first in a heck of a lot!
 

Hey Girls! I busted out my new member education notebook novel thing and this is what it says in there on this sorority mystery: Sigma Kappa was the first Greek letter organization recognized by the National Panhellenic Council to be called a sorority. I think a lot of the sorities/fraternities switched over after we came in. Or maybe we were just called that first who knows, but I think it's cool and Nationals seems to think we're first so I guess we kinda are in our own little special way! :)

Sigma Love,
Melissa

I don't know about the first to coin the term sorority. However, I do know that Pi Beta Phi was founded in 1967 and is considered to have been the first to join the NPC also the first to have more than one chapter.
Peace, Love, and Pi Phi- Leah

1967? Um, no.

Welcome to GreekChat. There are lots of threads here with nifty NPC trivia that might be of interest to you.

Hahahahahahahhaaha.



Off topic, but this thread was started by one of my chapter sisters... even funnier, we're in the same family! I actually met her for the first time this past spring at alumni weekend.

How could there be a first organization to join the NPC? By definition it is an association of organizations, so one org wouldn't be much of an association. And if two sororities got together and said "let's form some thing," then one wouldn't have primacy.

Although if you wanted to credit one organization with starting the NPC, it would have to be Kappa Kappa Gamma, since they issued the invitations to a joint conference in 1891. Or you could give credit to Alpha Phi, which in 1902 called a conference on rushing methods, out of which actually grew the NPC.

Sorry to crash . . .
 

. . . but I must point out that Gamma Phi Beta Sorority was one of the founders of the NPC in 1902 - and Sigma Kappa did not join until 1905. So, as one of the founders of the NPC, Gamma Phi Beta beats Sigma Kappa in terms of being "recognized" by 3 years! (check out www.npcwomen.org for the dates!)

Uh oh, now it's on like donkey kong!

But seriously, I always thought it was GPhiB who used the term sorority first. I'm really amused by the 2002 posts of indignant sisters exclaiming that they're in a sorority, NOT a fraternity. Missed the mark, just a little bit.

Wasn't there a post in the NPC triva thread about SK starting as a non-GLO, and used their founders initials as their name/letters? In that case, it would make perfect sense that SK was founded before GPhiB, but GPhiB was the first to use the word "sorority".

For clarification -
 

Sigma Kappa (as you know) celebrates Nov.9 (1874) as Founder's Day.
Gamma Phi Beta celebrates Nov. 11 (1874). So Sigma Kappa can claim (at least officially) a two-day headstart on Gamma Phi. Gamma Phi Beta was never officially referred to as a fraternity. It was mentioned in The University Herald as "a new ladies' society" (1875) and the minutes of Alpha Chapter mention the First Anniversary of "The Gamma Phi Beta Society". Like many of the NPC orgs, Gamma Phi sprang from a "literary society".

As to the issue of the word "sorority" -
"In the summer of 1882, when Gamma Phi Beta extended to another university, Alpha Chapter celebrated the creation of Beta Chapter with an event, which was mentioned in the local social column. One who read the news was Professor Frank Smalley of the Department of Latin at Syracuse University, who mentioned to a member of Alpha Chapter that , "I presume that you young women feel very elated over being members of a sorority". The members of Alpha Chapter found this new term most attractive and accurate, and since that time Gamma Phi Beta has been a sorority and affirmed as the first women's fraternity to be referenced as such." (The Legacy of Gamma Phi Beta, pg.27)

I collect NPC org histories, but alas, do not have a Sigma Kappa book to cross-reference. (I'm looking for a Sigma Kappa song book too - HINT HINT if anyone wants to sell me them - after my departure to the Chapter Eternal my collection of songbooks and histories will go to Gamma Phi IHQ). At any rate, I'd love to know the official Sigma Kappa word on this.

You must be thinking of another group. SK started as SK. :D

I saw that post as well but have never seen anything in our actual history to confirm nor deny it. It wouldn't make much sense, unless it's just what they called themselves while they were thinking of their purpose. Particularly since they had fraternities on campus to use as models (why use their initials when fraternities used Greek letters).

The Sigma Kappa website always refers to the Alpha group as a sorority - but if y'all were using the term before us in 1882 I've got to believe that SK would have noted it.

the virtual violet a few months ago mentions something about the founders using their initials as the meaning of sigma kappa but it was easy to figure out. ill double check what issue it was cuz it was in the "did you know" section

Our founder's did use their initials at first, but switched to Sigma Kappa very early on (the article didn't give a date) but the meaning behind the initials was easily figured out, so that is when they switched to SK.

In terms of the word sorority. I have asked this question to HQ. We did not use the term first, as it was coined for GphiB. We were just simply known as sigma kappa, it wasn't until we expanded in 1904 that we started to use the term sorority. Most likely as one GphiB has pointed out we were just referred to as a society until we started to use sorority. But we were founded on November 9th 1874 making us 2 days older than GphiB

I also want to mention that it was not a Sigma Kappa poster who posted about the NPC, we never once said that we joined the NPC before GphiB, that was a Pi Beta Phi (maybe, since she posted her founding date wrong). Yes, GphiB joined the NPC before us as did many other chapters as we did not expand off our original campus of Colby College until 1904.