Toast Song

[KAPital PHINUst]

There are quite a few inconsistencies in Alpha Phi Omega, one of which is yes, the Story of the Founding. Over the years the wording has been altered to become more "politically correct", something I have always disagreed with.

Another little known fact about APO is that it was originally a Scouting-based fraternity with more byzantine/Masonic-esque elements (the original officer titles kinda leaned more toward that you would see in a "social" fraternities). I was told that the original initiation ritual was one that was totally different from the one we all know of.

APO did not officially become a "Service fraternity" until around 1940.

As for the Toast Song, I am somewhat disturbed that the music to our song is a generic-based tune. I was kinda shocked seeing the movie "The Tuskeegee Airmen" and hearing the air cadets sing a WWII fight song to the tune of our toast song.

I say if the Toast Song has to be changed, change the music, not the lyrics. Make the music to a melody/harmony that we can own the copyright to. While I know the song has tradition, we can never truly say that the song is our own. Just my opinion.

[naraht]

Originally Posted by KAPital PHINUst

There are quite a few inconsistencies in Alpha Phi Omega, one of which is yes, the Story of the Founding. Over the years the wording has been altered to become more "politically correct", something I have always disagreed with.

Another little known fact about APO is that it was originally a Scouting-based fraternity with more byzantine/Masonic-esque elements (the original officer titles kinda leaned more toward that you would see in a "social" fraternities). I was told that the original initiation ritual was one that was totally different from the one we all know of.

APO did not officially become a "Service fraternity" until around 1940.

As for the Toast Song, I am somewhat disturbed that the music to our song is a generic-based tune. I was kinda shocked seeing the movie "The Tuskeegee Airmen" and hearing the air cadets sing a WWII fight song to the tune of our toast song.

I say if the Toast Song has to be changed, change the music, not the lyrics. Make the music to a melody/harmony that we can own the copyright to. While I know the song has tradition, we can never truly say that the song is our own. Just my opinion.

I still want to check the story of the founding for changes, I believe that it has changed, but don't remember any changes to it at the conventions I attended.

The Mason-esqe elements were more or less removed during the 1930s, during HRBartle's first term. I doubt those would ever come back... As for the changes to the Ritual, I know there were some significant changes in the 1930s to the ritual, my guess is that alot of what changed was removal of Masonic Elements... I'd *love* to see our original ritual.

The official change to Service Fraternity was at the 1934 convention.

I agree that it is wierd to hear other lyrics to the tune of the toast song, but the ultimate wierdness is hearing the Drinking song that Francis Scott Key ended up putting the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner to.

[naraht]

[QUOTE=KAPital PHINUst;1532844]There are quite a few inconsistencies in Alpha Phi Omega, one of which is yes, the Story of the Founding. Over the years the wording has been altered to become more "politically correct", something I have always disagreed with.

(Yes, I know this is an old thread. But I finally had had access to the Torch and Trefoil image at the same time I was thinking about it.)

I compared the Story Behind the Founding as published in the October 1966 Torch & Trefoil (which is the one describing Frank Reed Horton's Funeral) with the one in the Current (2007-2008) Pledge Manual. I found about 20-25 changes, but none of their, IMO, represent a move toward political correctness.

The most significant of the changes are the deletion of section headings. They were "Post War Activity", "Influence of Scouting", "Organization Steps" and "A Phi O established" and were before the lines "After the War...", "The summer of my Junior...", "As a senior..." and "The Lafayette College faculty..." respectively. The sentence which ended "to worship on their own Sabbath in their own way" is now "to worship on his Sabbath in his own way". "Fourteen undergrads" was changed to "Fourteen undergraduates".

Other than that, all changes are even more minor falling into either the change of capitalization of the initial letter of the word, like Ensign or division, alteration of hyphens (court martial and bylaws for example) or commas. Also, originally, a new paragraph started after "magnetic mines".

Thought you all might find this interesting.

[Explicit]

Thanks for updating the thread! I'm always interested in the history of the Fraternity- The facebook group was a great idea!

And in keeping with the original topic of this thread, I'm a female brother at a chapter that is mostly female (we have 2 male brothers at the moment). Every single one of our brothers likes the toast song just the way it is, and we won't sing it any other way. I love being a brother of Alpha Phi Omega- there's no way I would have ever joined a sorority, I don't want to be a 'sister'!

In LFS,

Onnolee

[naraht]

Originally Posted by Explicit

Thanks for updating the thread! I'm always interested in the history of the Fraternity- The facebook group was a great idea!

I'm not currently on Facebook, I may have to join.

[emb021]

Originally Posted by Explicit

Thanks for updating the thread! I'm always interested in the history of the Fraternity- The facebook group was a great idea!

Thanks. I thought so too, which I why I created.

Sadly, we don't get many people engaging in any discussions in the group, which is the main reason I created it.

[naraht]

Originally Posted by Explicit

Thanks for updating the thread! I'm always interested in the history of the Fraternity- The facebook group was a great idea!

And in keeping with the original topic of this thread, I'm a female brother at a chapter that is mostly female (we have 2 male brothers at the moment). Every single one of our brothers likes the toast song just the way it is, and we won't sing it any other way. I love being a brother of Alpha Phi Omega- there's no way I would have ever joined a sorority, I don't want to be a 'sister'!

In LFS,

Onnolee

Your choice, but you should know that there are Alpha Phi Omega sisters. APO Philippines is divided by gender in its chapters at the school level and unified at the National Level. So the men are brothers of the Alpha Phi Omega Fraternity chapter, the women are sisters of the Alpha Phi Omega Sorority chapter and together they are members of Alpha Phi Omega International Collegiate Service Fraternity and Sorority. The fraternity and sorority chapters at each schoo do run business together.

See near the end of the "Changed the Name" thread at http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=46967 for more information.

[Explicit]

I'm definitely aware that we do have sisters in the Philippines. Though I don't look it, I have quite a large Filipino family, so I'm very interested in how we operate over there. I mean no disrespect to my Filipino Sisters, but the USA national organization is the one I joined; and I like being a Brother here. If I were to move to the Philippines, I'm not sure how I would feel about being a Sister there, but I don't think I would let that stop me from being involved.

As far as the Facebook group goes, I really do like it, but I don't discuss on there often because I quite honestly have nothing of value to say. I love learning about the history of APO, but I'm not really a historian, so I can't really clarify anything, or bring something to the table in that department. I'll try to get a little bit more involved though.

(And I'll learn how to do the quoting thing on here soon, so my replies will have better clarification ^_^)

[emb021]

Originally Posted by Explicit

As far as the Facebook group goes, I really do like it, but I don't discuss on there often because I quite honestly have nothing of value to say. I love learning about the history of APO, but I'm not really a historian, so I can't really clarify anything, or bring something to the table in that department. I'll try to get a little bit more involved though.

Well, part of the reason for the Facebook group was not that a bunch of 'experts' can come together and chat, but that Brothers with an interest in our history and who want to learn more (are prehaps unlearn stuff they've heard) can come and ask questions and get answers.