User:Fabrickator/honor society issues


 * This isn't presented as factual per se, but rather it helps to explain the thinking and behavior of various participants.

need to certify honor societies
Honor Societies, specifically scholastic honor societies, aside from having a form of self-recognition, presumably endeavor to encourage recognition of a particular field, or in some cases, or more generally, the benefits of scholastic excellence.

These organizations operate in a not-for-profit manner. but they have various expenses that would typically require some sort of periodic dues.

At some point, there was a need felt to distinguish such honor societies from just any old group of people with some common interests that form a club. This would merit some recognition by the host institution, and towards this end, we have Association of College Honor Societies establishing criteria to certify honorary societies.

business vision
As there is a certain degree of prestige associated with these societies, there is a business opportunity envisioned in forming some honorary, solely for the purpose of treating the members of the honorary as a market.

An honorary will have chapters at different institutions, along with be a national organization that will have a board which is effectively selected by the founders of the new honorary. The founder, acting as the "president" or "chairman", may receive direct compensation, but with or without such compensation, the founder can make business deals to supply the members with related goods and services, and receive a commission from the actual suppliers or financially profit in some other way.

The actual chapters will have virtually no say in the operation of things. In this model, the chapters operate more as "puppets" of the national organization, with chapter leadership sold on the idea that they get value simply from their position and the experience, and whatever other intangible benefits they get from their chapter activities.

where's the certifying organization?
In principle, the certifying organization should have been able to define certification criteria that would have prevented this. But it's ill-equipped to overcome the motivation of these "for profit" organizations. Even while they may be suspicious about the new organization, they can't simply say there are no new honorary organizations allowed. They will have established objective criteria, but this doesn't make it possible to discern the underlying motivation for forming the organization, or to define criteria in such a way so as to prevent it.

honorary becomes money machine
Since these "for profit" organizations are essentially selling to their members, their goal is to allow for the broadest possible membership, subject to the constraint that this shouldn't cause the prospective members to catch on that they're actually the suckers.

Initially, such "for profit" organizations may market themselves to upperclasssmen, as most honoraries serve upperclassmen. But when another generation of entrepreneurs comes around, they move down to the largest class and arguably the most gullible class, the freshmen.

certification takes on new importance
Federal government, having recognized that members of honorary associations have demonstrated some superior perspective by virtue of being elected to the honorary association, offers a higher pay grade to members of honorary associations that have obtained certification for their honorary.

CAS oversees certification criteria
CAS used the pre-existing criteria established by ACHS as a baseline for honor society standards, but ACHS continued to evolve its criteria to meet the needs of specific member organizations, resulting in a widening gap between the CAS standards and the ACHS standards.

certification criteria
Note that ACHS bylaws were initially adopted in 1992 and were subsequently amended in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, and possibly in later years. ACHS standards are presumably based on the current ACHS bylaws.


 * ACHS standards (2004-2012)
 * ACHS bylaws (2004-2012)
 * ACHS standards (2013)
 * ACHS bylaws (2013)
 * ACHS standards (2018)
 * ACHS bylaws (2018)
 * ACHS standards (pre-2020)
 * ACHS bylaws (pre-2020)
 * ACHS membership (current)
 * ACHS bylaws (current)
 * CAS College Honor Society Programs (January 2016)
 * CAS College Honor Society Programs (April 2019)

other ACHS documents

 * ACHS History (April 2020)
 * How to Judge the Credibility of an Honor Society

Summary descriptions of ACHS legacy member honor societies
These lists may include honor societies which have subsequently dropped out of ACHS. Once an honor society has dropped out from ACHS, they are no longer listed on the ACHS website. Thus, by doing a WP search, this can be used as a "finding aid" for historical information on honorary societies which have subsequently become defunct or for other reasons are no longer ACHS members. For example, his would turn up the historical chapter lists for societies that are former ACHS members.


 * annual index to ACHS Member Societies
 * 2005 index
 * 2006 index
 * Alpha Beta Gamma summary
 * Alpha Chi summary
 * Alpha Delta Mu summary
 * Alpha Epsilon summary
 * Alpha Epsilon Delta summary
 * Alpha Iota Delta summary
 * Alpha Kappa Delta summary
 * Alpha Kappa Mu summary
 * Alpha Lambda Delta summary
 * Alpha Phi Sigma summary
 * Alpha Pi Mu summary
 * Alpha Sigma Mu summary
 * Alpha Sigma Nu summary
 * Beta Gamma Sigma summary
 * Beta Kappa Chi summary
 * Beta Phi Mu summary
 * Chi Epsilon summary
 * Chi Sigma Iota summary
 * Delta Epsilon Sigma summary
 * Delta Mu Delta summary
 * Delta Sigma Rho—Tau Kappa Alpha summary
 * Delta Tau Alpha summary
 * Epsilon Pi Tau summary
 * Eta Kappa Nu summary
 * Golden Key International Honour Society summary
 * Gamma Theta Upsilon summary
 * Kappa Delta Pi summary
 * Kappa Mu Epsilon summary
 * Kappa Omicron Nu summary
 * Kappa Tau Alpha summary
 * Lambda Iota Tau summary
 * Lambda Pi Eta summary
 * Lambda Sigma summary
 * Mortar Board summary
 * Mu Kappa Tau summary
 * National Society of Collegiate Scholars summary
 * National Society of Scabbard and Blade summary
 * Omega Chi Epsilon summary
 * Omega Rho summary
 * Omicron Delta Epsilon summary
 * Phi Alpha Theta summary
 * Phi Eta Sigma summary
 * Phi Kappa Phi summary
 * Phi Sigma summary
 * Phi Sigma Iota summary
 * Phi Sigma Tau summary
 * Phi Upsilon Omicron summary
 * Pi Alpha Alpha summary
 * Pi Delta Phi summary
 * Pi Gamma Mu summary
 * Pi Kappa Lambda summary
 * Pi Omega Pi summary
 * Pi Sigma Alpha summary
 * Pi Tau Sigma summary
 * Pi Theta Epsilon summary
 * Psi Beta summary
 * Psi Chi summary
 * Rho Chi summary
 * Sigma Beta Delta summary
 * Sigma Delta Pi summary
 * Sigma Lambda Alpha summary
 * Sigma Lambda Chi summary
 * Sigma Pi Sigma summary
 * Sigma Tau Delta summary
 * Sigma Theta Tau summary
 * Tau Alpha Pi summary
 * Tau Beta Pi summary
 * Theta Alpha Kappa summary
 * Upsilon Pi Epsilon summary