[arvid1978]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I would NOT rush in a manner that attempts to attract these people. You end up with a chapter full of bitter anti-Greeks, and that's the last thing you want. Not just in APO, but any organization with a social component. It all depends what you mean by "turned off." "It's ok for others, it's just not my cup of tea" is one thing, "they are a bunch of stuck up a-holes and should all be disbanded" is another.

Then you're not recruiting with open membership in mind. Someone who thinks all greeks are stuck-up assholes wouldn't come to APO anyway, but a student who has no interest in the trappings of the social greek system for whatever reason (that's their business, not mine) deserves the right to be recruited in a manner that makes them comfortable. It is *our* job as brothers to bring them into the fold and make them comfortable, not expect they will match our ideal vision of a potential new member because they're down with greek life.

Using the torch logo is the fraternity's preferred way to market itself to outside entities (http://www.apo.org/site/site_files/style_guide.pdf) and to appeal to the largest cross-section of students. Nothing about it deters those who are seeking a Greek experience like ours, and it aids in attracting those who would normally never want anything to do with a social and don't know how we're different. Finding a way to appeal to all students is a best practice of chapters, and values-based recruitment is what we teach in the Membership Academy program. If your chapter has not been, then it is missing out on what is new and hot in growing and retaining chapters. I suggest you get to the nearest one next summer.

This fraternity has a very lofty membership goal to obtain by our 100th anniversary (something like 30k actives in 500 chapters by 2025). Chapters need to look at their programs and see how they can help contribute to meeting this.

I agree with my APO brother. Remember we are a Service Fraternity and our letters have meaning. APO are Latin letters that are used as a nick name for the Greek letters.

Nowhere is it being discounted that spelling out the Greek name of our fraternity means that we are taking away the meaning of our letters.