National umbrella organizations--Did you know..?

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Gusteau

It should also be noted that it costs a good deal of money to be a member of the NIC. The cost is based on how many chapters you have.

Yep. It's my understanding that's one of the reasons (though not the only one) that we haven't sought membership in the NIC. With 242 active chapters (as of the last count I have), we'd be one of the largest fraternities in the NIC (chapter-wise, though not collegiate member-wise, as our chapters tend to be smaller) and the cost would be very high.

I'm curious to see if either group looks to come back to the NIC now that it seems they're balancing their focus (i.e. being more vocal advocates for open expansion and in opposition to deferred recruitment).

If you look back over the history of the NIC, there's actually quite a bit of fraternities withdrawing and (usually) coming back eventually.

[badgeguy]

One of the things KSig was concerned about, among others, was that there seems to be a movement coming with trying to eliminate pledge periods and having immediate initiations, it was based on some schools trying to eliminate hazing and forcing fraternities to not have the opportunity to haze pledges and just have all persons members. At the time of the shift NIC was considering such legislations and working with schools who wanted to do this.

I do not however know if anything resulted in this at any schools or if the NIC ever eliminated pledge periods or not.

I do know that at the end of my college life in the 1990s, our pledges had 60 days to be initiated. It was becoming a real hot issue with chapters, especially the older ones.

BG

[NinjaPoodle]

Originally Posted by Little Dragon

I went to Wikipedia and updated the membership count for several of the outdated umbrella groups according to their respective national webpage. There are small changes.

Small changes they may be, but they matter. Very cool!

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by badgeguy

One of the things KSig was concerned about, among others, was that there seems to be a movement coming with trying to eliminate pledge periods and having immediate initiations, it was based on some schools trying to eliminate hazing and forcing fraternities to not have the opportunity to haze pledges and just have all persons members. At the time of the shift NIC was considering such legislations and working with schools who wanted to do this.

I do not however know if anything resulted in this at any schools or if the NIC ever eliminated pledge periods or not.

I do know that at the end of my college life in the 1990s, our pledges had 60 days to be initiated. It was becoming a real hot issue with chapters, especially the older ones.

BG

NIC doesn't dictate what we do. It's not a governing body. That said, I'll bet those policies are something our insurers might have been pursuing through an umbrella like the NIC.