APhiO not real greeks?
 

SIUE is re-activating an Alpha Phi Omega chapter. I heard from other chapters that APO is not recognized as a Greek Organization, i.e. they don't participate in Greek Week.
Why?

Alpha Phi Omega is a national co-ed service fraternity. It has social aspects but the main and primary focus is SERVICE. According to APO's national bylaws, a chapter may not operate or inhabit a fraternity house, and a chapter shall not seek membership in an association consisting solely of social fraternities.

Also, you can belong to APO and a social fraternity or sorority at the same time.

Sure, we (Alpha Phi Omega) do not belong to IFC's, have houses, or participate in Greek Week. No service GLO's do. But for APO, there are deeper meanings for not adopting certain principles social GLO's. I quote from our fraternity website at www.apo.org/ :
"Without constant reminders, teaching, help and advice, even the best of us lose sight of our larger goals. We become introverted, concentrated on our own selfish ends, forgetful that we come this way but once and that our challenge is to serve others. This is why conventions have to deal repeatedly with memberships in IFC's, questions of housing, violations of the dignity of individuals through hazing practices, and the lure of social status and personal indulgence through primary emphasis upon social programs. Without some structure to keep us focused on our purposes we would quickly lose our way in an envious and competitive world. We would soon disappear.

And for the record, we ARE real greeks!!!

As 33girl said, Alpha Phi Omega is a service fraternity. On our campus, they did not participate in anything that the social organizations did. That doesn't mean they aren't greek, but they aren't part of the social greek system. I've never heard of them even mixing with social GLOs. Although I think I read about a party of theirs that got busted by the cops. So much for all that purpose pirate.

What's that supposed to mean? You "THINK" you read about that somewhere. Do you even know where this alleged incident occured? Whether it occured or not, there will always be isoltated inicdents within any GLO. Nobody is perfect yet we strive to meet our ideals to the letter. Alpha Phi Omega has set the standard for campus-based voulunteerism for over 75 years, and it will not take cheap shots from those who are misinformed about its purposes.

We have at least six social sorority girls in APO. So the 2 do mix.

Oh oh! An APO party got busted by the cops?
Was it the one in Truman State in MO?

pirate, my comment was only a joke. sorry to offend, although I did hear of an APO party getting busted a couple years ago.

As for my campus, all I meant was that APO did not mix with the social frats or sororities.

Pirate, you wanna see a website where Alpha Phi Omega represents the frat like REAL GREEKS (and recognizes Gamma Sigma Sigma as REAL SISTERS??!!!

CHECK THIS SITE OUT!!!!

members.tripod.com/~APQGSS

It is the BOMB!!!
Lemme know what you think.

Match Game '73

Yeah, Rain Man. I've seen that site before. I try to visit it often. '25/'52 Family for life!!!

Oh, I'm sorry for coming down on ya like that. i get kind of hot-tempered when allegations get out of hand. I am very proud of my fraternity and the work it does. There's something special about APO because HUMANITY IS OUR PHILANTHROPY!!!

Just to defend those guys, the "APO" party was not official. Although the house that the party was at is a traditionally APO house, it was never officially referred to as such, and many, many of the people who went there had nothing to do with APO. They got in a lot of trouble about it though, and no longer have any parties that I know of, unofficial or otherwise. (Unless it's a formal or date party with a vendor and whatnot.)

What shadokat meant was that APO does not have "mixers" with the social fraternities or sororities. (You might call them TG's or socials or swaps in your neck of the woods.)

no offense pirate but I rarely hear of anything you guys do on Campus... I know a couple people in your org some are nice some not so much. One of the girls went after a bf of mine though and that sucked

My fraternity is classified as a professional GLO. On my campus we also had an APO chapter. I recall more than one mixer between our two chapters. They weren't treated exactly like "real" greeks (meaning the social GLOs), but they were considered part of the greek system. They were on the Greek Council as well. (I think this was okay because there were NO NPC or IFC chapters, and because there were 2 PFA chapters).

And as far as that particular chapter went, they held similar functions as the other greek chapters (from pledging to formals, in between their service http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif).

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SilverTurtle@greekchat.com

Phi Beta Fraternity
Phi chapter

I'm sorry you had a bad experience with a brother of mine. But we do service on campus. It's more prevalent during fall semester when we do stadium cleanup after football games, which is a BIG job, especially after homecoming.

If a sister of Gamma Sig may contribute to the discussion...

But before I start much sisterly love to Rain Man and pirate00 ((HUGSSSS))

I think it depends on the campus. My chapter of GSS isn't a part of any of the greek councils, but we participate wholeheartedly in Greek events. We support the greeks on our campus and they invite us out to events in turn. We participate in Dance Marathon (which is traditionally NPC/IFC). However, the only thing we do not partake in is Greek Week and we do not get Greek Awards (although my chapter is up for Organization of the Year!!).

So, although we're not "Greek" in the sense of council, we are definitely greek in the eyes of the fraternities and sororities on campus and we're normally not left out! Probably because my chapter is so much fun :C)

From everything I've read on this board, as well as my experience with APO at the Univ. of Oklahoma, it really [i]does vary from school to school.

I was involved with Alpha Phi Omega my freshman year. Yet I've not been active since shortly after I initiated, and haven't considered myself a member since that point.

At the OU campus, the group is known popularly as A.P.O., and has no real association with the greek community, other than the fact the name of the organization is comprised of greek letters. In fact, when I got involved with, I perceived A.P.O. to be largely a community service organization, that just happened to have its roots in a former greek fraternity - thus the structure of the org, plus the mechanism for becoming a member, was much like pledging a social greek organization.

Interesting to see how a group can vary from campus to campus!


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@-->---
Pure as Silver, and True Blue!
Alpha Sigma Kappa - Women in Technical Studies

Alpha Phi Omega is a Greek Named orgaization only!

They are a service Fraternity which is their only service. What they do is OUTSTANDING!
Thay can and do their own social functions as they are not a secret social Fraternity. I was a strong member of APO when I was at NWMS. There was not a chapter at Pitt. St. U while I was there.

You can be a member of APO and a Social Greek Organization at the same time.

While I was not active and am not active anymore, I still hold the ideals and principles of APO near and dear to my self!
They and we are a coedutional Fraternity which means He's and She"s!!! The Fraternity does Great Unsung Work for a lot of things.



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Tom Earp LX Z#1
Pittsburg State U. (Kansas)

Back to the top!

Great Post Tom Earp!

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The Epitome of Beauty, Style, and Grace, Always Exemplifying Good Taste, A Zeta Woman, A Finer Woman, That's Me!

Thanks for your positive comments but Alpha Phi Omega in total you are not aware of. Tom, Alpha Phi Omega is a Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity. Dat's it. If it wanted to be apart of a council it could petition itself to be on it, and at that time and only that time there would be nobody from that council joining Alpha Phi Omega. However, since we are not apart of a council
anybody from any other organization can join like you stated. Or let me put it another way. If any counciled organization choosed to not be a part of that council then anybody could join that regardless of the organization they are in if that non-counciled org wanted to be established that way.

Alpha Phi Omega as a Greek Organization? Let me put this argument to rest. Alpha Phi Omega is Service Greek Organization. This is something that social service organizations do not want to recognize because it is say that we do service and they do not. But obviously this is not the case. Social Service counciled organizations do much service now. And never seen the Term Social Service on any of the fraternal organization names. Now, Delta Sigma Theta has that they are a public service organization. So they are a service organization. But if you talk to other greek lettered organizations on the the council, they would classify them as a Social Service org as well.

No we are not greek organizations. Only because the council organizations call themselves the only greek organizations, that's it. We could consider ourselves greek but nobody in this organization would want that stereotype. In my book any organization that is a social or service greek lettered organization can consider themselves greek. Not just what a counciled organization wants you to be. And since do have service in our name it's only fitting to call us what we rather be called any way. Service Greeks!

What does Alpha Phi Omega consider themselves is what the question should be. And that answer varies. It has a rich fraternal tradition on different campuses. On others it the fraternity takes on a club-like atmosphere. But that doesn't make them any less of a fraternal organization. So on some campuses we are single gender traditionally service greek organizations. And on others we are coeducational service greek organizations. But we are not formally a coeducational fraternity. Only one that has coed chapters.

JayBEE!

Ummmm.....

The very first sentence on Alpha Phi Omega's national website begins "Welcome to Alpha Phi Omega, the national, co-educational service fraternity..."

How much more "formal" can it get than being the first thing stated on the website?? http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/confused.gif

Single-gender chapters are definitely the exception, not the rule. The majority of chapters are coed.

That is quite simple. It could be in any of the official documents of the Fraternity: The Articles of Incorporation, the National Bylaws, the Standard Chapter Articles of Association, the rituals. *IT ISN'T!*

It's a convenient shorthand to let people know that most chapters do allow women (The number of active all-male chapters is down to about 20), but it is not official.



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Naraht
Alpha Phi Omega Alumni Volunteer

From APO's national bylaws:

Article 3, Membership

Section 1. Open Membership. Membership in APO shall be open to all students upon the approval of the respective collegiate chapter, and after fulfilling the membership requirements prescribed by the national fraternity and by that chapter.

To me, "all students" definitely says men OR women are eligible for membership according to the national bylaws.

JayBEE, I couldn't have said it better myself. You're a tough act to follow!

And since there is approval of the collegiate chapter involved, it allows the chapters to have the decision making ability. The bylaws are almost paradoxical in saying open to all students and yet allowing chapter control.

In practice, given national board policy, the following happens (to the best of my knowledge): Chapters that have been active since before 1976 and have never initiated women as active members may continue to limit the people initated as active members to only men (a chapter can stay all-male even if it has female advisors or female transfers in).

Any new charter or rechartering must *attempt* to reflect its campus in gender. If a school is almost 100% of one gender, then the group may end up as all of that gender at chartering. The Regional Director is the one responsible for letting the group know whether in his/her opinion they have made the attempt.



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Naraht
Alpha Phi Omega Alumni Volunteer

Hey Randy, Hey 33girl

Nice explaination Randy

33-girl - Single-gender chapters are definitely the exception, not the rule.

Single gender chapter became the exception and the rule was changed to created this exception. I'm not saying that you are wrong , but neither am I. As a whole, Alpha Phi Omega in the National sense, is a coed wanna-bee organization. But what is not apparent is that this is not what was intended. Alpha Phi Omega in 1974 or 72 I forget, voted down allowing female membership. And 1976, voted it in a non-unanimous vote. And 1986 that membership was so charished it developed a way for the other membership to vanish since it didn't go away on it's own. It almost suceeded in doing just that. But those chapters have been able to sustain, year after year removal considerations.

Your history, now resides on one page in your pledge manual. The 1985 manual has history one 6 pages. The history is what Alpha Phi Omega was built on. But it's being reduce and condensed because it has nothing in it to support the female membership in Alpha Phi Omega. By contrast, the new section Woman in Alpha Phi Omega is more than a page and a half.

It's nothing wrong with having women in the fraternity. But I think the organization should bring back at least it's history.

JayBEE!

Jaybee - then I'll put it this way - "The majority of active chapters of APO today are co-ed in intent, if not in actual continuous practice." (i.e. some years it may be all guys, some years all gals)

I was referring to things as they are now, not how when or why they got that way.

As they say in French movies, fin.

[This message has been edited by 33girl (edited April 26, 2001).]

I was referring to things as they are now, not how when or why they got that way.

Nothing to do with you (As in not saying that you do this) But why is it the general attitude of some simply don't what to think about the "how when or why they got that way" Don't you think history is important?

Mon frere, JE SUIS FIN. I've been up and down this road before and don't have a full tank of gas so I'm not going there again. So I'll just say...THANK YOU, DRIVE THROUGH.

Okay, Driving Through!

Talking to other people now. If there is any other brothers out there, can you tell me what difference the history of APhiO makes? Does it suppose to make a difference in Alpha Phi Omega to you or can we just skip it all together? Or why shouldn't skip it?

My personal view is that we should touch, rephrase or re-write any of it. To me, even the negative should be in there, and then you add to it as your history becomes older.

JayBEE!