Article 3 - Membership
  1. Members in this organization, both men and women, shall consist of three classes, namely; Honorary, Active, and Graduate. Members are permanently classified upon their initiation.

  2. Honorary members shall be selected on the basis of successful achievements in mechanical engineering; practicing engineers and full, associate, or assistant professors of mechanical engineering are eligible. Each chapter may elect two or more honorary members per year; two of these shall be exempt from payment of the national initiation fee.

  3. Active members shall be chosen from students in a mechanical engineering curriculum on a basis of sound engineering ability, scholarship, and personality and shall be selected from the junior and senior classes, or their equivalent, as defined by the administration of the college of engineering and the department of mechanical engineering.

  4. Graduate members shall be chosen under either of the following situations:

    1. Students who are working toward a graduate degree in mechanical engineering and who obtain written recommendations from two (2) Pi Tau Sigma faculty members. The number eligible per year under this option shall not exceed ten percent of the active membership or two (2) whichever is greater. Graduate students who attended, as undergraduates, schools having a chapter of Pi Tau Sigma and were not selected as active members should not be eligible for membership as graduate members.

    2. Students who would have been eligible had Pi Tau Sigma been established earlier in institutions now having chapters. Such members may be initiated by any other chapter at any time as a courtesy initiation. This graduate shall then be a member of the chapter at the school from which he graduated.

  5. There shall be held during the academic year two elections for the selection of active members, the first not later than December 1, and the second not later than May 1. During any election, the following policy will prevail: the scholarship of the student must place in the Eligible Group and the total number of active members must not exceed the percent of the entire class as shown in the Maximum column:

    Eligible Group HighestMaximum Active Members
    First term Juniors25%17%
    Last term Juniors33%25%
    First term Seniors35%33%
    Last term SeniorsSee A633%

    Three-quarters affirmative vote of the members present is required to elect a candidate to membership.

  6. A last term senior who scholastically places in the highest 35% of the senior's class, and who is deemed worthy, may be initiated only upon permission of the national council. Requests for this permission, stating the circumstances, shall be signed by the chapter president and a member of the faculty who is also a member of Pi Tau Sigma, and shall be sent to the national secretary-treasurer.

  7. Sufficient information, including complete name, date of initiation and membership category, shall be given on the key-order blanks to allow the national secretary to maintain a permanent record on file for each member at the national headquarters of Pi Tau Sigma.

    * Membership in the Association of College Honor Societies prevents the initiation of any candidate whose scholastic index is not in the top 35% of the candidate's class. The maximum active members refers to the percent of the respective graduation class.