Okay - thanks for all the responses so far!

What about other GLOs - such as service/honorary? Here's another example. I am a member of Kappa Kappa Psi - an honorary fraternity for college band members. Our recruitment process consisted of an informal "smoker" and a formal "smoker" - which were basically just informational meetings. The informal one you went to to find out more info about the fraternity and let the fraternity brothers know who was interested as well as find out more info. about you. The formal smoker was - well, formal, and after that is when we gave out bids.

We also do not have a set number for chapter total or a quota of new members to pick up. If 15 PNMs came out and we wanted to give out 15 bids...great! If 15 PNMs came out and we wanted to give out 3 bids...great!

In contrast, SAI (at least on my campus) had a week's worth of events, including an interview and an audition!

KKPsi also does not have alumni initiation. Are there any other service or honorary GLOs that do? (such as SAI or PMA? what about AKPsi?)

I don't have a clue about AKPsi, but I know that Delta Sigma Pi participates in alumni initiation. My chapter is part-time students and we have had some people who were interested while in school because of jobs, family, etc. I contacted the national office and they said that it was definately something that DeltaSig participated in.

what's a smoker????? :confused:

ETA: in regards to a NPHC event. I reread my statement and I sounded like a dork so I added clarification.

For KKPsi, a smoker is basically a fancy word for informational meeting. I think it's tradition to call it that...you'll mostly find that fraternities use that word whereas sororities don't.

Now, as for the NPHC, I'm assuming it's going to be similar...but of course I could be wrong.

I think this is correct, although not all NPC sororities have alumnae initiation.

The general procedure for pursuing alumnae initiation with an NPC sorority seems more along the lines of how NPHC groups do it. A "PNAM" (potential new alumna member) who is not already friends with someone in the organization would do her research and decide which group to pursue since discretion is key here and it is commonly frowned upon to pursue more than one group at a time. She would probably contact someone at the HQ of the organization and then if all goes well, she would be put in touch with a local alumnae chapter so she could get to know them and they could get to know her. If all goes well there, she would be offered membership in the organization and then initiated. The whole process could take weeks or months or years -- there's no standard procedure and therefore it is different for everybody. Unlike with NPHC groups, if it doesn't work out with the first organization, she may later pursue a different one.

Until the day you cross, if you are trying to join Theta Nu Xi, you're considered an "aspirant." (It really irks me to hear young ladies saying that they "plan to join XYZ" - what's that about???) Beyond that, any names/titles/etc. are part of a private process.

I think it's correct to say that there is "total" at all schools with NPC groups; where total equals the maximum number of women a group can have. This isn't exactly set in stone though, as groups can surpass total through formal rush, and total itself can be changed.

Do you mean total for the NPHC groups that are on campus' that have NPC groups? Or do you mean that all NPC groups have total? I'm sorry - I got kind of confused by what you meant by your statement.

I know that when I came through in the fall of 1999 Pi Kappa Phi had an alumni initiate at our school....he was the father of one of the current members. As to how common of an occurance it is or if other NIC fraternities do this, I have no idea.

Re: the word "smoker"

It's used at my undergraduate school quite a bit for departmental parties for students, as well as general gatherings. For example, the engineering students might have a "pre formal smoker", usually held two weeks before the event. It's mostly for people to find dates.

The school can set a cap. I went to Spelman, and we had a 30 person cap. But, I would say it's mainly an HBCU thing.

Wow, now does Spelman say why there's a cap? Has this always been the case? Wasn't it a while before Spelman would even allow sororities on campus?

There wasn't a sorority cap at Spelman when I was a student there, so I can't speak to that, but Spelman did not have sororities on campus until the late 70's--1978 or 9 if I am remembering correctly. There were, however, sorority members on campus who joined at other schools. Spelman's presidents believed (and I tend to agree with them) that since "sisterhood" is a part of Spelman's culture there was no need to further divide that sisterhood with sororities.

Spelman's presidents had a good idea with that....

I graduated in '98. The cap was on paper, but hardly ever achieved (for other reasons I will not go into). Yes, sororities were not at Spelman for the above stated reason. Although, I was interested in joining a sorority, I think it was a very valid point. When I was there, we had a little under 2,000 women on campus. Two of the four sororities would have 200 women at rush. If all of the eligible women who attended rush (I should say, those that were tight--which was most of them), were accepted, the campus would be a mess.