[KAPital PHINUst]

Originally Posted by emb021

The issue with selectivity comes up every so often. Do we want quality or quantity?

Here are some things to consider.

Do we want to only pledge those we think will be good APO members, or do we think that anyone can be a good apo member and its the purpose of our pledge program to turn them into good members?

How do we know that the people we select for pledgeship are really the 'good' choices? Prehaps by going thru the pledge program, one of the people you turned away might actually become a good member.

The issue I have with being selective is you never know who is the "good" or "bad" choice. Too often I've met people who I thought would be a great asset to APO, only to find out after they became a Brother that they never really got involved. And then there have been people who I wasn't to sure about turn around either during their pledgeship or soon after becoming a member and being a real asset.

Hope this helps

IMO, it is not so much for APO (or any org for that matter) to know who is the good or bad choice. It is for the candidate to convince the org via the fruits of their labor that they are a good choice.

Here is why I am so pro-selectivity: It is one of the key elements of what a fraternity is all about in its truest sense of the word as opposed to merely being a service club with elements of a fraternity. Exclusitivity helps gives a fraternity a sense of mystique about them and makes a person's membership in it more treasured and valued. I really think this is one of the reasons why Alpha Phi Omega isn't held in as high a regard on college campuses as it could be.

Alpha Phi Omega owes NOTHING to a candidate, and as long as the attitude within the org is that a candidate is entitled to membership once they express an interest in joining, the org will continue to suffer from one -and-done members (read: one meeting/service project and they're gone), high percentage of inactive chapters (currently slightly > 50%), and the campus perception that that APO is merely Circle K with a ritual.

Selectivity assesses one key thing out of three that's frequently ignored in APO, the first two keys being aptitude and attitude: FIT! If you don't fit, even though you're a brother, you will end up being a very alienated one. You can't force people to fit in where they simply don't.

APO always asserts that it is not a social fraternity, but ignores the fact that social dynamics is a critical element of brotherhood. Even though we are a service org, we are not robots. If we were, the issue of fit wouldn't be one, because it would be irrelevant. But there definately is a social dynamic that isn't addressed, at least not adequately because we think as long as we're doing service, that's all that matters. Fact is, that is simply not true.

I think implicitly, the understanding of the importance of selectivity was what kept the remaining all-male chapters all-male for so long. I heard that Delta Chapter is going co-ed. If this is true, I'm curious as to how it will affect the chapter in the long term.