This May Sound Dumb....
 

.... But could somebody please explain the steps to becoming a soror? I keep reading all these terms (rush, bid day, pledge, formal/informal recruitment, initiation...) and I get it, but then again I don't. Could someone just explain what order they go in and a brief description of what they actually are?

The terms you listed (rush, bid day, pledge, etc.) are ones used in NPC (National Panhellenic Conference) recruitment. There are 26 NPC sororities.

I'm assuming you're wondering about the 4 NPHC sororities (National Pan-Hellenic Council), as "soror" is used more commonly by their members.

Since that's the case,
www.aka1908.org
www.deltasigmatheta.org
www.sgrho1922.org/
www.zphib1920.org

You might also want to pay attention to the stickied posts in their individual GC forums if you have questions pertaining to membership

26? How can you even remember all of them?

And yes, I was referring to the NPHC.

Thank you for the links.

I can't speak for my NPC sisters, but I learned and memorized them during my Fraternity Education program.

Remembering them is no different from knowing the alphabet.

my experience is that these days not everyone (collegians) even know there are 26 groups, much less what they all are.

Please pay close attention to these!:D

I learned there were 26 but I never learned all of their names. I could probably have come up with 15 of them in undergrad and all 26 now (with a bit of thought) that I've been on GC.

I did all 26 as an undergrad for our national NPC rep... she was impressed :)

I learned all 26 before I joined ADPi because of GC. :)

Same here. If I thought about it now and wrote them down I think I could do all 26 but it wasn't in my new member education. OTOH, I rocked the hell out of my new member education test before initiation scoring a 99.5. Damn you omicron! The one missing letter!

Haha, I might have missed one question on that test, but it wasn't a Greek Letter. Funny that you remember it was Omicron :p

It was definitely not in our new member education - one of my best friends who was president of our chapter got into a fight with a KD over whether KD was a NPC sorority or not. ;)

You're kidding! :eek:

I know they've since done a new NME handbook/workbook, but in the one I had (the mid-late 90s version), an entire page was dedicated to the 26 NPC sororities, complete with illustrations of the badges, founding dates/campus, official flower/jewel -- you know, the quick facts.

Haha, ditto that! It didn't hurt having 20 of them on campus, either, I suppose.

I'm an NPC geek - I know all 26, their colors and their symbols. Same for the NPHC groups. I know quite a few founding campus names, too.

I'm with you soror, please pay attention to the sororities of the NPHC... start studying ...:cool:

I had to know all 26 during my education experience into SK but I know not every group does this. I actually met a very nice woman recently at work who is a member of an NPC GLO. When we started talking about the GLO's at our respective alma maters, she had not heard of some of the one's I mentioned. I was frankly stunned b/c there are very well known & respected GLO's yet she did not have a clue who they were OR that there are 26 NPC GLO's. :eek:

Can you imagine the look on my face when she actually asked me who XYZ and ABC were?

I didn't know that there were 26 NPCs until I came to GC the semester after I initiated.

I don't think they're still in there. There's a section on NPC, if I remember correctly, but I don't think it lists them all just a general how-to on handling PHC and whatnot.

I used the early 2000 edition when I was a NM... and I used the most updated version when I was NMC with my girls.

I do, however, love fraternity education and I could do it all day.

Still there...page 39.:D I dug mine up this weekend to go over it before I presented program on Sunday.

We had to learn the whole Greek alphabet but I don't think we were asked to learn all 26 organizations on the test. Probably because there are only five here...I'm a history buff though, so to me learning about other organizations is fun. I knew a lot about KD (well stuff I'm allowed to know, anyway) already, and it was interesting (I'm still jealous of the dagger...so cool), so I kept going. I've already read all I have been able to get my hands on about Alpha Gam, but of course I could keep going. Apparently we have bound Quarterlys from the '50s in the chapter room...that's how I spent my break between classes and green program today.:o

Awesome!! I'm so happy to know it's still there!

For the mid/late 90s AGDs, you know the Frat Ed "Magazine" with the green border -- and the separate workbook!

I know that they came out with combined book thereafter with the spiraley and I'm not really familiar with that or the versions after. I'm going to make an effort to find my Frat Ed book when I can!

I definitely didn't learn anything pertaining to other organizations during my new member period. Actually all I learned was what NPC stood for. But I love learning about it all now! In fact my friends think I'm a dork because I'll spit off random facts about Greek stuff they know nothing about.

On a side note, I think I was pretty well informed about at least the chapters that were on the campus at which I went through recruitment. I could tell you their nicknames, colors, philanthropies, etc. So it shocked me to find out that some of our new members this year didn't even know OUR colors. Then again, I guess everyone wearing pink on philanthropy day threw them off.

I've also found that a LOT of girls I know at other schools are completely oblivious to the fact that there are other sororities then the ones on their campus/ones on the campus of the university in the town in which they grew up. I mean seriously, can we beef up the material we're teaching NMs about NPC?

loveinzta,

i will have to look at my daughters new member material and compare it to what i learned, back in the day.

when i was a pledge, we had to be able to recite the greek alphabet(we learned it in song form-i used to sing it to my kids as a lullaby!) and recognize the symbols, we had to be able to recognize the other campus greek organizations badges, and we had to know the full name and the nickname of each campus greek org. plus be able to write it in their name with greek symbols.

Thanks! I will most certainly take care to read the respective websites information on membership. And it's good to know that learning about other GLO's is apart of membership because it's something I've already done.

You all have been very helpful!

i'm with you on that - i just think its a part of being a greek.

-m

Ziasha...first and foremost...DO YOUR RESEARCH!!! and when you feel that you have decided upon the organization that you want to become a member of...EXPRESS INTEREST!!! by this i mean, get in contact with a soror from the chapter at your school, or if there isnt one @ your school, a grad chapter member or a member of the city-wide chapter. but dont be a stalker and OD'n wit the interest, its a fine line between interest & OD...

I think this knowledge all went out the windows in the 90s when we thought it was "hazing". I knew all 26 groups as a colony/charter member. Most of which we never heard of and when we listed to expansion presentations, we went on gut and not which one was the biggest NPC group (because we chose the smallest of the ones who presented).