NPC Organizations Not Currently in Canada

[Chelsie]

Hi everyone! I thought I'd start a little discussion about NPC organizations' presence in Canada. Currently the organizations that have active chapters up North are:

Alpha Gamma Delta
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Epsilon Phi
Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Phi
Gamma Phi Beta
Delta Gamma
Delta Delta Delta
Delta Zeta
Delta Phi Epsilon
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Pi Beta Phi
Phi Sigma Sigma

Organizations with no active chapters in Canada:

Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Sigma Alpha
Alpha Sigma Tau
Alpha Xi Delta
Chi Omega
Kappa Delta
Phi Mu
Sigma Delta Tau
Sigma Kappa
Sigma Sigma Sigma
Theta Phi Alpha
Zeta Tau Alpha

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think the organizations without active chapters would ever consider colonizing up North?

[ColdInCanada11]

As a Canadian member of an NPC, I think it would be fantastic if we had more organisations up here! However, I don't know if they would. First of all, our risk management is slightly different (legal age is 18, or 19 depending on the province), and secondly, the finances work differently. If you weren't an organisation that already had Canadian chapters, you would have to develop a Canadian finance plan to fit the laws here. Also, this is a minute point, but parents and family members are very hesitant to donate to Greek foundations because they are American charities. Most people's parents preferred donating to charities in Canada for tax reasons.

The other big difference is that student groups fall under the student union, not Student Affairs. It doesn't sound like it would make a difference, but it actually makes for some pretty huge differences. Of course we have our own Alpha Gam advisors (likewise for all of the other chapters), but few schools in Canada have Greek Life advisors- that can make things difficult. And at a lot of Canadian schools, the administration don't really know we are there (no more than any other student group).

Depending on the city in Canada, you can be quite a distance from the next chapter over, and thus couldn't offer much help in person. Also, if an organisation that isn't in Canada is colonising in Canada, I'm going to guess that there will be little to no alumnae members (it would mean that you would have had to do your undergrad in the States, not too common for us). I don't know how IHQs would feel about that.

I know there are a lot of GC members who work with/for their own HQs, I would be very interested to see if anyone has some insight into this!! Great topic

[oldu]

Alpha Chi Omega, Chi Omega, Sigma Delta Tau and Zeta Tau Alpha all have closed chapters in Canada and I would guess that they (& their Canadian alumnae) would love to have them back. Also, some of the Canadian schools are not too distant from some of the existing U.S. chapters.

[NoDak]

My guess is the fact that these organizations do not want to deal with the varied forms of tax law. Pure and simple.

[ColdInCanada11]

Originally Posted by Jen

We've had members of our sorority come up from Washington state to assist with recruitment in the past, so I imagine groups that have a lot of presence in states close to Canada might be able to lean on them for colonization support in lieu of there being local alumnae.

I know that the North Dakota and Minnesota chapters help with our Manitoba chapters, but I'm just thinking longer term, for the first year(s) where you need consistent alumnae support, I don't know that having long-distance support quite does the same as alumnae physically there.

[oldu]

Similar to the sororities approximately half the NIC fraternities have chapters in Canada. The most (with five or more) are Alpha Epsilon Pi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Delta Upsilon, Kappa Sigma, Phi Delta Theta, Phi Gamma Delta, Sigma Chi and Zeta Psi. I think Zeta Psi was the pioneer and still has the most chapter in Canada. That is a sizable portion for one of the smaller organizations.

[NutBrnHair]

Originally Posted by oldu

Alpha Chi Omega, Chi Omega, Sigma Delta Tau and Zeta Tau Alpha all have closed chapters in Canada and I would guess that they (& their Canadian alumnae) would love to have them back.

Most Chi Omegas have no idea we ever had a Canadian chapter... Phi at Hellmuth Woman's College in London, Ontario was open just over one year - 1899-1900.

[naraht]

Originally Posted by NutBrnHair

Most Chi Omegas have no idea we ever had a Canadian chapter... Phi at Hellmuth Woman's College in London, Ontario was open just over one year - 1899-1900.

This also means that Chi Omega can't get their Canadian chapter "back" since the school has been closed for more than a century.

[NutBrnHair]

Originally Posted by Cheerio

In the past, Chi Omega immediately re-used the Phi (Hellmuth) chapter name for their new University of Southern California chapter. I don't know whether Chi Omega has the current trait of re-using a Greek Letter designation when a chapter closes.

The chapter name Phi was reused in 1940 (hardly immediately).
The habit of reusing chapter names was/is very confusing and was only done a handful of times. This practice was stopped in the late 1940s.

[Chelsie]

Well, Western University is based in London, Ontario and they have a thriving Greek community. Chi Omega could make a marriage between the inactive chapter and a potential colony there in the future!

[SoCalGirl]

Sigma Kappa had a chapter in Canada previously at Univ. of Manitoba from 1933 - 1955

[Tom Earp]

As I understand it, all of the Canadian schools do not recognize Greeks but know they are there! Maybe sanctioned is a better word?