Alumni Initiation?

[houstonchica]

I was wondering if any of you are familiar with alumni initiation? My husband pledged Pi Kappa Alpha in 1981 but was never initiated. His grandfather was a prominent Pike at the University of Georgia. ( My dad was a Pike too- at UNC-Chapel Hill in the 50's). If any of you can give me any insight on the process, I'd really appreciate it.

thanks!

Andrea

[mattpike]

you see you have to be initiated into the fraternity before you can be initiated as alumni. other than that i cannt give you any info on it. what happens in the meeting stays in the meetings. but if you were to talk to the local chapter or better yet his chapter, you may work something out. sometimes people can be special initiated, because they have provided years of service and dedication to the fraternity. and the have established theirselfs in their community. sorry i cannt be of more assistance.

[KEPike]

Originally posted by houstonchica
I was wondering if any of you are familiar with alumni initiation? My husband pledged Pi Kappa Alpha in 1981 but was never initiated. His grandfather was a prominent Pike at the University of Georgia. ( My dad was a Pike too- at UNC-Chapel Hill in the 50's). If any of you can give me any insight on the process, I'd really appreciate it.

thanks!

Andrea

Special initiations are normally reserved for, as Matt said, men who have become involved with a specific chapter or who have some tie back to the community, university, etc. of some significance. For example, chapters oftentimes special initiate faculty members on their campus who are supporters of the fraternity.

My advice to your husband would be to (re) establish contact with the chapter he was at and with some of his friends who got initiated at that time. If you have other alums who can "recommend" a man for special initiation to a chapter, then his chances will be increased.

And just for the record with the application to special initiate someone it asks if said man has ever pledged PiKA. I don't know if that effects how the Supreme Council votes on the dispensation, but it is reviewed.

Hope this helps.

[coastalpike]

This is very similiar to an event that occured at our chapter about 2 years ago. We received a phone call from an alumni brother from High Point who said that him and all of his fraternity brothers from High Point were coming down to Myrtle Beach for their annual golf week. One of the men that has been coming with them for the past 20 years pledged with all of them but was never initiated because of grades. So they asked us if they could suprise him and have him specially initiated. We checked it out with nationals and they said to go ahead with it and that the man was a pledge over 20 years ago. It was one of the best experiences our chapter has had to see this man who has been haunted over the last 20 years about being the only one never initiated, finally become initiated into our beloved fraternity.

[mattpike]

we had one a few years back. one of the pledges grandfather helped us out a lot by letting us use his land for some of our parties and functions such as floatbuilding and pledge functions. he always helped us out whenever we needed and made sure everything was taken care of. even after his grandson was no longer active he still helped us out so we special initiated him. he was so happy. he never went to college and never got a chance to experience what we had so this was his chance to get a little taste of it. he is a wonderful man.