are there any national groups that are not incorporated. like any that belong to a national umbrella. such as the nic, or npc? even nalfo, or nmgc?

All of the NALFO organizations are incorporated.

I'm almost positive that the same can be said for the NIC fraternities. Browse through the member organizations' sites if you want to double check - http://www.nicindy.org

I will say that we don't need to embellish. The history of how our orgs came to be and prosper amid the many obstacles into what they are today is quite impressive. Maybe you'll read about the "Divine Nine" (NPHC) one day in one of the books which are currently available. Maybe then you'll get why our emphasis on being incorporated is not silly.;)

I don't think most or even "a lot" of the NIC/NPC groups trace their heritage to "ancient" rituals. I know Kappa Sig does. I guess Chi-O does to some extent (correct me if I'm wrong). There are some groups that acknowledge their ties to freemasonry and you might call that "ancient". What other groups do though?

This has been discussed before, but I don't think any NIC/NPC GLO is a legitimate carry-down from some ancient ritual. Some may be reconstructions of ancient ritual, or more likely, inspired by ancient ritual. But not many claim to be the direct descendants of the former groups. Kappa Sig may be an exception - but I've always found those claims questionable, to be frank.

Most/many NPC sororities share *something* with BGLOs in that many of them were founded to extend Greek life to women, at a time when women were often barred from higher education and from social options at the colleges that would admit them. A lot of them were also founded to help other underserved groups (Jewish women, Catholic women, etc.). Thus a lot of NPC sororities very specifically emphasize the particular historical period in which they were founded to emphasize their ground-breaking nature for women. The point isn't that they were ancient but that they were innovative. Since BGLOs clearly serve an even more oppressed group, I would think that like NPC sororities they also emphasize the historical timing and significance of their organizations.

Unless I have been misinformed, the relationship of one of our founders (who was a Kappa Sigma initiate) was only to help us establish ourselves as a fraternity. However, our ritual is our own and unless a Chi O has seen Kappa Sig rituals, we do not trace our heritage to anything ancient. Perhaps my sister Nutbrn can enlighten us some more.

Or oldu.

welp...hijack....

I like this one better. :p

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...andom/Snap.gif

ehh, me too, but i was tryna switch it up...

Sigh.

Nutbrn, oldu, whatever. The point is that Nutbrn is a 28 yr Chi Omega alum, she would clearly be able to say whether or not Chi O has supposed "ancient" ties to our ritual. So regardless of whether or not Nutbrn is oldu or vice versa, she is a Chi O alum and therefore can answer the question. But then again, ANY Chi O can answer it. I merely asked for backup since I've only been a Chi O for a short amount of time and perhaps there are facts about my organization that I do not know about.

Oh snap all you want. I'm going to end this hijack because I was answering breathesgelatin's question.

Chick, it's YOUR ritual, you oughta know if it came from Minerva's left butt cheek or not!

Dude, I know my ritual. However, history behind supposed ties of our ritual to another fraternities' does not come included. Hence why I asked Nutbrn to answer. I do not think everyone knew EVERYTHING about their entire organization's history within a year of their initiation.

Hey chill. Anything secret would be in your ritual, anything un-secret would almost certainly be in your history/pledge manual or whatever you have. We're not doubting you, the "oh snap" was unrelated to you specifically.