That's how I feel about it. In my opinion, it focuses too much on the creed and not enough on anything else.

I'm fairly certain that's how Baird's originally listed the various "firsts".

Also, let's not forget the one of the purposes of New Member manuals is to indoctrinate the New Members into their particular GLO. I'd like to think that every NM manual includes the names & at least photos of the pins of each NPC sorority, but I may be idealistic.

ETA: I haven't seen our latest NM Manual, but we had photos of both the GLO pins & NM pins in mine.

I believe that my NM manual did contain at least the names (and possibly the pins) of the other NPC groups. But you are correct that it focused more on the history of Alpha Gam.

I know I still have my copy of the information, but its at my parents house. (My mom has been hounding me for a few months to come home and go through all the college and HS memorabilia that I have stored there...now that I have a house of my own vs. moving from rental to rental, she figures I can store my own stuff now. :) One of these days I'll get that done - I'm sure it will put more than a few smiles on my face to look at all the old photos, pledge materials, etc.)

ETA: Of course, I was so completely new to Greek life that I don't think I really absorbed all the other NPC info. We had 16 NPC groups on my campus, and it was hard enough keeping track of those much less learn the names and pins of the 10 groups we didn't have. :) )

This is what I was thinking.

I helped some NPC friends study for their pledge tests so I have seen a few NPC new member manuals. This was back in the late 1970s and I am sure the manuals have been updated and changed. But from what I recall, each manual included at least the names of all the NPC member and a brief history of the NPC. I don't know if every one had pictures of the badges, but I know that at least a couple of them did. One even included the crests along with the picture of the badge. They were in color and with a nice resolution. And one manual, I can see it but again I don't recall who it was, listed brief facts with each picture of the badge. I don't remember the specifics, but it was something short and simple like date and where founded, colors, flower, and perhaps motto for each organization.

Now that I think about it, one of the manuals had a pull out section that covered the NPC more in depth. (i.e. I think that is where the pictures were and the brief facts.) I don't know if it was something that had been added to an "old" manual or was the norm for that organization. I *think* it may have also included specific information about the campus' NPC chapters. I remember one of the mock test questions being "name all the NPC chapters on campus". So maybe this was a workbook. Granted, this was about thirty years ago, so I'm just pleased that I even remember any part of this.

There is a section with the badges of each NPC and ADPi is on there, but it wasn't mentioned as a "first" sorority.

When I was an Alpha in '03, the NM Manual had those also :)

The Alpha Gam New Member Manual used to be on the Member Services (initiated members only) under a VST newsletter (from IVP-Collegians) but it was removed last year when it was updated. I don't know if they have plans to repost it or have already put it somewhere I haven't located yet.;) )

It just seems that, semantics aside, since ADPi had the earliest founding date of all the orgs in the NPC, it would be remiss to have ANY list of firsts without mentioning ADPi.