My conclusion is they have graduated a few women, or a few went abroad. Whenever a chapter takes new members, Panhel knows about it. If there was a problem and the chapter went above, they would be disciplined by Panhel. And since it's a small school like you said, you probably would have heard about it if this happened. Maybe you could ask someone instead of jumping to conclusions?

Also, I dont know how your pan hell works. but ours allow us to bid girls to take the place of sisters who are inactive but still on campus

re the original situation, if only 1 chapter is at total and everyone else is below (significantly below) - and it's been that way for quite a while and (this is the important one) there are not many women being cross-cut or dropping out of rush - the largest chapter needs to put on their big girl panties and deal with it and stop being so selfish. If they don't want to act panhellenically they shouldn't be in a Panhellenic sorority.

Like Dee said, NPC isn't supposed to be about survival of the fittest. It's supposed to be about the whole system. Voting down a proposal to lower total is one thing, but going to the other groups' HQs and whining to try and get your way is going too far. They really need to think about how this is making them look and what it is doing to Greek unity.

This isn't a slam against Alpha Phi in any way. If a chapter of my own sorority was acting this way, I'd say the exact same thing.

Re this, if they have officially become alums through your HQ (i.e. their career as a collegiate member has ended) this is OK. If they are only inactive because of grades, student teaching, or other special status, they should still be counted in your chapter total.

From reading this, it sounds like your college panhellenic might want to adopt one of the new Recruitment systems. The chapters on our campus have slowly moved towards becoming better at COB so they are looking at going from a Level 1 (extremely structured, Formal environment) to something like a Level 3 (minimally structured, mostly concentrates on COB-like activities).

The only reason I can think of off the top of my head (other than of course, just wanting more girls), is that Alpha Phi might need a certain number of girls to fill their house, and lowering total could put them in a difficult situation to fill the house. How much is Panhellenic looking to lower total by?

Some good advice has been given in this thread. valkyrie makes a good point that these women have done something to make themselves appealing, or they're just simply good recruiters. In any event, however, it does sound like your entire Panhellenic system could stand to work together a little more as a community, because I'm picking up on an "us versus everyone else" mentality from this thread.

Our panhellenic only makes us count sisters who are inactive because they are abroard. However, if a sister is inactive an on campus we are considered to have an open spot. This rarely happens but it is our rule.