Question about Locals at Ga Tech

[Fleur de Lis]

I have a friend who is going through recruitment at Ga Tech. I was looking on their panhellenic site (http://www.panhellenic.gatech.edu/ )and saw they have 6 NPC sororities, 3 associate members, and 1 local. The non-NPC sororities do recruitment after the NPC ones and have some limitations on their involvment with campus panhellenic.

So my question is, how does the sorority system function here? It seems like the associates will always be "second-tier" if they are doing recruitment after the bulk of girls have accepted bids. Doesn't that defeat the "panhellenic" attitude we're trying to have? Also, why did panhellenic choose these groups over NPC sororities? I am not familiar with any of these associates, so if they are up-and-coming and soon to be NPC or cater to a certain demographic, maybe they do quite well. I would love to hear any information on this!