Quote:
Originally posted by saisandy
After reading the responses, I decided to send a reply. SAI is a profesional women's fraternity, not because of our title or name but because of our classification. SAI belongs to PFA, Professional Fraternities Association, not individual chapters. There are 5 traditional classifications; Professional, Secret, Social, Service, and Honorary. From what I understand one person may only be in one of each, and nor more than that. But I have no proof of that. I wish I could give a better answer, (all my SAI stuff is at my apartment) but I know for a fact that we are professional, you know the best person to ask if not your PO would be Ruth, I swear the woman knows everything! Hope it helps
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Actually....
SAI cannot be classified as professional. We were up until Title 9 came along. Because of it, any fraternity classified as professional or service had two options: go coed, or change status. Two music fraternites (Mu Phi Epsilon and Delta Omicron) DID become coed--and are still classified and referred to as a professional fraternity/sorority. From my understanding, Phi Mu Alpha admitted women for a short period in the 70's when they switched to professional for a while. SAI, however, changed status from professional to keep our single-sex status.
Although like I mentioned before, I think honestly, we function as a mix of social and professional.
But, it is incorrect that we are technically professional--we are not. I promise. I did a lot of research because I noticed how no official publication from SAI refers to itself as SAI professional music fraternity for women, but simply as a music fraternity for women. This is why.
Like MysticCat quoted earlier, to become exempt, SAI stated that our purpose was "... to foster interest in music and to promote social contact among persons sharing a general interest in that art form rather than to prepare persons for professional endeavors relating to music." If you think about this, it is exactly right. SAI is more about enjoying music, promoting it, sharing our gift of music with others, etc than it is for preparing us to become professional musicians. Yes, I know there are scholarships and such for people with those aims, but if you look at your chapter activities, you'll see that this is true. Which, to be honest, I think is the best way for us to be, this way we can include a wider diversity of women in our sisterhood.
Side note: yes, Ruth DOES know everything! She's awesome! And also, good to see you posting again!
Love and roses,
sairose