INTERFRATERNAL COUNCIL FRATERNITY STERLING SILVER CHARM LGB BALFOUR ACADEMIC KEY

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INTERFRATERNAL COUNCIL

STERLING SILVER

CHARM / KEY

ACADEMIC REGALIA

MERIT / AWARD

MEASURES ABOUT 2cm X 2cm

MANUFACTURED BY

L.G. BALFOUR 

ATTLESBORO, MASACHUSSETS

UNDETERMINED AGE

est c. 1950 +/-

NO OTHER EXAMPLES TO COMPARE TO

RARE / SCARCE

GREAT CONDITION 

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FYI 

 

A fraternity (Latin frater : "brother") is a brotherhood, although the term sometimes connotes a distinct or formal organization and a secret society. A fraternity (or fraternal organization) is an organized society of men associated together in an environment of companionship and brotherhood; dedicated to the intellectual, physical, and social development of its members.

History

There are known fraternal organizations which existed as far back as ancient Greece and in the Mithraic Mysteries of ancient Rome. Analogous institutions developed in the late medieval period called confraternities, which were lay organizations allied to the Catholic Church. Some were groups of men and women who were endeavoring to ally themselves more closely with the prayer and activity of the Church. Others were groups of tradesmen, which are more commonly referred to as guilds. These later confraternities evolved into purely secular fraternal societies, while the ones with religious goals continue to be the format of the modern Third Orders affiliated with the mendicant orders.

 

The development of modern fraternal orders was especially dynamic in the United States, where the freedom to associate outside governmental regulation is expressly sanctioned in law. There have been hundreds of fraternal organizations in the United States, and at the beginning of the 20th century the number of memberships equaled the number of adult males. (Due to multiple memberships, probably only 50% of adult males belonged to any organizations.)

 

In 1944 Arthur M. Schlesinger coined the phrase "a nation of joiners" to refer to the phenomenon. Alexis de Tocqueville also referred to the American reliance on private organization in the 1830s in Democracy in America.

 

There are many attributes that fraternities may or may not have, depending on their structure and purpose. Fraternities can have differing degrees of secrecy, some form of initiation or ceremony marking admission, formal codes of behavior, disciplinary procedures, very differing amounts of real property and assets.

 

Types of fraternities

The only true distinction between a fraternity and any other form of social organization is the implication that the members freely associate as equals for a mutually beneficial purpose, rather than because of a religious, governmental, commercial, or familial bond, although there are fraternities dedicated to each of these fields. On most college campuses fraternities are divided into three groups such as social, professional and honorary.

 

Fraternities can be organized for many purposes, including university education, work skills, ethics, ethnicity, religion, politics, charity, chivalry, other standards of personal conduct, asceticism, service, performing arts, family command of territory, and even crime. There is almost always an explicit goal of mutual support, and while there have been fraternal orders for the well-off there have also been many fraternities for those in the lower ranks of society, especially for national or religious minorities. Trade unions also grew out of fraternities such as the Knights of Labor.

 

The ability to organize freely, apart from the institutions of government and religion, was a fundamental part of the establishment of the modern world. In Living the Enlightenment, Margaret C. Jacobs showed the development of Jurgen Habermas' 'public space' in 17th century Netherlands was closely related to the establishment of lodges of Freemasons.

 

College and university fraternities

Fraternities have a long history in American colleges and universities and form a major subsection of the whole range of fraternities. In Europe, students were organized in nations and corporations since the beginnings of the modern university in the late medieval period, but the situation can differ greatly by country.

 

In the United States, fraternities in colleges date to the 1770s, but did not fully assume an established pattern until the 1820s. Many were strongly influenced by the patterns set by Freemasonry. The main difference between the older European organizations and the American organizations is that the American student societies virtually always include initiations, the formal use of symbolism, and the lodge-based organizational structure (chapters) derived from usages in Freemasonry and other fraternal organizations such as the Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias. The oldest active American college fraternity is The Kappa Alpha Society founded in November 1825, at Union College in Schenectady, New York, followed closely by Sigma Phi Society (1827) and Delta Phi Fraternity (1827) at the same school. They are known as the Union Triad. Delta Phi argues that since Kappa Alpha and Sigma Phi went underground for a short time during what turned out to be a temporary banning of all secret societies in the college they should be considered the longest continuously active group though the other two never stopped meeting and Sigma Phi had already established a second chapter. They also claim the longest continuous chapter of any fraternity. Delta Phi's Gamma chapter at New York University has never gone inactive since its founding in 1841. The facts in this case are unclear in the standard reference book on college fraternities, Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities.

 

However, because of the secretive nature of each of these fraternities, another Fraternity was made in rebellion of the secretive practice. Delta Upsilon (ΔΥ) is the sixth oldest international, all-male, college Greek-letter organization, and is the oldest non-secret fraternity in North America. Their objective was to allow everyone to witness the activities of a fraternity and emphasize the principles of the U.S. Constitution.

 

In Germany the German Student Corps are the oldest academic fraternities. Twenty-eight were founded in the 18th century and two of them still exist.

 

Trade guilds

The development of fraternities can be traced from guilds that emerged in England as the forerunners of trade unions and friendly societies. These guilds were set up to protect and care for their members at a time when there was no welfare state, trade unions or universal health care. Various secret signs and handshakes were created to serve as proof of their membership allowing them to visit guilds in distant places that are associated with the guild they belong.

 

Over the next 300 years or so, the idea of "ordinary" people joining together to improve their situation met with varying degrees of opposition (and persecution) from "People in Power", depending on whether they were seen as a source of revenue (taxes) or a threat to their power. When Henry VIII broke from the Roman Catholic Church, he viewed the guilds as supporters of the Pope, and in 1545 expropriate their property. Later, Elizabeth I appropriated apprenticeships away from guilds, and by the end of her reign most guilds had been suppressed.

 

The suppression of these trade guilds removed an important form of social and financial support from ordinary men and women. In London and other major cities, some Guilds (like the Freemasons and the Odd Fellows) survived by adapting their roles to a social support function. Eventually, these groups evolved in the early 18th century into more philosophical organizations focused on brotherly love and ethical living. Among guilds that became prosperous are the Freemasons, Odd Fellows and Foresters.

 

In many instances fraternities are limited to male membership, but this is not always the case, and there are mixed male and female, and even wholly female, fraternities. For example, for general fraternities: the Grande Loge Mixte de France, the Honorable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons, the Grande Loge Féminine de France, the various Orders of Odd Fellows, Orange Order, Daughters of Rebekah and the Order of the Eastern Star.

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The North American Interfraternity Conference (or NIC; formerly known as the National Interfraternity Conference) is an association of intercollegiate men's social fraternities that was formally organized in 1910. However, it began at a meeting at the University Club of New York on November 27, 1909. The power of the organization rests in a House of Delegates in which each member fraternity is represented by a single delegate. However, the group's executive and administrative powers are vested in an elected board of directors consisting of nine volunteers from various NIC fraternities. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, the NIC has a small professional staff.

The NIC seeks to provide services that will include, "but not be limited to, promotion of cooperative action in dealing with fraternity matters of mutual concern, research in areas of fraternity operations and procedures, fact-finding and data gathering, and the dissemination of such data to the member fraternities". However, it notes that "[c]onference action shall not in any way abrogate the right of its member fraternities to self-determination".

As of December 2021, the NIC had fifty-six member organizations with 4,000 chapters located on over 800 campuses in the United States and Canada with approximately 350,000 undergraduate members.

Originally named the Interfraternity Conference, the name was changed to the National Interfraternity Conference in 1931. The name, North American Interfraternity Conference, was adopted in 1999 to reflect the organization's affiliations at Canadian colleges and universities.

Membership requirements

The NIC membership requirements are detailed in the By-Laws of the North American Interfraternity Conference. Each member fraternity must be national or international in scope, as opposed to local, which is defined to mean having five chapters of ten men each, having three chapters that have been part of the fraternity for at least five years, and have a constitution that calls for national conventions with the interim authority vested in a smaller governing body. Further, each fraternity must be exclusive of other NIC members and, therefore, in competition with them for recruitment. All members' chapters must exist at four or two-year degree-granting colleges. The members agree to share "best practices, statistics, and information that will benefit member organizations".

Also, the members agree to uphold universal fraternal ideals, to hold their chapters and colonies to their general vision statements, honor NIC resolutions, abide by the NIC Constitution and By-Laws, attend all meetings of the House of Delegates, and pay membership dues.

Each member fraternity must share a wealth of statistical information with the NIC including the number of new members, new member retention, the number of new initiates, total number of initiates, annual retention rate, the number of new chapters and their size, the number of closed chapters and the reason for closure, the total number of active chapters, number of members who are "campus leaders", number of hours of community service completed, and amount of money raised for charitable causes. This information is aggregated, and the raw data is destroyed.

The NIC requires its members to support open expansion on their campuses. It requires that its members are insured and have risk management programs. It imposes a grade requirement on new members and initiated members. It denies members from having women's auxiliary groups. It requires alcohol-free recruitment and new member programs, and new member programs are capped at twelve weeks and encouraged to be shorter. Finally, each member must have provisions for the emergency temporary suspension of any of its chapters.

NIC members are required to "communicate its values through its ritual at least annually or as prescribed by its policies."

Mission

The NIC serves to advocate the needs of its member fraternities through the enrichment of the fraternity experience; advancement and growth of the fraternity community; and enhancement of the educational mission of the host institutions. The NIC is also committed to enhancing the benefits of fraternity membership. Each of the 75 member organizations has adopted the basic expectations of their members and agreed to the following Nine Basic Expectations.

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