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Alpha Phi Omega (APO, or ΑΦΩ or A-Phi-O) is a co-ed service fraternity organized to provide community service, leadership and social opportunities to college students. The fraternity exists in the United States and the Philippines. Unlike other fraternities, APO's primary purpose is to provide volunteer service within four areas: service to the community, service to the campus, service to the fraternity, and service to the nation as participating citizens. Being primarily a service organization, the fraternity restricts its chapters from maintaining fraternity houses to serve as residences for their members.

Alpha Phi Omega claims to be the largest fraternity. In the U.S., the fraternity has chapters at 350 colleges, a current active membership of approximately 17,000 and has over 300,000 alumni. Chapters range in size from just a handful of active members at some small colleges to over a hundred active members at larger institutions.

It was founded on December 16, 1925 at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania by Frank Reed Horton and a group of former Boy Scouts as a way to continue participating in the ideals of Scouting at the college level. The founders insisted that all those gaining membership must pledge to uphold the fraternity's three cardinal principles of Leadership, Friendship, and Service. The fraternity was opened to women in 1976. All members are called "Brothers".

Typical fraternity projects include blood drives, tutoring, charity fundraising events, Scouting events, and housing construction/rehabilitation. Much of the operations of individual chapters is left to their own discretion, though most chapters have membership requirements which require a certain number of hours of service each semester. Some chapters of APO claim to complete over 5,000 hours of community service in an academic year.

Before women were allowed to join APO a sorority, parallel in ideals but independent in structure, was formed for women who had been Camp Fire Girls or Girl Scouts: Omega Phi Alpha.

All Male Chapters vs. Co-ed Chapters

At the Alpha Phi Omega 1976 National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, the decision was made to formally welcome females as brothers of the fraternity. Although this had been happening at some chapters on an unofficial basis for a number of years, this constituted the first formal recognition from on the national level. As with many major changes, this one caused a great deal of concern, especially among older, established chapters.

In order to preserve the unity of the fraternity as a whole, a "gentleman's agreement" was crafted over the years following the 1976 National Convention that, informally, allows chapters that were all-male prior to the 1976 National Convention to remain all-male as long as their current charters remain in effect and they don't go inactive.

The chapters that are currently all-male are:

Famous Brothers

• Tim Allen (Gamma Phi), Actor and comedian
• H. Roe Bartle , mayor of Kansas City and namesake of the Kansas City Chiefs
• Bill Clinton (Mu Alpha), U.S. President
• Tom Daschle (Mu Sigma), U.S. Senator
• Mike Garrett (Alpha Kappa), 1966 Heisman Trophy winner
• James Lovell (Beta Theta), Apollo 13 astronaut
• Togo D. West, Jr., Secretary of Veteran's Affairs under Clinton

External link

• Alpha Phi Omega National website

Alpha Phi Omega in the Philippines

By the year 1950, Alpha Phi Omega (USA) already had 227 chapters from coast to coast. It reached the Philippine shores and found a new home in the archipelago of 7100 islands in the same year .

The Republic of the Philippines then was only four years old. The Boy Scout movement founded by LORD BADEN-POWELL in Great Britain was organized in the Philippines in 1923; in 1950, as now, many Filipinos where actively participating in the movement.

One evening that year, Scouters in Manila were invited to a conference with a certain SOL LEVY from Washington State, USA. Brother Levy expressed the desire to organize Alpha Phi Omega in the Philippines. He gave a short talk and distributed some copies of three APO publications: Questions and Answers, National Constitution and By-Laws and Ritual Rites and Ceremonies.

LIBRADO I. URETA, an Eagle Scout and a graduate student at Far Eastern University, Manila, was among the audience. Inspired by Brother 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 2 March 1950, Alpha Phi Omega International Service Fraternity was founded at Nicanor Reyes Sr. Hall, Room 214, FEU. The charter members were:

LIBRADO I. URETA IGNACIO J. SEVILLA SR. ROMEO Y. ATIENZA GUILLERMO R. PADOLINA GODOFREDO P. NERIC LEONARDO R. OSORIO RALPH G. HAWKINS ALFREDO DE LOS REVES BONIFACIO V. LAZCANO LAMBERTO T. DOMINNGUEZ MAX M. VELASCO

After early preparations, a petition for official status and copies of the publications were sent to the FEU administration. Few days after, the university recognized the organization.

Alpha Phi Omega grew rapidly and healthy in the Philippines; in its third year when seven chapters had been chartered on Manila and Visayan campuses, it was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a nonstock, nonprofit and nondividend corporation. Alpha Phi Omega (Phil.) Inc. was the first country to be chartered outside the USA. Although it is separate and independent from its mother country, it adheres to the cardinal principles designed by Brother Frank Reed Horton. The pin and revised coat-of-arms created by EVERETT W. PROBST, one of the original members, were adopted. However, the handclasp was patterned from the Boy Scouts' and not from that of THANE S. COOLEY.

Extracted from "The APO History" in "Alpha Phi Omega Torch and Trefoil" diamond jubilee program for the 13th National Biennial Convention, Boy Scouts of the Philippines, Mt. Makiling, Los Banos, Languna, Philippines, December 1985. First sentence and notes in brackets added by Brother Bill Wells, September 1993.

• Student Fraternities