I posted that comment about vaccines in quota. This is important only when a group is over total but has a vacancy in quota, not an unfilled quota.
Here is an easy test to tell the difference - Have bid day activities taken place?
No - A chapter can fill an unfilled quota with snap bids.
Yes - Any bids to fill to quota before the formal pledging ceremony even if a chapter is already over total OR any bids to fill to total are allowed and considered COB bids.

p.s. most NPC orgs provide access to the MOI via the members only section of their website if you want to get into some heavy reading.

Vacancies in Quota
A vacancy in quota occurs in one of the following:
• When a woman negates her signed membership recruitment acceptance binding agreement,
• When a woman refuses to accept her matched bid at the conclusion of membership recruitment
• When a woman does not participate in a ribbon or formal new member pledging ceremony and/or does not sign
documentation or agreements with the member organization indicating her intent to pledge the group
A chapter may immediately bid and pledge another woman, even if the chapter is over total. If a chapter has received quota additions, the chapter may only bid and pledge additional women to the established quota. They cannot bid or pledge additional women to fill open spaces received as quota additions. For example, if quota were 25 and a chapter matches to quota (25) plus received 2 quota additions (total of 27 new members), the chapter may not fill any openings from declined bids until they drop below 25.
However, if a chapter matches to quota and is above total, and all potential new members go through the formal pledging ceremony (quota), the chapter is unable to fill any vacancies until the chapter drops below total should a new member break her pledge.

Just a note - if you are a member of an NPC group, then the NPC MOI (aka Green Book) is most likely available on the private side of your web site. Or, you could contact your NPC delegate for a copy.


It's free and very informative.

Back to the question about a chapter being below or even well below total and expansion happening. Sometimes there is a chapter that continues to struggle but is able to hang on without having to close. Adding a chapter isn't going to hurt them, as you think it might, because they'd probably still be attracting the same group of girls year after year no matter the number of other chapters on campus. And if expansion goes as expected, chapter total and quota should go DOWN, which could in fact help the smaller chapter.

Ideally everyone is doing great when a school expands, but it doesn't have to be a death-blow to the smaller/struggling chapter. And hopefully this is the motivation your headquarters needs to get involved in this chapter's revitalization.

I hope this chapter can work around it's unhappy sister problems. That sucks. But it can be fixed! It just takes time and patience. And a lot of work :)

At my school, there is a one chapter that is notorious for giving out 70% of their new pledge class snap bids. Why don't they just initially keep these girls during the week rather than just snapping them up at the very end? Is this some kind of strategy or something?