Service Greek Orgnizations
 

I wanted to know if there are any members of service Greek groups around here? I'm a collegiate member of Epsilon Sigma Alpha and our chapter is trying to bring up our prescence on campus and I wanted to know if there are any similar organizations in our positions. I can imagine locals might have similar issues. Also, anyone in services groups have t-shirt ideas?

better define service groups. For example my sorority was founded for the purpose of public/community service, but we are not classified as a service group such as A Phi Omega, or GSS.

And in fact it is my understanding that all GLOs have a philanthropy thrust, so we need better clarification of what you mean.

I'm in Alpha Phi Omega. Do lots of service publicly (blood drives, dessiminating information on campus) and always invite your friends to projects.

Another Alpha Phi Omega brother here.

I am also an Alpha Phi Omega, and I'm a member of Beta Sigma Phi. BSP is technically a social organization, but in recent years, service has become a huge aspect of membership.

I am a member of both Alpha Phi Omega and Gamma Sigma Sigma.

A member of both Omega Phi Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta. :D

Yet another Alpha Phi Omega brother here! :)

Are any of you gonna give her some advice? LOL

will you focus your service to a particular cause / direction?

Gamma Sigma Sigma alumnae sister here. Are you looking for help with recruitment? Or overall visibility? Short answer is to wear letters everywhere. Advertise service projects in the school newspaper, on bulletin boards, tshirts, and chalkings. Hand out flyers. Ask people to volunteer even if they are not members.

With more specific questions, I might be able to offer more suggestions.

The collegiate service fraternities/sororities are pretty much:

Alpha Phi Omega, co-ed National Service Fraternity
Gamma Sigma Sigma, National Service Sorority
Omega Phi Alpha, National Service Sorority

While many general (or social) greek letter orgs do service, its not their primary purpose, thus they really can't call themselves service GLOs.


And yes, there are many members of APO, GSS, and OPA, some of whom are members of other GLOs.

Prehaps your chapter can see if there are chapters of the above groups on campus and work with them, instead of competing.

This is true but I just want to point out that service IS a primary purpose for the NPHC orgs in addition to Scholarship and Sister/Brotherhood. I believe that all the NPHC orgs are officially classified as both social and service. And since some of the service organizations have chapters that participate in step shows and other "social" activities/traditions common the NPHC, they can be viewed as social also.

Can we please not have this debate here? The original poster was not referring to NPHC organizations.

If service was a primary purpose of NPHC groups, they would be service GLOs. They are not. Legally, they are general/social.

This in NO WAY negates the importance of service in these groups. But service is the primary purpose of APO, GSS, and OPA, not the NPHC, NIC, NHC, etc groups.

There is no debate here. I'm simply stating the truth for those that may not be aware. And I can refer to anything I wish.

Actually, legally my org is classified as both social and service.

We have had this discussion time and time again and it gets OLD. You have not been here that long so you might not have known that.

So men can pledge your organization?

So tell us about ESA? What kinds of issues are you having on your campus, exactly? If you're trying to get more visibility, I'd go with doing service projects with other groups, getting involved in big campus initiatives, and always wearing your letters while you're doing those things. Personally, I think a nice chapter website is pretty good to have too.
:)

I know what you're getting at but I have seen the actual documentation before under certain articles; two that I can't remember right now. I think one of them is article 501.

Still waiting to hear what, specifically, the OP is asking for help with.

Yes, this is true. The difference is in the focus. With OPhiA, the Sorority exists for service, and our sisterhood comes from that. We cannot have our sisterhood without the service. With Delta, the Sorority is a sisterhood, and what we do is service. We cannot perform our service without the sisterhood. With both types of organizations, both service and sisterhood are extremely important, but that difference in focus makes one a service GLO and the other a social GLO.

No one is implying that by labeling some orgs one thing and others another than any of these labels are insults - they are, first and foremost, legal definitions for Title IX.

I love the way you explain things here...perfectly. But I know I have ran into far too many people who think Service is not a major priority for NPHC orgs; including those in other GLO's. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that many don't have any idea of our illustrious histories. So I was just making the point for those people.

Agreed - DSTRen, that was a GREAT post.

My mom was in ESA when I was a kid. She went to nursing school, so she was not in a collegiate sorority, but she enjoyed ESA membership for many years in her 20's and 30's. In fact, there were a couple of different chapters in our small rural area and it was quite popular. I think at least one chapter is still going strong.

I was not aware there were collegiate chapters--I hope there is somebody here who has experience and some advice for you. :)

me too.

She wants to know ways to make her group more visible on campus and get people to know what they're about.

Set up a booth in the student center and "quad". Invite people to service projects. Hell, invite yourselves to other people's projects also. Have someone write an article about your organization and what you all do.

As I posted before, easy ways to make your name known is to literally blanket the campus with your letters. Wear them, post them.

The bigger picture (I am guessing here) is that the org is not very large, and therefore, increasing numbers (and perhaps retention levels) are the overlying issues. If this is the case, there are a lot of things you can try.

If there are no other GLOs on campus, your role can be one of educator on what your org is, compared to what people "think" they know of GLOs in general.

If you are among social, Divine 9, and/or prof GLOs, you can focus on how you are different, WHY people might want to be part of your sisterhood, and then SHOW them. In this case, you are the marketer. BRAND AWARENESS is most important in either scenario.

There are dozens of quick things you can do, but you need to formulate your goals (more members, more participation from the campus, more service projects), then devise a multi-step plan on how to get there. Without a plan, you can't succeed, bc you won't know specificially what you are seeking.

So again, let's see if the OP can ask some questions or list specific challenges, and we can brainstorm? I am here to help.

If your org is a 501(c)(7), then you are most definately a social org by designation of the classification. If your org is a 501(c)(3), you have more leeway into declaring yourself a service org.

Hence the difference: For most NPHC orgs, service is A primary purpose. Whereas for orgs such as APO, GSS, OPA, ESA, etc., service is THE primary purpose. The difference is in the definitiveness of the nature of the org. For service GLOs, being classified as a service org is objective. For NPHC/NIC/NPC orgs, being classified as a service org is subjective.

For the record, Kappa Alpha Psi is officially classified as a social fraternity.

But let's be honest--most of us were not FOUNDED for the primary purpose of service, or have it in their original incorporation documents. Delta does. And even then we say what we are is a sisterhood, what we do is community service.

We are classified as social membership organizations, because we are 501(c)(7)s. That is why contributions to us are not tax-deductible, and our general operating funds can only come from members' dues. It is the (c)(7) designation that allows us to be selective in choosing members.

A (c)(3), which is classified as a charitable organization cannot impose such restricitions, because they are funded by tax-deductible public dollars.

This whole thing of all NPHC orgs jumping on the service bandwagon has evolved since I became a Delta. And very honestly, one of the reasons the NPHC did it was to combat the partying and hazing image.

Let's be clear that I am in no way disparaging other NPHC groups--I am glad that service has become one of their primary purposes. But let us not rewrite history.

Where did the OP go?

Where I went to college, the A-Phi-O chapter acted in many ways just like IFC fraternity (notice that I said IFC fraternity; the chapter has yet to admit any women as members).

I know of at least two men who didn't receive bids to APO, althought both were active in other organizations on campus.

APO *IS* a greek letter organization, and has many of the same characteristics of other greek letter organizations, such as pledging (with pledge requirements, etc), active requirements, rushing, wearing letters, etc.

SOME chapters do bidding. Overall, we try to be an open organization in terms of membership. So no GPA requirements, usually no minimums on recruiting numbers, etc. As chapters do have pledge programs with pledge requirments, those that do not meet those requirements will usually not get in. But our pledge programs are education programs, not elimination programs.


FWIW, APO is a 501(c)(3) organization.

Another item not brought up is Title IX, which had an effect on college organizations (Title IX is about discrimination on college campuses, and affects ANY college/university which may receive ANY federal funds.) Title IX had a BIG effect of college sports teams, as well as college groups. Groups could not discrimination on the basis of gender. *Social* GLOs were excluded, but non-social were not. APO, as a non-social WAS subject to Title IX, and this was one of the causes that lead us to going co-ed.

The NPHC groups may like to say they are 'social-service' GLOs, but per Title IX, they are squarely social. Again, as I said before this does not negate the fact that service is a big element of what they are.

Correct me if I am wrong, emb021, but a dozen or so APO chapters do not admit women as members

That is changing, per action of the 2006 National Convention.

Fortunately or unfortunately.

Be quite happy to.

When APO went co-ed in 1976, we left this up to each chapter to decide if they wanted to go co-ed. New chapter, however, had to be co-ed. Over time, we now have about a dozen or so chapter that are still all male. While at many schools we faced the very real threat of loosing chapters if we did not go co-ed, at several schools the administration were quite happy to allow our chapters to stay all-male. That's kind of the thing with Title IX. Somethings things are only an issue when people make them an issue. I've also been told that some groups had issues working with us because while we are co-ed nationaly, we still had those dozen or so all-male chapters.

HOWEVER, around 2004/2005, the National Board took a look a things, and felt that legally, we were not in compliance with our own governing documents, and that the remaining all-male chapters had to go co-ed. They worked to create a transition effort to help these chapter achieve this.

A lot of people were not happy about this. This was a big issue at our 2006 National Convention, the results were that YES, all the all-male chapters must go co-ed by our 2008 National Convention.