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: