I had originally heard about
APO through a couple of my friends that were involved in it, so when I heard
that we were doing this scene depiction essay I thought that this was a great time
to check it out and see what APO was really about. APO stands for Alpha Phi
Omega and it is a coed service fraternity that is open to anyone who wants to
join. When most people think of sororities and fraternities they think of the
main social ones, but there are also many other service and business fraternities
on campus as well. I am in a sorority myself and I honestly didn’t know what to
expect when it came to some of the other service and business fraternities on
campus, because of this, I thought that this was a great time to go and check
out APO.
The meeting that I
decided to go to for APO was open to anyone and it was an information meeting
for anyone who was interested in potentially joining. The fact that anyone
could go to this meeting and that they were pretty easy to get ahold of made
contacting this group much easier. The meeting was held in the student center in
room 230. It was a pretty large room, not one of the small classrooms but a bigger
lecture type room. The room was filled with row after row of chairs all lined
up facing the front of the room. The front of the room had a big projection
screen on the wall, a long table and a podium.
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| Taken from the UK Alpha Phi Omega twitter page |
When I first
walked in, people were just kind of milling around mingling and talking to one
another. The room was pretty large and there were a good amount of people in it,
I’d say it was about half full. The back of the room had windows all along the
back wall which added to its inviting and friendly atmosphere. I made my way towards
one of the seats in the back so I could take it all in. When the meeting came
to a start there was a guy and a girl, the president and vice president,
standing in front who started leading it. At the beginning of the meeting they welcomed
everyone and started talking a little bit about the fraternity, what they stood
for, what all they were involved in, and a brief description of the history. They
told us about how APO is the largest coed service fraternity in the world and is
not only at UK’s campus but a national organization with many other chapters
across the US. They also said that Alpha Phi Omega was first chartered at UK in
1934 and went inactive for a little bit and then was rechartered in 1993. Next,
they went into some of the events that APO is involved in both on and off
campus. They talked about how APO will have a group of people participating in
the upcoming Dance Blue marathon and also talked about some other different
things that they had coming up such as after school tutoring and volunteering
at God’s pantry. From looking at their schedule of upcoming events it looked
like they have something going on for you to do just about every day of the
week. Throughout the meeting they also had a power point going the whole time for
people to look at. The power point had pictures on it and just explained what they
were saying about the group’s history and what all they were involved in. It
also had a section that went through all the people who had leadership positions
in the chapter with their pictures and a brief description about them. As they
went through each person they stopped to point some of them out in the crowd if
they were there. There were kind of a wide variety of people at this meeting
and I would say a pretty wide variety of people in APO in general but everyone there
was really friendly to each other. Throughout the meeting people were mostly
just quiet and listening in their seats but occasionally people would laugh or
they would introduce someone from the crowd and you could tell just by the
comrodery of the group as a whole that this was a pretty tight and fun group. Although
people were quiet and respectful while they were up talking I would say that just
by how the speakers presented the meeting that it was a pretty relaxed and
friendly atmosphere. They made me and anyone else that was new immediately feel
welcome. As the meeting progressed they also went into detail about all of the
different things that were required for membership. There was a list of things
you had to do including going to a meeting, a couple of service events, and
there was also an $80 fee that you had to pay in order to join. Finally, they
talked about all of the benefits of joining APO such as the friends they’ve
made, all the events there are to get involved with and the benefit you feel
from helping the community.
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| Taken from the UK APO website- http://www.apoonline.org/alphazeta/ |
As the meeting
started to come to an end they announced that there were cookies and drinks in
the back for anyone that wanted some and there was also a display board in the
back with pictures of different things that the group had done. The display was
a trifold presentation board with pictures and descriptions on it and then they
also had some pamphlets and things sitting on the table. After the meeting, people still stood around
talking to each other and I think this really says something about how close
this group is. I made my way to the back to grab a cookie and drink and took a
minute to look at the display of different things they have done. I eventually
made my way out the door but there were many people still inside chatting when
I left.
