[Lynne]

You need to create and render a template and then preregister that variable for use in another template.

PHP Code:

$templater = vB_Template::Create('affiliation');
// register any variables for use in your affiliation template here
$affiliation .= $templater->render();

vB_Template::preRegister('FORUMHOME',array('affiliation' => $affiliation)); 


Now use {vb:raw affiliation} in your FORUMHOME template.

Also, if you look up the hook global_start in the files, you'll see this:

PHP Code:

// Deprecated as of release 4.0.2, replaced by global_bootstrap_init_start
($hook = vBulletinHook::fetch_hook('global_start')) ? eval($hook) : false; 


It's been deprecated for about a year now.