501C7 vs. 501C3
 

Alpha Phi Omega is registered as 501C3, that having to do with how tied it was the scouting when it started. But the 501 C area is an IRS concept, not DOE/HEW concept.

I have a question. Why would you want to join more than one fraternity/ sorority? Aside from academic/honor ones??

Why...
 

Because someone is interested in both. Alpha Phi Omega fulfills a different purpose than the Social Fraternities and Sororities do. Of the 14 founders of Alpha Phi Omega, 13 were members of Social Fraternities (8 SAE, 5 a local that later affiliated with KDR) as far as I know all of them stayed active with their social fraternity.

Yes, but NPHC and NPC sororities are much closer in mission to each other than APhiO is to them, despite the NPHC's greater emphasis on service. Additionally, when you join an NPC group, at least when I joined AXD, I swore "never to join any other general Greek letter fraternity." I think most any other NPC or NPHC member pledged something similar, and I would consider NPC and NPHC "general Greek letter fraternities," whereas it would never cross my mind to consider APhiO "general" any more than I consider an honorary or professional group "general."

Not general
 

I agree with what you said. Alpha Phi Omega is not considered a "general" Greek Letter Organization. Baird's classifies Alpha Phi Omega as being one of the service GLO which are in the Recognition Societies.

Isn't Alpha Phi Omega something along the same lines of Circle K International? If that were illegal I'd think a lot of us on here might be in trouble:D

Dual membership I think is meant to cover fraternities with 'secret' rituals (Delta Upsilon as an obvious exception)...

The best standard I'd say is "I'll know it when I see it"..

The litmus test would probably be whatever trial code your fraternity has for expulsion of members due to dual membership.

These groups are so different from campus to campus that I don't think any one UNIVERSAL standard can apply to ANY GLO (service, professional or whatever).

We have the right to determine our own membership and each chapter should be able to decide for themselves what double membership entails.

(That's my interpretation on what I've seen on this subject anyhow)

My only question is why would you WANT to be in two socially-aimed college fraternities and do both organizations justice? You're doing both organizations and yourself a disservice by doing it (and your grades might suffer to boot)

LHT
Kevin

Kevin - yes, I guess that you could say APO is along the lines of Circle K, except we do call ourselves brothers and take that seriously.

I think the prohibition against "double" membership is more meant for people who quit one and try to go to another, or transfer colleges and were Sigma Nu at college A and then try to join Theta Xi at college B.

To sum it all up....
 

I think that this thread can be summed up as follows:

Duel membership b/t NPC/NIC orgs vs. NPHC orgs largely depends on the policies of each individual NPHC org, which I would venture to say would not allow such practices.

While I concur with the previous poster (the Sigma Nu brother) that there is no one consistent definition of a social fraternity (or a social fraternity), thus the attributes that constitutes one is largely a judgment call. HOWEVER, the Federal goverment (HEW, DOE) considers the NPHC orgs to be social in nature for Title IX purposes. NPHCers, if you want to call yourself a service org, feel free to do so, but you might want to count your blessings that HEW/DOE does consider you a social org; otherwise someone could start a movement against your org to make it co-ed and use Alpha Phi Omega as a precedent case (though in my opinion I would consider that HIGHLY unlikely).

An organization's nonprofit status (501c(3), etc.) has NO bearing on a GLO's exemption (or lack thereof) from Title IX. The former is for tax reporting purposes ONLY! No more, no less. So that argument is dead; we are comparing apples to oranges.

I do think that the one attribute that many people think makes a fraternity social is it's mutual exclusiveness (and that may have been the basis for the gov't considering NPHC orgs social GLOs).

Lastly, and this is my opinion only. While I will not infringe upon the right for any org to classify themselves accordingly, I do take issue with NPHC orgs to call themselves service GLOs, because IMHO if they truly thought of themselves as service GLOs, there would be a lot more of a proactive effort to execute service projects and other service oriented activities with orgs like APO and GSS, not exclusively NPHC orgs.

Just my opinion.

RM

Sounds about right...
 

Good sum up.

First I apologize for bumping such an old thread but i didnt want to start a brand new thread for my question

Much of the discussion throughout the thread involved dual membership (a women joining both an NPC and a NPHC sorority)

My spinoff is:
how do you feel about a women disaffilating with one conference and then joining an organization under another conference?

so the issue of dual membership doesnt come into play but does her reasoning matter? or do you feel that once you have been a member of any greek org, even after disaffiliation you should not be allowed to join anything else ever again?

i look forward to you answers

I just read this thread for the first time and it reminded me that I definitely met someone about two years ago who told me he had pledged an NPHC org at one school and now that he transferred was currently a pledge for an IFC (NIC?) org (I did see his pledge pin, am not positive about his NPHC membership, just his word for it). He thought it was really cool to be a member of 2 different organizations but at the same time, the NPHC org he had supposedly pledged at another school does exist on our campus. Instead of joining with them he went through IFC rush.

This doesn't seem...right...or is it just me?

Isn't there an NPHC who is also a part of NIC?

Kappa Alpha Psi and Iota Phi Theta.

I want to say that there's a couple of orgs that are both in NIC and NALFO as well but I don't know which specific ones.

This thread is interesting. However, from what I read unless the DOE recongizes NPC and NPHC as social GLO's despite the NPHC orientation to service-I can be both a member of my sorority and also Omega Psi Phi or Alpha Phi Alpha. Now that would be interesting a lady of my age going to open fraternity meetings in order to meet members and hoping to recieve an invitation to join.

With joining a NPC and NPHC-how would you have the time for both? Afterall, people go to school to get degrees not collect memberships in GLO's (unless honorary and service-oriented). Just my opinion.

Side note: When I was hopitalized multiple times during my last preg. -I always stayed in a room on the maternity floor that was decorated by the Ladies of AKA. It was beautiful. That room always made my hospital stays more tolerable. Thank you Ladies.