Active/ Collegiate Member: Someone who has completed their new member/ pledge period and has been initiated into the sorority or fraternity. Many members refer to them as “actives”, but collegiate member is preferable because new members and alumni are also active within the organization.
Alumna: a female graduate
Alumnae: the plural of alumna
Badge: The pin of an initiated member.
Bid: An official invitation from a chapter to become a new member
Chapter: Each national sorority and fraternity has individual chapters of their organization at different colleges and universities. Also, some groups refer to their weekly meeting as “chapter”.
Greek Alphabet:
Initiation: Formal admittance into the sorority/fraternity. The new members participate in a ceremony that marks formal admittance into the sorority/fraternity. The initiation ceremony is secret and rooted in history.
Intentional Single Preference (ISP): when a PNM will only accept a bid from one chapter of their choice and refuses to rank any other Chapter
Legacy: A student whose family member (typically brother/sister, mom/dad, grandmother/grandfather but can also include aunt/uncle) is a member of a particular sorority or fraternity.
Mutual Selection Process: both the potential members and the individual sororities are making choices. Potential members will make decisions regarding chapters they want to attend and the sororities will make decisions regarding the women they want to invite back to their chapter for the next recruitment event.
New Member Period: The time between when a woman has begun pledge-ship and initiation where the new member learns about the sorority before becoming a collegiate member.
PNM: Potential New Member. It refers to all incoming women going through the recruitment process before they accept a sorority bid.
Quota: the maximum number each sorority can pledge during formal recruitment. This number is determined by the Panhellenic council at each school and is based on many different factors.
Recruitment Guide (Rho Gamma): A collegiate sorority member who disaffiliates from their individual chapter to help PNMs with an unbiased perspective through recruitment.
Ritual: Symbolic gestures or ceremonies, often kept secret, preformed by only the members of the given sorority or fraternity.
