Chapter Designations

[AChiOhSnap]

Originally Posted by MysticCat81

Phi Mu Alpha uses a chapter designation system that I haven't seen used by any other GLO, except (I think) Alpha Chi Omega. And I have no idea how or why we got started using it.

Our first 24 chapters have single-letter designations in Greek-alphabetical order, Alpha through Omega. (We do use Omega.) The next chapter after Omega was Alpha Beta, then Alpha Gamma, Alpha Delta and so on. Once we got to Alpha Omega, we went to Beta Gamma, Beta Delta, Beta Epsilon.... After Beta Omega came Gamma Delta, Gamma Epsilon, and ... well, you see the pattern. Only letters that come (alphabetically) after the first letter of the chapter designation were used for the second letter.

Using this method, we finally got around to only one "Psi ____" chapter: Psi Omega. We then went back to Beta and chartered Beta Alpha, then Gamma Alpha and Gamma Beta, then Delta Alpha, Delta Beta and Delta Gamma, and so on. The result is that the Beta Alpha chapter is significantly younger than the Beta Gamma chapter.

We never use double letter designations (Beta Beta, Gamma Gamma, Delta Delta, etc.) The one exception is Alpha Alpha, which is the designation for honorary members initiated by the national Fraternity.

Colonies bear the name of the state followed by a Greek letter, like "Alabama Alpha," unless the colony is a recharter. In the latter case, it uses the designation of the original charter.

You're right. AXO has this same method, although I think we're only on the "Kappa _____" chapters. We also don't have double letter chapters (i.e. Gamma Gamma). I wonder what we'll do when we get to the Psi chapter.... Anyway it's such an orderly and neat classification system, I love it. I would go crazy if we had the "New York Alpha, Beta, Gamma" system or "University of New Mexico's 'Upsilon Nu Mu' chapter" system.