Reaction to other GLO's

[MysticCat]

Dare I say it.... here we go again.

There are quite a few threads on this subject already, including this 180+ post long one:

Non-social GLOs...do you honestly consider us fellow Greeks?

[gamma_girl52]

I didn't feel like saying the same thing I always say, I just went back to the old thread...

At my school, Gamma Sig is cool with most of the greeks on campus. But it certainly wasn't like that in the beginning when I brought it on the campus. It was expected because we do have the lines, the calls, the handsigns, and nationally my sorority doesn't operate this way (only a few GSS chapters do). I knew going in that some people's eybrows would raise, and I was ready for the comments. However, we just did our service and respected the greeks on the campus, and we earned theirs in time.
We participate in certain events (not Greek Week) when invited and we also do the same with our events.

I think it just varies from campus to campus-there are greeks on my campus who can't understand why I have to say "We're not greek" in the traditional sense. So instead I say, "We just don't belong to a council, but we can still support".

Nationally, Gamma Sig cannot join ANY greek council on that respective campus UNLESS it's necessary for that chapter to function on that campus. Gamma Sig actually did seek to affiliate with PHC in the 60's, but decided not to because the sorority wanted to keep membership open to everyone, which they couldn't do because of Rush regulations/membership regulations.

I feel that even though I'm a "service" greek (IMO, everyone that's greek is just as committed to serving as I am), I'm still greek like everyone else. I take pride in my sorority and the things we do and have done for others, just like every other greek does.

And hey, if peeps want to laugh at or talk about my GSS jacket (which I wear ALL the time) behind my back, I can't be THAT pressed if they didn't give me to honor of saying how they feel about it to my face

[adpiucf]

Honestly, it never mattered to me if I saw someone from a service GLO or honor GLO wearing letters. That was the name of their organization.

I knew the difference between service Greeks, social Greeks and honor societies with Greek Letters. It really didn't make a difference to me-- our social Greeks at UCF often belong to service, preprofessional and/or honor Greek letter orgs.

[AchtungBaby80]

Where I went to college, the only "non-social" GLO members who wore anything like letter shirts were TBS members. I'm a member of Phi Upsilon Omicron, and we didn't wear stitched-on letters or anything...just t-shirts that had "Phi U" on them. I consider myself a member of only one Greek organization (Delta Zeta, of course) even though Phi U has Greek letters for its name.

[GammaGirl1219]

At my school we have GSS and the function pretty much just like social greeks. They even got in trouble for hazing awhile back i think. Though there is not a lot of negitivity towards them there is still some when it coumes to things like rush since they dont have quota and such. Also at my school it is all girls but im sure if i guy went out for it they would let him in. they wear letters and jackets and participate in greek week and our ifsc(i think). It just hard cause in many ways they are a "social" greek org but when it comes down to many regualtions they are exempt.Also alot of people on our campus dont do GSS and another org. Our profesional org's dont wear letters or anything and they are mainly for your major.

Kate

I know of a chapter of the Kappa Phi Club which is a part of their Panhellenic association. The problem: Kappa Phi is OPEN membership! Also, many sororities do not discriminate against religion. The Kappa Phi Club doesn't either, but I think it's best put when I tell people "if you're Budhist, you might feel uncomfortable about the constant Jesus references and praying." Anyway, I just can't imagine sisters of the Kappa Phi Club rejecting someone- it's not a part of who we are.

As for other service Greeks: I know plenty of APhiOs that wear letters- as do members of both the honors fraternity and the business fraternity. What I don't appreciate is that fact that our honors fraternity makes it a point to act social Greek- they interview you before you join and make sure you're a "right fit" fit their organization. I see a problem with this considering the fact that generally honors fraternities are only picky about their member selection when it comes to GPA.

By the way, Optimist Prime: I know a girl in the honors fraternity at my school who just joined Tri-Sigma. She used to wear her honors fraternity letters all the time. According to you she just became "cool enough" this past weekend at Bid Day.

[aoiikristi]

I pledged TBS right away when I was in school--I thought I would enjoy having fellow musicians as my "sisters" and had a very positive experience with this organization at another school (one that I visited as a senior in H.S.).
In the end, I was disappointed. It was definitely more of a service organization. Many of the women in it also were in one of the NPC groups on campus, and I think that all 4 NPC sororities on campus were represented in TBS, as well as a number of unaffiliated women--so it tended to be kind of cliquish. Even though we had letters that some wore occasionally, it really wasn't what I would consider to be a sisterhood.
I will say--I met some wonderful AOII's while in TBS! And, I also met some wonderful unaffiliated women in TBS that later became AOII's.

[WhirlwindTNX]

So can service groups like APO and GSS be in a council? It seems most are saying that they aren't like social greeks, but what if they have a desire to join a council? OR has this ever happened before? (responses from GSS and APO members would be greatly appreciated)

[33girl]

APO chapters are NOT PERMITTED by national rules to join a council. I don't know about GSS.

[TigerLilly]

I'm a member of Phi Sigma Pi (coed honor fraternity), and we do function somewhat as a social organization. We actually have a tripod of ideals: scholarship, leadership, and fellowship, which means that we focus on academic stuff, service, and of course social stuff. We have rush, bigs and littles, rituals, secret stuff, parties and formals, letter shirts, chapters all over the country, convention, and all that.

Originally posted by That1LoudChick
What I don't appreciate is that fact that our honors fraternity makes it a point to act social Greek- they interview you before you join and make sure you're a "right fit" fit their organization. I see a problem with this considering the fact that generally honors fraternities are only picky about their member selection when it comes to GPA.

You wouldn't be talking about Phi Sigma Pi, would you? (I know we have a chapter on your campus.) If so, they have good reasons to conduct their rush the way they do. We ideally take everyone who fits the GPA requirements and decides that they want to be a part of what we do, but we also impose limits on how many people we can take per semester. If a chapter has more interested rushees than open spots in that semester's initiate class, they have to have a rush process to decide who to invite to join. A large portion of our activities are more social in nature, and if you're not a "good fit" for the chapter, you're probably not going to enjoy hanging out with us, and will probably not be a very active brother. If we're picking and choosing between rushees, we do want the ones who fit in best with the chapter and will be active within the chapter. The chapter at your school may have that situation, where they have more interested people than spots to be filled and have to have some way of choosing.

As for how the traditional social GLOs feel about us on my campus, honestly I don't think many people know we exist. It doesn't help that my chapter is pretty small (~30 brothers). PSP isn't trying to be like a traditional social GLO (and there are people in my chapter who would violently protest if we were), we just go around doing our thing and letting them do theirs. We have a couple of people (including me) who are also members of social GLOs, and that works just fine.

[gamma_girl52]

Originally posted by WhirlwindTNX
So can service groups like APO and GSS be in a council? It seems most are saying that they aren't like social greeks, but what if they have a desire to join a council? OR has this ever happened before? (responses from GSS and APO members would be greatly appreciated)

Gamma Sig can't join NPC due to the fact that we are a non-selective sorority (so obviously due to the fact that there's Rush, we couldn't). My best guess is that if there were a Gamma Sig chapter that wanted to join a Greek Council it would have to be cleared by our HQ.

Now my Collegiate Chapter just joined MGC--and the reason they could was because the MGC bylaws don't interfere with our non-selective policy (our process didn't change). As an alumnae I was THRILLED to hear this...because when I was there, we really wanted to be a part of Greek Life and now, they have the means to do so. It doesn't interfere with the outstanding service they've been doing (sorry, gotta brag on the kids) AND it still allows for them to interact with Greeks more.

[preciousjeni]

Originally posted by WhirlwindTNX
So can service groups like APO and GSS be in a council? It seems most are saying that they aren't like social greeks, but what if they have a desire to join a council? OR has this ever happened before? (responses from GSS and APO members would be greatly appreciated)

GSS is on the MGC at Georgia State U.

[PhoenixAzul]

well, I am in Alpha Lambda Delta and Phi Eta Sigma honoraries. We all have ALD t-shirts that we wear with pride. We recieved pins as well, but I don't consider ALD or Phi Eta Sigma to be close to my heart. I wear my pins in professional situations, but then again, I always have my lavalier visable (always!). I know a couple of Delta Omicron people claim that they "are greek without having to be airheads"...yes, let the outrage begin!....or "I'm in a sorority without the hassle!".

[naraht]

Originally posted by 33girl
APO chapters are NOT PERMITTED by national rules to join a council. I don't know about GSS.

Not exactly.

From the National Standard Chapter Articles of Association.

ARTICLE XVI
POLICY ON ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP
This Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega shall not seek nor accept Membership in any association consisting
solely of social fraternities, except on approval of the National Board of Directors.


Which means theoretically that an APO chapter could join a Panhell or a council that had both fraternities or sororities in it.

What it generally means in practice is the following (according to my Regional Director) is that not counting APO there must be two organizations on the council where students could be members of both without causing either organization grief. So that for example if a standard IFC added Phi Beta Kappa, we could join as well.

YiLFS
Randy Finder

[WhirlwindTNX]

Thanks for the info guys. That cleared a lot of things up.