Local seeking NPC affiliation

[aephi alum]

It is a better option to go national if your school's activities director is concerned about liability. All NPC sororities are incorporated and have policies prohibiting hazing, prohibiting alcohol on sorority premises, requiring a third-party vendor for alcohol at sorority events, etc. I'm not saying your local doesn't have similar rules, but a national body overseeing the chapter can only be a good thing from a liability standpoint, as far as the activities director is concerned.

Since there are no NPC orgs currently represented at your campus, your sorority and your school's activities director can approach NPC directly. If you have a preference for a particular NPC org, you can indicate that when you approach NPC.

BTW, I'm a founder of my chapter of AEPhi, and we started out as a local sorority called Sigma Iota Phi. So your letters make me smile

[PhoenixAzul]

BlueEyed,
Typically, I'd give you my "being local is awesome" speech. But in your situation, I'm not going to.
My own local sorority has flourished because we have an established system of locals, both fraternity and sorority. Your campus lacks this tradition/establishment. There's not really any history for you to lean back on for guidance. That can be great in terms of making progressive decisions, but it can be bad because it leaves a lot of room for bad influences to sneak in. (Basically, because the bushel is so small, one bad apple can really ruin the batch!).
The NPC (and NPHC and Multicultural) sororities have a lot of resources. What you'd gain is guidance, insurance, structure etc. Downfall of this is that you won't have the freedom of direction that a local would, but you'd have a framework for construction.
The downside: no guarantee of colonization. Dues will go up (pretty exponentially, actually). You're going to have to sell that to girls on your campus...which means push the networking benefits of national sorority life and etc. Loss of your letters (but you can include that in your chapter history).
I think that the presence of a national organization at your school will be a nice "anchor" for a new system...its a rough life as a local sometimes, and even more when you're the only one.

Good luck.

[BlueEyedButrfly]

Thanks to you both!

I'm going to fill my activities director in tomorrow and hopefully we'll be able to get the letter for NPC. I've contacted the npc expansion chair (to find out what needs to be done) and she says that getting the letter of permission is the first step. There are 3 NPC sororities that we're highly interested in but I will not name them here. I understand that there is no guarantee of colonization but if no sorority chooses to colonize us then we'll just continue on being local. It IS very tough being the ONLY sorority on campus (a campus with no experience in the greek life department) because we have no guidance or structure. I'm hoping that a npc organization will be willing to be the first on our campus and to help us establish ourselves If not, then so be it.

Does anyone know how many girls are needed in order to colonize a npc sorority?

Also, what happens during the colonization process? I'm not sure if that is an appropriate question to be asking, if not, I apologize. If you do not want to respond here please PM me

Thanks for all of your help!!!

[aephi alum]

Originally Posted by BlueEyedButrfly

Does anyone know how many girls are needed in order to colonize a npc sorority?

Depends on the NPC sorority. The sorority will probably want to see that there is a good, strong core group of women. This group doesn't necessarily have to be big; my local had 10 active sisters when we became an AEPhi colony.

The NPC sorority may also set a minimum number of women who must join before the chapter can be chartered. However, they will help you with recruitment.

During the colonization process, you'll be considered new members. Typically, you wouldn't be initiated until the chapter is chartered. You'll be responsible for the day-to-day running of the colony (with help from nationals) and each member will be responsible for completing her new member education (again, with help from nationals).

Good luck.

[BlueEyedButrfly]

Awesome, thank you