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Purpose. Sigma Phi Alpha (SPA), the national dental hygiene honor society, strives to promote, recognize, and honor scholarship, leadership, and service among dental hygiene students and the dental hygiene community at large. The organizational structure includes the Supreme Chapter, with 190 component chapters located in dental hygiene programs in universities and community colleges. SPA sought to determine why some chapters have high activity levels of inducting new members, awarding continuing education credits for courses presented, and financially supporting local scholarship recipients for academic excellence, while other chapters seem to become weaker and non-functioning over time. Methods and Materials. A questionnaire was developed to determine the current activity levels of SPA chapters, to assess the inactivity of formerly established chapters, and to collect data on why some dental hygiene programs have never petitioned for a chapter. Of the 286 questionnaires mailed to U.S. and Canadian schools, 121 were returned (43%). Results. Approximately one third of the returned questionnaires (41%) indicated that their component chapters' levels of activity were poor or non-existent. The main reasons given for inactivity were lack of leadership (44%) and no interest (16%), or a combination of the two (28%). The two reasons least given for inactivity were overwhelmed faculty (8%), and a combination of no leader, no meeting place, and no interest (4%). Conclusions. It was concluded that chapter inactivity resulted mainly from lack of leadership and limited interest. The Supreme Chapter developed strategies for support and activity improvement. These strategies include 1) better identification of inactive chapters; 2) the pairing of a chapter with limited leadership to one with high activity that would lend support; and 3) mentoring or coaching of a potential chapter by either the SPA regional trustees or another local highly functioning chapter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]