[21080] in APO-L
Re: [APO-L] Membership Policies
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rich Quodomine)
Wed Jul 26 20:12:36 2000
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Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 00:12:30 GMT
Reply-To: Rich Quodomine <satan_scores@HOTMAIL.COM>
From: Rich Quodomine <satan_scores@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
I had heretofore refrained from this debate, but I feel it is now time to
offer a perspective. Please listen, and make up your own minds, but I have
been working on this topic for some time, and I feel I have this to say:
1. All of the socio-demographic (Black/White, gay, atheiest, etc. etc.) and
organizational-affiliation (Scouts, Girl Guides, etc.) arguments are really
symptoms of a greater problem. We are not producing new members, and we are
not really growing in our current chapters. As per 1 report I have recieved
as a member of a national sub-committee, we are down an alarming number of
pledges, and retnetion, has, according to one estimate, averaged at 18
months (these are estimates, and I have to do some more verification,
admittedly). These numbers ought to alarm all of us.
2. Tradition, in and of itself, is no solution. Tradition becomes
anachronism at some point when its no longer useful. Nor is "throwing out
the baby with the bathwater", by dumping the old in favor of the new... an
attempt to try something, anything, to get out of a malaise. We must make
a positive, deliberate program that engages the real issue.
In my opinion, the real issue is that we often forget what diversity
inherently means: the bringing together of backgrounds and ideas to form a
group that honors them both, while remaining focused on a given set of
goals. Whether the goal is bring together many races for the purpose of
defeating racism, or many students for the purpose of service, the inherent
ideal is the same: the unity of those for a cause.
We, in many instances, forget what borught us together. The three cardinal
principles to which we pledge. Our means of achieving them are different,
and they will always be different. I cannot visualize APO the same as any
other brother; my educational, racial, socio-economic backgrounds are
different from anybody and everybody. What we have, in my opinion, lost, is
the inherent need to forget the minor details of ourselves, and develop the
ties that bind. Whether it is cliques, poor planning, lack of projects, or
whatever... we lose people because they do not have the snese of belonging.
It is both as simple and as complicated as that. It is my belief that only
a developed program, led with a push from national programming, but
chapter-centered, can change this fraternity as a whole. We need to
understand the fundamental principles of why all of us pledge APO, and to
develop methods, with application unique to each chapter, that generate
growth based upon those principles.
As to what that entails, I am not sure... but that may require some
fundamental re-examination of who we percieve we are vs. who we actually
are, and why we pledge APO.
-- Rich Quodomine
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