Section 52 Divided

[Sister Havana]

As of the end of last year, Section 52 is no longer. It has been divided into two sections: the north half of the state is now Section 31, and the southern half of the state (including my home chapter) is now Section 46.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand I can understand why it was done, but on the other hand...yeah, I'm sentimental!

(Both new sections will have combined sectional conferences, etc.)

[Senusret I]

Awwww.... Section 84 divided in 05, I believe. Or 04. It is now Section 85 (DC and vicinity) and Section 86 (Baltimore and the MD Boondocks).

Administratively, it's a good move. The section was expanding and needed to be better managed.

[Starofsorrow]

Section 42 was divided, as well. We're now Section 43 and 44, respectively. This happened back in the early 90s,I think. We still have combined sectional conferences, though, so it's not so bad. =)

No worries, it was probably just split up to make it easier on the adminstration! Note that the new sections will have a new sectional staff and whatnot, and can have a more of a personal relationship with the section chairs. =)

[naraht]

In two different ways this represents Sectional splits jumping the shark, one of which was more or less inevitable, the other much less so.

The National Fraternity will not re-use any sectional numbers that have been used before. The only section numbers greater than 40 that have not ever been used are 46, 60, 78, 87 (which may be created in Region II this year) and 93. 35-39 have never been used so, I'm not sure why they reached all the way down for 31. The fact is that the Section numbers when originally established after con-con (they used different numbers prior to con-con) were more tightly packed in the east and that is where the expansion turned out to be. For example the only numbers under 21 that have been used are 1,2,4,7,8,10, 13 and 14.

What wasn't inevitable was that this section would split at all. From everything I can find, the section just went up from 8 chapters to 9 last year and according to the current stuff on the National Website they have no PGs or IGs. (This may be a month or two old though). For a section the physical size of Indiana, I just don't understand why there was pressure to split unless it was from the fact that both of the other old sections in Region VI (48 & 54) had done so in the last two years. I

f Indiana were the size of Section 2 (San Diego, some of Los Angeles Metro, Arizona and Las Vegas), maybe splitting makes more sense, but Indiana end to end is less than six hours travel and the farthest apart chapters are more like four hours...

Maybe there are other reasons, but still doesn't seem quite right.

Randy

[Senusret I]

Am I the only one that finds section numbering confusing and arbitrary in the first place?

[Sister Havana]

No, you aren't.

[naraht]

I'll try to keep this brief, one of these days I'm going to write a research level paper (4 pages+) on the Organizational structure of Alpha Phi Omega.

The Post Constitutional Convention Number did make a great deal more sense than the numbering appears to today. The 1960s had seen Alpha Phi Omega go from State chairmen to a section based system that started on the west coast and used almost all the numbers up to 30 going from the west coast to the east. However just before con-con sections had started to split using both numbers out of sequence (above 30) and using A's and B's at the end of the section.

At Con-con, the decision was made to go to a four level system rather than a three level system (Including the RDs). The sections were renumbered from 1 through 99 leaving gaps for future expansion. They just ended up putting the larger gaps in the wrong place.

Here is as much as I have been able to figure out about the sections *as they were set up at Con-Con*. (Working *down* by regions). As best as I can tell, there was only *one* case where the sections overlapped between Regions and that was section 49.

Region X (Contains today's Regions X and XI)
Section 1 (Most of Los Angeles + points slightly north)
Section 2 (San Diego + Arizona)
Section 4 (Northern California + Hawaii + *all* of Nevada)
Section 7 (Montana, Northern Idaho & Eastern WA)
Section 8 (Oregon, Western WA & Alaska)
Section 14 (Utah and Southern Idaho (LDS heavy areas).

Region IX
Section 21 (Iowa)
Section 23 (Minn & Dakotas)
Section 26 (Nebraska) (I think it was in IX and moved early into VIII, still checking)
Section 27 (Wisconsin)

Region VIII
Section 30 (Colorado/Wyoming)
Section 32 (Oklahoma)
Section 33 (Arkansas)
Section 34 (Kansas)
Section 35 (Western Mo)
Section 49 (Eastern Mo & Southern IL) (Yes it is out of sequence, I'm not sure why)

Region VII
Section 40 (West TX + NM)
Section 41 (NE TX)
Section 42 (Southern TX)
Section 45 (Louisiana)

Region VI
Section 48 (IL other than southern)
Section 52 (Indiana)
Section 54 (Michigan)

Region V
Section 57 (Ohio)
Section 61 (WV)
Section 63 (Western PA)
Section 67 (KY in Eastern Timezone)

Region IV
Section 68 (TN in the Eastern Timezone)
Section 69 (Alabama)
Section 70 (Western KY &TN)
Section 71 (Mississippi)
Section 72 (GA)
Section 74 (FL)
Section 77 (SC)

Region III
Section 79 (Western NC)
Section 80 (Eastern NC)
Section 82 (VA)
Section 84 (DC & MD)

Region II
Section 88 (Eastern Upstate NY)
Section 89 (Western Upstate NY)
Section 90 (Central PA)
Section 91 (NE PA)
Section 92 (SE PA & Delaware)

Region I
Section 95 (New England)
Section 97 (NYC & Long Island)
Section 98 (Puerto Rico)
Section 99 (New Jersey)

[Senusret I]

That just gabe me a headache! LOL

I say we just get rid of the numbers and have letters.....

So in Region III, instead of sections 79, 80, 82, 84, it could be III-A, III-B, III-C, and III-D.

At least that way, we'd always know which region a section was in without having to look it up or ask.

What does everyone think about that? I would totally make that legislation for Boston.

[naraht]

Don't worry, I can post enough on this subject to get you up to Migraine.

Even today, with all they have changed, the only section numbers "out of place" are 31, 49 & 98. Not too bad.

And the biggest question is if NJ (now section 99), presumably then Section I-D, were to split, would the two halves be I-D&E or I-E&F?

Randy

[Senusret I]

LOL......

Well, if it were up to me, I would try to keep the letters sequential instead of skipping letters.

I have this thing with wholeness and symmetry and sequence.

[APO-WW]

Originally Posted by naraht

Don't worry, I can post enough on this subject to get you up to Migraine.

Even today, with all they have changed, the only section numbers "out of place" are 31, 49 & 98. Not too bad.

And the biggest question is if NJ (now section 99), presumably then Section I-D, were to split, would the two halves be I-D&E or I-E&F?

Randy

Split into what? Nu Theta, and everyone else? Just curious...

[naraht]

Originally Posted by APO-WW

Split into what? Nu Theta, and everyone else? Just curious...

Why Nu Theta? It isn't number of brothers. Theta Alpha @ Stevens is largest...

(This may actually be a geographical split, but I don't know). As far as I know NJ isn't large enough to split...

Randy

[emb021]

Regarding naming/number of sections.

This might help. The BSA is organized into Regions & Areas/Sections. They used to have 11 Regions (based on old banking regions, and during the 30s and 50s, we based our organization along those same regions), went to 6 in the 80s and more recently to 4. The 12 regions were numbered, but the 6 and 4 were named, and had appreviations. Currently its: Western (W), Central (C), Northeast (NE), and Southern (S).

Areas within Regions are numbered. There have been times when they've renumbered Areas, usually as part of changing the size of the Areas.

The Order of the Arrow is organized into Regions & Sections. MOST Sections match with an Area, but in some cases, due to the Area being too big, it may be divived into 2 Sections, designated with either N/S (North/South), A/B, or E/W (East West).

Areas and Sections ALWAYS include the Region. So my Area is S-4 (or S4), my Section is S4S (S4 South).

My Section USED to be SE1 and previously SE4. (back when my Region was Southeast.