Question to the Female APO's
 

Diva~

Do you mean the GSS message board? Could you point out where these posts are popping up, cause I can't seem to find them...

~Nicole

the 25/52 board is where i am talking about...

VW i have tried that they still come back.. so i thought i would ask over here.. :)

Ok, I am a bit lost now...

Where is the 25/52 board?

http://forums.delphiforums.com/APQGSS/start
there is the link to the 25/52 message board

Personally I feel as though it is all about the service. Who cares what GSS thinks about us, and who cares what we think about them. As long as we all act like LADIES and respect ourselves and the other ladies then it should not be a problem. I think this issue is only a problem when people make it a problem. (Not saying that you made it a problem), I'm just saying if we all focused on our purposes and our mission's then we shouldn't be worried about the potential drama.

Thank you!! There's the answer.
Welcome to the fam, BTW. I see you are a new member and fellow SEVEN :D

Thank You Thank You...You know us 7's have to hold it down. ;)

and good evening!:)

well said i agree but .. well never mind..

but what?

My opinion
 

I think the problem in some cases is also some type of competition for the bruhs attention....depending on where you are from bruhs give more attention to GSS then they do to their Bruhs, so we can't but feel as though sometimes we are being treated like the jealous girlfriends, by the looks and attitudes that we get from GSS... and ladies you know how that can be at times. But honestly, I am not the one to judge you by the three letters that are across your chest. I do not think they make or break you. But if you look at me smug because I am an APO female trust then I will have to treat you the same. I am the type that feeds off what you give me. If you give me attitude just because of assumptions and my letters, then in turn you will too get judged based off of me assuming that you already dont like me because of our letters.
This isnt a personal response, its just based off of experiences with some of your sorors. And that may be the case for others and that may be why so many people ask what is the problem between GSS and APO females. Its because other people have those similar experiences.

That was well stated. But, do female APO's/APQ's (sorry i don't know which you guys perfer, no disrespect) throw Gamma Sigs attitude because ya'll feel like the jealous girlfriend? I've been around some of the organizations that come along with the Bruhs, such as Jewels and we spoke and they kept walking. I know that you guys are seperate entities, but is it really like that?

Desire_2k3 #3

This is ridiculous!
 

This whole discussion is dumb. I will NEVER be jealous over who has MY brother's affection and/or attention because at the end of the day, like it or not, he's still MY brother. Like one of my brother's said, you will be respected if you give it. This is dumb and it's not worth all the time that's going into this discussion. Let's get back to LFS and other worthwhile things.

Re: This is ridiculous!
 

I will have to respectfully disagree. I don't think this isn't a worthwhile discussion, if it's discussed with some intelligence. But since this really isn't my forum I'll keep it short out of respect.

I think it should be noted that this "attitude" between female brothers and my sorors are coming from both sides, simply because of what we hear from others. I don't have a problem with females in the fraternity...it's not my place to have a problem to start with. I give respect to everyone and I expect it back. I recognize that some brothers view me as their soror and a load of others don't...because they either don't choose to or don't even know what the GSS/APO relationship is about to show that kind of love. Either way it's all good. Simply put, my first priority is Gamma Sigma Sigma. It's not like we can't co-exist. We just need to stop formulating our attitudes towards each other based on heresay. That's the first thing I hear from BOTH parties..."Well I heard this or that about you." I have nothing to form a nasty attitude about. I think that's the problem when in reality it is not that big of an issue.

Honestly thats what I was saying...its not that I, personally don't give respect to all no matter what you are...but there are some who have experienced what I was talking about...But honestly, I hate when people use one experience as a generalization as to how it will always be. I say my advice would be treat each encounter separate from others, some people are just the way they are. So the question should've been, why does that paricular GSS soror not like me because I am an APO female, and really it may just be that some don't get along despite the association.

female apo's
 

Now this question is for Gammagirl52 and any other GGS member:

Normally when this argument comes up, you always here about GGS female and APO female interaction in regards to the whole APO males ordeal why they may see GGS as sorors but APO females as non bruhs. However, one party you never hear from is GGS males. What are their views (GGS is co-ed right) and do they receive flack from my bruhs or your sorors for pledging a sorority? Just wondering...

9-ZP-03 AI
News @ 9

A-Phi-Que till the day I'm through
Zeta Phi till the day I die

APOLOGY
 

I meant GSS, I don't know what I was thinking, I APOlogize!!

9-ZP-03 AI
News @ 9


A Phi Que till the day I'm through...
Zeta Phi till the day I die!!!

Let me try to answer that.

First off, in technical terms Gamma Sig is co-ed but no where on the same scale as APO. Out of the 60 or so chapters we have I can count on one hand those who have males in the membership, and even then it's less than 5 in that chapter. For the most part, they would react the same an APO female would in my opinion....they probably wouldn't be very comfortable with the brother/sister thing. But again, that's just a speculation that I have. This is why you don't hear anything from them...the number is very very small.

I have a question for you guys though. What are your thoughts on having Gamma Sig on your campus knowing your chapter is co-ed? I ask because I would really like to see GSS reactivate on HU's campus (the GSS chapter there was Alpha Eta). Also I think that TSU still has an RC (Reactivating Colony) of GSS operating on campus (bro_strawter can correct me if that's wrong). What do you guys think.

You're correct. We had a meet & greet with the sorors a few weeks ago. It was off the hook!! Both male and females in our chapter are cool with the Gamma Sigs. No beefs. It's quite simple, the bruhs (men) recognize GSS as sorors, and female members of the frat as brothers. GSS and the female APO's at TSU are well aware of the fact that they have no relationship with each other other than service, being African-American, and attending TSU. It's good to see us all co-existing though.

This is the twist that a gets a few outside bruhs and sorors heated with us. We, the male members @ TSU are well aware of our relationship with GSS. We love them unconditionally they are OUR sorors...can't speak for other chapters.. However, no female (APO or GSS wise) come before the women in our chapter.....NONE!

thanks for the clarification...
 

Thank you for the clarification both of you!!! In response to your question, personally I will not have a problem with your sorority being reactivated on Howard's campus because Howard needs a change of pace especially when it comes to our Greek Life!!! Honestly, I do not know anything about GSS outside of its relationship to APhiQ back in the day, but any organization whether it be Greek or not that is dedicated to service has to be an upstanding organization. The one obstacle you may encounter: as anyone familiar with Black Greek life may know, Howard is the Alpha Chapter for 3 out of 4 Black Greek Sororities and unless y'all really publicize your organization, then you may encounter membership problems. Now as far as individual interactions with members of GSS go I believe that no problems will occur as long as people respect others then there should be no problems. Now with that being said, my bruhs (female or male) should respect members of GSS and that in the past some campuses had APO/GSS ties and we cannot assume that they will come and try to replace APO female bruhs (that effort would be in vain anyways). In the same token members both undergrad and alumni members of both organizations need to respect that both organizations are co-ed and they can not enforce the whole "bruh/soror" & "APO/GSS" relationship because we are not constitutionally bound to the other. In closing, if people know their role, then there will not be any trouble. With any case, when people step outside of their role then that is when problems occur.

NEWS @ 9
9-ZP-03 A
AI

A-Phi-Que till the day I'm through
Zeta Phi till the day I die

P.S. To clear up the whole APO/APHIQ issue I spoke to some alums of Zeta Phi (40 and 50 year members of Alpha Phi Omega). They said that APhiQ does not refer to modern day "Viking" or any other all male chapter. A PHI Q or A Phi O was the name given to Historically Black chapters back in the sixties to not only distinguish themselves (hence Howard being the Black Beta, so on so forth), but because they felt that the Greek letters were not APO but A PHI Q and thusly referred to the organization as such. Now during the time these chapters as well as most chapters of APO were all male. However, the correlation between all male chapters and A Phi Q is incorrect in the sense that only males can be A Phi Q. Anyone "made" or crossed at an HBCU are considered A Phi Q. I hope this sheds any light to those who are unsure of what A Phi Q is.

Question...?
 

Question...if person A says that a flag is white and person B sees the same flag and says the color is ivory...what color is the flag?
I think this conversation is getting very interesting...

Re: Question...?
 

CREAM!

In response to Gamma Sig coming back to HU
 

I don't see why not but honestly, I don't see what for, and that may be because I know nothing about GSS. But, I seriously think that it may be hard for another organization such as this to come back at Howard at this point. I think that the one thing that helped us bring back A Phi Que was the fact that it was truly unique...and there are some GDI's and those who affliated with other organizations that still that GSS plaque in the Punch-Out (the take out place at HU) and say that it would be a joke. I think that at HU the main thing for survival is the respect of the campus. I say try it out and see what type of response you get. But trust its not going to be easy. What you need to try to do is to try to get those on our campus who already respected by the students...I say it doesn't hurt to try.

I would like to see this plaque for GSS...I will have to ask one of my sorors that is currently attending Howard for Medical School if she can stop over to see it.

For me I wouldn't want to "try it out" unless I knew it was going to be successful...the comments about GSS being a joke...well I hear that a lot from people who don't know who we're about. GSS is particularly hard to establish at HBCU's, because it takes a very strong group of ladies to establish themselves there and have to be able to withstand criticism (aka "hating) from others, GDI and Greek alike. Every GSS colony goes through that though. It's because we're new and not a lot of people are familiar with GSS.

Well, we shall see. So far I haven't heard a word about GSS being revived at HU. We also had a chapter at American University as well plus an alumnae chapter once upon a time.

Re: Question...?
 

OMG Bro. Jones has returned!!! (lol) Like I've been here long myself. Anyway, I'm glad you felt where I was coming from.

I feel you #18, but I don't...See when I found out GSS came back to TSU, my first thought was why??? Why join GSS when you can be in APO...but then I thought about it. They probably thought the same thing about us...why join a service frat as a woman when you can be in a sorority. The bottom line is even though we are both about service, we are two seperate organizations. They have the right to be here just like we do. Gamma Sigma Sigma wants to reactivate their chapters just like we do. And in all things we should support each other. Gamma Girl, I say good luck and go for it as far as looking to come back at Howard.

I see what you are saying #7,indeed that is true. Hey whoever is over the extension of GSS Colonies I say good luck. I say if GSS comes back fight for the respect, sho' nuff we had to and it was worth it wasn't it News @ Nine.

YA DAMN SKIPPY!!!

Why is this always such a big topic? I am at Tennessee State also and a female brother of APO. Our bruhs seemed to be so excited about GGS being back. It seemed to me that it was kinda kept on the hush hush (like they didnt want us females to know).To be honest I could care less who comes back as long as they are doing service and not getting stuff started. It would be nice to meet some of the GGS members but........it seems as if they are only associated with the male members of APO and not the females.:confused:

This goes to bro_strawter. U said we (females) are so cool with the GSS's. We dont even know who they are. We have never met them. I just had to put that out there!;)

Well, where you from, Brother?! Welcome to GC!

aquafina, hey sands....

That's all I've been saying. I don't have ANY problem with GSS being associated with APO, but I don't see why it has to be a gender issue. Heck, if I see a male Gamma Sig, I'ma give him a hug, just like a female Gamma Sig! (Or at least a firm handshake, ;)) The organizations have historical ties that transcend tab A and slot B, if you know what I mean.

Hey dardener, I understand that. I know how yall are tied together. I have no problem with it. I guess u would have to be on our campus to understand what Im talking bout.

I see how this could indeed be a problem at mostl HBCU's. Zeta Phi hasn't of course experience this either because we don't have a GSS colony on our campus. (by the way the plaque i was referring to is, that in the 80's student activities painted on boards all the sheilds of the organizations that were repesented at the time, GSS was one of them, and they decorate the take-out place). So anyway, I could see how because for example those organizations who are part of the pan-hellenic council aren't co-ed, so there are sororities and bruhs that are "teamed up" and those who are members are considered to be sorors and frat. At some schools the same thing is assumed but official and it doesn't work as smoothly when the organizations are co-ed and the females of GSS sometimes can not look at a female APO to be their bruh and vice versa.

PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN THEIR ROLE!!!
 

First, I am glad to see that we are all being respectful of each others opinion! Now, I will have to agree with Rashid on this, who really gives a rat's tail who is in what organization? I don't believe that it has ever been a problem, but why does it have to be a gender issue?!?! I was always taught, "whatever is good for the goose is good for the gander as well" pun intended. I mean either someone who is GSS will call all APO male and female bruhs or none of APO brothers "bruhs" and vice versa, either APO will call GSS male and female "soror" or none of them soror. But don't do it for one sex and not the other. That is not only highly offensive to the party neglected because by only acknowledging a bruh/soror you basically discredit their letters and what they worked so hard for, but you the party that allowed to happen make yourself look unbrotherly/sisterly by letting someone disrespect your bruh/soror in such a fashion.

One thing that I do notice, a great deal of this "conflict" stems from alumni. Some alumni still do not know that APO and GSS are coed and they may ask you what happened to the other organization. That is understandable and it is not offensive. Now you do have ignorant alumni (Zeta Phi has them along with TSU and JSCU) that basically say to hell with 1976, women don't belong and all that other bs despite the fact that most pledged post-1976 in addition to the fact that they don't do anything but cause headaches and trouble in their home chapters. Those are the ones mainly forcing the whole 25/52 love thing down those who are remaining in the chapters without realizing or caring that it DOES exclude female bruhs. Now we should respect the historical ties between both organizations but in the same regard it is a new day for both organizations. Some alumni need to realize that WE ARE CO-ED whether you like it or not and if you don't then either denounce your letters or you should not have joined in the first place.

In closing, you only allow people to do what you let them. If something like this is happening on your campus, you need to first check the chick who is blatanly disrespecting you and your role as a member and brother of ALPHA PHI OMEGA. Secondly, you need to pull up your bruhs like, "Yo that is foul that you would let someone disrespect your female bruhs like so." People need to put their foot down on this issue so that it does not come up time and time again or every time an HBCU gets rechartered. Either do it for everyone or do it for noone!!! And it is really as simple as that!!!

NEWS AT NINE
9-ZP-03 AI

A Phi Que till the day I'm through...
Zeta Phi till the day I die!!!

Only a Number Nine could have said it so well. ;)

Warning: Long Post
 

Well I haven't been able to post all weekend, I was just reviewing the posts since my last one. What a great conversation it has been so far. I feel that this is one way to "bridge the gap" between our two organizations. We do need to learn about one another.

I do agree that it's the individual's choice in this...clearly there are members of BOTH orgs that recognize each other as brother/sister. There are some of my sisters who would never look at a female APO as a bruh, PERIOD. I have the same attitude as dardenr. I will at least speak to you if not hug or shake your hand (depending on your comfort level). And also, even though we're discussing it this issue is not a burning topic at Conventions :D . Somebody made a comment about this not being an issue in their area. This is because as of late, GSS/APO as bruh and soror is very common down South and not so much everywhere else. This is especially where GSS has been expanding in the last two years or so.

As far as TSU...they have been very quiet. I'm usually a soror "in the know" and I haven't heard a peep from these ladies. I think in Epsilon Psi's case (the R.C. of GSS), I personally feel it would be better if they operated as a separate sorority AWAY from Psi Phi...until some time passes and everybody is comfortable. Based on the comments from some of the Psi Phi ladies, it's important for them to feel comfortable with the sisters too. I would think it would produce a lot less drama.

In short it's all about where you feel comfortable and what you feel comfortable doing. We're both separate orgs with similar interest in mind...so I think we shoud at least try to work together.