Edgewater Sororities?
 

Apologies if this is out of line in any way, but I was at a Panhellenic meeting last week and heard one of the advisors mention that ABC was an "edgewater sorority," which she described as a sort of secret society of the "elite" NPC sororities. I suppose if it really is a secret society, no one is going to be willing to talk about it, but I was just curious if anyone else had heard of this or if its just some urban legend/distortion.

The only thing I could find relating to this is that one of the ladies who founded that "Recovering Sorority Girls" thing lives in a town called Edgewater.

Yeah, I couldn't pull anything up on google besides one of the Panhellenic conferences held at the Edgewater hotel in Chicago. I was just surprised since I'd never even heard of such a thing before, but this advisor was quite certain it existed... Although I can't for the life of me figure out the advantages of creating a panhellenic society within NPC.

Maybe it's just a case of somebody deciding that "certain" NPCs were elite and the rest weren't.

The same is also said of NPHC organizations, that some are more elite than others.

I'm assuming this is sort of like the Tier system. Nothing official, just sort of there for those who give a damn.

It couldn't have been specific to this campus, since the sorority in question doesn't have a chapter here, but it might be possible that it's something she picked up from her old college campus and thought applied nationally.

I think its refering to the early NPC organizations who did not have chapters at teacher's colleges, and probably has something to do with the Edgewater Beach Hotel where the NPC met in 1909.

Who was at the 1909 convention?

So looking a little further, a google search turned up a reference in the job description of the Pi Beta Phi Grand President

http://www.pibetaphi.org/aboutus/Off...ons_pdf/GP.pdf

Under "Travel" it lists:
"NPC meetings (NPC, Edgewater) – 3 per year, 3-4 days each"

Although that could be about something completely different.

1909 Convention
 

Pi Beta Phi, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Alpha Phi, Delta Gamma, Gamma Phi Beta, Alpha Chi Omega, Delta Delta Delta, Alpha Xi Delta, Chi Omega, Sigma Kappa, and Alpha Omicron Pi joined NPC prior to 1909. Zeta Tau Alpha, Alpha Gamma Delta, and Alpha Delta Pi joined in 1909.

Not sure who was actually at the convention!

Wilson Heller used to write about the Edgewater sororities (and this was 40 years ago), and I think they were the "elite of the elite" in the NPC world.

Maybe Eric knows more?

Re: Edgewater Sororities?
 

It was the first 7 NPC groups as someone else said. Rumor has it that they still meet to discuss issues that are inherent to being them - that size, that old, owning that many greek houses, that whatever. So, yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, I mean a tiered system!!!

Funny thing is that there were other groups in existence in 1909. Not sure exactly of the history, but at that time were they still having a disregard for teacher's colleges?

That's what took KD so long to join the NPC, despite being founded before 1900. We had chapters at teachers colleges. Eventually the two of those chapters that were left voted to relinquish their charters so that KD could join the NPC.

it was the same with us danielle(of course it would be, having been founded at the same college as kappa delta). i can't imagine how hard it must have been to have to give up(at that time) our alpha chapters in order to join the npc.

frankly, i think snob appeal is in the eye of the beholder. what is the hot sorority at carnegie mellon, might not even have a chapter at florida state. popularity(or hotness) is not only a regional thing, but more definately a campus thing.we all have strong and not so strong chapters, beauty queens and plain girls with shining personalities, einsteins and sub average students.
despite what some profess, no ONE sorority is better than the others. if that were the case, the other 25 would cease to exist.

good luck to all three of the wonderful sororities who will be presenting at gwu.

And now that we have teh intraweb, that's very evident.