Rituals Outside?
 

Visiting one Alpha Phi Omega chapter for brotherhood rituals, I was pleasantly surprised that they did the ritual outside around a campfire in one of their advisor's wooded back 40 (or at least it seemed like that much forest) and I have heard of another APO chapter holding one of the rituals outside.

For your GLO, would you consider holding either pledging or brotherhood/sisterhood rituals outside (or have you actually seen/heard of chapters doing so)?

Yes.

The point is to be safe and free from nonmember spectators or interrupters. If that can happen outside and no one is uncomfortable, that's even better.

Sure, why not?

One of our chapters actually holds different parts of initiation at different local landmarks. I joined them for it a few times, and it was amazing.

Sure. Several of our chapters have done part of inspiration (day before initiation) outside so that they can form an anchor and hold candles....very impressive if on a hillside.

This reminds me of that annoying KKPsi initiation scene in Drumline. They know good and well that if the chapter had initiation outside and nonmembers could view, those nonmembers would not be running up at the end of the ceremony.

Not for APhiA. Wouldn't work.

There was one fraternity that had rituals outside at one school I attended. They had to know that the sorority next door was seated in lawn chairs on the roof watching.

My chapter is doing something outside next week. We were told to dress warmly, but that's all I know seeing as it hasn't happened yet:) (not that I would share if I did know!)

Wouldn't work for us. Ribboning and pinning, maybe ... initiation, no.

There's also the logistical question of finding an outdoor venue away from prying eyes. I went to school in a big city where we would have had to drive quite some distance to find a suitably isolated outdoor spot. Undergrads were discouraged from bringing their cars to campus, and when I was an active I don't think anyone in the chapter had a car, so that would have meant renting a bunch of minivans. Far easier to book a room on campus.

Heh, that reminds me of the "found footage" from YouTube about "Skulls and Bones" at Yale, if I remember correctly. LOL. Definitely filmed from a roof.

As for ours, nope, I don't think it could be done. Plus I wouldn't want someone seeing our Ritual that wasn't supposed to.

I'd say no. We actually guard to door. No door, no guarding, no ritual. ;)

Nope. Wouldn't work for us.

Well, our inspiration isn't secret. I wasn't think about secret ritual...there are public ones...ones you do at things pledges can attend...memorials, etc...

While our Associate Member, Alumni, and Officer Installation Ceremonies are open to the public, we did have a Big Brother/Little Brother Ceremony outside by a lake in front of a big bonfire once. It was very unique and done with utmost care: no risk management violations. No alcohol allowed. Fire extinguisher on standby. No primary Ritual used.

Side-swerve: with due respect to each organization on here, does your GLO have public ceremonies that can be attended by family members, friends, co-workers outside of the GLO?

And there are places outside that are quite guarded. People have private property, high fenced yards, and neighbors miles away. We aren't talking about initiation outside of Whole Foods.

I would never want our private ritual of chicken legging and goat milking to be viewed by the public. Our public ritual of ox tailing is fair game.

We do have Candlelighting ceremony at convention that is fantastic outside. I've seen it in Phoenix against the Camelback mountain and in Tucson against a backdrop of mountains with our logo in lights projected on the mountains. The ceremony is open to the public. AZ Theta and AZ-Alpha Xi attended the Tucson ceremony with me. It's just not the same when it's inside. It really loses something in translation.

There's at least one thread on that, maybe more. Maybe later I can look.

I will look also; apologizes if the thread exists already.

Given the supreme beauty of our Initiation, I wonder how amazing it would be outside (given correct weather) or even on a beach, seaside, or equally majestic natural setting? not practical at a big State university but I imagine it would be fantastic.

Of course once we started taking the fuzzy kittens out, I'm sure people would change their minds...might be best kept indoors as the little suckers sure can run!

I'd like to imagine that every semester your nationals ships a box of kittens to every chapter to be used in ritual...official, Alpha Xi Delta approved fuzzy kittens. Their fuzziness has to be measured first to make sure they're up to snuff.

Well, I have looked some and can't find it; maybe it's just buried in a thread somewhere, though I know it's been talked about. Hmmm.

The pledging/new member/associate member ceremonies of a number of groups are open—Lambda Chi and KA Order come to mind as examples.

We have open versions of our Founder's Day ceremony and our memorial ceremony.

Our Founders' Day, chapter installation, and memorial ceremonies are open. Ribboning, pinning, and initiation are closed to all but initiated members and new members.

Everything but initiation is technically open for us, but we typically didn't invite anyone except our house mom.

Yup. Bessie the Lambda Chi Sheep would be too much trouble to keep track of outdoors.

Our initiation is not secret, but I've never known it to be "public" either. The local I initiated into held their initiation outside in a specific location that was special to the founders, but there were so many other people around that we had to keep stopping and waiting until they were gone. A ceremony that should have taken 45 minutes took 3 hours.

We have a Ritual ceremony that can only be done outside since there's a lot of fire involved. It's a public ceremony, but my chapter chooses to do it privately.

Nonetheless, here's an example of what it can look like:
http://i42.tinypic.com/2j9mja.jpg

As for initiation, we had done it outdoors a few times. There was only 1 small thing that needed an indoor element, but we easily made due since we're resourceful. I love it outside, actually. It's still serious and meaningful, but more relaxed.

And yes, we do that on private property, far from the public.

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>