seriously, after this thread, i don't care about knowing anything about black greek life organizations, they can be as secret and prestigious as they want to be. they aren't affecting my existance and we'll keep it that way.

jeff

Pi Alpha Phi brothers have been called Pineapples before. And yes, I was not going to say anything secret about my organization, even if he was serious. :D And it is possible to learn about the culture of NPHC Greeks without knowing their secrets. Some of my best friends are in NPHC Orgs, and I learn from them every day, obviously nothing secret though. :)

GOOD!!! :p

Some of you go from one extreme to the other.

CERTAIN members of NPC and NIC organizations are too open, in my opinion. I won't generalize that to the entire NPC and NIC. I do notice a trend and I don't know if that is about the members or about the organizations.

Even some NPHC members share information on public sites that violate their organizations' protocols. That is definitely about the members, as you have read from some of the posts in this thread.

Are the Lambdas, Pineapples, and you guys all the largest asian fraternities?

-Rudey

I actually have a question about this...

Specifically I understand that history and culture within HGBLOs shape their policies (as it does any org.), and I understand that by playing everything close to the chest and making those interested work for it does in effect guarantee that PNMs approaching the any HGBLO will be pretty determined and dedicated… I have to wonder how this policy works when an HGBLO enters into an environment where their presence isn’t established or even really known. Does the policy of non-disclosure (only term I could think of) see a relaxing when first entering a new campus, in order to educate the community about the org.?

I think that if groups in general have become more "open" it's in response to "what are you hiding" from admins, rushees and parents. Lots of them have NO CLUE and I mean NONE what NPC or NIC groups do.

(Giant generalization) The NPHC probably has less problems in that area because the majority of their prospective members have grown up with those groups as part of their community. They are seeing the good that gets done, so they figure if there are things that are kept secret, there must be a reason.

But I do agree, some of this depends on the individual. There seem to be people who confuse "living your ritual" with "disclosing your ritual."

Secrets allow you to hide beatings and hazing in a lot of cases too.

-Rudey

we have websites to refer interests to. if they want to know, ask a member and he/she will practice discretion in what is and what is not told.

I meant more in line with a campus community... such as when expanding into a campus that hasn't had a HGBLO presence (ever or for a long time) - so how is campus community educated, and how are PNM reached if they don't know about the org's precence on campus?

by people who are interested at the university. or by attending events held by the organization.

The largest Asian Interest Fraternity is Lambda Phi Epsilon, with 40 chapters. The next Largest would be us with 18 chapters.

I'll just comment on my experience. When I found Sigma Gamma Rho, our chapter was not active on my campus. After working with HQ, and finding a graduate chapter that would be willing to help us reactivate the chapter, we advertised our rush on campus. We used fliers all over campus and put fliers in all the dorms. Once we were inducted and reactivated the chapter, we were very busy having events, so that the campus could get to know us and Sigma Gamma Rho.

So were you more open with some information than say a well established or "mature" chapter?

I'm unsure what you mean by information. At our informational (which is open to everyone, including men) we give general information, which can be found on our website. We give a bit more information about the membership process at our rush, which is by invite only.

In my experience, all chapters give out the same information, because we all know what is and isn't acceptable. For example:
*Founders
*Founding history
*National programs
*Location of headquarters
*Number of members
*National and regional officers
*Chapters and locations
is all acceptable things to tell.