[6050] in APO-L
Feel Like a Number....
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Scott Begin)
Thu Apr 22 22:05:20 1993
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1993 01:53:00 GMT
Reply-To: Scott Begin <0005555440@MCIMAIL.COM>
From: Scott Begin <0005555440@MCIMAIL.COM>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@PURCCVM.BITNET>
The chapter membership numbers issued by nationals are more usefull for the
National Office for record keeping. If you want to keep track of your number
(especially a highly prized number like #1), don't feel ashamed to put in on
stuff. I have seen some chapters where this information is tracked (Delta
comes to mind, among others), where in others (such as Epsilon Beta) would ask
"What number?"
Now, for those who ask what number:
The national office issues 4 types of numbers. The first is the chapter
number, issued one for each chapter. Chapter number 1 is Alpha (Laffyette),
number 2 is Beta (Pitt), ... number 122 is Epsilon Beta (Central Michigan
University)... on up to number 674 for Alpha Delta Beta (Wesley? College).
The second number is national sequence number. This starts with member #1
(Frank Reed Horton?) and goes on up to somewhere in the 200,000's (probably
around 260,000 by now). There is one of these issued for each member,
regardless of if that person is a student member (regular brother), honorary
member, or advisory member. My number is 200,813 (issued spring 1988) and
appears on my membership card. This is the way that National tracks you in
their computer database. If you get a computer printout of members from
nationals, these are listed.
The third number is your chapter sequence number. A unique number is
generated for each member of your chapter. Member #1 is a charter member of
your chapter (and a reason to be proud of it). Your chapter sequence number
indicates how many members have joined your chapter since it was chartered
(usually, exception noted below). This number is found on your membership
card, usually followed by a dash and your national sequence number. If you
get a computer prinout from national, these are also listed. If you transfer
to another chapter, you will get an additional chapter sequence number for
the new chapter (but not a new national sequence number).
Nationals uses the National Sequence number for most computer tracking of
your individual information. However, should they be asked to retrieve a list
by chapter, the chapters you have been associated with are "linked" to your
national member number. The chapter sequence number is also included so they
can keep track of all members which have been affiliated with a chapter. The
last time I got a chapter list from National, I received 2 lists: one sorted
alphabetically and a second sorted by chapter sequence number. This made it
easy to cross check National's records with the chapter records to be sure
everyone was entered.
Some notes on the above: For some reason, Epsilon Beta has a member number
365 and a member #365A. From the one listing (non computerized), it appears
that a member was missed during the assigning of numbers. When it was
discovered later, the only way to put this member in the proper place was to
add a letter to the number. Keep in mind that was back in the 60's, before
the national office ever dreamed of having a computer to track this stuff
(they cost millions at the time, and at least that much in upkeeping, staff,
power & air conditioning equipment, and software).
The last time that I received a list from Nationals, some of the chapter
sequence numbers were not filled in, almost always for transfer members of
some sort (transferred in or transferred to another chapter). I don't know if
this has been filled in yet, but I do know that as of June 1991, they didn't
have those sequence numbers filled in (and still had many sequence numbers
corrupted, mostly members from the 1960's).
The way nationals assigns sequence numbers is to take a pledge (or other group
of member applications...transfers, advisors, honories) class, and alphabetize
the list. If there are different dates for activations, the earliest are
placed ahead of the list. The first name on the list is assigned the first
available chapter sequence number and the first available national sequence
number (if necessary). A chapter sequence number of 1 indicates your last
name is the first on an alphabetical list of chartering members. Usually, if
advisors or honorary members are inducted at the same time as active brothers,
any active brothers are assigned numbers (alphabetically) before the honorary
or advisory members. In looking through the sequence numbers for Epsilon
Beta, I can rember one activation that was an exception to the rule.
Within your chapter, if you want to put your chapter sequence number on your
stuff (jerseys, books, jackets, etc...), feel free to. I don't think there is
any regulations that can stop you.
In the database that I started and maintained as an active member, I kept the
national sequence numbers for referencing members when corresponding with the
national office. I used the chapter numbers to reduce the size of the files
by keeping school type information (local address & phone number, school
classification, Office Title, and SS#) separate from everything else (I only
kept this info on about 100 members out of 600 ... mainly advisors, actives,
and inactive members)
I mentioned that their were 4 numbers: The last one is the life membership
number. When a member pays the life member fee, the next available number is
assigned. Mine (June 1991) is 14,148. I haven't compared many of these
numbers to know if any sorting is done on names before assigning numbers.
This probably gave you more than you wanted to know about the numbers.
YiLFS,
Scott A. Begin Epsilon Beta Alumni, Central Michigan University
SBEGIN@mcimail.com
