Trefoil Club
 

Please let me know if anyone has seen the term "Trefoil Club" used to describe Alpha Phi Omega pledge classes. This would almost certainly be at an HBCU in parallel to the Alpha Phi Alpha usage of Sphinx Club and Alpha Kappa Alpha usage of the Ivy Club.

(also for the GSS'ers reading, has GSS chapters at HBCU's used something similar)

Thank You.
Randy

From what I was told, Gamma Sigma Sigma's was called "The Omicron Pledge Club".

Presumably from the Omicron on the Active Pin symbolizing equality?

Randy

Zeta Phi uses the term Trefoil Club to describe pledges

Zeta Phi
 

Zeta Phi was the only place that I had seen it. Specifically in the rush posters in the 1993 timeframe...

Randy

Re: Trefoil Club
 

I have heard it from members at HBCUs and I've heard of it once again from some members at another institution....cannot put my finger on that one right at this moment; however, when I do I will inform you.

I second this statement

Re: Zeta Phi
 

It's in the yearbooks from the 1960's.

Cool, then a continued tradition by Jerry Brown (finally remembered his name)

Found at another school...
 

Chi Lambda Elizabeth City State University apparently also used "Trefoil Club".

There is a picture of those in the trefoil club in the 1972 and the 1975 Elizabeth City State University Viking yearbooks.

http://www.archive.org/stream/ecsu00001972eliz#page/58/
http://www.archive.org/stream/ecsu00001975eliz#page/60/

Note, that these yearbooks and the ones around that time (just change the 1972 or 1975 in the URL to logical values) are a good place to verify the pledge clubs of other various groups...
(from 1974 unless noted)

APhiA - Sphinx Club
AKA - Ivy Leaf Club
PBS - Crescent Club
ZPB - Archonian Club
OPP - Lampados Club
DST - Pyramid Club
KAPsi - Scrollers Club
SGR - Aurora Club (1975)
Xi Psi Chi - Pawns (note, not Pawns Club) (Not familiar with this group)
GSS - Omicron Club
GPhiG - Swanxmen
SPhiS - Ladybugs
IPhiT - Centaurs

(Note, unfortunately Chi Lambda at the time also illustrates how tough it may be to make *certain* that a chapter is inactive. Chi Lambda was declared inactive at the July 1987 APO Board meeting. There are Pictures and pages for Alpha Phi Omega all the way through the 1990 Viking yearbook.)

Innnnnteresting.

The other interesting piece of information there is that "Men of the Rising Sun" goes back to at least 1976.

I can date that phrase back to 1968 or so, or at whichever convention Zeta Phi was recorded singing the toast song and their other songs. (It's on the 75th Anniversary CD)

Three terms looking for first used dates on...
APhiQue (or close variety)
Men of the Rising Sun
Viking.

What I find interesting as well was that Gamma Sigma Sigma was even in there. We've never had a chartered chapter at Elizabeth City State (and I have all our chapters and charter dates, as National Membership Director, to prove it). They must have been a probationary group (what we call a colony now) and it failed.

Maybe, but four years is a long time for a group to be a probationary group/colony.

1972: 16 Women in the picture. http://www.archive.org/stream/ecsu00...p/search/gamma

1973: 5 Women in the picture.
http://www.archive.org/stream/ecsu00...p/search/gamma

1974: 4 Women in the picture and 11 more in the Omicron Club.
http://www.archive.org/stream/ecsu00...p/search/gamma

1975: 3 Women in the picture and 2 more in the Omicron Club
http://www.archive.org/stream/ecsu00...p/search/gamma

For more info... It appears that http://www.blackplanet.com/elliottoge/ is the blackplanet page of an ECSU alumnus who graduated in 1973 who considers herself to be in Gamma Sigma Sigma.

It would be interesting to cross check the names of the "members" in the photos to our database to see if any match (I know we have had a lot of "missing" alumnae; kudos to all the efforts to get that updated).

Not sure how you would get names for the people in the picture, though maybe you could cross check the rest of the yearbook. I'm horrible with comparing faces though.

You may want to try the alumni office at ECSU (http://www.ecsu.edu/alumni/staff.cfm)

I will have to actually consult with our National Archivist about this group. I'm really curious now as to how they operated on campus for that long and didn't charter at all.

1972 16 women
 

I am pictured in the 1972 Picture at ECSU
If you are interested in authenicating the existence of this group, you might want to look first at the Chapter at Saint Augustine in Raleigh, North Carolina . We crossed over there.

w

I would very much like to know more information regarding Gamma Sigma Sigma @ ECSU

OK...
 

If you are also the one on blackplanet, then I think that we wanted you as a source of information...

I can give you more specific information on archive.org, is there anything specific?

I am the person. I can remember some specifics regarding the group and a lot of the names. That was 38 years ago.We came under the establishment Gamma Sigma Sigma at St Augustine College in Raleigh, North Carolina. I specificially want to know about the Charter. This group did numerous fund raising events to pay for membership dues, etc. We were cleared finiancially and actually had to travel to Raleigh, NC for the final cermony.

Also there was more like 27 women who were a part of this initial group.

complete lane swerve
 

I've posted to the Gamma Sigma Sigma area indicating that this topic exists. I'm not quite sure if there is anything more appropriate to do indicating that this topic exists.

As for existing for 4 years without chartering, wow....

Randy, thanks for the heads up.

Soror, check your inbox.

NP. On the one hand I'm curious as an *outsider* what happened.

OTOH, gamma_girl52, you are either the best person in existence to investigate this, or you are close and you run into that best person at Board meetings. :)

*Maybe* there are APO alumni from either ECSU or St. Augustine who might be able to contribute, but I'm not one of them

Well, yes...I'm the Membership Director :D

I'd already started researching this beforehand, as we currently have an IG at ECSU now and I have been working with them since last Fall semster. Every time we get a new group I try to get as much background information as possible especially if it's an reactivation effort (this group is not, but the pictures spurred it). The National Archivist couldn't find anything on them when I sent her these exact pictures a while back, which left me confused.

Why this happened was because these ladies were traveling to Raleigh and were pledging at Epsilon Alpha chapter, which was at St. Augustine's College (which is inactive now); so technically all of these ladies are EA initiates.

Ah...

This explains the "We have sisters at ECSU, but no chapter." :)

This is almost as much fun as the Alpha Phi Omega extension at Ferrum.

In about 2000 we had an extension at Ferrum, which was a rechartering of Phi Omicron chapter. About 6 months later after research by both the chapter and by staff it was determined that back in the 1970s, due to changes at the school and vietnam that the group had not in fact gone through chartering although letters had been assigned. So the rechartering group became a chartering group. :)

Just to update all--we now have an official colony at Elizabeth City State, which I formally approved last week. There are 20 members. :)

Congrats!

Hopefully they also will be given the explanation of why Gamma Sigma Sigma is in the ECSU yearbook, but ECSU is a new charter. (Not sure if you want to send the Colony Historian a link to this thread on greekchat:)

Hopefully those sisters at ECSU from the 1970s who initiated at St. Augustine can be invited for Chartering and be made honorary sisters of the new chapter as well.

elliottoge, do you have contact with any of the others who were at ECSU with you?

I have maintained contact with one sister.
Thanks a lot for your assistance inthis matter.

depends on the school different schools used different names

ok the plot thickens on this one.....

I haven't seen a pledge club name for GSS other than the Omicron Club and for Alpha Phi Omega other than the Trefoil Club. Please enlighten us....

This is only anecdotal, but I've heard of some chapters calling their pledges Torches. Or maybe that's a Viking thing. Whatever the case may be, I go by what I've seen documented at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. :)

naraht, if you haven't been yet, I promise you will be in hog heaven looking through the old yearbooks.

I went to the stacks of the library looking for yearbooks, but anything that is more ordered than that would be good.

Senusret,

BTW, I was *asked* by the Zeta Phi brothers who won the next sectional conference to do a "History of Alpha Phi Omega in Maryland, DC and (northern) Virginia". I told them I didn't think I was qualified. :)

Don't go to the stacks -- have the helpers at Moorland-Spingarn just bring you yearbooks from like 1950-1980.

By the way, not qualified? Stop the lies and tomfoolery, Brother! lol

Well, my wife is helping me so that we should be able to put together something. BTW, just picked up from eBay a mug from the 1984 convention in DC. Now all I need is something from the 1968 convention.