APO and a social sorority?
 

I'm currently in a social sorority and very interested in rushing APO once spring semeser starts up, especially since my term of being an officer is done. Do other people ever do both? Does it work out? The APO chapter at my school is competitive. Would already being in a social sorority hurt my chances of getting a bid? How do you see APO as being different from a social fraternity or sorority?

I'm not APO but this sounds off to me. Senusret or Naraht want to weigh in?

If the original poster would like to provide details privately, I would prefer it out of respect for the chapter. I think there is probably some mis-communication going on here.

I only know of one chapter outside of HBCU chapters which extend competitive bids, and that's because the chapter is so large that if they took everyone, there would be no place large enough on campus to have chapter meetings and initiations.

OP: I'm hoping that what you mean is out of 60 or 70 who showed up at the rush events, only 20 DECIDED to pledge. APO does not give bids in the way that NPC or NIC groups do.

At least 10 of my sisters are in Kappa and APO - it's definitely doable, at least at my school. Some even pledged both at the same time. I wouldn't recommend that because it takes a lot of time and energy to have a fulfilling pledge experience to two groups simultaneously, but it can work.

Several members of my chapter are/were members of social fraternities and sororities. It wasn't unusual at all.

Support to what's been said.
 

One of my APO chapter brothers when I was an undergrad was also in KKG.

Only advice on joining both Alpha Phi Omega and a social fraternity/sorority is not to pledge them in the same semester, but that's not a problem for you.

Offering only 20 bids out of 60-70 who express interest? I could see this happening with a chapter trying to rebuild which only had 15-25 brothers, but semester after semester?

(My personal feeling is that a chapter taking pledge classes every semester should be able to restrict the pledge class to no more than the size of the chapter, though if the chapter is smaller than 10, they should take at least 10, but if a chapter has that issue, talk to the section chair)

Being in a social sorority shouldn't be a problem, but having said that, most of us are still trying to figure out which chapter only gives 20 bids out of 60-70 interested, so information on which school will be very helpful.

People do both all the time. In the chapter I advise, there are about 15-20 people (out of around 275-300 brothers) who are also in various socials on campus. Some pledged both at the same time, but I wouldn't have recommended it. As the other posters, I'm more concerned about the extending of bids to 20 people out of 60-70 people. APO is not an organization in which you compete with others for membership; you should only be competing with yourself and whether or not you can live up to the challenge presented by the chapter. I'd be interested in knowing which school this is as well, but like Senusret, I'd prefer to hear over PM out of respect to the chapter which may not be aware what they are doing is against policy or there might be a miscommunication here.

Quoting because this is an awesome way to put it. :)

Yes, people do join APO and a social GLO. Most of our Founders were members of social GLO.

Some join APO after joining a social. Some join a social after joining APO.

APO is NOT a social. There are differences. Our Founders (please remember, they were mainly members of socials and understood them) felt that APO would fill a different need then socials: to do service and be better citizens and leaders by this service.

Many of the Brothers who are in both APO & a social do so because each fills different needs. No different then being members of different clubs to fill different needs for yourself. For instance, I joined Toastmasters to be a better speaker/presenter, I joined a parliamentarian club to learn more about parliamentary procedure. I joined these because they give me something that my other organizations did, and also because I joined them I can bring those skills into my other organizations (including APO). I've never understood the mindset of some social GLOers to can't seem to grasp the idea of being in several organizations at once. You do it because they met different needs.

The 14 founders in 1925 were 8 Sigma Alpha Epsilon (Gamma chapter) brothers, 5 Krescents (a local fraternity that nationally affiliated with Kappa Delta Rho in 1928 and became Rho chapter of KDR) and one Independent.

Lafayette has a pretty complete Fraternity/Sorority history at http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~library/sp...eeks/home.html