[15336] in APO-L
Open Membership - All Male Chapters, etc..
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (J. Busby)
Thu Nov 7 17:38:52 1996
Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 16:38:02 -0600
Reply-To: "J. Busby" <jcb2181@BASINLINK.COM>
From: "J. Busby" <jcb2181@BASINLINK.COM>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
You know I should save this post and use it again two years from now.
Oddly enough I made almost the exact same post I'm about to make now almost
two years ago to the day.
My speciality in this issue is recent history. Sepcifically, the
conventions of 1992, where the open membership policy was adopted and 1994.
In 1992 I was an undergraduate and I served on the Chpater Operations
Committee. For the unwashed, that means I was one of the eleven brothers
who molded the open membership legislation into the proposal that made it
to the floor. In 1994 I had the pleasure of being the Region 7 Alumni
Voting Delegate, so again I got to vote on these issues.
A VERY IMPORTANT point which is not being expressed is that when a Chapter
receives a charter there are TWO equal partners in the granting of that
charter. Either one of those partners has the power to influence the
operation of the chapter or terminate the chapter. These two partners are
the National Fraternity of Alpha Phi Omega, specifically the National
Convention, and the University where the Chapter is Chartered.
If you want to find out where all of the pressure is being exerted on the
National Fraternity to make these changes you don't have to look any
further than the administrative office of your respective universities.
The approval of the open membership policy in 1992, and the alternate
pledging standards, [see current legislation regarding Fraternity Education
Officer(s), etc.] was done to preserve embattled chapters and facilitate
extension efforts at Universities where non-honor society greek letter
organizations are objectional to the University's Administration. AT NO
TIME was this legislation viewed as a means to rid the Fraternity of it's
all male chapters.
In my humble opinion the promise to these chapters is as good in 1996 as it
was in 1976. If the University where an all male chapter is located is not
actively calling for that chapter to become co-ed to stay in good graces
with the Administration why should APO?
James Busby
Xi Delta Alumni,Texas A&M Universtiy
jcb2181@basinlink.com
P.S. I have more war storries to tell.. but I'll save them for the right
time.
