Wait, y'all didn't get the glow-in-the-dark paint for Bessie with your UPS shipment from nationals?

We did have to import a temporary gorilla from nationals one time....sheesh, the UPS shipping costs were outrageous. Our original gorilla escaped and was reported last seen working for some guy named P.J. for some movie 8 years ago.

Cool!

It hasn't been mentioned yet, but of course one of the hallmarks of Delta Upsilon is that its initiation ritual is public and can be read or attended by anyone. The same is true for Alpha Kappa Lambda, though they don't seem to advertise it as much as DU.

And while I think of it, I think Theta Chi has a number of open rituals, though initiation isn't one of them.

Theta Chi does have a number of open rituals, and I have discussed some of them with Theta Chi brothers. There are some rituals in Psi U that are marked as open in the Gold Book (our ritual book) but my chapter has always performed all of them as closed.

For SAI, pledging/initiation/installation would almost never work outside (I almost said "wouldn't" but I guess if a chapter used the ritual music CD, it might be possible, provided the outdoor area was so private that you could only enter it one, maaaaaybe two ways). Formal meeting opening could be, so long as the privacy could be maintained.

We do have some rituals that are open to the public—award presentations, memorials, and a couple others may be public. There's a very clearly defined list of which ceremonies are closed, and which are open, in the Fraternity's Chapter Procedures Manual.

Omega Phi Alpha's are a secret and I know my chapter has performed them outside, but in private areas.

We have had ours outside, albeit in a secluded area. Inside was just disastrous...160 girls in a small room was not pleasant needless to say. I love when we have legacies and their moms come to initiation. I think that's really cute.

SAI has a couple open ceremonies. The Founder's Day Ceremony and the Memorial Service Ceremony are open.

If memory serves me, those two are the only open ceremonies we have. Everything else - pledging, initiation, awards, senior commitment, etc. - requires the clasp and secret motto to enter.

When I joined, it was stated that they weren't secret, but I never saw any performed publicly; for a long time they were even available on the website without so much as a password protecting them.

Beta Sigma Phi rituals are private, but not secret. I have seen them held outdoors, including being there for my grand little's pledge ritual just this past summer!
Our chapter rituals (created by our chapter, for use by the chapter) are secret, but are held outside as per the ritual.

<threaddrift>There is one chapter at my school that used to hold two separate initiation ceremonies, a couple of days apart. New members were assigned (I believe alphabetically) to attend one ceremony or the other. So, for a couple of days, half the NM class was initiated and the other half wasn't... I'm guessing that that was the only way they could fit the sisters and initiates into the space and have enough room to do what they need to do.</threaddrift>

threaddrift, part 2: I bet a lot of GLOs possibly use large churches, if feasible. I've attended one Lambda Chi Ritual held at a church, not at a chapter house, and it was simply incredible.

To continue the highjack, from my understanding, it's pretty common for Acacia chapters to make use of Masonic Temples for rituals.

> it's pretty common for Acacia chapters to make use of Masonic Temples for rituals.

That's true. Also, some Masonic parks have outdoor "lodges" that work for the Acacia rituals.

The CPM lists most of the award ceremonies as being Open Ceremonies, but I also believe it's ultimately up to the chapter as to whether or not it's appropriate for non-members to attend. Lambda Psi's first Sword of Honor ceremony was done with only us in attendance, before a musicale, but the first province day I attended (before we were chartered) included the presentation of an award to one of Theta Beta's sisters, and we were allowed to be in the room. So I've seen it done both ways.

If my school doesn't open for expansion soon, we're going to have to do initiation in shifts. Pledge classes aren't that large but total is and it's getting hard to manage. I always wondered how the HUGE chapters (totals ~400, pledge classes ~150) did initiation. Shifts/different days makes sense.