Changes to the Story Behind the Founding
 

[QUOTE=KAPital PHINUst;1532844]There are quite a few inconsistencies in Alpha Phi Omega, one of which is yes, the Story of the Founding. Over the years the wording has been altered to become more "politically correct", something I have always disagreed with.

(Yes, I know this is an old thread. But I finally had had access to the Torch and Trefoil image at the same time I was thinking about it.)

I compared the Story Behind the Founding as published in the October 1966 Torch & Trefoil (which is the one describing Frank Reed Horton's Funeral) with the one in the Current (2007-2008) Pledge Manual. I found about 20-25 changes, but none of their, IMO, represent a move toward political correctness.

The most significant of the changes are the deletion of section headings. They were "Post War Activity", "Influence of Scouting", "Organization Steps" and "A Phi O established" and were before the lines "After the War...", "The summer of my Junior...", "As a senior..." and "The Lafayette College faculty..." respectively. The sentence which ended "to worship on their own Sabbath in their own way" is now "to worship on his Sabbath in his own way". "Fourteen undergrads" was changed to "Fourteen undergraduates".

Other than that, all changes are even more minor falling into either the change of capitalization of the initial letter of the word, like Ensign or division, alteration of hyphens (court martial and bylaws for example) or commas. Also, originally, a new paragraph started after "magnetic mines".

Thought you all might find this interesting.

The current one says "help young people get the right start in life" - or something like that.

Didn't an earlier version say "help young men get the right start in life?"

Thanks for updating the thread! I'm always interested in the history of the Fraternity- The facebook group was a great idea!

And in keeping with the original topic of this thread, I'm a female brother at a chapter that is mostly female (we have 2 male brothers at the moment). Every single one of our brothers likes the toast song just the way it is, and we won't sing it any other way. I love being a brother of Alpha Phi Omega- there's no way I would have ever joined a sorority, I don't want to be a 'sister'!

In LFS,

Onnolee

The 1966 version says "First, do my best to help young people get the right start in life by holding up before them a "standard of manhood" that would withstand the test of time!"

However, I *have* found incidences of "help young men get the right start in life". One of them is Jesse Bridge's proposed resolution at the 1998 convention. (http://members.tripod.com/~JBSkeet/Resolutions.pdf), which I would dismiss by itself, *but* there is another one....

The APO chapter at Divine Word College in the Philippines (http://friendpages.com/p/pages/site/...cpet&id=209724) has a page with the text of an Alpha Phi Omega pamphlet called "In the beginning" which was contibuted to by Earle M. Herbert. This pamphlet *is* currently offered by the APO-USA National Office (http://www.apo.org/site/site_files/s...order_form.pdf) On that web page it says:

If it were simply that the current pledge manual had "young people" and in the beginning had "young men", I might think political correctness, but in 1966, the idea of having Alpha Phi Omega include women was viewed as a fringe idea by a *very* few chapters.

So there is room for further investigation here...

I'm not currently on Facebook, I may have to join. :(

Thanks. I thought so too, which I why I created.

Sadly, we don't get many people engaging in any discussions in the group, which is the main reason I created it.

I have a scan of a copy of the "In the Begining" booklet. This is the printing that was available for many years, but they recently put out a new printing. AFAIK, the only difference between the two was they dropped some (IMO) excellent photos and info that was on the inside and outside back cover. I would REALLY like to see them restore these photos in the next printing and add a couple of more.

The text that you quote is the same as in that booklet. So they just changed what is in the Pledge Manual.


As to my comments about the photos in the booklet. In the version I have, on the inside back cover is the Lafayette College Coat of Arms, which apparently is the basis for our coat of arms, and a picture of the Coulton Chapel which has it in the window. Also shown is our current Coat of Arms.

What I would like to see is a few more photos. I'd like these ones restore, as well as a scan of the ORIGINAL coat of arms, so people know it was changed, the ORIGINAL and revised badge, and a photo of Brainerd Hall (Hogg Hall).

On the back of the booklet is a photo of the plaque that is at Lafayette College honoring our founding. When I joined this plaque was also on the back cover of the Pledge Manual, but in recent years they've dropped it. I'd like this photo restored to the back cover AND add in a photo of the plaque that was put up for the 75th Anniversary of APO at Lafayette.

Maybe. But given the T&T from 1966 has "young people", I'm not sure the Pledge Manual *ever* had "young men".

Well, it depends on when the Pledge Manual added this edited version of 'The story behind the founding'. My scan of the 1957 Pledge Manual does not have the story at all. It could well be this was something that was adding to the Pledge Manual post-1966.

Your choice, but you should know that there are Alpha Phi Omega sisters. APO Philippines is divided by gender in its chapters at the school level and unified at the National Level. So the men are brothers of the Alpha Phi Omega Fraternity chapter, the women are sisters of the Alpha Phi Omega Sorority chapter and together they are members of Alpha Phi Omega International Collegiate Service Fraternity and Sorority. The fraternity and sorority chapters at each schoo do run business together.

See near the end of the "Changed the Name" thread at http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=46967 for more information.

APO Philippines and the facebook group
 

I'm definitely aware that we do have sisters in the Philippines. Though I don't look it, I have quite a large Filipino family, so I'm very interested in how we operate over there. I mean no disrespect to my Filipino Sisters, but the USA national organization is the one I joined; and I like being a Brother here. If I were to move to the Philippines, I'm not sure how I would feel about being a Sister there, but I don't think I would let that stop me from being involved.

As far as the Facebook group goes, I really do like it, but I don't discuss on there often because I quite honestly have nothing of value to say. I love learning about the history of APO, but I'm not really a historian, so I can't really clarify anything, or bring something to the table in that department. I'll try to get a little bit more involved though.

(And I'll learn how to do the quoting thing on here soon, so my replies will have better clarification ^_^)

damn, i totally forgot about that facebook group. i was supposed to scan a bunch of stuff i found in our office last semester from the '76 convention and post it, but when finals rolled around i forgot about the facebook group and the stuff i was going to scan. i'll have to get around to that eventually.

Well, part of the reason for the Facebook group was not that a bunch of 'experts' can come together and chat, but that Brothers with an interest in our history and who want to learn more (are prehaps unlearn stuff they've heard) can come and ask questions and get answers.

For what it's worth, I enjoy the facebook group but I don't post much because I defer to the people who really know a lot more than I do.

There also is not enough legitimate scholarship available when it comes to the areas I'm interested in, particularly black cultural traditions and their impact on fraternity traditions. So until it's done (or I do it) I don't have a lot to say.

That's an area I'd like to see more info about, in light of how those traditions have impacted the development of the "AyePhiQue" chapters and their traditions. I am only aware of one source of APQ info on-line, and I'd prefer a more objective source...