DGMarie- A secret society with so many interesting traditions and rituals does appeal to me. I like mysteries of that sort. It was simply thrilling to run into some of my A Phi O brothers at my job and do the secret handshake with the. It is a unique bond. Plus there are also friendships to be made, and charitable causes to be assisted, and many other events that can certainly be a great experience.

Adpiucf- well, in addition to the philanthropies and ideals espoused in their creeds, there are other aspects such as the information displayed on the site and the way it is done. And sometimes your intuition just gives a signal. Or sometimes you remember people in a chapter being nice to you and you have the memories.

AUDeltaGam- I sure did not! I do not remember how I found out about AI- just the feeling of an airplane soaring into the sky that I got when I read that it existed.

EE-BO- you bet I have given it serious thought. Hence I have posted here to learn more about it- as well as read many GLO websites, asked people at my job whether they were in sororities (so far nobody has), and done as much investigation as I can.

Yeah. You're freaking weird. :p

And I have yet to meet a college PNM who says, "I want to join this sorority and this sorority only because of its ideals." No. She makes her choices based on her meetings with the local groups, not because of the sorority's strong national reputation. At the end of the day, an alumnae association is a social group. You just have to click with the ladies, who come in all ages, shapes and sizes. I think it is a hoot that I'm the youngest in my AA by a couple of decades. There are younger members, but I haven't seen them at anything. If I was joining ADPi now and this was the group before me, I probably would be reluctant to join b/c of the age gap. I love the ladies, don't get me wrong, but I'd rather be around a group closer to my age and station in life right now. I love this AA though, because of my past involvement and the programming we're working on. If I was a newbie to the whole sorority world, this wouldn't be the right group for me, regardless of how much I might love violets and lions and Ronald McDonald House Charities.

But you're not going to be involved in rituals -- once a year tops if there's a collegiate chapter nearby, and even less if there is not. And ritual does not create a unique bond. Friendship creates a unique bond.

And you're telling me you're attracted to a sorority because of they way they designed their website? Seriously? Scandia, intuition is not something you glean off a web site. You get it from interactions with flesh and blood people, not MySpace or Greek Chat people on the internet.

I really think that with every post you make on GC, you paint a picture that screams out this process is not right for you. I'm not standing up on a mountaintop singing, "Nah nah nah, I'm in a sorority and you're not," but you can't go by philanthropies and ritualistic mysteries in the process of AI. You must be invited by someone who is a member. You're not going to get that on GC, MySpace, Facebook or arbitrarily contacting HQ's. I think you need to not pursue this quite so strongly and just get involved with your community. If you meet sorority alumnae with whom you click, they'll recognize that there is something special about you and invite you to their AA and maybe get the process going. AI is not membership recruitment.

Just what do you think goes on at an alumnae meeting???

Rituals and handshakes? Candles and secret codes?

We have lots of coffee. Sometimes even bad coffee. All 5 of us!

Coffee??? You're in the wrong alumnae group. Our meetings only lack alcohol if it's a morning gathering for breakfast.

What, you guys haven't heard of mimosas and bloody marys?

SO true!

And even at alumnae meetings, we are DISCOURAGED from talking about ritual or doing anything REMOTELY RELATED to ritual because
1) there's always someone new @ a mtg and their membership has not been verified
2) usually, meetings are in a public place, so there are lots of people around
3) if the meetings are @ someone's house, sometimes there are husbands & kids around..

In my 21 years of being a Kappa Delta & meeting many sisters randomly, I don't think I ever met one & said anything ritual/secret to them, nor was I ever asked.

I've only heard of fraternity members verifying their memberships by handshakes/passwords.

There's also bellinis.

ok sometimes there is wine....but we're mostly 40-60+ women and we aren't having a happy hour.

But I digress. The point I was trying to make was that we aren't all sitting around in robes looking for a candle to light.

Cosign dude.

Our breakfasts are usually at cafes. Brunch, at someone's house, would probably have mimosas. :D

Your alumnae experience is what you make of it.

I never named names in my post.

I know you didn't. I was just saying how I stumbled upon it.

Amen and Amen, on both counts. :)