If you could design an AI program.........

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by breathesgelatin

Also I think a lot of times the collegiate chapter doesn't have much of a choice about initiating alums. At least in my experience. The chapter gets to take a vote, but in most cases refusing to initiate the selected individual (who has already been vetted by the alum club by the time it gets sent to the chapter) would be extremely awkward and uncomfortable and make for hard feelings. Especially, as it often is, if it is a family member of an advisor or something.

It seem to me that this highlights the distinction (or what should be the distinction) between AI and honorary initiation.

For us at least (granted, not NPC or an NIC fraternity), only a collegiate chapter, the National Executive Committee or the National Assembly can initiate. A chapter can, by 3/4 vote, choose to initiate an honorary member; that decision has to be approved in writing by the province governor. A chapter cannot initiate more than two honoraries in one year unless the National President gives written permission otherwise. So far as I know, the honorary initiate is never informed that honorary initiation is even being considered until after the province governor has given approval -- there's no seeking it or vetting candidates for it, other than the chapter's own decision-making.

Per our national website, we've initiated 1,700 honorary members in our 110 years -- an average of 15+ per year. Some of them would have already been brothers who were made honorary members of a chapter other than the chapter that first initiated them.

We did once allow alumni chapters to initiate, but that was done away with some decades ago. And we don't usually have the advisor problem. While we are always required to have a faculty advisor, there will usually be brothers on the music faculty. We do allow faculty/staff members of the sheltering institution to pledge and be initiated as collegiate members; they can then immediately transfer to alum status. If we colonize somewhere that there is not a brother to serve as advisor to the faculty, then the man who serves as advisor to the colony is initiated along with the colony.

I'll admit that I like the way we have it now. I have no problem with occasional and appropriate honorary initiations, or with allowing the occasional initiation of faculty/staff members. But otherwise, I think a brother should pledge and be initiated in college.

[breathesgelatin]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

It seem to me that this highlights the distinction (or what should be the distinction) between AI and honorary initiation.

For us at least (granted, not NPC or an NIC fraternity), only a collegiate chapter, the National Executive Committee or the National Assembly can initiate. A chapter can, by 3/4 vote, choose to initiate an honorary member; that decision has to be approved in writing by the province governor. A chapter cannot initiate more than two honoraries in one year unless the National President gives written permission otherwise. So far as I know, the honorary initiate is never informed that honorary initiation is even being considered until after the province governor has given approval -- there's no seeking it or vetting candidates for it, other than the chapter's own decision-making.

Per our national website, we've initiated 1,700 honorary members in our 110 years -- an average of 15+ per year. Some of them would have already been brothers who were made honorary members of a chapter other than the chapter that first initiated them.

We did once allow alumni chapters to initiate, but that was done away with some decades ago. And we don't usually have the advisor problem. While we are always required to have a faculty advisor, there will usually be brothers on the music faculty. We do allow faculty/staff members of the sheltering institution to pledge and be initiated as collegiate members; they can then immediately transfer to alum status. If we colonize somewhere that there is not a brother to serve as advisor to the faculty, then the man who serves as advisor to the colony is initiated along with the colony.

I'll admit that I like the way we have it now. I have no problem with occasional and appropriate honorary initiations, or with allowing the occasional initiation of faculty/staff members. But otherwise, I think a brother should pledge and be initiated in college.

Interesting. Pi Phi is the same. Only a collegiate chapter or Grand Council can initiate. This strikes me, again, as one of the main distinctions between the NPC AI programs and the NPHC graduate intake programs. Alum clubs in the NPC can't, or at least generally can't, initiate members. So they have to rely on the collegiate chapters to initiate. In the past, when most AIs/honorary initiations were either occurring A) at convention B) at the installation of a new chapter C) by a chapter honoring a volunteer/advisor/house mother, that was not really a problem. Now that alum clubs are selecting AIs... it is a more awkward situation.

I'll go on and say that when my chapter initiated an AI many of the members were confused about why we were doing it. I was President at that point and had to explain what AI even was. We approved it because she was the daughter of our regional advisor and it was an honor for us to be asked to initiate her instead of another chapter, and because the Northern Virginia Alum Club gave her their strong recommendation. But many members were confused about why we were being asked to initiate her, what an AI was, why we should do this, etc. It was not really a case where this person had volunteered extensively for Pi Phi, or that our chapter knew this person or anything; moreso it was a case where the person felt a strong affinity for Pi Phi, being a multiple legacy, and wished to get involved. Incidentally, our house mother was already a collegiate initiate of Pi Phi so there wasn't any need to AI her.

[SWTXBelle]

AIs in Gamma Phi have to be recommended or sponsored by an alumnae group. I believe the thinking is that the AI will be active with the alumnae group, so it makes sense that the alumnae group "sponsor". So in my experience, when a collegiate chapter wishes to recommend someone for AI, they do so thorugh the alumnae chapter with which they work. The alumnae chapter does the paperwork and the member education, while the collegiate chapter does the initiation. I have no idea how it works for those initiated at Convention.

[33girl]

The problem is that there isn't always a clear "pairing" of collegiate chapter and alumnae chapter. There are chapter associations, created specifically to support a specific college chapter, but not all groups have them. (I think that all groups should but that is another thread. )

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by breathesgelatin

Alum clubs in the NPC can't, or at least generally can't, initiate members. So they have to rely on the collegiate chapters to initiate. In the past, when most AIs/honorary initiations were either occurring A) at convention B) at the installation of a new chapter C) by a chapter honoring a volunteer/advisor/house mother, that was not really a problem. Now that alum clubs are selecting AIs... it is a more awkward situation.

Ah, and see that's the part of it we don't have. Our alum associations don't select, recommend or sponsor honoraries. A member of an alum association (like any other alumnus or collegiate brother in good standing) could recommend someone to the NEC for initiation as a national honorary initiate, and an alum member could, I suppose, suggest to a collegiate chapter that the chapter consider someone for honorary initiation. But alumni associations, as such, have no role in the process at all. It's completely a chapter's decision (with the province governor's approval) or the NEC's decision.