[21173] in APO-L
[APO-L] Fwd: Re: [APO-L] What is our Bread and Butter?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jason M. Jones)
Wed Sep 13 13:28:55 2000
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Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 17:28:48 GMT
Reply-To: "Jason M. Jones" <rainmain1925@HOTMAIL.COM>
From: "Jason M. Jones" <rainmain1925@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
>From: Sarahlynn Lester <splester@YAHOO.COM>
>Reply-To: Sarahlynn Lester <splester@YAHOO.COM>
>To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
>Subject: Re: [APO-L] What is our Bread and Butter?
>Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 21:48:28 -0700
>
>Lisa, I really enjoyed your post.
>
>Jaybee, I don't know the "history" of what you're talking about
>regarding Alumni membership, but here are my thoughts. First of all,
>I think that the fundamental purpose of our fraternity is (and always
>has been) to develop Leadership, Friendship, and Service in college
>students. I think that active membership does and should belong to
>students.
I agree too, but not EXCLUSIVELY for students. As you have seen, a lot of
alumni see Alpha Phi Omega from a vantage point that actives often do not
see until after graduation. A lot of that has to do with how the politics
and procedures of the Fraterntiy is put into play. Experience, in other
words. Very few brothers have or will possess the insight of an alumni
brother as an active unless you have a keen sense of "vision".
>>Alumni involvement is and should be important. And our most
>important roles are in helping to foster the development of
>leadership, friendship, and service in students. We should help them
>to enjoy the same experiences and learn the same skills we learned as
>student actives.
Agreed, but again, our involvement should not be limited to the above. We
should have some say, too.
>To this end, the various kinds of alumni involvement include (as I'm
>sure you know): Life Membership (one pays a small fee and receives
>fraternity mailings and newsletters perpuetually)
Uh, you can be a Life Member as an active. The only difference is that
alumni pays more of that "small fee" *grin*. To that effect, your last
statement was pointless.
>, Advisorship to a chapter, Sectional/Regional/National Staff (some of whom
>are on theconvention floor), or membership in a local Alumni >Association.
>Members of Alumni Associations get a voice on the >Convention floor (one
>representative from each Alumni chapter, I >believe).
>
>I don't think that the fraternity would benefit from changing its
>focus from being a fraternity for college students to being a
>fraternity for professionals to engage in business networking. There
>are many meaningful ways for alumni to be involved, but our job to to
>support. We had our day as actives.
Let me tell you something. I thought APO was a LIFETIME COMMITTMENT, not a
COLLEGE commitment. Why do we say "Alpha Phi Omega till the Day we die?" if
our involvement with the fraternity would decrease as the years went on? As
far as the networking goes, that is one of the fringe benefits of being in a
FRATERNITY, social, professional, or otherwise.
Personally, I feel that college graduates should be allowed to join an
alumni chapter if circumstances prohibited them from pledging as an
undergrad. I feel that the Fraternity is doing themselves a disservice by
barring prospectives in that manner and shooting themselves in the foot as
far as the membership rolls go.
Getting back to the jist of the initial post, though,I agree with Hayim.
We are more of a service club that happens to have Greek letters and a
secret ritual then a college fraternity. I really don't see what makes us
different from a social GLO except for the prohibition on joining an
inter-fraternal council and a more inclusive membership policy. As far as
the Black NPHC orgs go, ALL NINE of them proclaim to be service
organizations (as one of the criteria for joining one of them, you must have
demostrated a record of service to the community). In this day and age, to
say that Alpha Phi Omega is a service fraternity would be splitting hairs.
We need a new "edge" as we move into the 21st century, because frankly we
are becoming more of a Greek-letter Circle K than we are a collegiate
fraternal organization.
Just my two cents
Jumpy
>YiLFS,
>--Sarahlynn
>Alpha Phi Omega Alumna
>Section 49 Staff
>
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