Lifetime membership
 

When I was a senior in college, I received a pamphlet about paying an optional Lifetime Membership fee to APO headquarters. I was beyond busy and quite occupied with plans for graduation and my wedding in the summer, so I just put off paying the fee. Then, I decided not to bother because I had already made a lifelong pledge to the fraternity when I was initiated and the Lifetime Membership fee just seemed like a reason to ask for money. I felt like APO was already a big part of who I was/am, and paying some fee shouldn't make a difference.

But now I'm wondering.......
What was that fee all about? Am I no longer a brother of Alpha Phi Omega because I didn't pay? I dedicated so much of my time and my heart to this honorable fraterity, and I would be sad to have lost my affliation with it and its values.

Any thoughts?

Lifetime membership
 

Once intiated, you will ALWAYS be a brother of Alpha Phi Omega. By becoming a life member, you will receive a lifetime subscription to the Torch and Trefoil.

Re: Lifetime membership
 

Also as a Life Member you receive a Life Member pin, a Life Member card and certificate.

The money you pay for your Life Membership goes into the Fraternities endowment. This helps the National Organization. Where do you think the money comes from to pay for the National Office, the National staff, the publications the chapters get for free, etc.

Yes, you made a lifelong pledge to the Fraternity, and being a Life Member is a way of showing this. This is part of the reason why the Brothers asked for Life Membership to be established back in the 30s.

Furthermore, many help the Fraternity beyond being a Life Member by making a donation to the Fraternity as a Torchbearer.

I am a Life Member, and have made Torchbearer donations for the last 4 years. I also get matching funds from my employer.

thanks and another question
 

Thank you for the information. My chapter always seemed to be poorly informed on National matters. In fact, when I was a junior, I was told that NONE of the paperwork for my pledge class had ever been filed with Headquarters, so we weren't actually Brothers (33 of us!). Fortunately, that was cleared up, but after that, I started to realized how "out of the loop" we were. When the Lifetime Membership thing came along, I just didn't give it much thought.

Is it possible to pay this Membership fee after graduating? I would love to help out our Fraternity in this way.

Sincerely,
Erica

Re: thanks and another question
 

Sure! You can pay for Life Membership at any time after becoming a Brother.

Its $50 for students and up to a year after graduation, then goes to $100. Soooo, its a great idea to try to get it early on. If you got to National Convention, they usually have a special deal on LM at the Convention. (hint, hint).

Many Sections and Regions have set goals to increase Life Membership. Its pretty sad that out of 300,000+ Brothers, only 20,000+ are Life Members. That's not even 10%.

In my chapter we make sure our members know about Life Membership. We give each Pledge a Life Member brochure in their Pledge Books and tell them about it. We understand that most might not have the money, but maybe they could get their parents to get them LM as a xmas gift or the like. Also, we have a "Brother of the Year" Award in our chapter, and any who get it are made Life Members.

Hope this helps.

On the outside looking in...
 

Man, I wish Life Membership in my organization was only $50-$100. Life Membership in Phi Beta Sigma is $1,200 and most NPHC organizations have it set around that amount or higher. I made a lifelong committment to Sigma as well, but as far as the NPHC goes you are not a "Life Member" unless you make that financial contribution. I'll do it someday, but it will take some time and planning.

APO - the cheap frat?
 

Between $4 pins, $15 annual dues and $50-$100 life members is there anything where we aren't the "cheap frat"?

Randy

Re: On the outside looking in...
 

LB1914, what are some of the benefits of being a "Life Member" in Phi Beta Sigma? I've heard that in some organizations, Life Members get special seating at banquets and whatnot.

Maybe if APO offered more than a pin, shingle, and newsletter, we could get more life members. It is difficult getting young people to understand fundraising and development. Not saying there is much more we CAN offer, but you know.

There are Life Member luncheons or what have you at conventions, but other than that the only benefits I can think of off the top of my head are not having to pay National dues(you still have to pay Regional and State dues). From what I have seen being a Life Member doesn't really put you in a different position than the rest of the organization. I do not know any LMs personally that are under 30 and the LMs that I have met are older. In most cases, they are older and have been in their careers for many years. Therefore, shelling out $1,000+ is no big deal to them. My mother has a friend that is a Life Member of Delta Sigma Theta who did it back in the day when it was much cheaper. Overall, I do not see any real "benefits" outside of the title and bragging rights. However, I would still want to do it someday. It is not something that all members of NPHC organizations aspire to, especially with the costs involved. In that aspect, I guess a lot of us have the same mentality that some APOs have towards it(I would expect more than a pin, shingle, and newsletter also if one is talking about Life Membership). I believe in AKA you have to be a member for 25 years before you can even consider being a Life Member. It kind of varies from group to group, but the "benefits" are pretty much the same from all-around from what I've seen.

Re: Re: On the outside looking in...
 

There ARE other benefits of Life Membership. APO has worked out several discount deals with several companies. These are listed under the Alumni pages of the National website. I think also LM get better deals at Convention that regular Alumni.

Well, the alumni pages won't load right now.

The deals that you are speaking about, well, I was pretty sure that they were for all alumni, but I could be wrong. And I registered for convention and got no break on my registration cost.

The thing about Alpha Phi Omega is that our national alumni structure could be much stronger. The difference between us, and say Phi Beta Sigma, is that they have an extremely active alumni network. Their alumni/graduate chapters are encouraged to have their own programs of service and fellowship. They also pay chapter and national dues. Their life membership (though expensive) does offer the benefit of NEVER having to pay national dues again.

APO is nowhere near that structure. APO is over 75 years old. Our alumni network should be as strong as any other civic organization, such as the Kiwanis or Jaycees.

In order for people to see the benefit of becoming a life member and making the relatively small financial contribution to APO, we need to be presenting them with an active and extensive alumni network. There's no reason that their can't be an active alumni association in every major urban area in the United States. If people actually SEE that the committment doesn't stop at graduation, that could encourage them to become life members.

And I'm not going to put the blame on the students. If all the alumni involvement they saw as undergrads was in the form of section staff and advisors, I might not be active, either. We shouldn't expect each of our recent alums to jump into staff with both feet. Hell, I've been on staff, and it ain't fun.

And YES, I plan on doing something about all of that.

I have to agree with your accessment of APO's so-called "National Alumni Association". I don't have much experience with Alumni Associations other then my universities. Ours needs to be more organized then it currently is, and work on getting more local area alumni associations setup in major metro areas, as you said. This is one of the reasons I've been working with other area alumni to setup such a group in the South Florida area.

Check out the proposed legislation for this National Convention. There seems to be some good ones to fix some of the problems with the NAA.

The legislation is out? Oh boy! Unless it is online, I probably won't see it unless I visit my undergrad chapter this week.

EDITED TO ADD:

Well, I just found the National Legislation! I must admit that aside from my own proposal (hardy har har) my favorite one is the National History and Archive Committee proposal. GOOD JOB!

thanks. That was kind of a last minute brain storm. the idea ties in with others proposal to get out a new History book, which I also agree with. I hope it passes.

For those not aware, all the non-secret (ie ritual related) legislation is available on-line at convention.apo.org. I've looked over the ritual related stuff. Most deals with cleanup in terms of directions and the like, not in any major changes IMO.

NH&A Committee
 

I want to be the Region III rep!

Randy