Go to the Source
 

Thanks TotallyWicked. I didn´t see the point of responding the previous comment. You are right, when in question, always go to the source.

You don't have to respond to me, but I think you should take a look at your situation "in house" since you have brothers over here saying one thing, and brothers over there saying the other. Few people are going to contact your headquarters for an official response, so it is up to the local brothers to properly convey the latest/greatest as to what type of fraternity you are.

Pretty much.

My last intervention as this is not an ΣΛΒ thread, but a NALFO one. Email me for further comments if you need to. I´m not telling anybody to shut up either. It is just that we are going off point on this thread.

I agree with you LatinaAlumna. I really apologize for any confusion. If some brothers are doing this (as it seems they are), we have a problem "in house" and will have to deal with it. I actually didn´t mean to say "ask nationals" but a quick look at our website would also work.

ΣΛΒ is not a multicultural fraternity nor it claims to be (by "it" I mean the organization). From day one, ΣΛΒ has been and continues to be a Latin-based fraternity. Yet also, from day one, as out of the 18 founders one was Asian and one was African, ΣΛΒ has had a multicultural membership. This may be the cause of the confusion. Sigma Lambda Beta International Fraternity, Inc., is a Latin-based social fraternity with a multicultural membership. We are proud of both, the Latin-based and the multicultural membership. From the union of both, comes the "International" in our official name, as our membership has been from day one not only multicultural, but International in scope, as our founders were not only Latinos by heritage but also Latin Americans by Nationality.

Lastly, the reason of our leaving NALFO, the press release stated one, "limiting growth," as TotallyWicked has already indicated, there are others. My first intervention was only to clarify that it cannot be reduced to "multiculturalism," as that, doesn´t matter how many confused brothers we may have, has never been one of the reasons. Hope it is clear and nobody gets disrespected by these words.

No worries...I appreciate the reply.

NAK left years ago due to NALFO's insurance requirements.

ODP and later SLB left because of the no 1st semester freshman rule NALFO instituted.

The reason that 3 fraternities left vs no sororities is because those three felt like they had a backup council, The North-American Interfraternity Conference. All three that left were NIC members as well.

Latina Sororities in general do not have backup council. The female NIC equivalent the NPC is much more restrictive than the NIC.

That's because the NPC, like NALFO, and the NPHC are really governing councils whereas the NIC really is a trade organization. The NIC has guidelines but does not enforce rules on it's member fraternities. The NIC's main purpose is the be the fraternity lobby in Washington.

Now as the the separate question as to whether organization should leave NALFO because they are no longer Latino not likely. ODP, and NAK are definitely Latino organizations. SLB for the most part as well.

However there has been a great push on the internet to de-emphasize the connection with NALFO and LGLO. Most of the NALFO edits on wikipedia were make by a "coquidragon" which suspect is also "Little Dragon."

There is nothing wrong with that. NALFO does not automatically = Latino Greeks, anymore so than NPHC does not automatically = Black Greeks. But obviously there is some sensitivity to the subject.

Please don't speak on ODPhi affairs unless you, yourself, are a member.

Otherwise, thanks for the post. Welcome to GC.

When you say this, do you mean the members within the respective orgs are not exclusively latino/a or do you mean that the councils themselves are opening up to non latino/a based organizations?

No I mean an effort was made to decouple the idea that all Latino orgs must belong to NALFO as all black orgs belong to the NPHC

There are many LGLO's that are not members of NALFO, just as there are BGLO's that are not members of the NPHC.

We are out of the SLB's subject (almost) so I would like to share some ideas, even though they ARE NOT NALFO PRESS RELEASES nor related. I´m sorry to the readers.

Wait, what? This does not add anything to the point of the thread. What do the wikipedia edits have to do with anything? Besides, have you looked at the history of the NALFO article on wikipedia? Coquidragon edits are all in March 2010. The article has over 300 edits dating back to 2005. Do some research before stating facts that are NOT TRUE. In addition, those edits deal mainly with formatting issues, few with contents.

Do you know this for a fact? Are you a member of these orgs? That is not what your signature says.

That reason was not given in the press release. Still, if it were, it would not be the only reason. There are a series of reasons for SLB's decision and they cannot be reduced to "Multiculturality" and/or "1st year recruiting prohibition". Since you are NOT SLB, you wouldn´t know that.

Really? I haven´t read anything on the internet about it. I am not saying that it is not true what you are saying, just that this is the first I hear.

Of course they don´t. Who is saying that?

What I will say is that there are over 50 LGLO´s to my count, as you can see in the thread titled "List of Latino Organizations." The ones that are not members of NALFO, in the majority, don´t meet NALFO's requirements for membership. Same goes for BGLO's not members of NPHC. Would they like to be members? I don´t know and won´t speak for them.

Also, although it is true that not all LGLO's and BGLO's are members of the two councils, nationally, these two councils do represent the largest and most establish orgs. They do have the official voice for both Greek movements. Members of these councils have it easier to expand to universities and probably, they will be the ones to survive, or at least, solidify their base. No disrespect intended to these smaller orgs, but this is just how it works. This comment doesn´t include NAK, ODPhi or SLB for obvious reasons.

What I mean to say is that national recognition is important for many universities when allowing organizations to expand into their campuses, and that recognition often mean National association to these councils. Do they all need to be members of them to expand? Obviously not. Will they all die? Not all, but some, as many have. Some will grow. Some will solidify their base on the campuses they actually are and live for a long time. It all depends on their membership and their organization´s goals.

On a local level, many of these orgs are members of NALFO, NPHC or a multicultural council. The association is not everything, but it is very important.

Finally, I am talking social greeks here. Service, Music and other type of organizations have other dynamics.

I´m sorry for the long reply.

Right after SLB left NALFO coquidragon went to work.



Your leaders said so here: http://www.eliluminador.com/2010/03/...eeting-re-cap/

"… the increasingly regulatory nature of NALFO namely one of the issues.. the restriction of not allowing of 1st semester freshman..."

Even though more reasons we alluded to, no other reason was mentioned....

Welp, he certainly said it.

Although I'm sad I had nothing else to do tonight but listen to this (lol) I'm glad that I did.

This level of transparency is foolhardy.

ETA: He brings up good points about whether these types of organizations should be regulatory or not. I think NALFO has good reasons to be more like NPHC and less like NIC.

He also says there are no hard feelings, but clearly there are.

Once again, this is relevant why? Have you looked at all of coquidragon´s contributions to wikipedia? NALFO, LGLOs, NIC, Cultural Greeks, Christian Greeks, BGLO´s, PFA, Asian Greeks. Also, Puerto Rico, basketball, olympics, ... Contributions going back to January 2008 on many subjects. True, many of the Greeks edits came after SLB left NALFO. And so what? Are you questioning coquidragon´s motives? Has coquidragon done any edits negative to NALFO? Are the other edits on Greek life relevant to NALFO? Maybe SLB´s leaving NALFO was the spark for coquidragon´s curiosity and his desire to contribute on wikipedia´s Greek life series. Have you thought about that? Did you see coquidragon´s Barnstar award for tireless contributions to wikipedia? Yet again, why is this relevant?

Aren´t we both saying the same thing? More reasons. They were not mentioned. You don´t know them. They exist. I was well aware of the podcast and nothing said in there contradicts what I have said.

The original question that brought up this discussion was why SLB left NALFO. In whatever form it's asked and answered.

And since it appears that talking about the intentions and motivation of groups that one is not a member of, gets everyone's knickers in a twist... I'll leave it at that.