AOII Programs

Social
Fall Brunch August-September
Founders Day Late January

Other Events
We plan diverse activities strategically located all over the Valley. All AOIIs are encouraged to initiate the social gathering of their choice. Other Events can include spouses, children, or family members and friends who are not AOIIs. Events are usually held in June, October, February and April.

Philantropy
Panda Presentation - We present Pandas to Valley Fire Department so they can comfort children in times of crisis. Arthritis Foundation - The Official Philantropy of our International Fraternity.

Outreach

Sister-2-Sister Program: We mentor, support and network with all Arizona AOIIs, Phoenix Alumnae, Tucson Alumnae and Theta Omega. Collegians who attend school outside of Arizona are encouraged to join us during their semester breaks.
Alumna-2-Alumna: Find out who shares your same interests, career advice, or lives in your area.

Alumna-2-Collegian: Be a mentor to an outstanding college woman who is majoring in your field; Or, just send them a note of encouragement or be a pen pal.

Communication: All AOIIs may receive invitations, calendar items, chapter updates and an electronic copy of our newsletter, Connections via email or through the website.

Information is only mailed to dues paying members who do not have computer access.

AOII Officers 2006-2008

Executive Board
President, Maggie Kipp
VP Membership, Laurie Baugh
Secretary, Alison Bachus
Treasurer, Audrey Stewart

Other Officers
MIF, Mary Michel
Keeper of Ritual, Nicole Proulx
Panhellenic Rep, Nicole Proulx

Panhellenic Alternate, Audrey Stewart
Philantropy, Laurie Baugh
Bylaws, Alison Bachus
Public Relations, Shara Forrister
Historian/Scrapbook, Amanda Lewis
Web Designer, Mignon A. Gould
Theta Omega Liaison, Cherylynn Henry
Convention Liaison, Bobra Doiron
Hospitality, Open

Social Captains
NE Valley, Heidi McFarlin
West Valley, Begga Akers
SE Valley, Chandra Whaley
East Valley, Amanda Lewis
Central Phoenix, Mary Michel

AOII Membership

Phoenix AOIIs are active and involved in the Valley of the Sun. Remember the excitement when you initiated into AOII? The alumnae chapter is equally rewarding and we invite you to rediscover AOII as an alumna. We encourage all alumnae to fill out the survey below and help us get to know you. Don't forget to include your birthday!

Or, if you're interested in joining our wonderful AOII sisterhood through our Alumnae Initiate Program, contact us.

Hear AOII Sisterhood Testimonies: Testimonials

Learn about our Alumnae Initiate Program Membership Benefits: We encourage all sisters to take advantage of the wonderful opportunities that alumnae involvement brings by joining or renewing your membership now. AOII International depends upon membership dues to educate and train alumnae in order to create both strong alumnae and collegiate chapters. In addition our alumnae chapter depends upon the financial support of its members to provide social and community events that bring sisters together from all over Arizona.

Dues for the 2005-2006 year are now being accepted. Dues are $40.

Checks should be payable to Alpha Omicron Pi and sent to:

Treasurer Audrey Stewart

2201 N. Comanche #1100

Chandler, Arizona 85224

AOII History

(Founders top left clockwise: Elizabeth Heywood Wyman, Helen St. Clair Mullan, Jessie Wallace Hughan and Stella George Stern Perry. Barnard Library)

The Founding Story

The following is the story of our founding from an excerpt of a letter by Stella written to the Ohio Valley Convention in 1939.

"We were exceedingly frank and merry, very much alive to enjoy the golden years we were living, vitally interested in every phase of our college life, and in the life around us, mentally inquisitive and ardently, enthusiastically devoted to one another, to our chosen group of friends, and to the class of '98.

Why...did we four choose...to make a new fraternity of our own - surely a...dangerous and difficult task? I will try to tell you.
In those days many of the evils still sometimes complained of in fraternity life... were distinctly obvious in the already existing societies. I do not mean to imply for a moment that they were known to be in all of them, or even that we believed them to exist in all. But they certainly were pretty general. And how to be sure?

We knew exactly what we wanted and the way to be sure of getting it was to make it, if we could. We wanted a society that should continue our companionship through life, and extend the like joys to others, usefully, unselfishly, and without pettiness.

We wanted to be sure of a democratic fraternity, democratic in choosing embers, democratic in internal government, so that all members to come must share our responsibility and feel bound to exercise for themselves the motives that impelled the founders.

We especially wanted no snobbery, no ostentation, no extravagance, no silly "superiorities", no trivial limitations, nothing based only on "society" in the narrow sense, nothing good excluded on financial, religious, or other factitious grounds, one with it's members chosen for character.

Above all, we wanted a high and active special purpose to justify existence, a simple devotion to some worthy end. Therefore, having decided to make that sort of fraternity if we could, we had also to decide, "What have we in our hearts to give that the world most lacks and most needs? And in what aspect of it is it most lacking and most needing?"

One of the first decisions we made was to have one emblem only and that a direct reminder of our essential purpose. We felt that synthetic coats of arms, shields, sub-mottoes, and what not...were undignified in comparison with one austere, though rich, badge. And we felt that, by avoiding this foolish conformity we could from the start indicate our determined simplicity. We wanted a badge that told us why we wore it.

Our first step in expansion, which made us "national" was the installation of the Pi Chapter in New Orleans. Pi chapter's ideals and reasons for the courageous course of joining a brand-new fraternity were the same as ours in founding it. Only three girls were pledged to begin the new chapter, of these, two were out of town during an epidemic, when the day of installation came only Katherine was initiated.

Thus Alpha Omicron Pi started with four members and became national through the installation of one. We are told, we believe, and we have proved that in that which makes our bond is promise certain of success. Let us follow our ensign devotedly, utterly and bravely. For our purpose cannot fail."

Stella G.S. Perry