[15554] in APO-L
Re: a different topic
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (The Rogue Scholar)
Wed Nov 13 13:09:36 1996
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 11:34:07 -0600
Reply-To: The Rogue Scholar <macke@RICCI.WUSTL.EDU>
From: The Rogue Scholar <macke@RICCI.WUSTL.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
In-Reply-To: <199611131716.LAA16448@ricci.wustl.edu>
On Wed, 13 Nov 1996, Sara Beth Tanenbaum wrote:
> I wish to stimulate conversation on a different topic. I am
> curious as to what brothers around the country think of the amendment
> (#A-9) that would require all brothers at all chapters to complete 20
> hours of service per semester to remain actives in good standing. I don't
> believe anything like this has been proposed recently so I have no idea as
> to what people's opinion on this issue would be.
>
> YILFS,
> Sara Tanenbaum
> Advisor - Alpha Phi Chapter
> Washington University in St Louis
>
> PS To make communication easier, please proofread your posts. Thanks. :-)
>
I have mixed feelings on that one. Back at Alpha Chi, we didn't require
a set number of service hours at all. The service commitment was based
on the _number_ of projects attended (and it was more of a "spirit of the
law" rather than a "letter of the law" requirement). There were a number
of reasons for this. One, of course, is the simple fact that brothers at
MIT also have to worry about academics, and sometimes they just simply
are too busy academically to start counting hours. Also, there's the
issue of what counts as hours. For instance, does travel time count
toward service hours? There is a reasonable argument to say it does,
since it is part of the time commitment of going on the project. There
is also a reasonable argument that says it does not, since it is not time
actually spent doing service. These start making brotherhood
requirements more of a bookkeeping, nitpicky task. If I get only 19 hours,
am I less of a brother?
As far as I am concerned on issues such as this, where things are done
differently in every chapter; if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The
diversity of chapters and how they operate helps make APO great. Perhaps
some chapters have better ways of doing it. We can learn from them.
Perhaps our own circumstances in our local chapters make rules
dictated nationally difficult to follow, or inefficient.
Well, that's my 2 bits,
YiLFS,
---Bob Macke
AXcoAPO alum,
Alpha Phi active
