[16347] in APO-L
Re: Question about Post-chartering
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ellen Kranzer)
Mon Mar 3 22:43:18 1997
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 1997 22:39:05 -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 12:15 PM 3/3/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Does anyone have any clue what a group of men who wanted to charter a
>chapter of Alpha Phi Omega in the 1920's or 1930's were called? I know
>the "flame" pin dates only to the mid 1980s, and petitioners being
>members of the fraternity (like pledges) dates from about the same time I
>
>YiLFS
>Randy Finder
I don't know, but the term petitioners goes back to at least the mid-70s.
Prior to the late 80s, members of petitioning groups were not considered
members of Alpha Phi Omega. The reasoning I was exposed to ran something to
the effect -- these are people who we really don't know much about and don't
know much about us yet. Until they learn more about the fraternity and
whether or not they want to be part of APO and we want them as part of APO,
they shouldn't be members. Also, for legal liability reasons, a number of
the lawyers around were nervous about petitioners as members. In the case
of pledges, you have brothers right there on campus to education them about
the fraternity and presumably exert some control on what is done in the name
of APO. With petitioners, while there is staff supervision, it's not really
the same. A petitioning group could go out and do something problematic in
the name of APO long before the staff go wind of it. [none of this should
be construed to mean that I agree with the particular argument]
One outgrowth of the change to make petioning group members members of APO
was the formalization of the catagory interest group. A lot of the
education about what exactly APO is that now happens in the interest group
stage, used to happen after a group became a petitioning group.
Y.I.S.
Ellen c.c. Kranzer
AX Alum whose been around a while
