Without going full crazy and suggesting that our ritual be made public then, I am listing below some ideas that our Fraternity’s leadership and chapters of our fraternity could take to heart as ways to reduce the mystery (and the resulting public anxiety/resentment) around our fraternity in a way that would help more members and the general public understand what we are about – and how beautiful it all is.
I was at The Ohio State University working to re-establish a chapter of my fraternity in the spring of 2012. It was an interesting recruitment campaign as it was one of the rare instances where our entire team of five worked together to set up one chapter.
In our 2nd or 3rd week of the campaign, Woody Woodcock from Phired Up visited to offer coaching support to our team. Our recruiters were trained in part by Woody and his colleagues, and we had built a fraternal bond with one another over the course of our fall term – Phired Up staff would visit twice during each of our expansion campaigns.
Woody noticed some disorganization and distractions among the members of our team, so one evening he asked us to meet in one of our temporary apartments. We entered into a dark room, the only light coming from candles set on a table in the shape of our letters. The six of us stood around the table while Woody spoke. Some of what he said was written on a piece of paper, some of it may have been improvised, but the purpose of it was to reconnect us to why we were setting up a new chapter and the bond we all shared as fraternity men.
New members of Delta Sigma Phi memorize the Preamble to the Constitution prior to their initiation. Many forget it shortly thereafter, and few are required to or ever take time to analyze its meaning, which is strange; It explains the … Continued
The tenacity with which students and alumni hold on to the secrecy of our fraternity and sorority rituals is admirable. Truly admirable – and mostly successful.
It is unfortunate that fraternity men and women place an intense, dramatic focus on their secret rituals. We would be better people and organizations if we gave such care and attention to our members.