Badge Trends? - Page 4

Munchkin03 · #46 10-30-2009, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smile_Awhile

My badge is the basic: 3 pearls in yellow gold. Most girls in my chapter have yellow gold badges. The main reason for this, in my opinion, is our new member pin. We're allowed to wear both our new member pin and our badge together, and there is no option for a white gold new member pin. Most of the girls of our chapters want their pins to match!

Is the 3-pearl the "basic"? I am under the belief that the 22-pearl is still the "standard" for most chapters, and that the 3-pearl is an alternative to the standard--not the other way around. The 3-pearl option has only been around for a few years; I don't even think it was around when I was a collegian.

AZTheta · #47 10-30-2009, 03:32 PM

Double posting, my bad - but wanted to say:

"After all of this badge discussion, I pulled mine out just to look at it. Maybe I should dress up a little and wear it today just cause I can!"
Quoting LucyKKG

Miss Lucy, please know that I enjoy "dressing up" and wearing my badge to work. It's amazing amazing how many people recognize it and open up about their own Greek experience! :-) In March there is even a national "wear your badge" day, I believe.

SthrnZeta · #48 10-30-2009, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AzTheta

Double posting, my bad - but wanted to say:

"After all of this badge discussion, I pulled mine out just to look at it. Maybe I should dress up a little and wear it today just cause I can!"
Quoting LucyKKG

Miss Lucy, please know that I enjoy "dressing up" and wearing my badge to work. It's amazing amazing how many people recognize it and open up about their own Greek experience! :-) In March there is even a national "wear your badge" day, I believe.

Yep, International NPC Badge Day! Happens every year in March

There's also your org's founders' day!

LucyKKG · #49 10-30-2009, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AzTheta

Double posting, my bad - but wanted to say:

"After all of this badge discussion, I pulled mine out just to look at it. Maybe I should dress up a little and wear it today just cause I can!"
Quoting LucyKKG

Miss Lucy, please know that I enjoy "dressing up" and wearing my badge to work. It's amazing amazing how many people recognize it and open up about their own Greek experience! :-) In March there is even a national "wear your badge" day, I believe.

Yup! I definitely wore my badge on the last two NPC Badge Days. And yeah, SthrnZeta, founder's day, too! Our Founder's Day just passed and March is a long ways away, so maybe I'll make an exception today.

Psi U MC Vito · #50 10-30-2009, 04:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SthrnZeta

Yep, International NPC Badge Day! Happens every year in March

There's also your org's founders' day!

I really wish NIC did this as well.

ComradesTrue · #51 10-30-2009, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AzTheta

Ah, visual cues. Thanks AzTheta!

In my chapter everyone ordered a badge, and we each selected the style that we wanted. Most went with the standard badge and plain guard, but there were a few that went with pearls. While we paid for the badges separately from any sort of initiation fee, I just don't remember it being an option to not order one.

On my campus, at that time, all sorority women wore badge attire all day on Mondays, the day of our chapter meetings. That was also back when pledgeships were an entire semester, so as pledges we had 4 months of watching the older members sport their beautiful badges- in classes, around campus, etc. By the time that we were able to order ours we couldn't turn the check in fast enough. In addition, every sorority woman would wear their badge for all rounds of recruitment. To not order a badge is such a foreign thought to me.

Like I said, I ordered the plain gold badge with guard, which came with my initials and the date of initiation. I don't think that white gold was an option back then, and I must admit that I am partial to the true gold since that is one of our colors. I have since rescued 2 pearl badges from the 1920s off of eBay, and I plan to get a blinged out larger badge before convention next year. Each badge has special meaning to me, and it is sometimes difficult to decide which one to wear. Lucky for me convention is four days, so I will be able to wear one each day.

DartmouthPanhel · #52 10-30-2009, 04:57 PM

I absolutely LOVE all the new AXiD Quill options! I still think plain, diamonds and pearls are a really nice "classxi" option, but the colored stones are so fun!

Our chapter definitely stuck to the simple, un-jeweled quills in gold or silver. I think it was mainly a financial reason, or as new members they weren't sure how much they were going to wear their quills. Chapter guards and dangles were unheard of.

I just bought a vintage quill on Ebay that I think was custom or altered. Hopefully I can inspire some badge-lust in some of my chapter sisters.

Smile_Awhile · #53 10-30-2009, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Is the 3-pearl the "basic"? I am under the belief that the 22-pearl is still the "standard" for most chapters, and that the 3-pearl is an alternative to the standard--not the other way around. The 3-pearl option has only been around for a few years; I don't even think it was around when I was a collegian.

In my chapter, it is considered the basic. The cost of the "basic" badge is included in our new member dues, unless you choose to go for a more embellished option.

According to this, the 3 pearl option came about in 1995. Most of our advisory board consists of younger alumnae, so the three pearl is rather standard at my chapter. There are several "vintage" style badges owned by the women in our chapter, but they are in the minority. I've only seen badges from other chapters a handful of times, at this point in my life.

Barbie's_Rush · #54 10-30-2009, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chopperdude

My guys get the plain badge as it is figured in to our initiation fees. Man, there are some very nice pins out there.

Back again so soon, TOM EARP?

thetygerlily · #55 10-30-2009, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smile_Awhile

In my chapter, it is considered the basic. The cost of the "basic" badge is included in our new member dues, unless you choose to go for a more embellished option.

The word "standard" muddles things up I think. Sometimes standard means least-embellished or plain, and other times it means classic/typical.

[warning, comment barage ahead as I catch up]:

Amanda- The AXiD badge with blue & blue sapphires is so pretty! I'm jealous of the blue and blue.

AnchorAlumna- that's a great idea to add the basic badge cost to initiation fees. It works for the men, so why not the women? Especially if there seems to be some apathy. I'll have to remember that little tip if I ever come across it in an advisory capacity.

AZ-AlphaXi- The colony pins are so interesting! It's really cool that you get to keep them and use them as a guard. Adds a really nice personal touch, too.

SidneyK- I agree in theory, "plain" badges shouldn't have a stigma against them. I can see how that could come up in some chapters though where everyone was getting xyz jeweled badges and one person couldn't afford it and got plain, which then puts the association for all future plain badges that they couldn't afford the jeweled one- rather than that she CHOSE the plain one. Sometimes I really admire the "plain" badges without jewels- the plain gold Kappa key has a little something that the jeweled keys don't. Something in the styling of the gold, I think, I can't quite figure it out. But I'm a color person and sapphires are my birthstone, so I went the jeweled route.

AZTheta- Thanks for sharing some of the Theta varieties- for some reason the different jewel options seem more apparent on Theta badges, and I can't decide which one I like most! Although the custom one you were hoping for would definitely be high on the list, that was absolutely stunning.

SthrnZeta- I'm not sure about big sis dangles, for Kappa at least... dangles do exist but I don't see them as frequently as I do for other orgs. My guess is it's mostly chapter by chapter, and you could probably do whatever you want!

Psi U MC Vito- I totally agree, it would be great if the men did a badge day as well. Sometimes all the "formalities" of NPC has its perks, and badge day is definitely one of them! I don't know many men who wear their badges to non-Greek events after college, but I don't know if that's the men I happen to know or perhaps because there isn't a gentle prodding from higher ups to represent.

And that's enough of my long-winded-ness for the moment. I am loving these posts, seeing all the different badges and options- and reading the comments about different traditions/thoughts! Keep them coming, especially with pictures

I could look at these all day.

AZ-AlphaXi · #56 10-30-2009, 06:05 PM

If anyone is interested .. here's the link to see all our lovely new badge options ...

http://www.alphaxidelta.org/index.ph...ategory=Badges

I got one of the tri-color ( light blue aquamarine and dark blue and yellow sapphires) in a tiffany setting at convention. I love having the new colored stones as options.

FSUZeta · #57 10-30-2009, 07:30 PM

sthrnzeta, ooh, i never thought about multiple big sister dangles. i think it should be whatever you want.

Leslie Anne · #58 10-30-2009, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SydneyK

I like the jeweled ones, too. But there's a difference, I think, between preferring one type for yourself and judging (i.e. shaking heads at) a sister's pin choice.

I hope this wasn't directed at my UCLA comment. I think I need to clarify. It wasn't that they chose to go with the standard one included in the initiation fees. What saddened me was that they didn't respect their badges and didn't care enough about them to even wear them to meeting.

That's kind of why I don't really like having the badge included in the initiation fee. Yes, it makes sure that each sister has a badge. That's great. But if the initiation fee were lowered and each new sister had to choose their badge then at least they would have invested some time and thought into it.

Psi U MC Vito · #59 10-30-2009, 07:53 PM

About the badge being part of the intiation fee is this. I noticed that there seems to be more variation in jeweling badges for sororities. Fraternity badges tend to be either plan or jeweled the exact same way. Like that badge I mentioned, I have no idea if that was allowed but it had to have been custom made since I never seen anything like it.

BabyPiNK_FL · #60 10-30-2009, 08:05 PM

My chapter never gave me an option and my pledge class has the basic gold filled badge. Even sadder is that the pledge classes below and above us have chased edges and we never knew why that was that out badge was not as "pretty". Now I realize the Phi Mom was possibly supposed to be giving us a choice and never did. While I LOVE my badge, I hate dressing up and if I'd been given a choice, I'm sure I would've gotten a much nicer one and probably have worn it more often.

Now that we've changed the new member program, they are obligated to have the girls look and I know some of the "well off" or girls who are really into it and will pay will choose some of the nicer ones which sucks because the rest of the current chapter is stuck in basic mode and never got the option. But at least now the chapter has options, maybe this will encourage some of the other chapters on campus to also step outside the "badge box" as well since people tend to go for the basic.