NALFO Orgs. Changing Focus
 

Article III, Section 1.0 of the NALFO Constitution states:

The purpose of the NALFO is to promote and foster positive interfraternal
relations, communication, and development of all Latino Fraternal organizations through mutual respect, leadership, honesty, professionalism and education.

The phrase "Latino fraternal organizations" appears throughout the NALFO constitution, in its by-laws, and all official documents. If an organization is no longer operating as a "Latino fraternal organization," but rather, an "organization founded by Latinos" but that now has some other focus, why should it still be permitted to retain NALFO membership? I can see why these orgs. might want to retain NALFO membership, but is there some benefit to NALFO in having such orgs. stay with the council (other than dollars)?

My personal opinion is that it is time for NALFO to clean house. I'd like to see some amendments to the constitution that would reserve membership for those organizations that were founded primarily to serve the Latina/o community, and that still uphold this purpose, regardless of their current membership demographics.

I think it's time for many of the member organizations (and some of the former organizations, including my own) to re-educate its membership on organizational goals.

And as a former organization, this may not be my place anymore, but I think NALFO needs to become more than just a "holding group" for LGLOs. When reading the minutes and participating in NALFO business, I noticed nothing being accomplished (outside of voting members in and out). Before my organization left, I know there was a push to become more than that, but I'm not sure if that's happened.

I'm curious if the members that have seemingly changed focus will come together under a NALFO-esque umbrella. /randomthought

I agree that NALFO can do a whole lot more to support its member organizations, but in my view this is challenging when some of the member organizations over the years have been faced with their own internal struggles as to the direction they want to take. This is one reason why I feel that narrowing the council down to just those orgs. that are maintaining their original focus of serving the Latina/o community might be helpful. If we can at least come to agreement that all NALFO organizations are on the same page in terms of focus, then we can move on to other business.

Very true.

Some of these orgs. might need to do this (especially the smaller groups). I am not sure that all former NALFO member orgs. will be welcome into Multicultural Greek Councils. At least, if I was part of a multicultural founded org., I would have a real problem accepting a Latina sorority that now decided it is "multicultural".

In Texas (for the most part), all non-NIC/NPC/NPHC groups are looped into "other/multicultural" councils. The multicultural groups don't seem to be the ones that have issue with this -- it tends to be other NALFO/LGLO/HLGLO groups that cause problems.

I'm not sure if looping smaller organizations in with the larger ones will end well. That's one of the large complaints I remember hearing about NALFO. I can see organizations like ODPhi, KDChi, SLB, SLG, and others coming together, as we seem to be moving in similar directions. I can't see some of the smaller organizations benefiting from being looped in with groups like these.

I have a few thoughts about this in general.

First, I don't know what NALFO does. But I also don't know what the NPHC does. I actually think the NPHC is less effective now since its reorganization than it was before.

Second, I don't think it matters that an organization has opted to become multicultural as long as it takes the proper steps to be that: constitutionally, programmatically, and leaving NALFO.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I do see NALFO doing things which are good, such as the awards. I think having an organization of peer organizations helps to maintain standards, incentivize strong programs, and to increase awareness and support of LGLOs on the campuses which need to be educated about them.

But my expertise is honestly not in "councils" as much as it is the internal structure of sovereign organizations.



(Shout out to GreekChat for having heavy-hitting topics today)

Just curious - how will this be determined?

What are you talking about you don't know what NPHC does????


Those Greek Picnics don't organize themselves.


LOL

*smh*

lol

Now that Gamma Eta is part of the NMGC, I could see other Latino-based, multicultural orgs (biting my tongue so hard lol) following suit.

Maybe this is where things are getting side-tracked on campus. The campus Greek -Life office may not understand the various designations of each, so to make things simple, just group those who "look alike" into one council.

Re: First: LatinaAlumna may be able to speak more on this, but when I was involved with NALFO, it was literally a "holding group" for the LGLO organizations. The only things that I remember happening were votes regarding member organizations' standing. That's fine if that was the original intent, but it was my understanding that when NALFO and CNHL merged, it was to provide a larger platform for member organizations. The group hasn't used its platform to accomplish much.

Like LatinaAlumna said, though, this is likely due to the fact that many of the groups have internal turmoil.

Re: Finally: I agree. As I stated earlier, a lot of the negativity I heard from NALFO was due to the fact that the groups didn't seem like peers (outside of their histories). There were large historically LGLOs, small historically GLOs, large current LGLOs, and small current LGLOs. Obviously, these groups wanted to do what was best for them, but it didn't help NALFO as a whole.

Several of the HLGLO groups have left the council, so that may be a step in the right direction to help the group regain focus.

I'll speak on my campus, as I'm not 100% in tune with the others.

UTA has 6 NALFO-esque* organizations (ODPhi, KDChi, SLB, SLG, Lambda Theta Phi, Lambda Theta Alpha) and interest for one more (PIA). The rest of our (13-15 member) MGC is comprised of other Latino/a, Asian, and Multicultural organizations. We could easily split off into two governing councils and still have enough resources for both, but the NALFO-esque organizations don't really see a benefit of bringing a NALFO council to the local level, as the group doesn't do much on the national level. It's not really the school that's blocking it (our Greek Advisor is one of my frat brothers and the school is very open to 'cultural' organizations and entities), but the member organizations.

*I used this because all of our organizations were NALFO at the time of our MGC founding.

I understand. When I was at TAMU, the Greek life office split groups pretty much as NPC/NIC/IFC or "other", which at the time was the NPHC. Maybe now they are more "organized"? :confused:

Our Delta chapter is at TAMU, and from what I understand, the campus is much more open to the idea of the "others" than when it was founded.

I can see the LGLOs having an issue with this because the term "multicultural" does not describe their focus, or for the most part, membership demographic.

Since there are four major orgs. that were founded as LGLOs but now have a different emphasis, it is conceivable that they might want to start their own umbrella organization--but what would that be? Since I'm not a member of one of the forementioned orgs., I can only speculate, but I don't think a new LGLO umbrella would fit the bill, nor would a new MGLO council necessarily be appropriate. The only direction I can see these orgs moving toward is being part of the IFC/NPC councils on campus, while making an emphasis on their various special interests during recruitment.

In part, this is what NALFO was/is supposed to do:

NALFO was/is supposed to be a solution to the issue of "which council should we join?" for LGLOs. In the 1990s, when LGLOs began to really see a surge in expansion across the country, it became apparent that most universities did not know how to handle these new chapters (which were not members of the NPHC and were resistant to becoming affiliate members of the local IFC/NPC councils). NALFO was/is supposed to be a way to satisfy university requirements of being a member of a council, while still giving chapters the ability to maintain their own customs, traditions, etc. (especially with regard to the new membership process). It was/is also supposed to promote collaboration among the member organizations and foster unity. To a certain degree, I believe NALFO has been a positive force for LGLOs, but the bottom line is that it started off with way too many organizations. NALFO has been around in some form for about 12-13 years now, and I think it could have been further along in some of its objectives had it started off with a smaller group of orgs.

This is a great question, and it is something that should have been clearly defined by NALFO a long time ago. As a LGLO member, I can say what this phrase ("Latino Fraternal Organization") means to me, but it can be interpreted differently depending who you talk to, and/or depending on an organization's agenda.

I did not know that. I'm not sure if you can share, but was there much controversy? (I'm guessing they had to be voted in by the current member organizations.)

Yep--these two points (internal turmoil and having orgs that are not truly peers) have contributed largely to the current state of NALFO.

I also agree that it was a positive step for some of the former NALFO orgs. to take a hard look at themselves and decide to pursue other options.

Well said...

There are many chapters of many LGLO/HLGLO organizations spread throughout the US. It's just hard to have a substantial impact because there are so.many.organizations out there competing for a small group of people and NALFO (in its current state) isn't really promoting the existing organizations.

And when I said UTA, I was referring to UT-Arlington, not Austin. I think there are a few campuses that could support a separate council with only LGLO/HLGLO organizations.

That I couldn't tell you. Theta Nu Xi is not a member of the NMGC.

Sorry I wasn't clear. I was agreeing with you. What I meant was to form specifically a official NALFO council would be pointless if you let non-NALFO members in. What would be the point of having it in the first place? I understood when you said UTA you meant UT Arlington I mentioned UT- Austin as they have a few NALFO orgs. I understand there are alot of LGLO orgs out there but few have enough chapters at the same school to form an official NALFO board.

Sorry I didn't write more clearly btw "I graduated magna cum get it from the university of the streets" Hilariouse! LOL my girlfriend got sick of me repeating that to her!

Oh, Ok. Makes sense.

And LOL @ the University of the Streets. I forgot where I found that, but it made me laugh too.

Yes, and it could be. For example, we see the NPC and its "Go Panhellenic"-type promotion. NALFO could do something similar. Then again, it might not help the NALFO orgs. because students interested in "Latina/o interest greek life" often do not know the difference (at least, initially) between:

*NALFO orgs
*non-NALFO LGLOs
*orgs founded as LGLOs that now have a difference focus
*orgs founded as MGLOs that have a high percentage of Latina/o members
*orgs not founded with a Latina/o or Multicultural focus but that have a high percentage of Latina/o members

...and maybe they don't even really care.

We might say that perhaps NALFO should cease to exist. Even so, on many campuses we would still have "Latino Greek Council", and the question of "who should really be in that council?" remains.

I secretly advocate for disbanding the NPHC or loosening the requirements so that more organizations can benefit it - and benefit us.

Not much of a secret anymore! :D

This is what I was looking for when I was involved with NALFO.

Instead of "Interested in this type of organization? Here's ABC, DEF, and GHI. Take a look at them and find your fit!" NALFO came off as "Interested in this type of organization? Form your own and join us!"

That's why Skip hates me. LOL

Oop.

?

Oop is the sound a gay person makes when a wig has been snatched.


Note that it is not pronounced oo-oop.

I think that is a great idea.

I read it as "oo-oop" lol I thought there was some Delta shade and I didn't understand why

doh! :)

In addition to what you just said, k_s, I wish NALFO would also say:

"Uh-oh--our chapters at XYZ university are struggling, and a couple are inactive. Let's help them get back on track, so that incoming students don't just start up new chapters of different LGLOs."

We need to minimize this scenario: There are 3-4 LGLOs on a campus. Two are struggling with numbers and go inactive. Instead of identifying students who are interested in bringing the struggling chapters back up, they go and found chapters of two new LGLOs, and the original two just die out.

NALFO is actually *helping* this along with its requirement that new chapters MUST be voted in on a campus so long as they meet university requirements for greeks. I would love to see NALFO say, "Hold up. Let's do what we can to *retain* our current chapters at each university *before* requiring the local NALFO council to expand."

I can see what you mean. However, if those people are interested in another NALFO org why would NALFO want to prevent that. It would likely have objections from the organization/s attempting to colonize. Also it's unlikely that if a group is interested in another organization, will pledge a dead chapter just due to not being able to pledge an organization they were actually interested in. And if they did do mind you they will always have in there head that they wanted to b a part of something different and this was there 2nd or 3rd choice.

You're right--NALFO would not want to prevent the opening of a new chapter, which is why the requirement is in place now. At the same time, the board should know that by requiring its member orgs to be so inclusive, there are going to be campuses with multiple sororities/fraternities competing for an already small pool of potential applicants. If NALFO is going to support expansion of new chapters, it should also do something to support retention of existing chapters. There was a reason that NALFO chapters were not voting in new members locally--because it would pull away from their own efforts to keep their chapters going with new members. Since NALFO decided to involve itself and create a requirement, it should have addressed both sides of the coin.

I see what you mean. What would that requirement look like ? A waiting period for new chapters? Interest have to attend interest meetings for the defunct organization? Defunct organization must be allowed to participate in "Meet the greeks" type functions? Just some ideas. I doubt the "vote in" requirement is going to go because at a national level this is viewed as positive by most of the NALFO orgs because they can easily see them selves on the expansion level and less on the retention level.

I'm not so sure that retention efforts would come in the form of an actual requirement, but perhaps there is some way that NALFO could offer support to local councils if more than one NALFO org is struggling. If you have 4 fraternities and only one of them is dying out, then I wouldn't say that NALFO should assist because it is likely due to something that particular organization is or is not doing. However, I know of some campuses that had a thriving LGLO population a few years ago, but now numbers are dwindling for the majority of the chapters. In that case, perhaps NALFO can sponsor a campus event to promote the whole council (without taking away from any efforts to bring a new NALFO org onto campus). Just some thoughts.

My feeling is that *all* NALFO orgs. should be thinking about retention of chapters immediately. How many new chapters of NALFO orgs have we all seen that consist of 3-5 chapter founders that are going to graduate within 1-2 years? Happens every day, and this is not a good recipe for longevity. How many chapters can say for sure that they are not at risk of dying out? All it takes is a huge graduating class + a couple of 1-2 person lines (or a line that completely drops) and now a once thriving chapter is at risk. At the very least, NALFO can provide workshops or sessions at the national meetings to address this universal topic, if not work with the national boards of the member orgs. to do more.

BTW, I am really enjoying this discussion. Thanks, guys! :)

Lane swerve, as I'm finding this fascinating.

What do local councils typically do? My experience with local panhellenic councils is that recruitment is the most important thing they do, and secondary activities are greek week and ratting each other out.

My alma mater had a local MGC (not NALFO).

The group hosted events that (for the most part) tried to promote its member organizations (social, service, civic, etc). The council was also self-governing, so infractions could be dealt with by those "in the know" as opposed to Dean OutOfTheLoop.

Our MGC also helped with coordinating member organizations' major events (ex. ODPhi Week shouldn't run at the same as SLG Walk For Awareness). There was some overlap with smaller events, but the council helped separate major events.

Me too :D