33girl,
While I've never gone through a new member period w/ an NPC sorority, I have however gone through a new member period w/ a local GLO and also DSP. And from both those experiences I would have to say that is crazy to say it is a minimal effort.
For me personally, both organizations required a real time committment, and I am glad the groups were honest with me and told me it would take a real time committment so I knew what kinds of time committments I had to make *before* actually going through the NM process.
If any groups told me it would only take a minimal effort, I probably would have been a lil upset when I found out it wasn't true
For people who only put the "very minimal effort" into it, that's pretty much what you get out of it.