Mergers then and now.
 

Looking at some of the mergers in the various councils over the years, I've seen the following cases
1) active chapters of both on the same campus (leading to merger, or in unequal mergers one released)
2) active chapters don't have overlap, but charters overlap with either one active, or neither
3) no overlap at all. These are often mergers of regional groups to make a stronger national one.

For the current three largest councils...
For the NIC, there do exist members that could do an no overlap merger, for example, (even though their focuses are completely different) Tau Phi Sigma and Beta Upsilon Chi
For the NPHC, As far as I can tell any pair of groups there (even of different genders!) have dozens of campuses where both are active.
for the NPC, I *believe* that it is the same situation as the NPHC. I believe that either all or all but a few have chapters at U of Illinois and that other campuses are close enough to "full" that I just can't see any possibility without massive chapter mergers.

for NPC
U of Illinois has had a chapter of every current NPC except AST
Indiana U has had a chapter of every current NPC except AST and Phi Sigma Sigma
Syracuse U has had a chapter of every current NPC except Sigma Sigma Sigma

NIC was LAmbda Chi Alpha and Theta kappa Nu in 1939. It was the largest and still is.:D

Most likely will be for all time.
LOL, at one time there was discussion of a TKE and LXA.

So a merger of AST and Tri-Sigma wouldn't have a conflict at those three schools, but I presume there is overlap at *some* school...

And that reminds me of a little mystery about IU & Phi Sigma Sigma. There's a Greek Walkway in the Old Crescent, with bricks for every organization that's had a chapter on campus and the year the chapter was initially founded. There is a brick for Phi Sigma Sigma on the walkway, with the year 1969. Here's a picture of the brick that I think I posted in a much older thread.) This brick is the only thing I can find suggesting that Phi Sigma Sigma ever had a presence on the Bloomington campus. There are chapters at some of the regional campuses, but the walkway is specifically for chapters on the main campus. There's nothing in the 1969 Arbutus yearbook (the 1970 yearbook isn't in the electronic archive) and there's nothing to suggest there was ever an IU chapter on the Phi Sigma Sigma website. Who knows?

Interestingly, Phi Sigma Sigma was founded in 1969 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. As far as I know, though, this school has never had any affiliation at all with IU.

Phi Sigma Sigma had a chapter at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Gamma Alpha) that was installed in 1969. Do you suppose that whoever created it was reviewing each organization's chapters and incorrectly thought it was I U, especially as the dates match?

Wouldn't be that surprised if Baird's in either 1976 or 1991 fouled it up causing this.

Ditto.

That’s actually frigging hilarious, if true.

That walkway and those bricks along with a bridge were a gift from Delta Gamma in celebration of their 100th anniversary on campus in 1998. I don't know if anyone on here was involved in the project to know how the chapters were identified. However, knowing Indiana University of Pennsylvania very well, I know that people regularly assume that it is somehow affiliated with IU, when in fact it is in the town of Indiana, PA with no affiliation whatsoever. I suspect this may be the reason the brick is there...someone likely made an error.

OK, additional wierdness...

The 1991 Baird's doesn't include the chapter at all. Not only doesn't it show up in the "Campuses and Their Fraternities" section under either Indiana or IUP, but the chapter is missing entirely from the chapter list for Phi Sigma Sigma.

However, the 1977 Baird's has Phi Sigma Sigma listed under IUP in the "Campuses and Their Fraternities", *but* the entry in the chapter list for Phi Sigma Sigma lists it as "Indiana". (which given the way that Baird's abbreviates, would indicate U of Indiana)

The Baird's prior to 1977 would have been 1967 at which time the chapter wouldn't have existed. In addition, the chapter of Phi Sigma Sigma at IUP was only active from 1968-1971, so looking for the chapter at either school would have been fruitless. Not sure why they didn't check with Phi Sigma Sigma itself, but with the amount of data in these books, sometimes shortcuts were taken...

(One of the editions of Baird's has a Minnesota Alpha chapter of Alpha Phi Omega chapter as the first one, founded in 1902, which is 23 years prior to our actual founding at Lafayette College in 1925. We also don't include state names in our chapter designations. It turns out that is when Minnesota Alpha chapter of Alpha TAU Omega was founded.)

The 1990-91 edition of Baird's is scattered throughout with misinformation. For one, it cross-combined some Zeta Beta Tau (mens) chapters into Zeta Tau Alpha (womens) chapters.