Scene Depiction: Alpha Phi Omega

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.

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. 

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.