Question!!!!

swissmiss04 · #1 05-03-2002, 01:05 AM

I've noticed a few ladies on this board that mentioned that they were also members of Tau Beta Sigma (band fraternity). Is it not against the rules to be in SAI and another music fraternity or sorority? How does that all work out?
Roses,
Heather

RedRoseSAI · #2 05-04-2002, 04:59 PM

Hi swissmiss!

You can be an SAI and also a member of KKPsi or TBS. You can NOT, however, be an SAI and also in Delta Omicron, Phi Beta, or Mu Phi Epsilon. The latter three are professional music fraternities (similar to us), whereas KKPsi and TBS are service organization.

Hope that helps!

swissmiss04 · #3 05-07-2002, 12:58 AM

That helped a lot. We don't have any other music org here on campus except Phi Mu Alpha, and I'm not very familiar w/ KKPsi or TBS. Thanks for clearing it up for me!
Roses,
Heather

RedRoseSAI · #4 05-07-2002, 10:59 AM

No problem - it can get confusing at times!

dzsaigirl · #5 05-07-2002, 12:01 PM

Is it true that Phi Mu Alpha is going to join IFC? I heard that somewhere. That means that people would have to choose which organization to disaffiliate from if they are a member of an IFC already!

RedRoseSAI · #6 05-07-2002, 07:50 PM

I heard about that. It'll be interesting, to say the least, if that happens. Kind of makes me sad...SAI and Sinfonia have always had a special "bond" and I can't help but wonder if their switch to IFC will affect that. Too bad there aren't any brothers on GC to discuss this with.

As to choosing between an existing IFC fraternity and PMA, my guess is that if a guy is, say, PMA and also a Sigma Chi, he'll be grandfathered in, and be able to keep membership in both.

dzsaigirl · #7 05-07-2002, 07:59 PM

I know that sororities would not allow that.

FuzzieAlum · #8 05-08-2002, 12:32 PM

When the "educational" sororities (ASA, AST, and Tri-Sigma ) joined NPC, they were really hurt for numbers, because women were not allowed to be members of both, whereas they previously had been, and apparently their membership in the old NPC sororities took precedence over their membership in the former education sororities. So ... assuming that NIC works the same way as NPC, which is no guarantee ... they probably will have to give up their Phi Mu Alpha membership.

swissmiss04 · #9 05-13-2002, 02:12 PM

I posted a message on the PMA board and got a rather odd response. They said that it is a social fraternity and was founded as such. Some chapters are officially social (like, say, Sigma Chi or ATO), whereas some chapters are more professionally oriented. I know quite a few chapters have houses, but I didn't think they were a traditionally social fraternity. Go check out the thread that I started on the PMA board if you want the whole scoop!
Heather

#10 05-20-2002, 03:10 PM

RedRoseSAI -

I came over here after reading the Phi Mu Alpha board and just wanted to clear something up -

First, just to re-iterate that Phi Mu Alpha is in fact a social fraternity and not a professional one... I'd never even heard a breath otherwise until I came to this board!

Also... some chapters of Delta Omicron are social... we are sort of in the reverse situation of PMA... we were founded professional but some chapters have officially become social, whereas with PMA, they were founded social but some chapters have officially (I guess) become professional.

Just an FYI.

I'm not familiar with SAI....are you mostly located in the South?

KappaStargirl · #11 05-20-2002, 08:16 PM

SAI has chapters all over the US, but the oldest chapters (Northwestern, Lawrence U., Butler, Millikin, to name a few that are still around), are in the Midwest, since SAI was founded at the U of Michigan.

Interesting note about Sinfonia joining the NIC...my best friend, a Sinfonian at UW-Whitewater, always made it sound as though it was a combination of both (although his brothers were crazy!), I didn't realize it was founded for being social. Hmm.

RedRose- thanks for clearing that up! I wondered!

RedRoseSAI · #12 05-21-2002, 09:44 AM

Like KappaStar said, we're all over the US, although heavily concentrated in the midwest. There are also lots of chapters in the south, slightly fewer in the northeast (but still quite a bit!) and fewer still to the west. Did I read somewhere that you're transferring to UW-Madison? There is an SAI chapter there (Rho chapter).

Some other facts...
There are currently 199 ACTIVE college chapters (I know the front page of our web site says 191, but we added 8 more this year) and 114 active alumnae chapters. Total initiated membership was 96,083 as of August 2001 (so obviously, that's gone up by now).

As for Phi Mu Alpha, I'm sure by now you realize that many PMA chapters function as professional groups, rather than purely social ones. My college PMA chapter was a mix of the two.

Regarding DO, I'm a bit confused. You say that many chapters are officially social, yet according to your national web site, DO is "a professional fraternity in the field of music". Does that mean those social chapters have broken off from the national organization? Are these chapters still co-ed?

#13 05-21-2002, 10:16 AM

No, I was from UW-Whitewater a few years ago, I'll be transferring to UW-Milwaukee. KappaStar girl, who is your friend? I probably know him!!

I didn't mean to imply that the Sinfonians do not function in a professional manner... what I was referring to is that in their founding, they are a social fraternity. At many campuses, including my former one (Whitewater) they do also act in a professional aspect. I'm speaking purely in the sense of the charter.

Re: DO... this was a big to-do at our last Conference. Some chapters have officially split and become social. More commonly, chapters have un-officially (as in, not broken with Inter/national, but have voted within the chapter) decided to become a social sorority. In these chapters, I suppose if a guy wanted to pledge, he'd be welcome to go through rush, but I can't see why they would. While I was at Whitewater, we did have a guy in our chapter, but it was always very... awkward. The chapter at Whitewater has gone through a lot of changes from being primarily professional, to primarily social, and back again. As far as I know, their chapter there is all female again, although I don't know if they are acting as a primarily social group or a professional one, I haven't really kept in touch.