Functionally, are the women and men ever separated in APO-Phils?

Since the admission of women into APO until the early 90's, the fraternity and sorority had specific jurisdictions in the chapter especially in the handling of pledges. Only the fraternity can handle male pledges and only the sorority can handle female pledges. However, both groups coordinate in the leadership training, fellowships and service projects.

Today, that segregation is gone. The fraternity and sorority share common jurisdiction in the chapter and both parties are involved in all the activities of the either the fraternity or the sorority.

At the national level however, there are specific officers for the fraternity affairs and the sorority affairs though the officer usually are involved with each other's tasks.

Segregation is not at all an issue in APO-Phils. The fraternity and sorority are considered equal in all functions.

Thank you for the enlightenment. :)

I met the Director of Sorority Affairs at our national convention this summer.

Nope. Greater Los Angeles and Northern California have separate AA's (as does Las Vegas for example). See
http://apoacna.net/acnaware/modules....showpage&pid=6

[QUOTE=Senusret I;1430521]Thank you for the enlightenment. :)

You are very welcome brother!
:)

In terms of non-segregation, are the following things true in APO-Phil today?

1) Sisters as well as Brothers vote on the admittance of male pledges (and vice versa)
2) Brothers (as well as sisters) vote on the Director of Sorority Affairs (and B & S both vote on Director of Fraternity Affairs)
3) Formation of a chapter of Alpha Phi Omega - Philippines requires a certain number of students without regards to gender, or conversely, do they require a certain number of men to start a fraternity chapter and a certain number of women to start a sorority chapter.
4) Are there schools with *only* fraternity or *only* sorority chapters?
5) Can a fraternity chapter be declared inactive (for hazing or other reasons) and still have a sorority chapter there?
(If there is no such thing as a separate fraternity and sorority chapters anymore then the answers to 4 and 5 are no).

YiLFS
Randolph Finder

in reply to your questions brother:

1. Yes, brothers and sisters of a chapter are able to vote on the admittance of both male and female pledges.

2.Yes, brothers and sisters are able to vote for both directors of fraternity and sorority affairs. The elections are done during national conventions but only chapters with recognized fraternities and sororities may have brothers and sisters that can vote. (i think a chapter may send 4 voting delegates: 2 brothers and 2 sisters)

To expound on this would also answer your third question: A chapter needs to have a minimum of 15 initiated members (regardless of gender) to be chartered.

Once chartered, a chapter's fraternity needs a minimum of 15 active brothers to be recognized. (Same requirement for a chapter's sorority)

Should a brother attend a national convention yet his chapter fraternity is not recognized (because of lack of brothers) yet the sorority is recognized because there are more sisters, he would not be able to vote. Only the sisters of his chapter would be able to vote. But if both the chapter fraternity and sorority are recognized, brothers and sisters of that chapter may vote.

4. I think there are schools with chapters composed only of a fraternity or sorority because the school is an all-male or all-female school. However, such chapters may welcome students (regardless of gender) from other schools without existing chapters who want to pledge. The existing chapters "adopt" these pledges to be able to initiate enough members to have a new chapter started at a different school.

For example, Chapter X has a fraternity but no sorority (because the school is all-male) may have female members in their rosters (females from another school without a chapter who have pledged and have been initiated in Chapter X)

Only if the females of Chapter X reach the minimum number is the all-male school chapter's sorority recognized.

These sisters of Chapter X may then start their own chapter in their own school.

5.Today, a chapter's fraternity and sorority (recognized or unrecognized) share equal power and responsibility in the chapter. The chapter is recognized as one unit. All members of a chapter, regardless of gender are recognized as one. it's very unlikely that a only a chapter's fraternity (or sorority) would be suspended. It would be the entire chapter that would be suspended.






:) :) :)

OK, so a school with 20 brothers and 20 sisters is in better shape than one with 14 brothers and 100 sisters (or vice versa).

However a chapter with the 14 brothers and 100 sisters would be able to pledge both men and women and thus bring the fraternity back up to large enough to have recognition, right?


APO-USA had the concept of extension membership for some time in the 1990s, but it really didn't work that well (The reasons vary depending on who you ask)

Randy

i think a school with 20 brothers and sisters and a school with 14 brothers and 100 sisters (or vice versa) are both in good shape. i even think the school with 100 sisters and 14 brothers (or vice versa) is in even better shape than a school with only 40 brothers and sisters in terms of chapter strength. The only drawback to not meeting the minimum number for a chapter's fraternity or sorority recognition is not being able to send voting delegates to represent a chapter's fraternity or sorority. From my point of view, it's more important to have more members regardless of gender than just meeting a voting requirement.

Yes, a chapter who lacks a number of brothers or sisters may both pledge men and women to meet the requirements for recognition and thus be granted voting privileges.


Can you expound more on APO-USA's concept of extension membership?

Extension Membership was defined in our National Bylaws thru most of the 1990s, until it was removed.

Basically, a chapter was allowed to pledge up to 5 people who were students at a nearby school that did not have a chapter. The idea was that once 5 students at the nearby school were now Brothers, they would then 'jump start' a chapter at their school, taking it thru the chartering process. As there would be a core group of APO Brothers leading this, it was expected that stronger chapters could be quickly established (vs most chartering efforts, which would be composed of no APO Brothers).


This apparently only worked in one area of the country. As it either didn't work or wasn't used elsewhere, many didn't see the need/value of this, and it was gotten rid of, despite the efforts of some in the area it did work.

I see..Most chapters in APO-Philippines were formed by extension membership.. I haven't heard of any chapter which was chartered composed of no APO brothers in the first place.

To start a chapter in a school without one in APO-Phils, usually a brother or brothers would lead in the formation of this chapter either by studying in that school and recruiting. Or students of the school pledge for extension membership in a nearby chapter. Once initiated, they form a chapter.

:)

Interesting. But this just wouldn't work in the US. The distance between schools is too great.

In the 'old days', groups of students would form a group at their school and petition to be chartered as a chapter. We use to require that they opporate as a local group for atleast a year to show they are viable.

Nowadays, our Chartering process goes like this. A group of student expresses interest in being a chapter of APO. they met certain requirements and become an Interest Group. As part of this, we assign one or more APO Alumni to be their sponsor, who will oversee their progress and educate them in APO. Once they met certain requirements, they become a Petitioning Group. A Petitioner is very similiar to being a pledge. The PG again works to met certain requirements, and if they do, the group is chartered as a chapter, and all members are initated as Brothers. The process can take anywhere from 1 to 2 years. While sometimes APO Brothers who are students at the school may be the start for such efforts, its in no way required. We do try to pair up such groups with another local chapter which acts as their 'Big Brother' chapter.

i see..most schools philippine cities are within 30-40 minutes of each other..so extension membership works for us..

in 2006, my region (Region 7) started a chapter in a town college about 4 hours away from the city..brothers who lived in the town served as the core group and on the activation night of the pledges, brothers from the city travelled all the way to the town to attend the ceremony. it was great! the chapter is currently working on its petition for recognition. :)

Distances between chapters
 

Of the first nine chapters of APO-USA, none of them are less than 3 hours travel apart and the ones that are only 3 and 4 hours apart are only that close because of interstates (built in the 1950s). Alpha and Beta are 4 hours apart, mostly on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Gamma is about 3 hours from Alpha on an interstate that I know wasn't even a thruway in the 1920, Delta is two days travel south, Epsilon is half way across the country, Zeta is all the way across. Eta is about 5 hours (today) from Epsilon and Theta is about a days drive south of Alpha. Iota is about 4 hours (today) from Epsilon.

Kappa is a brisk 15 minute walk from Beta, but that's definitely the exception in the first alphabet.

Randy