[blkwebman1919]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

You're speaking from the perspective of being a member of your organization, and that's fine as far as your organization goes. But you're new here. If there's one lesson to be learned above all others at GC, it's that all GLOs, despite their many similarities, are different. What may be true of your organization is not necessarily true of other orgs.

Two examples: You say, "But your letters define you as a member of the organization, whether you’re a brother/sister or a new member who just went through their first ceremony." That's may be true of your org, but it's not true of mine. In mine, our letters identify us as initiated brothers. Again, you have to remember that the idea that "new members" are equal to initiated members in most every way except having gone through initiation is common in the NPC now, but it is not common outside the NPC.

Also, I can assure you that my letters mean a great deal to me, and much more than "in theory" or as "letters on a page." My letters do not represent an open motto as is the case in some orgs. (Though take a look at Fiji, where the letters do represent an open motto and yet there are very strict guidelines on how the letters can be displayed.) We do not know what they mean until initiation. I'm not saying that your letters don't mean a great deal to you, but the idea that the letters "simply identify" us as part of one organization rather than another is completely foreign to our understanding of our letters. In fact, we would stress exactly the opposite -- that our letters don't just identify the group we belong to but signify something much deeper.

We do not make probationary members feel like outsiders by not allowing them to wear our letters, but we also do not act like they are brothers yet when they are not. It's fine by me that your sorority allows its new members to wear letters, but it is pretty presumptuous of you to assume that anyone who does things differently is wrong.

Well said!!!!!