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Another thing to remember is that when an organization publishes, even using their own "publishing house," books and literature, it is protected by copyright laws. To do that, they have to register that material. That places the information into public domain, even if we prefer to continue to treat it as private.
For example, all 3 publications/volumes of "The History of Zeta Tau Alpha" are located in the Library of Congress. Even if they were not generally available to the public (before e-bay, anyway), the public was able to obtain access to the book and read it. So, while our history is treasured by us, nothing that is truly ever secret is printed. Not on purpose, anyway.
In the early 1900's (1910 or 1920, I think), our secret motto was accidentally published in our fraternity magazine, "Themis", thus making it our open motto: Seek the Noblest. Convention was interesting that year, I am certain.
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