[16043] in APO-L
Re: alumni membership definition
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ellen Kranzer)
Fri Jan 17 11:25:15 1997
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 11:19:54 -0500
Reply-To: Ellen Kranzer <ellen_kranzer@HARVARD.EDU>
From: Ellen Kranzer <ellen_kranzer@HARVARD.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
At 02:01 AM 1/17/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello everyone,
>
>During an executive board meeting of gamma pi chapter, U of Michigan, we
>were debating the definition of alumni membership. According to the
>national bylaws (as amended through the 1994 convention, not 1996) alumni
>membership is:
>
> Upon leaving their respective chapters without having been
> suspended or expelled by chapters or the National Fraternity,
> all who have held active, advisory, or honorary membership in a
> collegiate chapter shall be recognized as alumni members.
>
>We have a few quandaries:
>
> 1. we have in the past extended alumni membership *only* to those
> who have gratuated or disenrolled from the university. members who
> still attend the university yet are not *active* were not granted
> alumni status until they graduated. We thought that while members
> had the opportunity to be active and were not, their status should
> be inactive and not necessarily commuted to alumni.
> i am speaking specifically to the case where a member still attends
> the university as an undergraduate, no longer wishes to be an active
> (or inactive) part of the fraternity, yet desires the benefits of
> alumni membership.
"INACTIVE" isn't an status officially recognized by the National Bylaws, but
many chapters use that rather than alumni status for people who are still
students at the institution. The specific chapters I've dealt with haven't
given different 'priveleges' to alumni & inactives though so distinguishing
between the two states isn't that important, it's mostly the way they are
referred to. There's a certain implication in the language used that
someone who is inactive could choose to become active, while someone who is
an alumnus has basically moved on to a new status. (Not that someone can't
go from alumnus back to active if their status re: studenthood changes.)
> 2. We are a large chapter and could foresee a rush of long-gone
> inactive members desiring to be deemed alumni while still
> undergraduates at our school. This would be a great departure
> from our current policy. How should we deal witht his change?
You might want to look at what 'advantages' you are giving alumni that would
make people want to make this change.
> 3. Are we free to reinterpret (possibly in our bylaws?) the
> "Upon leaving their respective chapters" clause to suit the
> traditions of our chapter?
Yes.
Y.I.S.
c.c.
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