I am a big fan of challenge coins. As frequent readers of the site know, I was in the military for five years. Challenge coins are a tradition that runs deep in the military, and has recently started becoming a great fraternity tradition as well.
The way it works is everyone in the organization is supposed to have their coin on them at all times. The coin has been designed by someone in the organization, and is 100% unique.
If a member of the organization shows another member the coin (that is the challenge) the other member must show his coin. If he can produce his coin, then the challenger must buy him a drink (this doesn’t have to be alcoholic). If he can’t, then he must buy the challenger a drink. More times than not, the challenge will be presented at odd times and that leads to a lot of fun.
Another great thing about the coins is they become ideal for thanking people who do favors for you. Whenever I would deploy, I would always take a bunch of coins with me. I would give these coins to people who would do favors for me as a thank you. For example, my room in Kuwait was the only room on base with TV, phone and internet. This was really awesome for me, and the people who hooked me up were really excited when I gave them a coin to add to their collection.
The final great part about challenge coins is that they become fun to collect. We would inevitably do favors for others and they would give us their coin in return. Trading coins was also popular because people would want to build their collection.
The real beauty of challenge coins for fraternities is it helps to build brotherhood. If brothers are challenging each other, they are going to hang out to together. That builds brotherhood. If brothers are eager to thank those who do favors for them with a memento that shows chapter pride, this will do wonders for the entire Greek community.
The fraternityadvisor.com has recently partnered with Greek Challenge Coins. Greek Challenge Coins is a company started by fraternity men, so they understand what fraternities are all about. They are the leader in their industry, with fantastic service and competitive prices.
If you haven’t done so already, think about contacting Greek Challenge Coins about implementing challenge coins into your fraternity.