Hi ladies, I'm sorry to crash your boards, but maybe I can offer a little insight on expansion. I was PH President when San Francisco State opened to expansion, and I've also been involved in the colonization process for Alpha Gam at Chapman. (The Phi Sigs at Chapman have been totally great and supportive of us, BTW!)
When a school with an established Panhellenic is thinking about expansion, all the sororities already on campus must unanimously approve starting the process. They notify NPC's Extension Committee, who notifies each of the 26 NPC sororities of the extension opportunity.
From there, NPCs that are interested in starting a colony will send the college Panhellenic an information packet on themselves. For example, 11 NPCs sent Chapman info packets.
Here's where things get interesting. If the College Panhellenic is looking for a chapter to start *from scratch*, they will pick which sororities will be invited to make a presentation from those who have submitted an info packet. If there is a local group looking to colonize, the College Panhellenic will usually take the local's preferences into account. Back to my Chapman example, the College Panhellenic chose 4 NPCs to make a presentation.
From there, each of the NPCs chosen will make a presentation to the Panhellenic and/or local group. The College Panhellenic then votes for who they will extend an invitation to. After the invite is extended, the sorority's Grand Council will vote on whether to accept the invitation or not.
So...to make a long story short, phisigduchesscv is right: its not easy to expand. There's quite a few hoops to jump through, and believe me when I tell you all that *there is a method to the madness.* I am sure that your Grand Council has a very specific long-term-extension-plan that they are implementing. No NPC sorority colonizes willy-nilly.
Anyway, good luck to you in your expansion efforts. It's great to see sorority life expanding, no matter which sorority it is!
Threaded Mode