Alpha Phi Omega Totally Explained

Everything about Alpha Phi Omega totally explained

Alpha Phi Omega (commonly known as APO, but also ΑΦΩ, A-Phi-O and A-Phi-Q) is the largest collegiate fraternity in the United States, with chapters at over 350 campuses, an active membership of approximately 17,000 students, and over 350,000 alumni members. There are also 250 chapters in the Philippines and one in Australia.
Alpha Phi Omega is a co-ed service fraternity organized to provide community service, leadership development, and social opportunities for college students. Chapters range in size from a handful of active members to over two hundred active members, independent of each college's size.
The purpose of the fraternity is "to assemble college students in a national service fraternity in the fellowship of principles derived from the Scout Oath and Scout Law of the Boy Scouts of America; to develop leadership, to promote friendship, and to provide service to humanity; and to further the freedom that's our national, educational, and intellectual heritage."

Beginnings of an international fraternity

By 1950, Alpha Phi Omega had 227 chapters in the United States. The first chapter outside the US was organized in the Philippines that year. Many Filipinos were active in the Boy Scouts. Sol Levy, an APO member from Washington State University introduced the organization to Filipino Scouts. Librado Ureta, a graduate student at Far Eastern University in Manila, was among the audience. Inspired by Levy's words, he read the publications and shared them with fellow Eagle Scouts and students on the FEU campus. He asked their opinion about Brother Levy's desire and the response was good. On March 2, 1950, the Alpha Phi Omega International Service Fraternity was chartered on campus.
   Alpha Phi Omega grew rapidly in the Philippines. By its third year, seven chapters had been chartered at Manila and Visayan schools and it was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a nonstock, nonprofit, and nondividend corporation. Alpha Phi Omega (Phil.) Inc. was the first branch of the fraternity to be chartered outside the USA.
   The first step in paving the way for women to join Alpha Phi Omega was the Constitutional Convention in 1967, which removed the requirement that members have affiliation with the Boy Scouts of America. Allowing women members in 1976 reversed the continuing steep decline in membership of the Fraternity and started a growth cycle in the Fraternity.
   At the July 2005 National Board of Directors meeting a resolution was passed: "The actions of the 1976 and 1998 National Conventions have attempted to clarify the Fraternity’s open membership policy…The National Board is charged with…enforcing the membership policies of the Fraternity as well as ensuring compliance with applicable laws…and upon advice of legal counsel, all chapters must practice open membership without regard of gender". A decision by the 2006 National Convention on December 30, 2006, has essentially upheld the Board's previous resolution, adding additional clarifications to the transitional process for the all-male chapters, including a timeline for completion of their transition to co-educational status by the 2008 National Convention, and the establishment of a committee consisting of active members and alumni to assist with the process. In the spring of 2008, the Sigma Xi chapter at the University of Maine formally disassociated from the national fraternity, changing its name to Alpha Delta. They cited that their action was due to an "ideological split", claiming that the national fraternity allowed female members to join and took away the student-focus.
   As of February 2008, the all-male chapters at co-educational institutions in the United States are:

Sigma Xi, University of Maine

Sigma Pi, Prairie View A&M University

Tau Zeta, Texas Southern University

Phi Zeta, Fort Valley State University

Chi Nu, Grambling State University

Psi Delta, University of Maine at Machias

On December 30, 2006, the 2006 National Convention in Louisville, Kentucky elected the first female National President of the organization, Maggie Katz.

International Council

The International Council of Alpha Phi Omega (ICAPO) was created at the 1994 Dallas-Fort Worth Alpha Phi Omega (USA) national convention with the signing of the charter document. Meetings followed at the 1995 Alpha Phi Omega (Philippines) and the 1996 Phoenix Alpha Phi Omega - USA national convention. At the 1996 convention, a formal set of operating policies for the council was signed and the first officers were elected. ICAPO meetings now occur in conjunction with Alpha Phi Omega national conventions in the USA and the Philippines.

Programs

Typical fraternity projects include blood drives, tutoring, charity fundraising events, Scouting events, used book exchange, campus escort initiatives, and housing construction/rehabilitation. Signature projects are the annual National Service Week, in the first full week of November, and the National Spring Youth Service Day in April. Many of the operations of individual chapters are left to their own discretion, though most chapters have membership requirements which require a certain number of hours of service each semester.

APO LEADS

APO LEADS is a leadership development program organized by the national organization of Alpha Phi Omega in the United States. The APO LEADS program consists of five individual modular components of leadership development. Each of these modular components focus on skills that will help the participant be a successful leader and team member in Alpha Phi Omega and in life. The five components of APO LEADS are Launch, Explore, Achieve, Discover, and Serve. At the completion of the series of courses, the participant will have a set of transferable skills that are applicable to Alpha Phi Omega, to the working world, as well as to leadership in other organizations. APO LEADS has its roots in an earlier program, the Leadership Development Workshop (LDW). The LDW was an all day, eight hour leadership development course that was offered to members during the 1980s and 1990s. It was reorganized into the current APO LEADS program, which was rolled out in 2002.

National Service Week

In the US, Alpha Phi Omega organizes National Service Week (NSW), a project collaboration encompassing all chapters across the nation. The original concept of a "national service project" dates back to the 1948 national convention, in which delegates approved the rebuilding of the Scout Hut at Hallows Church in London after World War II. There were several other national service efforts outside of NSW, including a recent international book drive in 2001, in which chapters collected approximately 100,000 books for schools in the Philippines.
NSW began in 1987 as National Service Day, and later expanded to National Service Week in 1997 to allow for greater flexibility and increased participation while retaining the sense of unity of the original concept. NSW is always held during the first full week of November.

Organization

International

The International Council of Alpha Phi Omega (ICAPO) is the coordinating council of the Alpha Phi Omega National Organizations. During the 1980s, contact between Alpha Phi Omega (USA) and Alpha Phi Omega (Philippines) increased. National presidents Earle Herbert (USA) and Carlos "Caloy" Caliwara (Philippines) as well as other leaders in the two organizations concluded there was a need for an international coordinating body to promote the ideals of the fraternity around the world.
As stated in the charter of ICAPO:

United States

In the United States, Alpha Phi Omega is organized into five levels.

There are over 350 Chapters and a number of Alumni Associations. Each chapter has student brothers who perform service and elect their officers, as well as Faculty, Scouting, and Service Advisors drawn from the college and local communities. Each Chapter usually has a Sectional Representative appointed by the local Sectional Chair.

There are around sixty Sections consisting of geographically close chapters. Each is headed by a Sectional Chair who is elected to a one year term at each Section's annual Conference. Many Sectional Chairs have a group of volunteer Sectional Staff, usually consisting of alumni of various chapters.

There are eleven Regions consisting of geographically close sections and chapters. Each is headed by an elected Regional Director who is a member of the National Board, and heads a group of volunteer Regional Staff, usually consisting of alumni of various chapters. Each Director is elected by the chapters in that Region.

There is the National Board of Directors, comprising the elected National Officers, the Regional Directors, and others. These officers are elected at the biennial National Convention to two-year terms and include the National President, National Vice-President, six National Program Directors. Appointed officials include the International Relations Directors, National Archivist, Legal Counsel and others. Alpha Phi Omega has a National Office in Independence, MO. Here the employees run the Fraternity's day-to-day operations, including the National Executive Director and others.

The supreme authority is the National Convention, which meets every two years. It consists of one or two voting delegates from each chapter, one alumni voting delegate from each region, and all the members of the National Board of Directors. These voting delegates consider changes to the Fraternity's policies, Bylaws, and Articles of Incorporation for the National Board of Directors to handle between Conventions. All members of the Fraternity are invited to attend, to participate in leadership development seminars, service projects, and fellowship events.

Philippines

The national organization of Alpha Phi Omega in the Philippines maintains a four layer administrative structure:

Collegiate Chapters

Regional Development Directorates

National Executive Board

General Assembly

Membership

Alpha Phi Omega of the United States offers active membership (brotherhood) to be granted to all students enrolled at colleges and universities with active chapters of Alpha Phi Omega. Being a boy scout as a youth wasn't required. For example, Bill Clinton was a cub scout, but not a scout while growing up and was able to join Alpha Phi Omega as a student, and the bylaws also allowed for men to qualify by registering with their local council in positions such as merit badge counsellor or College Scouter Reserve

National Conventions

National conventions in Alpha Phi Omega are biennial gatherings of the respective national organization of the fraternity, in which official business is conducted and brothers from the various chapters in the organization meet to share ideas, expanding leadership, friendship, and service. In the very early years, decisions of the National Fraternity were conducted by mail. The first actual assembly of delegates in a convention was held in St. Louis, Missouri, on March 1-2, 1931. Seven of the fraternity's eighteen chapters were represented at this convention by a total of 23 students and advisors.
Convention attendance has grown considerably through the years. The largest convention attendance in the US to date has been 2,316 in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2002, and the largest number of chapters represented was 235 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2000. First published as the Lightbearer in February 1927 A version is published quarterly by the national organization of the United States, as well as a separate version by the national organization of the Republic of the Philippines. The Lightbearer has been published since 1966 as a separate daily publication during Alpha Phi Omega National Conventions, and distributed to convention attendees.

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