National Panhellenic Conference

National Panhellenic Conference

Abbreviation	NPC
Predecessor	National Panhellenic Congress
Formation	May 24, 1902 (1902-05-24)
Merger of	Association of Education Sororities
Type	Trade organization
Headquarters	3901 West 86th Street, Suite 398, Indianapolis, Indiana
Region	North America
Membership	26
Website	NPC website

The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) is an umbrella organization for 26 (inter)national women's sororities throughout the United States and Canada. Each member group is autonomous as a social, Greek-letter society of college women and alumnae.

The National Panhellenic Conference provides guidelines and resources for its members and serves as the national voice on contemporary issues of sorority life. Founded in 1902, NPC is one of the oldest and largest women's membership organizations, representing more than 4 million women at over 650 college/university campuses and 4,600 local alumnae chapters in the U.S. and Canada. Each year, NPC-affiliated collegians and alumnae donate more than $5 million to causes, provide $2.8 million in scholarships to women, and volunteer 500,000 hours in their communities.^[1]

The organization holds a philosophy that it is a conference, not a congress, as it enacts no legislation and only regulates its own meetings.^[2] Other than basic agreements which its groups must unanimously vote to follow, NPC confines itself to recommendations and advice and acts as a court of final appeal in any College Panhellenic difficulty. One of its services is providing advisors for college and alumnae Panhellenic organizations.

History

Early histories of women's fraternities contain accounts of "rushing and pledging agreements" or "compacts" among fraternities on various campuses, and also many stories of cooperation and mutual assistance. However, no actual Panhellenic organization existed and no uniform practices were observed.

In 1902, Alpha Phi invited Pi Beta Phi, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Delta Gamma, Gamma Phi Beta, Delta Delta Delta, Alpha Chi Omega, and Chi Omega to a conference in Chicago on May 24 to set standards for collegiate sororities. Alpha Chi Omega and Chi Omega were unable to attend and would join the following year. The remaining seven groups met and the session resulted in the organization of the first interfraternity association and the first intergroup organization on college campuses. This meeting, and the next few, resulted in several mutual agreements, especially regarding pledging. Up to this time, no guidelines had been set, and women could be pledged to groups before enrolling in college and, indeed, even belong to more than one group.

Many of the current members joined through the next decade, with Alpha Xi Delta in 1904, Alpha Omicron Pi and Sigma Kappa in 1905, Alpha Delta Pi and Alpha Gamma Delta and Zeta Tau Alpha in 1909, Delta Zeta in 1910, Phi Mu in 1911, and Kappa Delta in 1912. No new members were admitted for the next few decades.

By 1922, the Conference (as of then still named the National Panhellenic Congress) had a structure of an executive committee consisting of a chairman, secretary, and treasurer; a publicity board; and a delegate board with at least one representative from each of its 18 senior members.^[3] That year, the Congress also began plans for its own centralized Panhellenic headquarters to coordinate and streamline interactions with the separate sororities.^[4]

Shortly before its merger with the NPC, the AES was part of a larger multi-panhellenic association, the Council of Affiliated Panhellenics, with the NPC and the Professional Panhellenic Association.^[5]

Members

College students line up in front of a house during recruitment, the process in which students and NPC sororities mutually select each other for membership.

NPC Chairmen

Chairmen of the NPC.^[10] Rotates through the membership in the order of joining.^[2]

References

External links

• Official website