^^^ Yeah, I understand what you were trying to do, especially given that the poster is presumably not a native-English speaker.

That said, he's asked for advice on an English-language board, so I'll assume he has some comfort with the language. My concern, I guess, was that he'd get the idea that fraternities and sororities just have "random" rituals -- "this would be a cool way to open a meeting," or "this would make a neat handshake/grip" -- instead of starting from the point of "what values/principles/ideas do we want to impart and preserve" and then asking "how do we pass those ideas along and reinforce them, and reinforce the bond between members through the way we initiate, open meetings, shake hands, etc."

Point taken and understood. I started off talking about rituals because he asked for feedback on the name of the fraternity, and I said that that type of thing is often "secret/ritual", and usually means something special to the members. And for many non-Greeks, the mystique of fraternities and sororities hovers around the secretiveness.

I just came at it from a different direction. I also noticed that he was looking for "a friendship-partying-positive-mad community, :-))))."... so I hope that I spent enough time on the importance of establishing ideals and finding others who embody those ideals, because shared ideals and experiences are what leads to the Bonding he appears to be seeking.

Perhaps the best way for someone to "recreate" a fraternal organizational system is not to "copy" the processes/specifics of the North American "way" of doing things, but rather to focus on determining the ideals, and bringing together people who embody and will live those ideals, according their own culture's norms. Otherwise, an understanding of how and why the Greek system developed is important.

thank you a lot!!! i'm very pleased when i see all of these comments and it means a lot to me... i had a search... HOW TO OPEN AN ORGANISATION IN SERBIA, and many things can be connected with greek system, and it's very useful. i think that founding a new type of fraternity in serbia is better then copying someones idea... don't u think? ;-)

i understood everything and aprischiate these posts... sorry if my english is not so good... u really helped me, and now i'm certain that i'll open a fraternity that will later be, (maybe) a type of national, with so called colonies... anyway, i have enough time to plan everything about this and i promise that i will show you what i've done... PROJECT CAN START!!! :-))))