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pi beta phi alumna initiates FRATERNITY VALUE: SINCERE FRIENDSHIP SUGGESTED FACILITATOR: VICE PRESIDENT MEMBER EXPERIENCE, DIRECTOR FRATERNITY HERITAGE OR VICE PRESIDENT RECRUITMENT Goals: • To educate chapter members on the history of the alumna initiation process as well as the current process. • To encourage current members of Pi Beta Phi to promote the opportunity for other women to become alumna initiated members of Pi Phi. Room setup/materials needed: • Make sure you have enough room for participants to sit comfortably as a large group. Getting Started Talking points are indicated with a callout bullet (). Please use these as speaking guidelines, but be sure to jazz up the presentation with your own personality. Facilitation instructions are indicated with an arrow ( ) and serve as hints you might find helpful when administering the material. Most importantly, have fun! A History of Alumna Initiates Begin the seminar by giving the following information about the background of Pi Beta Phi’s alumna initiation process. Throughout the history of Pi Beta Phi, even dating back to the time of our founders, women who are not collegians have been initiated into the Fraternity. This process Pi Beta Phi offers is called the alumna initiation program. A webpage on the Fraternity website is dedicated to information about the program. Some of the earliest history of women being asked to join Pi Beta Phi is recalled by our Founders themselves. Many alumna initiates are invited to be initiated at one of Pi Beta Phi’s biennial conventions. Also, many alumna initiates are mothers, friends or daughters of Pi Phis. In some cases, campus officials and professors that have an interest in Pi Phi or have made a significant impact on the lives of chapter members have become alumna initiates. Initiates have varied from pledged members who could not make their original initiation to influential women, such as Barbara Bush, wife of 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush, who was initiated as a Texas Eta. Chapter installations for the past 100 years have included at least one alumna initiate. If a local organization was colonized and became a chapter, the alumnae of the local chapter were also eligible for membership. In fact, Margaret Johnson Goldwater, wife of Barry Goldwater, five-term United States Senator from Arizona and 1964 Presidential candidate, was initiated as part of Arizona State University Arizona Beta’s installation in 1965. Similarly, Texas Zeta’s installation at Baylor University included 207 Alpha Omegas (the name of the local organization at the time) who were initiated into Texas Zeta in 1977. Additionally, Pi Beta Phi’s Balfour Cup, which is awarded annually to one chapter is the Fraternity’s highest and most prestigious honor, is named after Indiana Gamma Ruth Dehass Balfour and her husband Lloyd G. Balfour. Together, they started a fraternity jewelry business, L.G. Balfour Company in 1913. After Ruth’s passing Lloyd re-married to Mildred McCann who had done her collegiate studies at the University of Illinois. In 1933, Mildred became an alumna initiate of University of Illinois’s Illinois Zeta chapter and was initiated by Grand President Amy Burnham Onken, Many Pi Beta Phi alumna initiates have gone on to serve in roles in their alumnae organizations, on various chapter Alumnae Advisory Committees, at the regional team level and even on Grand Council. Indiana Zeta Lucy Baker Warner, former Grand Council member, was an alumna initiate. Stories of Pi Beta Phi Alumna Initiates Share the following stories of some of Pi Beta Phi’s alumna initiates at a recent biennial convention. As mentioned, many alumna initiates are initiated at one of Pi Beta Phi’s biennial conventions. The following are a few accounts of some of these honored women: • Bettie Crawford In 1956, when twin sisters Bobbie and Bettie Lay pledged Pi Beta Phi at Bradley University, they thought they would share in a different kind of sisterhood for life. Unfortunately, life doesn’t always go as planned and before she could be initiated into Pi Phi, Bettie had to withdraw from the university because of financial difficulties. In the spirit of real sisterhood, she insisted her twin, Bobbie, stay enrolled in college. Bobbie remained at Bradley and was initiated into the Illinois Theta Chapter in 1957. On the day Bobbie was initiated, she found a bouquet of flowers from Bettie in her room, and although her twin was a part of her initiation in spirit, Bobbie’s one regret is that she did not get to share her Pi Phi experience with her beloved twin, Bettie. One summer Bobbie made a donation to the Illinois Theta House Campaign in honor of her twin. When the fundraising committee at Illinois Theta could not find Bettie’s name in the chapter’s records, they called Bobbie for clarification. As Bobbie told the committee the story of her sister, she learned of Pi Beta Phi’s alumna initiate opportunity. She could hardly believe there was a chance Bettie could become her sister in the bonds of wine and blue. The twins’ tale certainly illustrates the “Magic of Sisterhood,” so Grand Council thought it would be appropriate Bettie be initiated at the 2011 Orlando Convention. Bettie and Bobbie have shared a lifetime together with the exception of Pi Beta Phi. “All my life, I have enjoyed being a Pi Phi, doing for Pi Phi and loving Pi Phi,” Bobbie said. “Now the best gift I can give back to Pi Beta Phi, is my twin, Bettie.” • Dr. Linda Langford Who would have ever thought when a Pi Phi Headquarters staff member participated in an internship with the Novak Institute for Hazing Prevention he would meet Dr. Linda Langford, who would later become one of Pi Beta Phi’s convention alumna initiates? During their meeting the intern noticed Linda was wearing a Pi Phi ring. He asked if she was a Pi Phi and she replied no. However, she told the intern the most charming story about her mother, Ruth Flyer Langford, a Connecticut Alpha initiated in 1945 and how much Pi Phi meant to her mother. Ruth wore her Pi Phi ring until she passed away. Linda now wears it as a touching tribute to her mother and her mother’s dedication to Pi Beta Phi. Linda still remembers seeing copies of The Arrow® around their home when she was growing up and found her mother’s arrow badge she remembers seeing her mother wear on special occasions. Furthermore, Linda has recently discovered her aunt is also a Pi Phi. Linda’s intelligence, passion and dedication to her work are hard to ignore as her influence has reached innumerable numbers of students, faculty and staff throughout the world of higher education. Because of her knowledge and research in the areas of violence and abuse prevention and education, she is considered as one of the leading experts in these fields. She worked as the Associate Center Director at The U.S. Department of Education’s Higher Education Center for Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Violence and Hazing Prevention. She has worked in a variety of substantive areas, including domestic violence and homicide, substance abuse, cardiovascular health, mental health and AIDS prevention. She holds a doctorate degree in behavioral sciences from the Harvard School of Public Health and taught a core course in the health communications program at Tufts University School of Medicine from 1998—2006. “I want to thank you for telling my story,” Linda said. “I’m very touched the organization would invite me.” • Simone Becque Simone Becque attended her first Pi Phi event in 1984. It was a regional workshop at the Michigan Beta Chapter house with future Grand Presidents Pennsylvania Beta Jean Wirths Scott and South Carolina Alpha Sis Mullis in attendance. But Simone has no recollection of it because she was in utero. From her earliest days, she attended Michigan Beta Alumnae Advisory Committee meetings, and she enjoyed her Michigan Beta babysitters. Simone was 4 years old when she moved from Ann Arbor, but Pi Phi continued to be a part of her life. There is a picture of her as a young child wearing one of her mom’s Pi Phi sweatshirts and another taken in junior high wearing a T-shirt with the smallest of Pi Phi letters. She told her kindergarten teacher she wanted to be a, “Mom who goes to Pi Phi meetings” when she grew up. Her mom, New York Alpha and Fraternity Archivist Fran DeSimone Becque, served as a Collegiate Province President for two years and as a Director for 10 — the same years corresponding with Simone’s school years. When her mom was traveling for Pi Phi, Simone learned self-reliance. When it came time for college, Simone chose to attend Mount Holyoke College, one of the oldest women’s colleges in the country, but one without a Pi Phi chapter. She said of her decision, “Mount Holyoke felt like home.” And even Fran will admit, Mount Holyoke is one of the prettiest campuses she’s seen. Simone graduated as a Mary Lyon Scholar with high honors. Her senior thesis was on the fan campaigns of “Firefox” and “Veronica Mars.” She has a master’s degree in media studies from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University where she worked with Robert Thompson, Director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture. Her master’s thesis is titled Joss Whedon is My Master Now: A Qualitative Study of Joss Whedon, Fans and the Internet. Maybe someday, she will be a mom who goes to Pi Phi meetings. As you have heard, women who have been invited to join the bonds of wine and silver blue have very different backgrounds and ties to Pi Beta Phi.

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