[19457] in APO-L
Membership Revocation
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mark Allen Stratton)
Fri Oct 23 00:49:56 1998
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 23:48:43 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Allen Stratton <mstratton@TRITIUM.NET>
From: Mark Allen Stratton <mstratton@TRITIUM.NET>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
Brothers,
After reading Brother Veholow's amendments and the subsequent debate
regarding membership revocations, I thought I would add a few comments.
Alpha Phi Omega, for whatever it is, is *not* a judicial organization.
When the NAtional Convention considers issues of membership revocation, it
is not determining the guilt or innocence of the brother in question. It
cannot, in fact, establish such a status because it is not legally
empowered to do so. Instead of finding a brother guilty of a criminal act
(or violation of civil law, for that matter) it only can find that a
brother is no longer deserving of membership in Alpha Phi Omega.
Convention Rules rely on Robert's Rules of Order, and that great work
(though it does have its shortcomings) says better than I the main reason
for expelling a member: in those cases when allowing the individual to
remain a member would prove injurious or detrimental to the society itself.
We must understand that, because we are not a judicial society, it is not
necessary for us to consider the guilt (as in a conviction) of the accused.
We only must ask and answer the following question: based on the
information collect, is allowing the accused to remain a member of Alpha
Phi Omega injurious or deterimental to the society? More likely than not,
the answer will be yes, but only if the information is so compelling.
I understand why Brother Vehlow submitted his amendments in this regard,
but they presume that at least 2/3 or more of the members gathered in
convention will act out of political or other irrelevant considerations,
and I believe that is not the case. To presume otherwise is to presume
that your own brothers are easily motivated by irrelevant concerns, and I
for one hold my brothers in higher regard.
We are not a court, we are not a judicial society, and we should not
pretend as if we are. To base our membership decisions on court action
that may not even occur (a brother might well have committed an act of
sexual assault, but many of those crimes are never reported, and there
fore, under Brother Vehlow's amendment, I believe the convention would be
powerless to act.)
The process that we have in place works fine, just as it is designed to.
Fraternally,
Mark Stratton
Section 52 Communications Chair
Delta Xi Alumnus
