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Honorary Memberships
We occasionally confer honorary membership on someone who is not a regularly initiated undergraduate but this is usually for some distinguished service to the chapter, the fraternity, the university, or perhaps a person who has done something really significant, like the Governor of New York after 9/11. (I believe the Mayor was already an initiated Greek).
My Dad tells me that when he was an undergrad there used to be a category of membership where someone who got along well with the chapter but for some reason could not join in the regular way could become a Social Affiliate or Social Associate (slight differences from house to house). Anyway, they were called "Soch-A's" or "S.A.'s" and were considered if not like a brother then like a first cousin. They paid partial dues, contributed to the social fund and attended just about all the functions, but could not sit in/vote in chapter. They did not wear the badge but could wear slightly differenced letters like on sweat shirts or jerseys.
I understand this would happen if two shcools were located close by in the same area but only one had a chapter and the schools did not allow cross-over memberships. Sometimes a Social Affiliate would be initiated (with permission from International HQ) right after graduation and sometimes the work around was to have the SA enroll for a course during summer session and run them through the process then. A lot of SA's were never initiated but just hung out with the chapter. I never saw this as an undergrad but I hear that a number of houses still do this as a means to involve good candidates who for some reason can't come in through the usual means. I don't see how this could be available to an initiated member of another National but it might apply to members of locals. Also, I'm sure that if a member of XYZ transferred to a school where his house was not present he could hook up with the guys in another house that he got along with well and simply be accepted as a regular guest without being an actual part of the membership. Anybody else heard about this? Please join in. My info is second-hand and possibly out of date.
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