book club in APH
 

I am the Panhellenic delegate for my alumnae chapter. My chapter is brand new, less than a year old, this is our first exec board, we're getting our charter this summer.

I went to my first APH meeting last month. We edited a draft of our APH scholarship and we made Valentines for a local nursing home. Cool.

This month, we are having a "book club" discussion. This strikes me as kind of...odd. I was under the impression that an APH is mainly for Panhellenic service projects/leadership projects/rec writing/encouraging Greek membership etc. instead of something that doesn't really have anything to do with mobilizing our member groups. A book club, to me, seems social in nature, and rather, something appropriate for individual alumnae chapters. Not that I would go to a book club for my alumnae chapter, because analyzing and discussing literature is about as fun as going to the GYN in my book.

Maybe I just have no clue because I am new to the APH, but does this sound weird/pointless to anyone else?

Could they be using it as more of a team building event? Book clubs are usually fun and more social in nature. Maybe your group wants to incorporate fun events with business events?

I don't know that APHs need to be exclusively service/leadership oriented. So long as the book club is a social and not a required event, I see no problems with it. Hopefully you can choose to opt out if it's not your thing.

Sometimes the same people have been on APH for years and years and years and are as close, if not closer, to each other than they are their own sisters. If you've come into this kind of environment, that's probably where the book club idea is coming from.

Also, if the members are mostly retirees or have time on their hands, well, that too.

What if a book was suggested that wasn't literature, but was non-fiction, would discussing current events or historical events interest you more?

My mom's fraternal group does a book club meeting, but they do all kinds of random stuff so it doesn't surprise me that an APH might suggest it.

This must be it. With the exception of the DGs, I was the youngest by about 25 years. They are all 40-60, many retired, and I definitely got the vibe that most have been their chapters' delegates for a while. I'm just hoping I can scoot out before the discussion.

I was under the impression that some APh's are delegate based and others are more social in nature. Maybe yours is a bit of both?