Mergers? Dissolution?
 

Hi all. My sorority (which I'll keep private) is rather small in terms of number of chapters, average size of individual chapters, and lifetime initiates. I love this organization and all it has done for me, but in the back of my mind I worry that years down the line, this small size (and its implications) could potentially pose some issues nationally–and cause some changes. I
was reading a Wikipedia article that mentioned that other NPC sororities in similar positions had merged with current NPC members (namely Delta Zeta) as recent as the 1960s, and I’m curious to see what other people think about this. I have a few questions/comments that might give some food for thought ;)

1. The mid-20th century seemed to have the highest rate of change in terms of NPC – addition of ASA, AST, Theta Phi Alpha, Phi Sig, DPhiE, Tri Sigma, SDT, AEPhi, and the loss/merger of a dozen other organizations. The current NPC ’roster’ has remained consistent since 1971.

2. How low is too low when it comes to a number of chapters? (You can either choose to answer with an actual number, or any other metric)

3. Does a merger seem more likely than dissolution, at this point in history? Or, does each organization now have too distinct of an identity and history to merge?

4. Does the consistency of the NPC ‘roster’ give you hope that each of these organizations (regardless of how small they are or may be) will prevail?

5. In the case of dissolution what happens to alumnae?

6. What would be the exact procedure for a merger/dissolution decision? (Does the conversation start with NPC or the organization in question? How do they decide to merge or disband? How do they decide which other organization to merge into? Are there any factors which may not allow for one organization to merge into another–for example, an overlap in chapters on individual campuses?)

7. What other factors besides size might play into these decisions?

Thanks for entertaining my rambling. I’d love to hear what you all have to say, even if you don’t answer the questions; any thoughts on the matter are welcomed!

My initial organized thoughts are few. I think the number of chapters/active members would be up to the individual group to decide. The threshhold for being able to do business and compete on their campuses is individual to each group. As for alumnae - and current collegiate members, I would imagine that would work like when a local is taken over by an NPC group. Any member can be initiated into the NPC group if they so desire.

+1 to this also adding in I would imagine for any NPC org if they were to potentially pursue this and this is very hypothetical from where I sit, I would imagine the governing council seeking to merge would need to be in agreement with this path and I would imagine there would need to be discussions with another NPC org to see if it is something they would be willing to consider. I would think the group seeking merger would also have to put the issue to vote among its membership.

I know Fran Becque used to post here although that might have been a while back but if you haven't done so I'd recommend googling her webpage, she's got a very robust catalog of info that might give you some insight regarding previous GLO mergers.

Fran is definitely the person to ask. If she doesn't know where to find the information, no one does!

One sorority that dissolved was Iota Alpha Pi. They went defunct in the 1970s, fairly recently. You may want to read up on that.

Good luck!

This is such an interesting topic! My thoughts go to symbols and rituals, and how that worked when the organizations merged. As a member, I would hate to lose all the beautiful ritual and symbols of my organization.

This is what I was thinking, too. On a national level, it seems like every organization has unique budgets and programs, all of which require a different number of chapters, members, and alumnae to support. Thanks for your input! :)

Thanks for commenting! I checked out Fran’s page and WOW! She’s got so much history just in one place. Definitely going on a deep dive of her site this weekend :D

As for the first part of your comment, I agree. I can’t imagine NPC would even consider such a thing without a lot of discussion first, from the group receiving chapters and the group merging into the existing organization. I’m interested to see if this ever happens in my lifetime, although I hope no organization ever struggles to the extent of considering such an action.

Thanks for replying! I will definitely add that to my weekend NPC deep dive reading list!:D

Thanks for commenting! I had the same thing in the back of my mind—even the “youngest” NPC members have over a century of history. I think at this point it would be almost impossible to adopt any another organization’s symbols and rituals, regardless of how small, but on the other hand, I also think it would be quite sad and unfair for the group merging to lose their entire identity, especially since it has such a long legacy.

Theta Phi Alpha article: https://thetaphialpha.org/foundation...o-we-get-there

Seems they have a strategic plan that results in growth at a rate they can handle as a smaller organization. Interesting case study.

Thanks for showing me that! I took a quick look at part 2, just to get a better idea of their bigger picture goals, and I found their plan and blog posts really fascinating. I'm going to do some digging to see if my organization has written anything similar!

For anyone who's curious, here's the link to part 2!:
https://thetaphialpha.org/foundation...o-we-get-there
:D

If you find anything else on what happened at the end on Iota Alpha Pi, I'm sure that Fran would love it (and I would love it as well). Everything that I've found indicates that both the NPC and many of the remaining undergraduate sisters were surprised by the decision to pull the plug. I haven't been able to find much more than it appears the decision was made by the Iota Alpha Phi national board over the summer of 1971.

I think that at this point, rather than merge, a group would leave NPC on a national level and compete on a different playing field. This way they would have national backing (so schools wouldn’t freak out about having a local) but they would not be constrained by quota/total/RFM rules. Just my opinion. It also depends if the group has a lot of $$ tied up in real estate/housing corporations.

I’m saving my deep dive for this weekend, but if I find anything interesting or noteworthy, I’ll report my findings!:D
I’ve done some light reading on them, and I was surprised at the courses of action chosen by the individual chapters, and that some merged into DPhiE while others elected for AEPhi. I guess they didn’t have much direction at a national level since they simply disbanded instead of naming a designated organization for them to merge into.

This is a really interesting thought, that I failed to consider. If a current NPC member left the council, another council accept the addition of a new organization? If, for example, Chi O (I promise I’m just picking a random group, I love my Chi O friends:p) chose to leave NPC, citing low chapter numbers (iirc they are actually one of the larger groups!), which other council could they pick? Obviously they couldn’t join NPHC or MGC, since they don’t have cultural roots. I assume (and please, correct me if I’m wrong) that IFC wouldn’t be an option. The only feasible option I could see might be the Professional Greek council, however, I assume this would require that they pick a specialization.
Of course, this doesn’t factor in the possibility of an organization functioning without a governing council; which I don’t think is common (if it is actually a thing at all).

I know some of these questions may be over our heads, but I figured I’d put them out there, just to get the conversation flowing! Thanks for taking the time to entertain my curiosity:cool:

On the Iota Alpha Pi topic, there was a thread where members reminisced on their time in the sorority, which was extremely interesting. I do know that some orgs did get absorbed into others (like Theta Upsilon getting absorbed by Delta Zeta.) I do wonder if information and ritual/symbols/etc. are kept in the national archives?

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php

Wouldn't such a group still want to be recognized as legitimate by the panhellenic/schools on which it has chapters, therefore still follow all campus quota/total rules?


It's possible that if a large enough group of NPC sororities wants to break from the current NPC and form a new playing field for recruitment, their new sorority grouping may acquire faster legitimacy with schools and/or panhellenics.

I have always loved the fact that each NPC member group has unique histories and traditions. I wish those facts interested more women in today's halls of higher learning, as students might then be more interested in joining ANY NPC group rather than groups with the perceived smartest/richest/prettiest/most popular women.


Most NPC groups have also evolved beyond their earliest histories to include women their original founders would not have initiated, moving beyond Music Students Only---Teachers Only---This Religious Group Only---etc.


To the OP: Yes, I hope the consistency of each NPC member group remains strong enough that no group has to merge/dissolve.


I am also of the opinion that by neglecting to learn the continuous and evolving backgrounds/histories of some NPC groups, many students with strong anti-greek sentiments have been needlessly ripping apart NPC chapters in recent years.

During the early-mid 1980's, I remember the Theta Phi Alpha Chapter at Cleveland State being on "Pins and Needles" because they were going to be "kicked out" of the NPC due to having less than the minimal active chapter # and whether or not their organization was going to be disbanding.

So from the mini rabbit-hole of Iota Alpha Pi-related threads I just went down, I found this quote from a former member:

"The talk in the early 1970's when dissolution was being considered was that the identity of the sorority would be lost if they merged with another and it was my understanding that the majority wanted to continue with alumni meetings and maintain the [intergity] of what was and had been rather than change. My recall was there was also a lot of dissent regarding the admission of the non-Jewish members and what this might mean to the future, but that my only be my memory and not a significant factor. There was never any problem with diversity in the Nu chapter that I knew of."
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...t=31666&page=2

I think a few of us in this thread have hinted at this attitude; that each NPC member has such a distinct identity at this point, which makes a merger seem extremely daunting. Like I said earlier, I really hope it never gets to this point for my organization, but if this scenario were to arise, I'd personally be all for a merger, rather than throwing in the towel and disbanding.

I googled their organization because I remember hearing about that situation, and I also know TPA has grown greatly since then. Turns out…they had a plan! Which is exactly the point: smaller organizations have been aware that this might become a problem and many are arranging things to head that off at the pass.

I’m not any expert but I don’t see any of the smaller NPCs folding (barring some exceptional unforeseen circumstances). They’re expanding in a way that makes sense for their organizations: taking on smaller chapters on smaller campuses, thus increasing their membership and alumnae presence without overburdening or overextending themselves. Where I’m from, the smaller organizations are thriving and have been for many years. They have name recognition, longevity and deep family ties here.

Someone mentioned how hard it would be to lose your ritual if a bigger group took you in. I can also see how a bigger group would not want to change their ritual to take in a smaller group's ritual.

I would think they wouldn’t want to be hamstrung by a governing council at all. That was part of my point.

I’m thinking that would be a chapter by chapter thing. If the group is always at total and always making quota (in effect, if the chapter is doing better than the national organization) then they could stay on that path. But if part of their reason of wanting to leave NPC in the first place is that the majority of their chapters do poorly in formal rush - in effect their “legitimacy” is what’s killing them - that’s also part of my point. They could take as many pledges as they want, as often as they want, without formal rush.

I don’t think schools are as worried about groups being in NPC as they are about them having a national body overseeing them. If that national body makes it clear that the reason they are leaving NPC is solely a numbers issue I truly don’t think the school is going to care.

I have a couple of friends who were members of locals that were taken over by an NPC group. They could not alter the NPC group's rituals. However, they were allowed to continue some on a declining basis in separate events if they wanted or in a chapter history part of the ritual - if they did that.