If you are REALLY curious about what the ritual for a social GLO is like, here's a novel way to find out:
I'm a member of both Phi Eta Sigma and Alpha Lambda Delta - both are national academic honor societies for freshmen. However, Phi Eta Sigma started out as a social fraternity at the University of Illinois in 1923. Similarly, Alpha Lambda Delta was founded as a social sorority at the University of Illinois in 1924. In the 30s they both went to an academic format. Finally, they went co-ed in the 70s due to the Title IX legislation. We had chapters both on my campus. When Title IX passed through, they went co-ed and "joined forces". In effect, at Long Beach State, we were "Phi Eta Sigma-Alpha Lambda Delta".
Our rituals are indeed open, parents and friends routinely attend our initiation ceremony and dinner. When I became President, one of my tasks was to organize the initiation of our new members. As I read through I documents, I realized that we performed a modified version of both rituals. That is, some years ago, the members of my chapter(s) decided not to conduct each ritual separately (to save time maybe?); but rather to do one modifed ritual which incorporates the "secrets" from each. As a result, my chapter had eliminated the use of the robes, candles and such from our version.
In my President's box I had both of the official ritual manuscripts from both HQs. It was really interesting to read each ritual in it's whole form and see how it's
supposed to be done. Keep in mind that both Phi Eta Sigma and Alpha Lambda Delta started out as social GLOs and the ritual only had minor modifications when the transition to an academic format was made. So, if ever I wanted to know what a social fraternity and social sorority ritual looked like, I only needed to read the ones I had sitting right in my house!
.....Kelly
