So let's get something straight
 

It's really scary how many people assume this, but let's get this straight.

If you were initiated into a collegiate chapter of an NPC organization and then left for financial/health purposes, you cannot go through AI with another NPC organization, correct?

This is my case, and one of my close friends is heavily encouraging me to apply for alumnae initiation with her NPC organization... ignoring the fact that I don't know anything about her NPC organization, as they don't have a chapter in my area, this is just not allowed, right?!

No, you cannot.

If you were initiated into an NPC organization you are no longer eligible for membership in any other. It's between you and your original sorority whether they would let you back into their good graces. I don't know if that's at all possible, but worth more of a shot than what you've mentioned here.

You can't be initiated into one NPC organization and then join another even if you deactivated from the first one. If you want to be a part of an NPC organization, I recommend contacting the Nationals of the one that initiated you and see if there is any way you can reaffiliate.

You're right. She is wrong (and probably isn't familiar with the unanimous agreement that prohibits it.)

Thanks all, just wanted to confirm my suspicions. I am actually still on fairly good terms with many of the girls in my former sorority and am considering applying for reinstatement into that same sorority once I graduate and get my life in order. I loved my original sorority, so I wouldn't see any reason to join another in the first place ;)

Miriverite, I just want you to be aware that there may be a time limit for applying for reinstatement . And if you were "terminated" for financial reasons (strange word but it does apply) you may have to pay any outstanding balance(s) owed.

Suggestion: check now with the Headquarters of your GLO to find out the requirements. It would be really disappointing if you missed a deadline, should you decide to apply for reinstatement.

^ I've been contact with Nationals and am aware of the requirements for reinstatement :) I wasn't terminated and left with a clean balance; rather, I resigned myself since I was worried about future troubles and didn't want to leave on a bad note.

This sounds like a total bitch move, but I would also contact the HQ of your friend's NPC group. They need to better inform their members if ANY of them are suggesting something like this. Ignorance is not an excuse.

Totally agree. It is a uninamous agreement between all NPC sororities. Check out the current manual of information. It can be found at www.npcwomen.org

Can anyone explain to me why the Manual of Information is not publicly available?

You mean online? Anyone can walk into a Greek life office and ask to see their copy of the MOI.

Yes. Online. I'm not on a campus and frankly just don't understand NPC not wanting it to be publicly available. I'm sure there's a reason; I just don't know what it is.

Someone has offered to e-mail it to me.

Some organizations will make it available online to their members in a members only section of a website.

I believe it's a dues-collecting incentive.

Sisters can correct me if I'm wrong but I'm positive that I've seen it in the Sisters Only portion of our website.

I have it. If you'd like it, pm me with your email address. :)

I have a downloaded copy of the Manual of Information (15th edition). I can't remember where I got it from, but it clearly wasn't from my own organisations

I assure you that the google knows where to find the MOI.

Thanks for the offers. I responded to the first offer, and now have the 17th edition.

No wonder I hadn't seen most of this. Very few of these were written (or conceived, I'd bet) when I pledged in 73. We had a Panhellenic council as an afterthought; our primary governing body was the Unified Fraternal Organization (UFO), encompassing fraternities and sororities, including the BGLOs. I was chapter president my junior year and UFO president senior year. The extent of Panhel involvement in our rush was to set the dates for fall rush; rush was totally unstructured, there was no silence period, and there was no limit to the number of bids a woman could receive.

But now that I see the dates on many of these agreements, I understand why it is so unfamiliar to me.

Most of what I've learned about NPC I learned from Greek Chat.

I think that in our neck of the woods (our neck being above the Mason-Dixon) things were a lot more loosey-goosey in general, except maybe at Pitt & Penn State, and that lasted well into the 1980s. A lot of things have come about or are more strictly enforced primarily as risk management issues. Case in point: I remember as a freshmen, rushees being invited to mixers. Just a few years later, that didn't fly.

I'm betting that Texas and Bama etc etc were having very structured rushes in 1973.

We did that at Pitt in the mid-eighties. Good times! :)

Google is definitely your friend. I found an 18th edition updated January 2013 with very little trouble. And 17th editions all over the place. It appears that most of these are downloadable from the Greek Life pages of Universities...