, but this is completely up to the Tri Delta.

I can't really go into details regarding ADPi policy other than to say as with most of our policies, we try to be consistant with other NPC orgs. Legacies are sisters, daughters or granddaughters. "Steps" are often left up to the individual Chapter, but most say yes. Nieces aren't officially legacies.

Things have changed somewhat in recent years simply because of the sheer number of legacies going through at some Chapters. I heard that Auburn had nearly 3x Quota worth of legacies go through Recruitment last year. Yikes!

Re: What's your legacy policy?
 

Okay, I have to chime in here...I think the key is, if a relative of yours was in a sorority, what EO/HQ is looking for, is "Would that member have talked about her sorority life to you while you were growing up?"

So...if your great-grandmother was still alive for part of your life and maybe even babysat you when you were little (let's say...she lived up to when you reached 14 years...which is when a kid might start thinking about college)...then yeah, you might have heard a bit about sorority life from her and I think could be considered a "legacy". Similarly with aunts and so on.... I am pretty much a "2nd Mom" to my niece and she gets the "sorority marketing presentation" from me on occasion.

But let's say that you had a blood sister who was 20 years older than you, and she was out of the house by the time that you were born? Then, she probably would not have told you about her sorority life, and IMO, makes the legacy connection "weaker".

Similarly with Step-Moms and Step-sisters...if your step-Mom is the one who raised you, then she would have had more of an influence on you and might have told you about her sorority experiences.

To me, it boils down to, did this female relative (blood, or not) have a sustained and impactful presence in your life, or did they live 18,357 miles away and you never saw them?

Re: Re: What's your legacy policy?
 

In that case it sounds more like a..."would I be willing to tie myself to this person for the duration of their membership" or a "would I write them a glowing recommendation for membership" type of question. I would hope that if a woman you're related to but are not considered a legacy of would still write you a recommendation. In the case of TD, a "nondirect" legacy is often vouched for by their relative.

Re: Re: What's your legacy policy?
 

This seems kinda crazy to me. A good idea, yes. But, in my opinion, completely and totally unrealistic.

It's true that some PNMs who are considered legacies probably don't have a clue about the organization and others who may not be considered legacies (for example, nieces aren't considered by many organizations) may have heard stories all the time about Aunt Suzy's amazing experiences in XYZ.

But how in the world an organization's HQ could sort out those who are worthy of the designation (for lack of a better way to put it!) from those who aren't... assuming they would even take the time to do so... is beyond me. I think it's good that there's a clear-cut rule of who is and who is not a legacy. And even if a relative of a member is not designated a legacy by the organization, it doesn't mean she won't still receive a bid to that org.

Maybe I'm just jaded because, in my recruitment experience, being a legacy meant nothing. If they didn't like you, you'd be cut like anyone else.

APO, like other organizations, has an open member policy. As such, we have no 'legacy policy'. Now, I think most chapters would love to have 'legacies' pledge them, but they probably won't receive any preferred treatment.

we use the mother, daughter, grandmother method. if it's a step or the woman was adopted, i think we are supposed to ask the sister how she would like us to handle it. if she considers her step a "full daughter" we will count her as a legacy. i guess if our member adopts a daughter or marries someone with kids when the kids are older and the member may not want to extend the legacy "privilege." i've never used this, so i'm not sure how this actually works.

With respect to Sigma Chi Fraternity, a legacy is a son, brother or nephew. Other family relations often hold weight as well. Such as cousins, grandfathers, and brother-in-laws.

Since most chapters do not operate within a quota or total system - unless self imposed - extending a bid to a legacy does not *take away* a spot from any other gentleman and usually affords him (the legacy) consideration for membership by the chapter. Now having said that, the legacy in question must be worthy of the bid in and on his own right.