Multiple school chapters

naraht · #1 02-20-2008, 01:59 PM

I'm wondering in what ways Alpha Phi Omega could have chapters where students attending different accredited schools are in one chapter.

Alpha Phi Omega currently has *one*, even though the National by-laws don't seem to allow it. Phi chapter was chartered to both Syracuse University and SUNY-ESF I believe. However both Syracuse U and SUNY-ESF specifically allow students at both institutions to be full members (and officers, I think) of clubs at either University (club fees get a little goofy, but not much).

I'm thinking that in these cases, where the schools are that tightly tied together club-wise, we should be able to handle it. I'm just not sure how the National By-laws should be changed.

The question is if and how the fraternity should go beyond that. Extension membership is one method, where brothers at school B become part of the chapter at school A until such time as school B has a chapter. Multiple school chapters such as some of the NPHCs have represent another.

Explicit · #2 02-21-2008, 01:47 AM

Why did the fraternity choose to revoke extension membership in the first place? Was it not accomplishing what it was intended to accomplish?

I think extension membership in some form would be a great idea, especially for cases of Community or Junior Colleges. I currently work at a Community College, and it would be a wonderful thing to have a chapter there, but I know that with the high turnover rate it would be really difficult to keep it going and to even get it started. However, it would be nice if those students could affiliate with a nearby school, so those that are interested would have the opportunity to seek membership (I've had students come up and ask me about it).

If the goal of extension membership is to form a new chapter at the affiliated school though, I'm not sure it would be a positive thing for 2 year schools.

I do remember a conversation where APO was not looking to have chapters at 2 year schools,

emb021 · #3 02-21-2008, 12:21 PM

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Originally Posted by Explicit

Why did the fraternity choose to revoke extension membership in the first place? Was it not accomplishing what it was intended to accomplish?

I think extension membership in some form would be a great idea, especially for cases of Community or Junior Colleges. I currently work at a Community College, and it would be a wonderful thing to have a chapter there, but I know that with the high turnover rate it would be really difficult to keep it going and to even get it started. However, it would be nice if those students could affiliate with a nearby school, so those that are interested would have the opportunity to seek membership (I've had students come up and ask me about it).

If the goal of extension membership is to form a new chapter at the affiliated school though, I'm not sure it would be a positive thing for 2 year schools.

I do remember a conversation where APO was not looking to have chapters at 2 year schools,

The purpose of Extension membership was never to give students at a CC or JC membership in APO. It was always intended to 'jump-start' extension efforts at schools by getting a core of 5 Brothers who had joined thru a nearby school.

I don't know why some brought up the idea of dropping it or why they choose to. There were some who argued against dropping it. Extension Membership WAS working in Region 1, but no where else (or maybe never used anywhere else). Thus some may not have understood the value of it.

While not an expert in extension efforts, I can say that APO does not favor setting up chapters at 2 year schools, due to the issues of how long a student is there. I know in my area we only allowed a re-chartered effort to go forward at one school in part because it was now a 4 year school.

GMUAPhiOAdvisor · #4 02-23-2008, 12:30 AM

As a brother who joined under the "extension" category, let me tell you, it wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

When I first learned of that means of becoming a brother, the national by-laws were very unclear about the intentions of the category. From my very fuzzy memory, I remember it saying that it was intended to allow a person at an accredited college or university without a chapter to join a chapter at a near-by school. I remember calling the national office in 1995, asking specifically if I'd be allowed to join as my school, a 2-yr junior college, did not have a chapter. The one thing I remember about that phone call was how much the woman on the other end tried to discourage me from even trying. But, she did tell me, albeit begrudgingly, that it would take me going before the chapter I wanted to join and telling them why I wanted to become a brother there. It would then take a passing vote from the brotherhood for me to be allowed to even attend Rush. So, I contacted the chapter president, explained my situation, and was asked to come to a chapter meeting at the very beginning of the Fall semester of 1995 to present my case.

Now, I think my case was a little different. My plan was, the following year, to transfer to that University and I wanted to get to know people before I transfered. I didn't want to lose a year of the leadership, friendship and service opportunities I'd learned about from my (then) boyfriend, an alum of the Xi Zeta chapter at RIT who'd transfered to a school without a chapter and missed it so much, it was all he could talk about.

So, I went before the brotherhood, introduced myself, and made my case. Ten minutes later, I was welcomed with open arms and invited to rush that semester. I had an amazing time, and met some of the most wonderful people in the world. I absorbed the knowledge passed down to me by my pledge mistress (what we called her back then) and grew closer to the students at the chapter than I did to anyone I met at my juco, even teammates on the volleyball team or other members of student council. I spent more time on campus with my pledge brothers and the active brotherhood than I ever did at my own school. I studied side by side with the chapter, foregoing classmates at the school where I was registered. I jumped in with both feet, helping plan and pull off an amazing Regional conference at UGa, becoming an inter chapter liaison (a new position at the time) and performing every service project on the books. I went to every fellowship that was offered and was nicknamed "Turbo Pledge" for being so active. I thought it was the perfect situation and I was eager to continue what I'd started until I was able to transfer to the school I'd grown to love.I crashed in their dorm rooms almost as often as I went home to my own apartment. And after a wonderful pledging period, I was initiated into the chapter as a brother, and I couldn't have been happier.

So, this sounds wonderful, doesn't it? So what went wrong, you might be asking? A million different little things. And about as many not so little things. I first noticed that things were a little "off" when some of the brothers in my pledge class would hang out together and not ask me to join them. I didn't think too much of it, as I'd grown closer to some of the actives than I was to my pledge brothers and spent a great deal of time with them. When the new pledge class came in Spring semester, I was discouraged from taking a little brother, since I didn't live on campus and they thought it would be hard for me to fulfill the obligations of a big brother. Of course, I tried to dissuade them from thinking that way, but never-the-less, it was made clear that they thought it wasn't a good idea.

But what truly made me realize that I'd NEVER be looked at as anything other than an "extension" brother was when elections rolled around towards the end of the semester. Having been so active in so many things as a pledge, I ran for the position of Inter Chapter Liaison, noting my involvement with the Regional Conference, as well as the fact that I'd been to every ICL meeting during both the Fall and Spring semesters, successfully helping plan events with other schools throughout the year. I truly didn't expect anyone to run against me, as I'd been appointed to this new position by the chapter president and was the only person in the chapter who'd attended any meetings, though they were open to anyone in the brotherhood. But, a girl from my pledge class, whose name has long since escaped my memory, did run against me - and she won.

I couldn't believe it. I was heart-broken and wept openly on the shoulders of my brothers afterwards. When I asked people what went wrong, they told me in plain and simple terms that people weren't happy with the fact that I'd been initiated into the chapter under "different" terms than they had. They didn't like that I wasn't a student there and they wanted their chapter run by those who lived on campus and were registered students. Without naming names, I learned that my pledge brothers were the ones who brought up the fact that I wasn't, in their eyes, a real brother, because I wasn't a student there. I left after every chapter meeting, every fellowship, every service project. In their eyes, I was always leaving. They didn't care that my plan was to be a student there the next semester. In word and action, they made it clear I would never be one of them.

So, I left the chapter at the end of the semester (theirs, being a private school, ran on a different schedule than the state schools and finished almost a month earlier) and turned to friends in other chapters for support and comfort. One chapter president even went as far as to invite me to join HIS chapter, as the one I'd joined didn't seem to want me around. I talked it over with my friends in my initiated chapter and most of them seemed to agree that things wouldn't change, no matter my status at the university.
So, at the of the semester, I transfered to this new chapter. A week later, I was nominated for an exec position and two weeks later, I was part of the officer induction ceremony. The following week was the last of their school year and the chapter went to dinner and then back to the chapter "house" to celebrate the end of the year.

There, we were met by an alumna who had been serving the area as an advisor of sorts. She and I had become friendly, going to sporting events, out to dinner, etc as well as being close as brothers. As the chapter was celebrating, she asked me to come upstairs with the president of the chapter and discuss something. Once upstairs, she informed me that there had been a problem with my paperwork. I thought she was referring to my transfer between the chapters and I offered to fill the form out again. She said that it wasn't the transfer but my actual brotherhood status that was in question. She said she'd been called by the national office and told that I'd never been "approved" by them to become a brother at my initiating chapter and I wasn't, in fact, a brother at all. She told me that I would have to leave the chapter I'd transferred to, and return my badge, membership card and shingle. When I asked her why I'd received those items if I wasn't approved by the national office and she said it was because my name was in with a pledge class of 20 and they just filled out the forms and cards without double checking. It was my transfer form, she said, that caught their eye and made them stop and look twice. I never thought to ask her why she was telling me, not a member of the national council or someone from the national office. All I knew was that my world was crashing down.

Needless to say, I was devastated. Not only had my initiating chapter rejected me, but now the entire organization was turning its back on me. I didn't know what to do, but I felt like I'd lost my family. I wept for days, finally putting the fraternity out of my mind as best I could. I moved home that summer, and when I returned to Atlanta in August, I'd moved on with my life and forgot about Alpha Phi Omega. I went back to school, albeit at another than the one I'd planned to go to. After a couple of years, I realized that I was needed more back at home than I was wanted in GA. So I packed up and moved home for good. One afternoon, a few years later, I saw someone on the street, wearing A Phi O letters. After talking with that person briefly, they put me in touch with an alumni brother who was well versed in national by-laws and policies. I met with him for lunch, and he informed me that, under normal circumstances, it took a vote of a national convention to rescind membership in the fraternity but because of my "unique" category of membership, he wasn't sure what it meant for me. And once again, I put the fraternity out of my mind.

So, you might be asking, if you've made it this far in my post, how a person who thought she wasn't a brother gets to be the Advisory Chair of an active chapter. I'll tell you - a little thing called morbid curiosity. One day, last August, I made a call to the national office, wanting to know the truth about my membership in A Phi O. I was prepared, expecting really, to be told that no, I wasn't a member and thank-you-very-much-for-calling. But that wasn't to be the case. Judy, the lovely woman who answers the phone, tip-tapped away on her computer and there I was. and alum of my initiating chapter. I explained, in much briefer terms than this post, about my experiences and she made it clear to me that "mistakes" in sending out membership cards didn't happen; if I'd received them, I was a brother, plain and simple. Once again, I wept openly on the "shoulder" of a fraternity member and vowed to become involved again, in whatever capacity I could.

So, how do I, as an "extension" brother feel about the whole thing? I would NEVER wish this on anyone else. The experiences I had were some of the most devastating I've ever experienced in my life, and those who know me know I've been through a lot. I was, but am no longer, bitterly angry with the brother who told me I wasn't a member of the fraternity. I wanted to, but no longer want to, know her motives for telling me I wasn't a brother. Whatever her reasoning, here I am, 12 years later, more involved than ever. No, it's not the same as being an active brother, but I am 12 years older than I was, married and a mother....I'm in a different place, emotionally and otherwise, and I don't care to live like a 19 year old undergrad ever again.

I would like to see a way for the fraternity to expand its reach to schools without chapters and students there who might want to become brothers. How? I don't know. Community chapters where many students from different schools do service at each other's schools? Again, I don't know, but I'm sure there are other students who, like me, believe in what A Phi O stands for and want to be a part of it, despite their schools not having a chapter. And when the fraternity finds a way to do that, I'll be thrilled.....and worried. I would never want to see this happen again as it did to me.

emb021 · #5 02-25-2008, 05:41 PM

You whole story is tragic, and I really wonder who started that 'attack' on you back with your second chapter.

The person you later spoke to at the National Office is Judy Mitchell, our Director of Chapter Services. If there was ANY problem with your membership, she would most likely have been the person to have dealt with it. She was obviously not involved with that attempt to 'de-member' you, so have to wonder who was behind it. (I doubt anyone in the National Office...)

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the national by-laws were very unclear about the intentions of the category.

Oh? I figured it was pretty clear when I read it. Here is what it said in my copy of the 97 Nat Bylaws, when I joined: "In order to grant membership the chapter shall first obtain the written authorization of the National Membership & Extension Committee" (did your chapter do that? This MAY have been the basis for the claim you were never approved. HOWEVER, as you received a card/shingle, etc, you're a Brother. So unless someone was going to try to remove you from membership, its too late.). "Such authorization may be given for up to four students from an institution without a chapter. Upon the application of a fifth student for extension membership, these student must form a Petitioning Group at the institution without a chapter". Gee, sounds real clear to me that this is a means to jump start a chapter by getting 5 Brothers on that campus to form the nucleus of a chapter. Further, "Extension members shall have all rights and privileges and responsibilities of active members of the chapter until a chapter is established at their institution". Thus these Extension Members can't be treated like 'second class citizens' in their initating chapter.

GMUAPhiOAdvisor · #6 02-26-2008, 09:45 AM

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