What happens to your new member / pledge pin when you're initiated?

aephi alum · #1 01-08-2002, 12:04 AM

OK, so all the recent pin/badge questions have me wondering... do you get to keep your new member pin when you are initiated? And if not, what happens to it? (Does your chapter keep them to give to future NMs or what?)

I remember someone saying (can't recall who offhand) that her sorority didn't let new initiates keep their NM pins.

In AEPhi we keep our new member pins... though once you're initiated you'd never really have reason to wear it. I've been wondering what to do with mine... I would make it into a pendant, except AEPhi rules expressly forbid you to make a NM pin or a badge into any other type of jewelry.

My local sorority (that later went AEPhi) gave pledge rings to all the new members. Once you were initiated, you could wear your pledge ring whenever you wished, except during a subsequent pledge class's new member period.

So I have a lot of sorority jewelry... 2 badges, a pledge ring, and a new member pin... oy

33girl · #2 01-08-2002, 12:10 AM

We give it back to the chapter. As you said, you can't wear it after initiation, and returning it saves $$$...plus we always had at least one person who lost theirs because they are SO tiny compared to our sister pins.

DukeBlue · #3 01-08-2002, 12:17 AM

I didn't get to keep my AEPhi new member pin...I had to turn it in when I got my badge.

Angels&Arrows · #4 01-08-2002, 01:20 AM

We give ours back to the chapter when we are initiated.

queequek · #5 01-08-2002, 01:33 AM

We mount them on our pledge paddles ... the shape of our pledge pins (triangle) become the deuteron of the "beta deuteron", our charge.

TriDeltaGal · #6 01-08-2002, 03:21 AM

I know at my chapter we give ours back even though I would have really liked to keep it. To me, it's a symbol of a really special period in your sorority.

CutiePie2000 · #7 01-08-2002, 04:20 AM

At Delta Gamma, you give the NM pin back. However, I am thinking of buying one to pin on a "Hannah" doll (you can do this through Anchor Trader, the "boutique" that is in our magazine, The Anchora of Delta Gamma).

It is my understanding that it is permissible for Hannah to wear the NM pin or the initiate's badge. I loved my NM pin and thought it was very beautiful in its simplicity.

The1calledTKE · #8 01-08-2002, 08:45 AM

I kept mine. We are allowed to use it as a tie pin if we want.

shadokat · #9 01-08-2002, 10:48 AM

While giving them in is a good idea, at my chapter, we get to keep our NM pins. We get ribbons for our first 2-3 weeks of NM education and then we get our NM pins. If the pins aren't in at the time of pinning, then we usually end up giving our NM pins to our little sisters to wear, but everyone gets one in the end. We wear ours with all of our other stuff (I have my NM pin, an alumnae pin, my sister badge, a crest pin, a service pin...it's like a jewelry box on my lapel

). But I didn't wear it while I was in school after my NM period. It got pinned onto my pin pillow and put into my pin box

Peaches-n-Cream · #10 01-08-2002, 11:02 AM

My answer is similar to Shadokat's. I got to keep my pledge pin after initiation. When the next pledge class was inducted, we were told by a rep that we weren't allowed to ribbon our pledges until the pledge pins arrived so I lent mine to one of the pledges. She did the unthinkable and lost it after a week.

Luckily, that weekend we had a rep from International and she replaced it. Now I have a pledge pin that I never even wore while mine was lost somewhere on campus forever.

SilverTurtle · #11 01-08-2002, 04:38 PM

We return our pledge pins to the chapter, and they are used again by the subsequent pledge class.

However, my class was uncommonly large for our school & chapter, and they had to order extras. Which didn't come in until a month after we had been initiated.

(<--- we're currently looking for a new national vendor for our jewelry!)

My class actually had 2 small ribbons, one violet & one gold, that the actives put together, and we all wore those in place of our pledge pins. That way everyone had the same thing. So my class got to keep their make-shift "pins". I actually think I still have mine with some other old Phi Beta stuff!

dzrose93 · #12 01-08-2002, 04:44 PM

Delta Zeta pledges turn their pins in when they are initiated, and the pins are used again with the next pledge class. To me, it works out well for 2 reasons: 1) it saves sisters money because they don't have to pay for a pledge pin in addition to a badge and 2) because it stays inside the chapter most of the time, there's less chance of a pledge pin being lost and winding up in a non-DZ's hands. Can you imagine someone unknowingly wearing a DZ pledge pin as a tie tack?

GammaPhiBabe · #13 01-08-2002, 05:43 PM

We return ours at initiation and they are used by the next pledge class (sorry....I mean New Member class!)

I didn't see any reason to keep it...our initiate badges are much prettier.

BrianMUDU · #14 01-08-2002, 06:30 PM

Like others said, we use the same pledge pins for each pledge class. We don't keep them after we're initiated.

aephi alum · #15 01-08-2002, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DukeBlue
I didn't get to keep my AEPhi new member pin...I had to turn it in when I got my badge.

Really? I still have mine... and IIRC, I was charged for it (something like $5). It is a really pretty pin... even though I can't really justify wearing it, I'm glad I still have it.