omega phi alpha
 

because we have some new posters who are members of omega phi alpha, an organization i am not familiar with, i decided to visit their national website. i thought you might be interested in what i found:

omega phi alpha is a service sorority founded in bowling green, ohio-one site says there are 12 chapters and one site says there are 16. they are proud of the fact that they have a multicultural membership, and that they have a "welcoming attitude."

the omega phi alpha website states that they are not a member of the national panhellenic council(their term, not mine) because"they impose restrictions on membership that conflict with their policies. in general, we have a problem with the way panhel rush is done on most campuses. cutting potential members on the basis of a 15 minute rush party-is that any way to choose your sisters?"

omega phi alpha feels that social sororities main emphasis is on fellowship, while their emphasis is on service. paraphrasing their words,"we(o phi a) have an ongoing committment to service, not just one or two big fundraisers per year. in addition to helping worthwhile charities raise money, omega phi alpha gets down in the trenches and gets their hand dirty on less glamorous service projects."

to the women of omega phi alpha, i was glad to become aware of your existance and to learn about your organization. however, who ever did the research on the national panhellenic CONFERENCE sororities did not do a thorough job and rough generalizations were repeatedly made. while npc sororities may hold one or two major fundraisers per year in support of their national philanthrophies, they are also donating time and money to local charities. my chapter at fsu has donated their time to the animal shelter: bathing the animals, cleaning the cages: they visit nursing homes and elementary schools, volunteer their time for campus events.support the other greeks in their fundraising efforts as well as non-greek organizations, to name a few. i am confident that every npc sorority member on gc could say the same about her own chapter.

i'll tell you something the npc sororities DO NOT do on their national websites; they do not slam other npc sororities or service sororities. they do not compare themselves to others. they state their strengths, but do not put others down. For an organization that professes to be so welcoming, it certainly is not reflected in your writings or your national website(www.omegaphialpha.org).

Very nice of you to post the information.

Welcome members of Omega Phi Alpha.

Maybe I'm blind, but I can't find any of that stuff about NPC - what page is it on?

Ditto what Sheila said. I'm not finding any of that info on their national web site. Their national website looks and sounds very professional.

ETA: I also suspect that none of the OPA members who are on GreekChat have any control over what IS on the national website, but may feel personally defensive about the comments made above. It might be more constructive to email the webmaster for the web site instead.

Re: omega phi alpha
 

I'm not sure who wrote the information on the national website, but I'm sure that she would like to know how you feel - especially since we have members who are in NPC, NPHC, and other sororities. I agree that the way much of this material is presented is argumentative and should be changed.

As for the "National Panhellenic Council" - my best guess is that what they are trying to talk about is that at individual schools we are not members of Panhellenic groups that govern (?) NPC and other related organizations. For example, at my school, the Panhellenic Council is the body that oversees the NPC sororities, plus Lambda Theta Alpha, Alpha Delta Chi, and the one local sorority. Omega Phi Alpha, because of our structure and principles, does not participate in this council.

ETA: For those who were asking - I finally found where the original post was referring to. If you go to "Start an OPA Chapter", then "How to Start an OPA Chapter" again, the things she is referring to seem to be there.

ETA: Sorry, actually, I still can't find the part about insulting others' service projects. Where is that?

I just read pretty much the entire site, but I couldn't find anything that was "slamming" other sororities or the NPC. I thought the site was very well organized and did a good job conveying the puporse of the sorority.

Here is the part of the website that talks about NPC...it's under the "Start a Chapter" part of the website.

I have to agree with FSU Zeta, those are not very kind words to NPC members.

I'm sure it was one person who wrote it and slipped through in the approvals process. I'm not going to judge all OPA's by that brief bit of text.

I agree, but regarding service, it does say: "And we recognize that social sororities do service projects, just like we do."

I took the stuff about getting dirty as a warning to girls who don't think they are going to have to do any work, not as saying that NPC girls don't do any work. But that may be because I'm in the organization - if it isn't clear, then it should definitely be changed.

I'm a recent new member to our national Web Development Committee... this isn't to say that I really have any control over what goes on the website. I will say that I designed the webpage you are referencing (about NPC, etc), and the content from that page comes from a manual that was written about six years ago. I'm not saying that that makes it any better (and it certainly doesn't), but it's outdated, and I apologize on behalf of OPA for anyone that it may have offended. I think the purpose was to contrast how OPA functions versus NPCs.

There are some chapters which have about 1/3-1/2 NPC membership. The purpose of OPA is to promote community service on a semester-long basis. A lot of girls who are in NPC and are also in OPA join because there is more of an emphasis on service. Our chapter completed seventeen service projects this semester (averages out to more than one per week). I think what the website's trying to say is that it's literally ALL we do. We have some fellowship on the side, but with that many projects, your main emphasis is service.

I will pass on what I've seen here to the committee, though; I agree that the words could come across harsh and should be rewritten.

I'm not a member of OPA, and do not claim to be an expert on them.

OPA is a National Service Sorority, just as APO is a National Service Fraternity. APO's rules do not allow for APO chapters to be members of local school's IFC and the like. Am sure for the same reason, OPA's chapters are not supposed to be members of their local school's NPC and the like. Because APO, OPA, and GSS are service, not social/general, GLOs, we are open to members of social/general GLOs and for our chapters to join local IFC/NPC groups, etc, this can cause problems.

APO happens to be a member of the Professional Fraternity Association. OPA is not a member of that group, nor any other council of GLOs.

The difference in the number of chapters may be a difference in the number established vs how many are active.

thank you alpha frog for linking the page that i was quoting. i am not computer gifted enough to do that.


it was very nice of the omega phi alpha member who is on the website committee to come on here and say that she will address my concerns with the committee. thank you.

i know this may be really random. but is there any relationship between Alpha Phi Omega and Omega Phi Alpha? I noticed that the colors were the same and Omega Phi Alpha is just Alpha Phi Omega backwards.

Both seem like really great organizations though. I just found the connections very interesting and wanted to know if it was on purpose or just by coincidence.

From the official national history of Omega Phi Alpha:

"In 1953, a group of men in Zeta Kappa chapter, Alpha Phi Omega, a National Service Fraternity, decided they were in need of another organization to help them with service projects on campus and in the city of Bowling Green, Ohio. These men met with the deans of the various departments of the University to decide whether or not another service fraternity would be advisable for Bowling Green State University. Then, an inquiry was made to see if any interest existed on campus. Many women attended this inquiry. Realizing the need for more varied projects, plans were made to reorganize a women's service sorority.

Since the objectives of the two organizations were to be the same - Friendship, Leadership, and Service - a similar name was chosen: Omega Phi Alpha."

:)