NPC sororities and other national sororities
 

Should a NPC sorority accept for membership initiated members or a chapter of another national sorority? The answer to this lies in the standards that NPC sororities hold themselves to.

So should a NPC sorority accept a petition for charter by a chapter of a non-NPC national sorority? No - the Unanimous Agreements only mentions "local sorority, local women's fraternity, or interest group" and NPC’s definition of local is a sorority without guidance from or affiliation with any national organization.

From Agreement on Extension under Unanimous Agreements
When a local sorority, local women’s fraternity, or interest group is applying to any member group of NPC for a charter, no other member fraternity of NPC shall communicate with that group, either directly or indirectly.
An NPC fraternity being petitioned for a charter by a local sorority, local women’s fraternity, or interest group located on a campus where a College Panhellenic Association is established shall require that the petitioning organization conform to the College Panhellenic Association’s established rules, regulations, and policies concerning membership recruitment, pledging, initiation and other activities.

So should a NPC sorority accept for membership a group of women who are initiated members of a non-NPC national sorority? No – if the NPC sorority respects other national sororities and expects respect from others in return.

Each NPC sorority agreed to the Unanimous Agreement: a women who is or who has ever been an initiated member of an existing NPC fraternity shall not be eligible for membership in another NPC fraternity. However, the NPC also requires that any organization applying for Associate or Active membership to not have as a member any woman who holds membership in, has resigned from, or been expelled from any other fraternity which is a member of the NPC.

Thus, if the purpose of such an Agreement is to make sure each NPC sorority respect the other NPC national sororities AND the NPC requires any national sorority to essentially abide by such an Agreement in order to become a NPC member, then for an NPC sorority to accept for membership a group of women who are initiated members of a non-NPC national sorority is the height of hypocrisy.

If you want the benefits of the NPC, then join the NPC. Otherwise, you have no place telling NPC sororities what they may and may not do.

kddani - I am not telling NPC sororities what they may and may not do. :p NPC sororities can do whatever they want to do.

I have simply outlined the the standards that NPC sororities hold themselves out to AND based on these standards what "should" be the answer. So the debate would be what are the standards that NPC sororities hold themselves and others to, and do they follow them or is it do as I say and not as I do.

So if a chapter of a non-NPC national sorority has been "released", that would make them an independent local and thus eligible for absorption by an NPC, though, correct?

It's one thing for an NPC to solicit members of a non-NPC/NPHC national for affiliation, but another for the members of a chapter of a non-NPC/NPHC national to decide as a chapter to approach an NPC for affiliation. You make it sound like the "Big Bad NPC" is out to gobble up all other groups.

Does NPC define national organization?

I'm just curious for the sake of being curious - if an NPC chapter was "released", could another NPC absorb it?

No

Why not?

Could they if enough time passed with the chapter operating as a local that all the members initiated into the "old" org had graduated?

Once members have been initiated into one NPC group they are not allowed to be initiated into another NPC group.

Sure, because the members being installed would come from that local.

That was what happened at Carnegie Mellon. The Chi Omega chapter closed, but the women continued to operate as a local for about 15 years and then they affiliated with Alpha Chi Omega. All of the alumnae of the local were eligible for initiation into Alpha Chi Omega except those that had been initiated into Chi Omega.

The flaw in your reasoning here is that the reason the NPC does not require a national sorority to not have a NPC member in its membership as a requirement for membership for any other reason than to avoid being in conflict with itself - if national non-NPC sorority Alpha Alpha decides to apply for NPC membership, any NPC members in Alpha Alpha would be in the position of belonging to two NPCs, which obviously is to be avoided. I think the point is rather moot, because I really doubt there will be any new NPC members (could be wrong, but as things stand now, I doubt it.) So what you are calling hypocrisy is really just consistency. NPC groups will not accept as members initiated members of other NPC groups.
The problem with the very general definition of a national sorority quoted above is what really makes "national" oversight. I think that given the increase in sorority foundings that definition might need to be tightened up and defined more specifically.

eta - do any of these national non-NPC sororities have agreements to not initiate NPC members?

I'm really really trying to parse your sentences and I'm really really failing.