Since all of my AoA friends have been out of town I've been working on putting stuff together for the fall semester for Alpha Phi Omega. For those of you that don't know, Alpha Phi Omega (APO) is a national co-ed service fraternity based on the principles of Leadership, Friendship, and Service. It sounds boring, but I promise it isn't. APO is probably the best decision I've made since coming to UGA.
I stumbled upon an APO banner advertising a service fraternity, ended up at a meeting, pledged, and fell in love. I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into in the beginning, but I've developed some of the best connections (both professional and personal) through APO that I could ask for. I have at least 20 people that I know I can call at any time and they'll be able to help me out. And I am actively giving back to the Athens community.
The principles of APO are pretty straightforward, and we try to keep them that way:
- Leadership -- There are a variety of different leadership positions you can take as soon as you start pledging. The pledge class has its own group of leaders including: President, VP Service, VP Fellowship, Secretary, and Historian. After being initiated there are these positions, and more, that are available. APO also offers classes, called LEADS courses, that help you to become a better leader. These courses identify everything from what it is to be a leader, what your leadership style is, how to improve your leadership, and so on. These courses are actually used in corporations all over the world and cost thousands of dollars per class, but we get them for free!
- Friendship -- Although we aren't a "social fraternity" we do plenty of fun stuff together. We usually hang out about 3 or 4 times a week (we call them fellowships) and we do things like watching tv shows, potlucks, bowling and kayaking, playing tennis, having competitions, formals, semi-formals, girls night in and boys night out-- just to name a few. Although our main purpose as a fraternity is to do community service, it's not very much fun if you don't like who you are with!
- Service -- ahh, the whole point of the group. Clearly we do a lot of community service, and we enjoy what we do! We have a variety of projects that we work on every semester including: Oasis tutoring, adopt a highway, working at the food bank, playing buncco at a retirement home, habitat for humanity, the humane society, Prevent Child Abuse Athens, Butterfly Dreams, and many other organizations in and around Athens. Not only do we work with these groups, but we're always looking to expand our network to new groups. We're constantly asking for suggestions from new members. If you can't find a project you like then you can let the VP of Service know, and they'll work with you to add something in.
Clearly this organization is very important to me. This past semester I was VP of Membership and during info meetings I stood up infront of rooms full of people and told them APO was the best decision I've ever made. They all looked at me like I was crazy -- until they pledged. In the spring of 2009 we initiated about 20 new brothers, and they all realized what I was talking about. Over the past year APO has more than tripled its number of active brothers. Obviously we are doing something right!
If you are interested in pledging APO or what to get some more information about what we do, check us out at: www.uga.edu/apo Or if you have a suggestion for a organization we should look into working with please leave a comment and let me know!