In February, long-awaited membership pins will be back in stock and distributed to all chapters that did not receive pins for their new brothers last fall. In addition to fulfilling the backorders, the National Headquarters staff is pleased to announce a significant increase in the quality of the pins.
In resolving the backorder announced October 31, the National Headquarters staff worked with its supplier, Regent Promotions, to make significant changes to the pins’ construction. The new pins are being constructed in the United States and are using a new die crafted to match the design specifications of the higher quality upgrade pins supplied by Herff Jones. Understandably, the new pins come at a higher cost to the Fraternity due to U.S. craftsmanship and materials, but the National Executive Committee has approved using them to fill the backorders and throughout the spring 2009 term without an increase in the initiation fee. At the 2009 National Convention, the assembly delegates will consider an increase in the initiation fee which would enable this higher quality pin to be supplied permanently in the basic initiation package.
We believe the new pin construction will not only rectify the recent problems with backorders caused by whole batches of bad pins, but also significantly reduce the instances of frequent breakage experienced by many brothers since the pins began to be constructed in China in 2000.
We apologize again to all new brothers who did not receive their membership pins at the time of their initiation. We look forward to resolving this issue and hope that all brothers will be pleased with the solution we have arranged.
