what do i have to give back?

[susan314]

Originally Posted by tld221

recruitment for ALL greek orgs are 24/7, whether it is programs/events held or merely eating lunch with your sisters in the caf. and i can understand people seeing their friends with letters and saying "oh thats cool, maybe i should join." but we all know you dont need to wear letters to represent your org. especially if you JUST joined.

i compare it to being an athlete who gets a medal BEFORE they finish competing. who knows what they will place, if at all. you get the perks of saying "i'm a gold/silver/bronze medalist in _________" before you actually did it. i just feel like having the rights to letters that early on gives less of an "i earned these letters" mentality. unless such doesnt exist within NPC - is that right?

When I initiated into my NPC group in 1992, we were not permitted to wear letters during our pledge period. We could wear the words spelled out (i.e. - Alpha Gam or Alpha Gamma Delta), but not the Greek letters.

Things changed at some point around the time I was graduating. NPC groups (or at least the decision makers) took the stance that not allowing new members to wear the Greek letters was a form of hazing. This was also around the same time where the term "new member" vs. "pledge" was starting to be implemented. Therefore, in my own chapter and in other groups on our campus, new members were permitted to wear the Greek letters.

At the time, I wasn't terribly fond of the change. (After all, its human nature to resist change!) However, now that I reflect on it with a few more years perspective...the reason I respected my organization and wanted to uphold the standards of membership as a pledge wasn't to earn the opportunity to wear the letters. It was because I respected my sisters, our history (both on an individual chapter level and on the International level), our Purpose. Not being permitted to wear the Greek letters really didn't have much bearing on my actions one way or the other.

The meaning and symbolism of the Greek letters is explained to us at Initiation, and that's the important part. Anyone can walk into a Greek store and buy a lettered item, or obtain it by other purposes. (As evidenced by the fact that there was an old man who was frequently spotted picking through dumpsters at my campus, and he always wore a Sigma Delta Tau hat. Certainly the Sigma Delta Tau pledges at our campus had more of a right to wear their letters than he did. )

I personally found it more meaningful to learn all of the secret meanings of the symbols and letters at initiation, than finally being able to wear a lettered sweatshirt. (Again, this is after 15 years perspective since initiating - as I mentioned, I griped along with everyone else when the changes started happening. )

[AlexMack]

Originally Posted by susan314

When I initiated into my NPC group in 1992, we were not permitted to wear letters during our pledge period. We could wear the words spelled out (i.e. - Alpha Gam or Alpha Gamma Delta), but not the Greek letters.

Things changed at some point around the time I was graduating. NPC groups (or at least the decision makers) took the stance that not allowing new members to wear the Greek letters was a form of hazing. This was also around the same time where the term "new member" vs. "pledge" was starting to be implemented. Therefore, in my own chapter and in other groups on our campus, new members were permitted to wear the Greek letters.

At the time, I wasn't terribly fond of the change. (After all, its human nature to resist change!) However, now that I reflect on it with a few more years perspective...the reason I respected my organization and wanted to uphold the standards of membership as a pledge wasn't to earn the opportunity to wear the letters. It was because I respected my sisters, our history (both on an individual chapter level and on the International level), our Purpose. Not being permitted to wear the Greek letters really didn't have much bearing on my actions one way or the other.

I personally found it more meaningful to learn all of the secret meanings of the symbols and letters at initiation, than finally being able to wear a lettered sweatshirt. (Again, this is after 15 years perspective since initiating - as I mentioned, I griped along with everyone else when the changes started happening. )

See we were permitted, but discouraged not to. This was due to chapter tradition. I'll probably have to explain this a little. In my chapter, we have two 'families'. Your big/lil family and your mom/daughter family (since changed to sigma/kappa). You get your big right after pledging in and she's there through the whole pledging process. Our mom/daughter is like everyone else's big/lil in a way. You don't find out who your mom is until I-week. It's your mom who gives you your first letters. So we were told that if we want to go out and buy lettered stuff, go ahead, but it would kind of be wrecking tradition and the surprise on I-week. Naturally none of us went crazy and we all waited.

Actually I was told that I couldn't even use the greek letters in my AIM profile or anything like that. My big was the chapter president and she asked why all our letters were disappearing from our profiles. I told her and she was livid and said if we wanted to use them we could because we were members now.