Pledge Duties
 

As of early 1946...

The following is a list of pledge duties you must perform before you are eligible for initiation into active membership in Alpha Phi Omega. These may be supplemented by other duties that bear a definite relationship to your chapter.

1. Do a specific project as prescribed by your chapter, in one or more of the following fields:

a. Service to your college or university.
b. Service to your community.
c. Service to the nation in the war effort.
d. Service to your chapter.

2. Wear the official pledge button at all times when the coat is worn.
3. Before time for your initiation, know the following:

a. Place and date of the founding of Alpha Phi Omega
b. Location of the national office.
c. Names and titles of the chapter officers.
d. The purpose of the fraternity (see national constitution)
e. The acquaintance of all men in the chapter. (This fifth requirement may be carried out as the chapter sees fit. Some may wish to require the pledges to secure the signatures of all active, advisory and honorary members, while other chapters may find different means of helping the pledges get acquainted.

It's nice to know that things have largely remained the same.

Agreed. I got this out of the Pledge Manual for someone who pledged in Spring 1946. I'm sure that the 'war effort' part was ignored at the time...

Replace the "all men in" with "all members of" and replace #2 with something about the 6 S's and I think you are just about ready to go in the year 2010!

How Funny
 

If these are the requirements for Initiation, only myself and 1 other Brother would be in the chapter.

It's nice to know that when I was designing my chapter's pledge program I was on target with what was originally taught. I didn't have this list (and at the time never thought of looking too much at the national documents) but these were the requirements that I forced through on my chapter. Unfortunately, after I left the brethren felt this was too stringent and watered down the program. Oh, well

Keep in mind, initiation is the official term for the ceremony that you go through to become an active member, not the ceremony you go through to become a pledge.

Pledge Ceremony -> called "initiation" by most people
Initiation -> called "activation" by most people

Not sure how/why people call them different things, but it is what it is.

Wow, most people are dumb.

Sorry, it's true though.

Maybe it's a regional thing? Just about every chapter I encounter here the midwest uses the incorrect terms.

I KNOW what I said. I meant Initiation as in the ceremony that you go through to become an Active Brother. Only two people (me and somebody else) in the chapter know the material that all Brothers are supposed to know by Initiation.

In the North Pledge Ceremony is called Induction, Brother Ceremony is called Initiation

wow, that's super dumb. 88lover has the correct terms...induction and initiation.

No, the correct terms are Pledge Ceremony and Initiation. Induction is just as dumb as using "Initiation" and "Activation"

I'm way out of my lane, I know . . .

. . . but this made me curious. In just a few minutes, I found a variety of uses at APO's national website. While the national bylaws refer to the "Pledge Ceremony," the Pledge Trainer's Handbook (p. 4) says,

The first and last steps in the pledge process are the Fraternity’s Induction and Initiation Ceremonies.

FWIW.

/back to my lane.

No it's not.

You have a decal issued by the Senusret I Swerving Authority which allows you in this lane.

Grievances can be filed with me directly.

Many thanks. Again, you = awesomeness.

You're welcome to come into this lane, and I appreciate a good debate. However...

The Pledge Trainer handbook is not an authoritative document, while the national bylaws are. The content of any of the Leadership Series manuals are not voted on by national convention, and are at best a guideline. I'll look at my ritual book when I get home, but I'm 95% confident it does not say induction, it says Pledge Ceremony. The national pledging standards refer to the Pledge Ritual, not Induction. Since National Bylaws, Pledge Standards, Rituals, etc. are voted on by convention, they carry much more weight than a guide put together by alumni volunteers.

FWIW, the Leadership Series has been for all intents and purposes replaced by the APO IMPACT guides and manuals,

None of this negates that

Is stupid.

For clarity:

The Pledge Ceremony is a component of the Pledge Ritual.

A pledge ceremony should never be called an initiation, because it isn't.

A pledge ceremony could be (and in many places is) called an induction because that's what it is, especially when it an initiation is correctly defined.

...because almost every organization recognizes that you can undergo a "pledge ceremony" ("induction") and never become a full-fledged, duly "initiated" member. :)

Thanks, and with a nod to Sen . . .

. . . my point was, if different terminology is found on your national website, regardless of how authoritative a particular document is or isn't, can it be that surprising to see members actually using the different terminology? Can you really say it's "dumb" for a member to call it an "induction" when material distributed by the national office does the same thing? By the same token, if the national office doesn't think it's that big a deal to use different terminology (perhaps a formal name and one or more informal names), should anyone else lose too much sleep over it?

national office > arvid1978

As the person who was the main author & editor of the Pledge Trainer manual, I don't know how that slipped thru.

No, the Leadership Series were never voted on by the National Convention. They are 'authoritative' in that they try to stay in line with our National Bylaws & other documents, and other accepted practice.

The Pledge Trainer manual was written to be in-line with the National Pledging Standard. (and, yes, what little is said about the pledge program in our rituals). When I do presentations on pledge programs I use the NPS as my starting point, as I find few Brothers really understand it, nor WHY we do things in our pledge programs, or make sure their pledge program are in line with the NPS.

Yes, the old Leadership Series have been replaced by the APO Impact Guides.