Letters on Bid Day???

[SthrnZeta]

I know in ZTA, it's in the bylaws that we can't wear the crest but letters have a lot of meaning too, so I believed (along with the rest of my pledge class) that we shouldn't wear them and we actually were upset with other chapters on campus for allowing their NMs to wear them. I also feel very strongly that you shouldn't get those little lettered booty shorts because you're essentially sitting on your letters. Maybe I feel strongly about this since I was Ritual Chair...

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by SthrnZeta

I know in ZTA, it's in the bylaws that we can't wear the crest but letters have a lot of meaning too, so I believed (along with the rest of my pledge class) that we shouldn't wear them and we actually were upset with other chapters on campus for allowing their NMs to wear them. I also feel very strongly that you shouldn't get those little lettered booty shorts because you're essentially sitting on your letters. Maybe I feel strongly about this since I was Ritual Chair...

I agree about the buttshorts, but you can't hold another org to your standards. As 33girl said, ASA has FOUR meanings...one open, and three closed. Since pledges already know the open one, I don't think it's fair to say that they don't know what the letters mean, and shouldn't wear them.

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

As 33girl said, ASA has FOUR meanings...one open, and three closed.

Dang, stop hogging ALL the secrets! LOL

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Dang, stop hogging ALL the secrets! LOL

It's a FOUR thing, you know.

Four meanings.
Four Exemplars.
Four colors.
Four aims.

[SthrnZeta]

FSU, I know there's nothing official about wearing letters, it was definitely a chapter thing, and I stress again it was a pledge class vote. Alpha Phi class (my class) just chose to go with tradition was all. We had plenty of other Zeta stuff to wear, just not the stitched letters. We got tons of shirts from our Crown, Strawberry, and Bunny sisters before we got our big and then our big gave us stuff too. And my family tradition was to give our family letters to sisters at initiation, along with the crest afghan (something I started, my big gave me chapter letters which they later changed the colors of, but oh well).

[FSUZeta]

it is a neat tradition and certainly today is much easier to comply with than when i was a pledge and letter jerseys were the only things that we had. can you tell that i am jealous of all the cute t-shirts that sororities have now?

[SthrnZeta]

It's not as big a deal as I guess I made it sound! Wow, didn't mean for this thread to get so heated! My chapter just placed more meaning on wearing letters than others and so we made it easy for the NMs to not wear them until initiation. It gave us something to look forward to besides just the ritual of initiaton because wearing letters was a big deal at my school. We all understood and agreed with the tradition of waiting. It was by no means a rule and we just felt as strongly as our older sisters did about it.

[Drolefille]

Sigma Kappa NMs also wear the letters on their NM pin so it makes sense to me that there's no prohibition on wearing letters before initiation.

Realistically, many times when you join an organization you get something that labels you a member, a T-shirt, a membership card, etc. How many new members know what it really means to be a member of their new organization? How much work will be involved? What it stands for? Not knowing secrets of a sorority don't mean you don't want to yourself up to the highest standards in its name. Wearing the pin or the letters serves as a reminder of that.

I agree with a previous comment that a pledge class just doesn't go along with tradition unknowingly. Actives pass that along.

[33girl]

First off, I would never tell anyone from another org that he/she is in the wrong not letting someone wear letters/crests/colors before initiation. They know the meanings behind them, I don't. By the same token, I wouldn't say someone is wrong TO let their pledges wear them.

I don't know, it just seems like the more we stress no hazing, the more rules like this pop up. During Derby Days, we (as in all the sororities on my campus) let the Sigma Chis who were our coaches wear our jackets. No one thought a thing of it. There's even a pic in our yearbook of 2 sororities wearing each others' coats at Greek Week. From the sounds of things, that would provoke a full-scale riot today.