North-American Interfraternity Conference

The North-American Interfraternity Conference (or NIC), (formerly known as the National Interfraternity Conference) is an association of collegiate men's fraternities that was formally organized in 1910, although it began on November 27, 1909. The power of the organization rests in a House of Delegates where 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 also operates a small professional staff.

The NIC seeks to provide services including, “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 “onference action shall not in any way abrogate the right of its member fraternities to self-determination.”

As of June 2011, the NIC had seventy-five member organizations with 5,500 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 current name, the North-American Interfraternity Conference, was adopted in 1999 to reflect the organization's affiliations at Canadian colleges and universities.