Question: Does anyone ever see the NPHC allowing inclusion of a 10th group?
 

I'm just curious what people think.

There are smaller, but national BGLOs that have been working to expand.

Does anyone ever see the NPHC allowing membership to a new group?

I imagine it would be an incredible undertaking...

Ask an Iota how long it took them to get in. Starang, where are you?

Re: Question: Does anyone ever see the NPHC allowing inclusion of a 10th group?
 

If I recall correctly, one of the requirements for membership in the NPHC is having 50 active chapters. Thus, it would definitely take a while. ;) That said, I think it will happen -- but not any time in the near future.

I thought one of the reasons why it took so long for Iota to become a member of NPHC was because the council didn't have a procedure for expansion prior to then. I could be wrong.

NPHC has a lot of requirements for expansion and I don't know of any organizations that currently meets all of them and would want to be a member of the council.

Yep, it wasn't until 1993 that the NPHC's consitution was amended to allow for expansion. And this happened because of the tenacity of the Iotas.

I was actually thinking about this the other day, not only the NPHC, but will the NPC allow another sorority full membership? Has anyone tried in recent history? What would be the requirements? What would happen if an org within the conference would fold as a national group...would one replace it?

ETA: better wording.

In order for another sorority to become a full member of the NPC, it needs to have 15 active chapters.

No, because there have already been NPC groups fold and no one replaced them. 26 groups isn't the "magic number" or anything.

I believe that it is more than 15 chapters. I thought it was more like 30 chapters at four year accredited institutions. I could easily be wrong, I couldn't find the info on the website. I know when AST joined the NPC we lost a number of chapters because our chapters were at teaching schools.

In 1972 Iota Alpha Pi quit the NPC rather than be merged or close. They are still around I believe.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...erger+sorority

That is the thread about NPC mergers and closures.

I imagine it would be hard to get in at this point in time.

I believe it's 13 active chapters for associate membership, and 15 for full membership.

I imagine Ceres is close wonder if they will petition...

Actually, Iota Alpha Pi completely disbanded. It was Kappa Beta Gamma that left the NPC.

I believe that the NPHC will admit more groups in the future. Their standards are very high, but that means that the groups they admit will be strong and competitive. i think It will be a while before any group is large enough to apply. The biggest non-NPHC BGLO I can think of is Gamma Phi Delta, and they have 13 undedgrad chapters and 58 grad chapters. Thats a long way to go before meeting the NPHC's requirements.

As far as the NPC, I think that while it may technically be possible to pursue membership with just 15 chapters, it would be foolish to actually do so. An organization that small would have real trouble competing with the more established organizations. They would have fewer members, fewer alumnae, and fewer financial resources. It would be a lot better for an sorority interested in NPC membership to remain independent until they had enough chapters to be similar in size to other NPC groups. That's becasue while independent, they can set their own expansion policies, and grow at a rate that is comfortable to them and the campuses that they are expanding to. Once they join the NPC, it will become a lot harder to expand, since they will have to follow the existing NPC expansion policies.

Yes, this is my understanding too.

I tend to agree with this. To petition for NPC membership, an org. has to have at least 13 collegiate chapters at accredited four-year institutions. The youngest chapter can be no less than two-years-old. That means that the org. would have to put off extension for several years. Not that that is a bad thing but it could hurt in the long term. There was a buzz about 10 years ago that a Latina sorority was considering joining but it never came to pass. Maybe they decided to join NALFO.