APO VS. A PHI O
 

I am curious if there is a difference here. like if i went to a convention and said APO would i get an entire group of people breathing fire at me? Here on my campus we just call it APO, is this going to make other chapters angry, or is it just some insignificant detail that some groups say one way and others say another way.

You might. But there are LOTS of differences among APO chapters.

Isn't Phi techically an 'f'?

Yes, which is why i cringe a little when people call us PMA.

The website say apo.org, ima call it APO.

Insignificant difference. I *think* APhiO tends to be more common in Region V, APO outside, but that was 20 years ago...

There is *NO* official abbreviation.

The prior website for the fraternity when it was run by a few alumni was aphio.org.

Short forms of the Fraternity name...
 

To make my previous post more clear...

Three short forms of the Fraternity name are somewhat commonly used: APO, APhiO and APhiQ/APhiQue. The APhiQ/APhiQue form is generally used only at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (which UIS is not). The other two are used by various chapters across the country with APO being more common than APhiO. I *think* APhiO is used more commonly in Region V (West PA, Ohio, WV & East/Central Kentucky).

However *no* short form is official.

I've seen National Officers perfectly happy with brothers using each of the three. The only time I've actually seen advice given to use APhiO was for an Interest group at a school with a well established Alpha Psi Omega (The Drama Honorary) that used APO on campus. However in many places with both, if there is a desire to use different short forms, Alpha Psi Omega will use APsiO or (*shudder*) AYO. Given that it doesn't appear that UIS has APsiO, I don't think that's an issue...

In regards to your local chapters (the ones you have to deal with most often), of the four active chapters in your section (47), three have their email that is listed on the National website as apo @ school_domain.edu, which means they probably use APO as their abbreviation on campus.

Historically I have run into chapters that were refered to as the 'Omega's and as the 'Alpha Phi's :)

In short, if any brother breathes fire over the issue, feel free to direct them to me, I have a firehose with a pumper truck that is feeding from Lake Superior. :)

From Western PA, and I say A Phi O if I'm talking, but when typing, I always use APO.

The Alpha Psi Omega chapter on my campus usually referred to themselves (in writing and in speaking) as Alpha Psi.

@naraht I kind of find it scary you know im from UIS, but then again we are like the only petitioning group in the middle of no where il so... ya, anyway its good to know im fine with put APO on everything.

You put that you were from UIS in your introduction. And right now there are *three* PGs in Illinois. But the other two are at Rasmussen and Roosevelt. I know that Roosevelt is in Chicago, but maybe Mokena-Tinley Park,Illinois (Rasmussen) counts as middle of nowhere.

I've also been doing this (looking for things electronic for APO) for 20 years give or take. I joined the history and archives committee in 2003, so I figure I only have two more years before they dip me in bronze and make me an exhibit...

In Southern California, there's another fraternity called Alpha Psi Omega, as well as Alpha Pi Omega. To avoid confusion, a lot of people refer Alpha Phi Omega as "A-Phi-O".

In Northern California, APsiO + APiO hasn't made any chapters up here yet. Therefore, APO is a more dominant term to refer to our fraternity.

Cool!
I think for APsiO, since it is a Drama Honorary, it may be part of the fact that schools closer to Hollywood would be stronger in Drama. However both San Francisco State and Sacramento State have APsiO chapters. (http://www.alphapsiomega.org/chapter...cation&start=C).

(And I can't find any Alpha Pi Omega chapters in California (http://www.alphapiomega.org/Chapters.html)

I've seen chapters and areas change in one way or another as time goes on, really the only consistency is "A Phi Q" at the HBCUs.

Interesting. When I was active in Section 4 (NorCal) about ten years ago, most chapters used A-Phi-O when speaking and APO when writing. I can only remember one or two using APO. It was just tradition and had nothing to do (in any sort of direct way) with any other GLO.

The actives and recent alumni in chapters I still interact with there use A-Phi-O, but that's a small subset of the section. If the language has changed for other chapters in the section, I wonder what motivated that shift?

I've seen AFW somewhere once...

Mostly in documents where the person has forgotten to change the letters to Symbol font. Or in google when they have, but google converts everything back to standard text.

Just reading through the thread...

Yep, we said APhiO in Region V almost exclusively. I remember using APO in print but not verbally. (12+ years ago) :)

Or if the poster used Symbol font, but the reader is reading on a Mac (or iPhone/iPad), which doesn't recognize Symbol font and converts it to standard text.

Found a couple of more...
 

Occasionally in addition to APhiQ and APhiQue, you'll see AyPhiQue...

For some bizarre reason, some of the Acronym Finders (which are basically just web scrapers) have a particular brand of dog food listed as an abbreviation, which corresponds to the first two letters of the first greek letter and then the first of the last two.(If I actually say what it is, it will increase the continuance on the finder). *ug*.

With the advent of things on the computer, I think the national office is *tending* to use APO for abbreviations (like the website), but as I indicated before, there is *no* official abbreviation,