Letters on Bid Day???

[cuteASAbug]

Originally Posted by angelove

At least in the mid-80's when I was an active, it WAS Pi Phi's international policy not to allow pledges to wear letters, it said so in the pledge manual. I guess changed internationally a few years later. We also weren't allowed to wear the arrow (not just the badge, but any arrow) but I don't remember if that was just our chapter or an international thing. Time to get the old pledge manual out of the attic.

was your new member different back then?

[carnation]

Originally Posted by angelove

At least in the mid-80's when I was an active, it WAS Pi Phi's international policy not to allow pledges to wear letters, it said so in the pledge manual. I guess changed internationally a few years later. We also weren't allowed to wear the arrow (not just the badge, but any arrow) but I don't remember if that was just our chapter or an international thing. Time to get the old pledge manual out of the attic.

Wow! Y'all couldn't wear arrows?

I had to have a T-shirt specially made that spelled out Pi Beta Phi because I wanted to shout out to the world that I was a Pi Phi! And back in the day, people usually wore their letter shirts only in their GLO's colors, so I remember when we ordered our first letter shirts right before initiation and it was a big deal:do I choose wine with light blue or blue with wine? Or maybe be really radical-haha!-and choose light blue with white!

One pledge sister accidentally bleached hers and she was the only girl in our chapter to sport a lavender letter shirt.

[angelove]

Originally Posted by cuteASAbug

was your new member different back then?

Not sure exactly what you mean, but everything was different back then. Pledgeship (now known as "new member period") was at least a semester long, usually not initiated until Feb after pledging in August. Frills rush, scavenger hunts, initiation in the order of your gpa, etc.

We couldn't even write the greek letters or draw an arrow. I don't know if this was just our chapter, but we couldn't even have anything with letters or an arrow on it. Seems kind of harsh, but I never seemed to really mind as a pledge. I just looked forward to being able to wear them after initiation.

[cuteASAbug]

Originally Posted by angelove

Not sure exactly what you mean, but everything was different back then. Pledgeship (now known as "new member period") was at least a semester long, usually not initiated until Feb after pledging in August. Frills rush, scavenger hunts, initiation in the order of your gpa, etc.

We couldn't even write the greek letters or draw an arrow. I don't know if this was just our chapter, but we couldn't even have anything with letters or an arrow on it. Seems kind of harsh, but I never seemed to really mind as a pledge. I just looked forward to being able to wear them after initiation.

I thought the Pi Phi new member pin is an arrow?

[carnation]

Originally Posted by angelove

Not sure exactly what you mean, but everything was different back then. Pledgeship (now known as "new member period") was at least a semester long, usually not initiated until Feb after pledging in August. Frills rush, scavenger hunts, initiation in the order of your gpa, etc.

We couldn't even write the greek letters or draw an arrow. I don't know if this was just our chapter, but we couldn't even have anything with letters or an arrow on it. Seems kind of harsh, but I never seemed to really mind as a pledge. I just looked forward to being able to wear them after initiation.

I just remembered that for prefs, we were given an arrow lavaliere. But you're right, it was so wonderful to finally be able to wear the letters and crest! After initiation, we raced to our cars to slap on crest decals!

[angelove]

The new member pin is actually a dart, so not technically an arrow. We did have a wooden arrow (kind of like a paddle) that we would have all of the initiated sisters sign, then we turned it in before Christmas break and then got it back after initiation all decorated.

It was kind of funny because all of our event tshirts for the whole chapter would have Pi Beta Phi spelled out so that everyone could wear them, then once initiation came around all of the tshirts would have greek letters on them.

And yes, I remember I couldn't wait to put the decals on my car! And find a piece of paper so I could write out the greek letters!

[honeychile]

We got our first "official" letter shirts during Friendship Week, but there was never a problem with wearing them prior to then. We did, however, have to wear our pledge pins at ALL times - even to bed!

[aephi alum]

Alpha Epsilon Phi does not allow anyone other than an initiated sister to wear the Greek letters. New members, significant others, et al can wear shirts that say "Alpha Epsilon Phi" spelled out, or "AEPhi", but not the Greek letters. We waste no time giving our new members bid day gifts and ribbons, but they have to wait until initiation to wear the letters.

A number of NPC sororities don't allow new members to own anything with the crest. AEPhi's new member pin actually is the crest, slightly modified to remove the Greek letters.

You say tomayto, I say tomahto.

[DUKyleXY]

Pi Phis,
I think I read somewhere that the "tradition" of new members not wearing Beta was because the pledge pin only had the Pi and Phi on it. This supposedly lead to the idea that Beta was reserved for initiated sisters.

I could be wrong, but I think thats what was on the chapter website for my schools Pi Phi Chapter. Then again, they also have a lot of chapter traditions and even a song that is only sung in the Iowa Chapters...its really funny to watch!

[PiPhiERDoc]

[QUOTE=DUKyleXY;1521386]Pi Phis,
I think I read somewhere that the "tradition" of new members not wearing Beta was because the pledge pin only had the Pi and Phi on it. This supposedly lead to the idea that Beta was reserved for initiated sisters.

Actually, the pledge pin is an arrowhead with just the BETA on it - not the Pi or the Phi. From the Pi Beta Phi Webpage:
"The pledge pin is an arrowhead of Roman gold mounted with the Greek letter B (Beta) in burnished gold."

[PhoenixAzul]

Preface: I'm an alumna of a local sorority, so NPC rules sort of go out the window.

We do not wear letters until after initiation. Pledges (yes, we still use the P word) may wear Tau Delta written out, wear the mascot, wear the colors, and wear the motto. Our crest rarely makes it on to clothing (it's really intricate) but I think that, again, may only be worn by initiated members.

It's a big deal to get your letters right after initiation, and actives go all out for them.

[ISUKappa]

New members of Kappa Kappa Gamma are allowed to wear everything except the fraternity badge from the time they accept their bid. Individual new member classes may choose not to wear letters until after initiation, but there is no fraternity-wide bylaw against it.

In fact, in reading through our bylaws, it seems the only thing restricted to initiated members is the badge.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by ISUKappa

Individual new member classes may choose not to wear letters until after initiation, but there is no fraternity-wide bylaw against it.

I remember being at a rush party (not ASA) and the girl rushing me told me that NM WERE allowed to wear letters, but ALL pledge classes have ALWAYS voted not to. In other words, Nationals says we have to let you, but we're not going to, anyway.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by DUKyleXY

Pi Phis,
I think I read somewhere that the "tradition" of new members not wearing Beta was because the pledge pin only had the Pi and Phi on it. This supposedly lead to the idea that Beta was reserved for initiated sisters.

Originally Posted by PiPhiERDoc

Actually, the pledge pin is an arrowhead with just the BETA on it - not the Pi or the Phi. From the Pi Beta Phi Webpage:
"The pledge pin is an arrowhead of Roman gold mounted with the Greek letter B (Beta) in burnished gold."

If I had to guess (and that's all it would be), I would guess that the idea that NMs can't wear the Beta comes from the nickname "Pi Phi." It would be sort of like the rule in many GLOs (including mine) that pledges/NMs/probationary members cannot wear the Greek letters but can wear a shirt with the name spelled out in Latin letters. (E.g., FMA = not okay, but "Phi Mu Alpha" = okay.)

I can see how somewhere along the line, someone said "it's okay to use the nickname Pi Phi prior to initiation, but the actual formal name -- Pi Beta Phi -- like the coat-of-arms, has to wait until after initiation." Then someone else infers that because the NMs never wear the Beta, it must be a Pi Phi rule or tradition that NMs can't or shouldn't wear the Beta.

Like I said, just a guess.

[SthrnZeta]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

I remember being at a rush party (not ASA) and the girl rushing me told me that NM WERE allowed to wear letters, but ALL pledge classes have ALWAYS voted not to. In other words, Nationals says we have to let you, but we're not going to, anyway.

Yeah, that's pretty much how my chapter did it too.