Event T-shirts with Letters on Pledges?

[ASAlady]

ASA has a policy that new members may wear letters, just not the badge. When I was a new member I refrained from wearing letters; I thought it was respectful to not wear something I didn't know the entire meaning of. I purchased a letter shirt about 12 hours before my initiation and one of my sisters encouraged me to wear it at the event that night. I was hesitant but since an initiated sister told me I could, I did. No one had a problem with it (but one sister and that is because she was recently initiated and didn't realize the policy, she was later informed and it was brought up- all ASA new members can wear letters at any time).
I can understand why an org wouldn't want new members to wear letters or insignia, just for the fact that they might quit before initiation, and then letter stuff may float around and get into hands it shouldn't be in.

[AUDeltaGam]

Delta Gamma new members can wear letters as soon as they recieve their bid- their bid day shirts even have letters on it! They can also wear stiched letters (like jerseys) as well while still new members. I'm not sure about the crest, because while I was a collegian, we never had a shirt with the crest on it, so who knows.

[Tom Earp]

So, is it a General Oppion, Let New Members Wear Letters?

You all know My thoughts on this!

Show Your Name Proudly to those that done have an Idea what You are about! Recruit with The Letters and Grow!

[L.O.C.K.]

We don't allow anyone who is not an initiated to wear anything in reference to Pi Delta Psi, especially Greek Letters. Additionally, only brothers are allowed to do our call or our hand sign.

I think Jubilance1922 makes some very good points. Just because the process/protocol is different doesn't mean you need to tell us to "suck it up". While people make good points, what about comprimising and using just the Council Crests?

At GW, when we were designing the Greek Week T Shirt, I told the other council presidents that some people didn't want other people wearing their letters in that fashion. While some people thought it trivial, the other council presidents respect the decision and we went with crests. And the T shirt looked hot.

[MysticCat]

Originally posted by TSteven
If a man accepts a bid from Sigma Chi Fraternity, from that point on he is considered a Sigma Chi pledge and may wear shirts, etc., with the words "Sigma Chi" or "Sigs" but not the Greek letters Sigma Chi. This is a national regulation.

We have a similar national regulation. Only initiated brothers can wear the Greek letters FMA or the coat-of-arms. Probationary members can wear clothing with the words "Phi Mu Alpha."

[DeltAlum]

I had Delt letters on my car while I was a pledge. There weren't that many sports cars (Triumph TR-3) in town, and I think the chapter thought it was a pretty nice little piece of promotion.

(I've explained the rules above)

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally posted by jubilance1922
Ok, this is a serious comment to everyone, not just the poster I quoted. Folks love to come on GC and say "NPHC and multicultural greeks never participate in Greek Week with us! Why are you guys so anti-social?", yet you also say that you dont care what an org's protocol is, you're just gonna throw their letters on your shirt without permission. Seems disrespectful to me. If you KNOW groups who are participating don't want their letters on a shirt that non members will be wearing, why would you tell them to "just suck it up"?

What happened to respect for the way other orgs choose to run themselves? Or did that go out the window?

Keep in mind that there are NPHC tshirts with every organization's letters/symbols on them. We have protocol regarding nonmembers wearing our letters/symbols but exceptions tend to be made for Greek Week and NPHC tshirts.

NPHC groups tend not to have tshirts made for our individual events so it's rare for us to have to worry about a nonmember wearing a shirt that says "Sigma Gamma Rho 3rd annual spades tournament," for example. This is why some of us are not used to the possibility of event tshirts being made with our organizations on them.

To appease everyone, some schools put the entire names of the organizations instead of the Greek letters. I think someone else referenced that in this thread.

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally posted by georgewallace3
why would you not want to participate?

One reason has to do with small chapters. If the chapters at your school have 100 members and you have 5 members in your chapter, you will opt out of Greek Week or only do a couple of events. It's unfair for your chapter to be expected to participate when that would mean that everyone in your chapter has to make time in their schedule for it, instead of being able to have an alternating group of participants.

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally posted by DeltAlum
I had Delt letters on my car while I was a pledge. There weren't that many sports cars (Triumph TR-3) in town, and I think the chapter thought it was a pretty nice little piece of promotion.

(I've explained the rules above)

What would have happened if you did not become duly initiated for some reason? Would you just take the letters off and pretend like people hadn't already seen you promoting your membership?

[georgewallace3]

thats one reason why we dont allow our pledges to sport our letters. it would be embarassing for them if they wore it around all of the time and then didn't get initiated.

[douchebag]

Originally posted by georgewallace3
thats one reason why we dont allow our pledges to sport our letters. it would be embarassing for them if they wore it around all of the time and then didn't get initiated.

LOL. I never thought of it like that. We don't let pledges wear anything because they have to earn their letters.

[jubilance1922]

Originally posted by DSTCHAOS
Keep in mind that there are NPHC tshirts with every organization's letters/symbols on them. We have protocol regarding nonmembers wearing our letters/symbols but exceptions tend to be made for Greek Week and NPHC tshirts.

NPHC groups tend not to have tshirts made for our individual events so it's rare for us to have to worry about a nonmember wearing a shirt that says "Sigma Gamma Rho 3rd annual spades tournament," for example. This is why some of us are not used to the possibility of event tshirts being made with our organizations on them.

To appease everyone, some schools put the entire names of the organizations instead of the Greek letters. I think someone else referenced that in this thread.

I've never seen that before. Are these shirts made by NPHC for conferences or local NPHCs?

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally posted by jubilance1922
I've never seen that before. Are these shirts made by NPHC for conferences or local NPHCs?

The ones I saw were local NPHC. I have seen NPHC picnic tshirts with all our letters/symbols on them, as well as our founding or incorporation dates. These were at HBCUs.

[mulattogyrl]

Originally posted by DSTCHAOS
Keep in mind that there are NPHC tshirts with every organization's letters/symbols on them. We have protocol regarding nonmembers wearing our letters/symbols but exceptions tend to be made for Greek Week and NPHC tshirts.

Yes, I had a t-shirt like this when I was in school.

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally posted by douchebag
LOL. I never thought of it like that. We don't let pledges wear anything because they have to earn their letters.

Exactly. They have to go through the entire membership intake process and become duly initiated before they wear symbols. Anything else is presumptuous.