Locals absorbed/colonized by NPC Sororities

[gatordeltapgh]

Originally Posted by ree-Xi

The thread about New Delta at UTEP made me think a bit. Instead of hijacking that thread, I decided to start a new one. The quote is from that thread.

I checked New Delta's website and it does say this: "Local Organization that will be affiliated with a National Organization this March. They are currently a member of the Panhelenic Council."

I have a few general questions about local affiliating with national organizations (if anyone has been in this situation, I'd love to hear your personal experiences).

- Especially for organizations that have been around awhile, and/or groups that were founded in the hopes of becoming a new chapter of ABC, what is it like to have new "everything", including letters, ideals, history, symbols and colors?

- In general, do all the girls in the current local automatically become charter members, or do they still have to go through that organization's colonization process? In other words, is it the same process to absorb a local sorority or existing interest group, as if the sorority was invited to colonize on campus?

- Similarly, I have read about some I/National orgs offering membership to graduated alumnae of the absorbed local (sometimes for a limited time afterward). Is this common?


PS I don't know why my font is wacky. I apologize.

It really all depends on which NPC member group is absorbing the local. Each group has its own process and sometimes decisions are made on a case by case basis depending on that specific situation. Sorry to have to say that it depends.

The same thing goes for the local history, colors, etc. From my experience it is best to move on and to fully adopt the symbols, culture, colors of the NPC group quickly. This is especially important for recruitment and chapter identity. The affiliation process can be confusing for those outside of greek life and confusion is the last thing a colonizing group needs.

I do think that affiliating locals can find some tasteful way of honoring their local heritage if allowed by the NPC and if appropriate. Moving on can be hard at the beginning but over time it makes more sense and is very easy. Chapters at FSU are a great example. Many were originally locals that formed to become a chapter of XYZ. Decades later they are very proud to be XYZ but have found some small way of honoring their local heritage where appropriate.

[ree-Xi]

Originally Posted by gatordeltapgh

It really all depends on which NPC member group is absorbing the local. Each group has its own process and sometimes decisions are made on a case by case basis depending on that specific situation. Sorry to have to say that it depends.

The same thing goes for the local history, colors, etc. From my experience it is best to move on and to fully adopt the symbols, culture, colors of the NPC group quickly. This is especially important for recruitment and chapter identity. The affiliation process can be confusing for those outside of greek life and confusion is the last thing a colonizing group needs.

I do think that affiliating locals can find some tasteful way of honoring their local heritage if allowed by the NPC and if appropriate. Moving on can be hard at the beginning but over time it makes more sense and is very easy. Chapters at FSU are a great example. Many were originally locals that formed to become a chapter of XYZ. Decades later they are very proud to be XYZ but have found some small way of honoring their local heritage where appropriate.

I imagine that no matter which organization is doing the absorbing, it's a big transition for the members. I think that's great that the chapters do things to retain some of their local history. I guess that can be achieved when learning about the chapter history, or through chapter traditions.

If anyone cares to share their story, I'd love to hear it.

[aephi alum]

My chapter started out as a local - Sigma Iota Phi. The founders had initially wanted to bring AEPhi to campus, but Panhel didn't want to expand. Two years later, though, we re-approached Panhel and they were amenable to expansion - AEPhi was interested in colonizing, and we were a chartered AEPhi chapter within a year.

Having new "everything" was a bit overwhelming at first. I still have my SigIPhi badge and a couple of lettered shirts, and I was a bit sad when I realized I wouldn't be able to wear them again, but it wasn't long before I had a shiny new AEPhi badge and some letters. SigIPhi's and AEPhi's ideals and history aligned pretty well - AEPhi was originally founded by seven Jewish women who wanted to form an organization based on Jewish ideals while being open to women of all faiths, and SigIPhi was founded for the same reason (by seven Jewish women, yet!) 84 years later. So in our case there wasn't too much of a "culture shock".

Suddenly being answerable to a national organization was a bit of an adjustment - "you want us to fill out HOW MANY forms?!" But the up side of that is all the support we got as a fledgling colony and new chapter.

The new colony's initial membership consisted of all but two members of SigIPhi - one sister was an alumna and the other chose not to affiliate. (The alumna went through our pledging ceremonies with us, but AFAIK she was never initiated.) We then doubled our membership over the next few months (which included formal recruitment).

A few bits and pieces of SigIPhi's legacy have survived within the chapter. The chapter's history is on the web site (I wrote most of the copy for that page, and the copy has evidently not been changed in 15 years). I believe the history is discussed during new member education, but not heavily emphasized. The chapter sometimes incorporates purple decorations along with green and white, as SigIPhi's colors were green and purple. Other than that, though, SigIPhi is in the past.