APO Insignia
 

This might have come up before but I couldn't find it and I wanted to hear the opinions of members from other chapters.

I was talking to a former chapter brother now alumnus and we were talking about APO insignia; badges, pins, etc. We were questioning the reason why we still use the service pin when the least expensive badge is less than $50 with shipping and handling. However, that's not the question I wanted to ask.

I wanted to know how many of us as brothers own APO insignia beyond the service pin, letters, DSKs and other common things. How many have rings or badges (or other things) and if you don't what would you like to see nationals carry/ provide.

For example: I have my letters engraved on the stone of my graduation ring. This way I didn't have to buy a brotherhood ring and a class ring this one can serve for both. I also have the plain badge, but I passed that down to my little before I graduated.

That's what I have (or had once) however, I wish nationals would have a true brotherhood ring, something simple with maybe our crest on it or an engraving of the badge. The rings they have on the jeweler's site are pretty bland and generic in my opinion.

We're cheap...
 

APO's tradition of using (to quote my wife) "cheap crap" as for our pins goes back to at least prior to WWII. I'm not sure relative to inflation how much we've gone up or down, but as best as I can tell, our service pins have run about as much as a big fast food meal for most of our history. And while the Pledge pins have been somewhat different (apparently *really* early in our history (pre 1932?) they were shields split into two colored halves).

Oddly enough I don't own anything APO which is jeweled. The main things that I've paid money for on Ebay have been things like Brotherhood certificates from the 1950s, patches and pins from Alpha Phi Omega groups that aren't us...

As someone who collections APO stuff and studies our history, I can add a few things.

The use of service pins & pledge pins dates from 1939 (pledge pin)/1941 (service pin). The service pin was created to give us a low-cost alternative to the badge, which remains the basic emblem of membership. The first service pin cost about 25cents vs $3-4 bucks for the badge. Today the service pin runs $5 vs $40 for the badge. $40 is a LOT for many people, especially students, which is why we still use the service pin (heck, when I got the badge about 10 years ago it was around $20). I can't believe anyone who seriously question why we still use the service pin...

For myself, I have many APO items in my personal collection. For basic wear, I wear my Life Member pin. For more formal occasions, I'll wear my badge with chapter guard & dangles, prehaps with my Torchbearer pin. I have 3 DSKs and the Horton Award, which I'll also wear when appropiate.

I really can't think of any additional items I'd like to see the National Store carry, beyond what it is. I do think an advisor pin or badge might be an idea, but don't know if I'll ever propose it or not.

I have a Life Member pin, and for some reason I have a pledge pin. It is not my pledge pin and I do not know how I ended up with it.

I finally replaced my badge which I broke. It's the ritziest version of the cheaper metal kind. I have a chapter guard, but I am not sure if I have any officer dangles.

I also have one of the plain gold lapel pins with the greek letters Alpha Phi Omega.

Although I am not a pin collector, I would be in favor of more jeweled items as appropriate.

Afterthought:

I would like to see 25 and 50-year member pins. It would be a great way to honor the older brothers in my alumni association(s).

YES! This would be a fantastic thing. I wouldn't mind seeing a 10-year pin too.

In Toastmasters we have numbered tabs that go under our member pins, so the numbered part hangs below the pin.

Something like that would be nice, along with a certificate.

At the Nationals banquet in Boston, I wore a heart shaped boyscout pin (I know its not APO, but I thought it was pretty appropriate! ;o) and I wore the APO sweetheart pin that was given to me by my chapter president as a gift.

Does anyone know anything about the Sweetheart pin's history?

I don't have a badge.. yet. Lol.

Goes back quite a way...
 

I know the sweetheart pin goes back before con-con, and I think it goes back to around WWII. I'll see if I can find anything definite.

Not listed in the 1965-1966 pledge manual (http://apoko.abetterplacetobe.org/Ca...e%20Manual.pdf), but I'm pretty sure it goes back farther than that. :(

"heart shaped" boy scout pin? That could only be the Life Scout pin, which is a boy scout rank. If you (or your son) did not earn that rank it would be inappropriate to wear it.

Sweetheart pin. Yes, I know a lot about the history of it, as I collect APO insignia and do research on them. It was actually created in 1968. I have the issue of the T&T in which this was announced and shows the pin. While we have had chapter sweethearts for decades, it wasn't until then that the pin was create. The purpose was to allow Brothers (or chapters) to recognize their (non-Brother) sweethearts. Nowadays I see Brothers giving them to other Brothers, as well as female Brothers giving them to their non-Brother male 'sweethearts'.

The pin was dropped by the Board in 1998, but later brought back.

I stand corrected then...

Indeed the heart shaped pin boyscout pin I have is the mother's life pin. I inherited this pin when my grandmother passed away, along with her sorority pins and other scouting pins. She was a den mother for many years for my father's troop. I wore the pin 1. to honor my grandmother and 2. because APO has such close ties with scouting. I apologize if wearing it was inappropriate (and I certainly won't do it again).

I know that some fraternities allow daughters to wear their insignia. Are their any exceptions like this in the scouting world? In the APO world? :)

Are you sure about this? Boy Scout troops have never had den mothers. Cub Scout packs are divided into dens, and they used to have den mothers. (Now they have den leaders.) There are lots of women in leadership positions with Boy Scout troops, though.

Just curious.

In the scouting world, when it comes to advancement awards its pretty much the boy must earn the award to wear it. Mother minature pins were created early on, and you will see moms with a ribbon with all their mother pins on them. For Eagle, there are Mother, Father, and now mentor pins. I guess dads could also wear the minatures, but I never see that except for Eagle.

There is no tradition in the BSA of sons/daughters wearing their father's rank pins or the mother pins, except in the case of sons who ALSO earned the award wearing it. (ie a boy earns Eagle, and wears his dad's Eagle medal). Keep in mind that another standard in the BSA is that 'rank advancement is for youth'. By and large, once you age out you stop wearing any rank insignia, tho wearing the Eagle medal at formal occasions and wearing the Eagle square knot on the uniform is encouraged. Life Scout was the highest rank I earned, but I no longer wear it in any form.

AFAIK, there is no tradition of children wearing their parent's APO insignia. As we have been co-ed for 25+ years, it would be very confusing. Are they a Brother, or just wearing their father's (or possible mother's) insignia??? The Sweetheart pin was intended for your SO, not your children. I can't speak of other GLO's traditions in this area.


As to 'den monther for a troop'. It could be a case of an informal relationship, not a formal position. You are correct that Den Mothers are leaders of Cub Scout Dens, NOT Boy Scout Troop leaders. Could be this term was used for the scoutmaster's wife or the like. Many troops in the past had troop mothers that helped out a lot (an unofficial 'mother's auxiliary' if you will). Certainly, things have now changed since women can hold ANY leadership position in any scout unit. Back in the days when they were pretty much limited to certain cub scout positions, there were informal roles that occured.

Couple of thoughts spring to mind, some serious, some less so.

If you are below age 50 and the pin you are wearing has a screw back then it is your father's (not sure when we went from screwback to the pinback, 1960's).

Is there *anything* that amounts to a guide to how to use the sweetheart pin? It seems like APO caught on to the concept of the sweetheart pin just in time for things to get complicated enough for a guide to no longer make sense. Between co-ed chapters and out of the closet brothers (of both genders) I'm just not sure. Both chapter sweethearts and chapter courts are mostly memories.

As for Den Mother in a troop, the only thing that springs to mind is some of the oddities of the 11 year old patrol in Scouting in the LDS church, but even that doesn't quite make it.

AFAIK, APO never put out any guidelines for the use of the Sweetheart pin.

The concept of Chapter Sweethearts is, I understand, DIFFERENT from the idea of a 'female auxilary' type group, phyettes or the like. And certainly different from the idea of individual 'sweethearts' to Brothers.

Chapter Sweethearts.
 

I wonder how many Alpha Phi Omega chapters still do that.

Also, does anyone know of a chapter that actually has a working auxiliary group anymore?

I'm not aware of any chapter today with an auxiliary group. After going co-ed, many chapters brought those member in. A few (Jewels of Tau, for instance), went off and formed their own org. The remaining all-male chapters most likely partnered with GSS or OPA chapters instead of having an auxiliary group.

I know that when I generated a list of the all male chapters about 10 years ago that most of them had GSS chapters on their campus. The two that I remember that didn't have GSS, but did have a service sorority were Auburn (which had OPA on the campus) and Maine-Machias (which had a local, Kappa Alpha Kappa on campus). But I think there were a few didn't have a specific group that I could find...

I didn't word my post correctly, my grandmother was a den mother for my father's cub scout troop for many years. I realize boy scout troops do not have den mothers. My father was a scout master for many years while I was a child. The pin is definitely my grandmothers though, and not my father's Life Scout pin.

I haven't witnessed any sons/daughters wearing their parent's Alpha Phi Omega pins, I merely brought up the subject while we were discussing etiquette of scout pins. I know in Sigma Chi (my boyfriend's fraternity) daughters, mothers, wives and sweethearts may wear Sigma Chi insignia. I was just curious if APO had any rules about that.

Being a member of APO, is it appropriate to wear the Sweetheart pin? It wasn't given to me by my significant other, just a brother I am really good friends with. There really isn't a lot of information about this pin.

LFS <3

There is no protocol on the sweetheart pin that I am aware of. I have seen members wearing it at formal events if it matched their outfits well.

Just to keep terminology clear: Cub Scouts have packs, not troops. While a pack and a troop may be sponsored by the same organization, like a church, and have the same number (eg, Pack 123 and Troop 123), they are completely seperate entities.

I'm still curious what this pin is. Can you describe it (or post a picture)?

Well if you are trying to match a red dress, it's either that, or a Regional DSK, and the Regional DSKs swing around a lot when you dance.

As noted, its cub scout PACK, not troop.

The pin is most likely the Life Scout Mother's pin, which is a different size from the Life Scout pin. (I forget which is larger).

Keep in mind that Sigma Chi is an all male fraternity. If one sees a female wearing their insignia, one is going to assume that the person is a daughter/mother/wife/sweetheart of a member.

As we are now co-ed, we can't assume that. If we see someone wearing our insignia, we are going to assume they are a Brother, and be a little bothered if it turns out to not be the case...

As noted, the only 'protocol' of the pin is that its given to someone who is a sweetheart of a Brother. In the old days it would have been a girlfriend, maybe a wife.

Now that we are co-ed, I have seen Brothers give it to other Brothers they are dating (male or female). I know of a non-Brother husband who wears it was it was given to him by his wife.

So few would be shocked if they saw a Brother wearing the Sweetheart pin. More likely they will probably ask what the pin is, because not many know what it is.

Do you think so? I don't remember any mother's pins for anything except Eagle until relatively recently.

FYI- I am a collector of scouting memorabilia.

We've had mother pins for several decades. Not sure when they started them. But I can always check my collection of memorabilia literature.

Interesting. I was a Scout in the 70s, and I'd never heard of them until my son started Boy Scouts; his troop hands them out. Maybe my troop growing up just didn't use them. (Or maybe they came in with the uniform redesign in 1980. Speaking of which, can I just say how much better I like the new Centennial uniform?)