Your GLOs: Allowed to expand internationally or not?
 

For those GLOs which currently only have chapters in the USA, is there anything in your bylaws/policies that would *prevent* expansion outside the USA?

(Assume the possible expansion is to University of British Columbia which has *recognized* chapters of (among others) Delta Kappa Epsilon, Sigma Chi and Phi Gamma Delta of the NIC and Gamma Phi Beta, Kappa Alpha Theta, and Kappa Kappa Gamma of the NPC)

This was sparked by seeing that Chi Omega only ever had *one* chapter outside the USA, the school is closed and the chapter designation has been reused. I wondered if there was now a policy/by-law not allowing Canadian expansion...

(My fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega allows it, but as a separate national organization.)

When my Canadian campus opened for expansion, we were told that most NPCs who were not already in Canada would likely not be interested due to issues with insurance, currency exchange and the lack of alumnae support in the area.

1) I'm not sure whether FIPG or another insurance firm would have significantly different rules on 151 American chapters vs. 151 American chapters and 1 Canadian chapter
2) Is the issue that if Membership dues are $200, then the Canadian chapters can't be specifically told that it is CN$227.45 since the exchange rates might change or the costs to National of converting CN$5,987 to US Currency?
3) Could be true anywhere...

Pi Beta Phi has several Canadian chapters ranging in age from 20 or so years old (Guelph) to over 100 years old (Toronto). A number of NPC organizations have chapters in places other than BC.

I know that a number of NPC, NIC and NPHC GLOs have chapters in Canada, I was using UBC since, in my opinion, it was free of some of the limitations that other schools have in Canada.

NutBrnHair would be able to answer this better.

I don't know that we have any policy or by-law preventing international chapters, I think it's just easier on HQ to have a USA only format. (Dues, insurance, national consultant travel, currency exchange differences, available local alumnae to assist a chapter, etc.)

Curious -- do any NPC groups have international chapters in countries other than Canada?

Sigma Sigma Sigma briefly had a chapter in Germany.

Eta Mu University of Maryland- Mannheim, Germany

Info on the school at
http://www.munichcampus.org/home.php

It's very difficult to have control over chapters out of the country due to legal issues. Example would be alcohol laws: in the US, students can't drink until they are 21 years and many of the risk guidelines are based on this. Even when you operate in Canada where they drinking age is 19, things get murky.
Another example would be chapter housing. If your international chapter has specific laws, it might contradict another country's law; who would then supersede?
That said, Alpha Gamma Delta has been in Canada for almost 100 years and we love our Canadian sisters.

I don't know if people have rules against it, but I would imagine that Alpha Gam has put a whole whackload of time into us Canadian chapters. We have different Finance, Risk Management, and Housing info/guidelines. However, you don't have to mention ages- I believe it's somewhat along the lines of the legal drinking age for your province/state!

Also, I can say that when the Canadian exchange rate is really bad, it SUCKS to see that your dues are several hundred dollars higher than your American sisters, especially when other orgs on campus pay at parity. That's something that each org works on, and I'm sure it's a tough tightrope to walk. However, us Canadian Alpha Gams (and Greeks) *very much* appreciate all of the time our orgs take for us :)

This is a great topic, by the way.

I'm most interested in what organizations who used to be international but no longer have chapters up here have to say. Those would be:

- Alpha Chi Omega (University of Toronto, closed 1953)
- Alpha Epsilon Phi (University of Toronto, closed 1955 and York University, closed 1990)
- Chi Omega (Hellmuth Woman's College, closed 1900)
- Sigma Delta Tau (York University, closed 1998 and McGill University, closed 1971)
- Sigma Kappa (University of Manitoba, closed 1956)
- Zeta Tau Alpha (University of Manitoba, closed 1993)

We have chapters at the University of Toronto and at Western Ontario. We had our Grand Chapter in 2002 in Toronto and it was pretty amazing on account of the drinking age.

Hellmuth Women's College closed in 1899 so that's why the Chi Omega chapter closed.

Just learned that a local at Concordia University is in the colony process with AEPhi!!

^ Good sleuthing. That information isn't even on our website yet.

I don't see why AEPhi wouldn't charter a new chapter or reopen one of our dormant chapters in Canada. I'm not sure how national dues and fees would be calculated for Canadian dollars and whether they'd fluctuate based on the exchange rate, and there would probably have to be a few tweaks to the rules here and there, but many of the rules wouldn't change (e.g. hazing would still be forbidden regardless of country or provincial laws, and alcohol would still be forbidden in the house no matter the age of the sister who owns it, so the lower drinking age in Canada wouldn't make a difference there).

One of my chapter sisters is an advisor to the DPhiE chapter at Concordia. We're very excited for you!