Why was your org founded?

[AUDeltaGam]

I thought it would be interesting to hear stories of how different GLOs came to be!

Delta Gamma was founded in 1873 by Anna Boyd, Eva Webb and Mary Comfort at the Lewis School for Girls. Over one of the Christmas holidays, the girls got snowed in and were unable to go home for the holiday. So they got together to form a club of "mutual helpfulness" that became Delta Gamma!

[Firehouse]

Pi kappa Alpha was founded in 1868 by six students at the University of Virginia. Several of the young men had been Confederate soldiers who had fought together at the Battle of newmarket as Virginia Military Institute cadets. One of the myths/legends of our Fraternity is that it has it's origins in a campfire at Newmarket.
Interestingly, Alpha Tau Omega was also founded by former Confederate soldiers who were also cadets in the same VMI regiment in the same Battle of Newmarket. They all probably knew each other. ATO was founded at VMI in 1865.
And, if I'm not mistaken, one of SAE's Founders (1856) was the first soldier to die in the Civil War.

[sugar and spice]

Tri Delta was founded because, although there were three sororities already at Boston University in 1888, Sarah Ida Shaw didn't find what she was looking for in any of them. She wanted a sorority that would "be kind alike to all and think more of a girl's inner self and character than of her personal appearance." She and Eleanor Dorcas Pond chose the name, wrote all the rituals and picked the symbols by themselves. While we consider the organization to have four founders, those two did most of the original "establishing" of the group.

[meridionaleDG]

Originally posted by sugar and spice
Tri Delta was founded because, although there were three sororities already at Boston University in 1888, Sarah Ida Shaw didn't find what she was looking for in any of them. She wanted a sorority that would "be kind alike to all and think more of a girl's inner self and character than of her personal appearance." She and Eleanor Dorcas Pond chose the name, wrote all the rituals and picked the symbols by themselves. While we consider the organization to have four founders, those two did most of the original "establishing" of the group.

Wow, such a sweet reason to found an organization.

[Buttonz]

On March 25, 1917, seven young women who exemplified self-confidence and the willingness to take a chance, founded a new sorority at Cornell University. The name chosen, Sigma Delta Phi, was soon changed to Sigma Delta Tau when the women discovered the letters belonged to another Greek organization. Most of the seven had experienced the subtle, but very real, discrimination practiced against religious minorities by many Greek organizations at the time. In response to the closed doors, and as a way to meet their own social and housing needs, these young women established a sorority which would respect the individuality of its members. The personal growth and social development of each individual was the basis upon which the new organization would be built. On June 16, 1917, the seven founders and their Ritualist were welcomed by Cornell administrators and faculty and representatives of the seven National sororities on campus--Alpha Omicron Pi, Alpha Phi, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Gamma, Delta Zeta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, and Kappa Delta--as their guests of honor at the Installation Banquet of Alpha Chapter of Sigma Delta Tau. Pledges Frances Bayard and Frances Brock also were present for the banquet.

Our founders are:

Dora Bloom Turteltaub
Amy Apfel Tishman
Marian Gerber Greenberg
Grace Srenco Grossman
Inez Dane Ross
Regene Freund Cohane
Lenore Rubinow


This is taken from Sigma Delta Tau's website

[DeltaSigStan]

From Deltasig.org


The History of Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity

As the door closed on the final moments of the nineteenth century, a handful of undergraduate men began meeting between classes at City College of New York. Some had known one another before they graduated from the New York public school system, and they had wanted to continue their friendships at City College. The obvious solution was to join a fraternity, but there was just one problem: This was no ordinary group of undergraduates. They were an affiliation of Jews and Christians; and, at the time, entry to all-Jewish and all-Christian fraternities was barred to individuals and groups that mixed religions.

Given that their close association challenged the conventional behavior of the day, perhaps it was only natural that the undergraduates took an even bolder step by founding their own Fraternity on December 10, 1899. Symbolized by the Greek letters Delta, Sigma, and Phi, the Fraternity was based on the principle of the universal brotherhood of man

Delta Sigma Phi was incorporated in New York City on December 2, 1902. Five members of Insula signed the incorporation papers, with the stated objectives of dissemination "the principles of friendship and brotherhood among college men, without respect to race or creed." The early organizers, including Meyer Boskey (Insula), also drafted Delta Sigma Phi's laws, requiring open membership to all college men of quality. The purpose of the Fraternity, written the same year, was "to fulfill the desire of serious young college men for a fellowship and brotherhood, as near a practical working ideal as possible not fettered with too many traditional prejudices and artificial standards of membership, and accompanied by a clean, pure, and honorable chapter home life."

Although such principles later would invite problems, the basic concept of the Fraternity-embracing brotherhood and congeniality without regard to religion race-not only attracted other idealists as City College of New York, it set the stage for expansion onto other campuses.

[DeltAlum]

From www.delts.org

To understand the history of Delta Tau Delta you must also understand the founding of greek letter societies. There are many similarities in the founding of the greek system in 1776 and the founding of Delta Tau Delta in 1858.
1776 Phi Beta Kappa, the first Greek letter society, is formed at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in response to strict faculty members' attempts to rule all phases of students' lives. Nine men chronologically and geographically at the heart of impending revolution in the asyetunformed United States create for themselves an opportunity to secure freedom and the chance to govern their own affairs outside the classroom. Those nine students meet in the Raleigh Tavern on December 5 where they adopt a secret oath, a badge, a handshake, and mottoes in Greek and Latin. They devise an initiation ceremony and adopt a Greek letter name. The stage is now set for other Greek letter societies to follow suit.

You should recognize some of the same qualities in the story of Phi Beta Kappa's founding as those we at Delta Tau Delta embrace. The nine men who pledged their loyalty to each other in 1776 were also committed to excellence; they found strength in brotherhood, saw the importance of courage in the face of what they considered injustice. So you see, the quest for excellence extends deep into our roots, beyond even our own founding as a Fraternity, to the very beginning of the Greek system itself.

1858 Delta Tau Delta is founded at Bethany College. Eight undergraduates, angered by a fixed vote for a prize in oratory to be given at the Neotrophian Literary Society the only real forum for students to practice and demonstrate skills in poetry, public speaking, and writing essays respond by forming a secret society. The purpose of the new society, known only by the Greek letters Delta Tau Delta, is to see that the Neotrophian is returned to popular control, and delivered from the hands of the group of students who seized it.

The Fraternity was founded to right an unjust situation; Delta Tau Delta was born of the knowledge that integrity is essential. Its eight founders' outraged that one group of students would and could choose in advance the candidate they favored, then join together to swing enough votes for that man to win, regardless of his actual performance in the contest, presented the first opportunity for Delts to realize the importance of accountability.

[AlphaSigOU]

From To Better The Man, pledge manual of Alpha Sigma Phi:

Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity was founded at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, on December 6, 1845 by three students: Louis Manigault (pronounced Man-e-go) (1828-1899) of Charleston, South Carolina, Stephen Ormsby Rhea (1825-1873) of Louisiana, and Horace Spangler Weiser (1827-1875) of York, Pennsylvania. Alpha Sigma Phi was originally founded as a sophomore class society for Yale students.

In 1845, the undergraduate atmosphere at Yale University was markedly different from colleges and universities today: the academics were strict, and the lectures of the professors and academics provided no opportunity for class discussion. Extracurricular activities were not fostered by the college, and student class societies provided the the outlet for student energies and interests.

Manigault was very much interested in the class society system at Yale and noted the class fraternities provided experience for their members and prepared them for competion in literary contests. At that time there was only one sophomore class society, known as Kappa Sigma Theta, which had a reputation for displaying an attitude of superiority towards non-fraternity members, even though they were their fellow classmates. Manigault revealed a plan to his friend Rhea a plan for founding another sophomore class society, in direct competition with Kappa Sigma Theta. Rhea felt at first that such an undertaking would be next to impossible, given Kappa Sigma Theta's prominence. Both finally agreed to help organize such a new society, and with Manigault's approval enlisted the help of Weiser and the three became the founders of a fraternity that now counts its members in the thousands.

The first official meeting was held in Manigault's room on Chapel Street on December 6, 1845. Between then and June 28, 1846, when the Fraternity was publicly announced, the three founders wrote the constitution and ritual, and designed the Fraternity's Badge. On June 24, 1846, the first pledge class was initiated into the Mystic Circle of Alpha Sigma Phi. The new society was welcomed by the junior class societies at Yale because it gave them a greater selection of candidates for membership. It was also cordially received by the members of the potential sophomore class, who now had a choice between two societies. But it also aroused anxiety and fear among the members of Kappa Sigma Theta.

EARLY DAYS AT YALE

The rivalry between Alpha Sigma Phi and Kappa Sigma Theta was extremely competitive and bitter, extending even to their publications. Kappa Sigma Theta's The Yale Banger in its November, 1846 issue, attacked Alpha Sigma Phi. The Fraternity retaliated with the publication of The Yale Tomahawk the following year. This rivalry between the two papers continued until 1852, when the Yale faculty expelled the editor and the contributors of the Tomahawk for violating an order from the faculty to cease publication. The rivalry between Alpha Sigma Phi and Kappa Sigma Theta continued until 1858, when Kappa Sigma Theta was suppressed by the Yale faculty.

During the 1850's many fraternities began to expand their influence in establishing chapters at other colleges. A charter was granted to Amherst College in 1847 and a committee appointed to install the chapter, but conditions were not conducive to fraternities at Amherst, and the charter was returned. To this day, there still remains confusion about the naming of Alpha Sigma Phi's early chapters. Some records indicate that the Amherst chapter was named Beta, while a fragmentary document in the Yale University library indicated that Beta Chapter was chartered in 1850 at Harvard University (Alpha being the mother chapter at Yale) and that Gamma was chartered at Princeton in 1854. When the Amherst chapter was restored, it was designated Delta Chapter, though for some unknown reason the Delta designation was also given in 1860 to Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio. That same year, the Amherst Delta chapter folded.

DELTA BETA XI

During the Civil War, the mother chapter at Yale was rent by internal dissension and then actually disappeared. Less attention was paid to the literary aspects of the society, and more to social activities, especially after Alpha Sigma Phi became the sole sophomore class society at Yale in 1858. In 1864, the Alpha Sigma Phi members pledged to Delta Kappa Epsilon, at the time a junior class society (it was the custom at Yale and many other colleges and universities at that time for men to belong to more than one fraternity) atempted to turn the control over to Alpha Sigma Phi over to Delta Kappa Epsilon. This was thwarted by the Alpha Sig members pledged to the two other junior class societies, Alpha Delta Phi and Psi Upsilon. A conflict ensued, and to prevent violence and end disorder, the faculty at Yale suppressed Alpha Sigma Phi and forbade the initiation of the 1864 pledge class.

The traditions of Alpha Sigma Phi, however, did not die there, as two new sophomore societies, Delta Beta Xi and Phi Theta Psi, each claiming to be the legitimate descendant of Alpha Sigma Phi, were founded. Of the two societies, Delta Beta Xi had clear title as the legitimate successor to Alpha Sigma Phi, changing almost nothing in the objectives of the Fraternity, preserving the motto, signs and insignia which it altered only by substituting the Greek letters Delta Beta Xi where Alpha Sigma Phi appeared. At the same time, Louis Manigault reestablished his ties to his brothers in Alpha Sigma Phi. He was aware of Delta Beta Xi and considered it to be the continuation of the Fraternity; he ws not aware that Delta Chapter at Marietta existed. Delta Beta Xi continued until 1875, when it was abolished by the Yale faculty for violating an 1864 agreement regarding alcoholic beverages. Delta Beta Xi continues today as the highest award for service to Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity.

MARIETTA KEEPS THE FRATERNITY ALIVE

For all practical purposes Delta at Marietta College was a local fraternity after 1864, and it kept alive the traditions, customs, ideals and ritual of the Fraternity. It attempted to to charter chapters at several colleges universities, all without success. The chapter was kept alive by its emphasis on scholarship and by the support of its local alumni and the Cincinnati alumni chapter though at one time Delta considered petitioning a national fraternity since the mother chapter at Yale was inactive. In 1882, a "Sig Bust" by the Cincinnati alumni assured the perpetuation of Delta Chapter. The events that transpired during the Sig Bust so impressed the undergraduates that the petition to join another fraternity was withdrawn. To show their appreciation, the members of Delta formally recognized the Cincinatti alumni chapter with an engrossed charter. During the next several decades, the alumni chapter held meetings at various times and places and extended membership to Yale and Amherst members, and also assisted in pledging and initiating a class in 1901 when there were no active members in the Marietta campus.

REBIRTH AT YALE

In December of 1906, four students, all members of the Yale Masonic Club, were playing cards in the room shared by Robert L. Ervin and Benjamin F. Crenshaw. Visiting them was Arthur S. Ely and Edwin Morey Waterbury. Talk turned to the old Yale fraternity system, which was unique in that there had been fraternities for the freshmen, sophomore junior and senior classes, so it was not unusual for one man to often belong to four fraternities (a practice unheard of today, as virtually all social fraternities, including Alpha Sigma Phi, prohibit membership in another social fraternity). In 1906, only the junior and senior societies were still in existence. The four men concluded that the Yale system over-emphasized class and department loyalty at the expense of developing a strong university spirit.

Waterbury suggested that the four give thought to establishing a new fraternity or petitioning a national fraternity for a chapter at Yale, one that would be an all-class society. He informed the four of finding in the Yale library records of the societies that once existed at Yale University and told them about one of the most active, interesting and famous of these dormant societies -- Alpha Sigma Phi. Waterbury was aware of the existence of Delta Chapter at Marietta. He then suggested that efforts be made to reestablishing Alpha Sigma Phi at Yale. Other men were recruited, including Frederick H. Waldron and Wayne Montgomery Musgrave. Ervin, who knew some of the alumni members of Delta in his home state of Ohio, was asked to send the frist letter to Marietta. While they waited for an answer, additional were added to the movement. Unknown to the members of the revived Alpha movement, Reverend Mr. Evans, a member of Delta then filling a pastorate in Connecticut, came to New Haven and made discreet inquiries about the proposed membership of the revived Alpha Chapter. Pleased with the information he obtained, he recommended to Delta Chapter that the new Alpha be welcomed into the Mystic Circle.

Through letters, arrangements were made for the New Haven group to send a delegation to Marietta to be initiated into Alpha Sigma Phi. The Yale group then voted to send the first six men who had been identified with the reorganization: Crenshaw, Ely, Ervin, Musgrave, Waldron and Waterbury. With the exception of Ervin, who was unable to go at the last moment, the five men, boarded a train for Marietta on March 27, 1907. Arriving at mid-day the next day, they were met by a delegation of Delta undergraduate and graduate brothers. The men were initiated into Alpha Sigma Phi, taught how to perform the rituals, and instructed on chapter organization and management. Returning to New Haven, one of the first things the group did after obtaining the required equipment for performing the ritual was to welcome Ervin into the Mystic Circle, since he had missed out on the Marietta trip. This first initiation took place in Musgrave's suite at the New Haven YMCA. The new Alpha Chapter leased the Lenox Hall in York Square, the former meeting place of the Yale Masonic Club. It was there that the remaining men became members of the new Alpha Chapter.

[KillarneyRose]

Women were admitted with full status to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in the fall of 1902. The young women who enrolled at Miami University discovered that while the classes were open to them, there were no ready made campus organizations for them such as those enjoyed by the male students.

According to the September 19, 1902 diary entry of Founder Julia Bishop, she and the five other Founders (Alfa Lloyd, Mary Collins, Anna Keen, Anne Simmons and Mabelle Minton) met up that evening at Alfa Lloyd's home to have dinner together and to organize a sorority.

Our first public notice was in the October, 1902 Miami Student newspaper:

"On September 19, six of our progressive co-eds organized a sorority. It is a local organization at present but the girls hope to have sufficient success to warrant them putting chapters in other schools."

I'm pleased to say that they were, indeed, sufficiently successful!

[WhirlwindTNX]

History of Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority, Inc.~from the National Website. . .link below


In the spring of 1996, Founding Monarch Melissa Jo Murchison-Blake was in search of sisterhood. She wanted to be part of a family that openly embraced all women and crossed cultural boundaries. As a bi-racial woman, she did not want to choose between historically Caucasian or African-American sororities. Founding Monarch Murchison-Blake felt that if she did choose one, she would be denying half of her heritage.

Still wanting to be part of a strong sisterhood, Founding Monarch Murchison-Blake recruited six other women to join hands in her quest to found Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority. At first, the Founding Monarchs were discouraged from fulfilling their vision. The Director of Greek Affairs advised them to consider joining an existing organization, expressing his concern that a new Greek organization, based on the principal of multiculturalism, would not survive at UNC-CH. However, the Founding Monarchs believed there was a need for such a sisterhood. Their efforts set the stage for Theta Nu Xi's presence in the Greek, non-Greek, and surrounding communities.

After much work and dedication, the Founding Monarchs built the foundation for Theta Nu Xi. Finally, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill officially recognized Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority as the Alpha Chapter on April 11, 1997. With the collaborative efforts of the Founding Monarchs and the Sisters of Spring 1998, the organization grew beyond our expectations. The Sorority incorporated on April 29, 1999, and with the participation of the Alpha Chapter and Beta and Gamma Colonies, the National Organization was founded at the first annual National Convention on August 21, 1999.

[AOIIalum]

Founded on January 2, 1897, Alpha Omicron Pi began as a dream by 4 young college women to continue their friendship throughout life. One of AOII’s founders, Stella George Stern Perry, wrote in 1936, “We wanted a fraternity that should carry on the delightful fellowships and cooperation of college days into the workaday years ahead and to do so magnanimously. Above all, we wanted a high and active special purpose to justify existence and a simple devotion to some worthy end.”

Barnard College, in the late 1890’s, was the first separate college for women to be affiliated with a great men’s university such as Columbia University. AOII’s four founders’ were in the class of 1898, young , unlike most of the women who had entered Barnard in previous years. They were friendly, adventurous, frank and merry, and enthusiastically devoted to each other and to the class of ‘98.

Determined to make a democratic, unostantatious society, the four women, Stella George Stern, Helen St. Clair, Elizabeth Heywood, and Jessie Wallace climbed a little winding stair into the stackroom of the old Columbia Library. This little room was rarely used and stored Anglo-Saxon tomes and ancient vellum manuscripts. While the four sat in a deep window seat, pigeons outside and snow lightly falling, they pledged one another at the beginning of the year 1897.

Barnard College welcomed the new fraternity and it was not long before the first chapter, Alpha, was flourishing. The fraternity became national with the installation of Pi Chapter at Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, New Orleans, on September 8, 1898.

Over the next 100 years, AOII has added to the ranks 178 collegiate chapters and initiated over 123,000 members. Omicron Chapter (U of Tennessee), chartered on April 14, 1902 as our 4th chapter is the oldest active chapter.

AOII has thrived and continued to grow throughout the changing 20th century. Despite several wars, the Great Depression, the women’s suffrage movement and the social unrest of the 1960’s, AOII has continued to hold true to its ideals. Founder Stella Perry once wrote, “that which makes our bond is promise certain of success. Let us follow our ensign devotedly, utterly and bravely. For our purpose cannot fail.”

[Senusret I]

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African-Americans, was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York by seven college men who recognized the need for a strong bond of Brotherhood among African descendants in this country. The visionary founders, known as the "Jewels" of the Fraternity, are Henry Arthur Callis, Charles Henry Chapman, Eugene Kinckle Jones, George Biddle Kelley, Nathaniel Allison Murray, Robert Harold Ogle, and Vertner Woodson Tandy.

The Fraternity initially served as a study and support group for minority students who faced racial prejudice, both educationally and socially, at Cornell. The Jewel founders and early leaders of the Fraternity succeeded in laying a firm foundation for Alpha Phi Alpha's principles of scholarship, fellowship, good character, and the uplifting of humanity.

Alpha Phi Alpha chapters were developed at other colleges and universities, many of them historically black institutions, soon after the founding at Cornell. While continuing to stress academic excellence among its members, Alpha also recognized the need to help correct the educational, economic, political, and social injustices faced by African-Americans.

Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity

My Brothers in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity house, where I lived, who were outstanding for high ideals and clean living, were all former Scouts. I felt a college organization should be formed that would strengthen men in these ideals, and give them an opportunity for Leadership experience and for Service to others.

As a senior at Lafayette College, I talked to some of the men with a Scouting background and the response was good. These men would join an organization based on the ideals of Scouting. I created the name Alpha Phi Omega, the motto and the Greek words and their meaning and wrote the Ritual. Everett W. Probst designed the pin and drew the Coat-of-Arms. Thane S. Cooley suggested the handclasp. Ellsworth S. Dobson and Gordon M. Looney helped write the Constitution and Bylaws.

Fourteen undergraduates signed as charter Members. Scouting advisors were Dr. Ray O. Wyland and Herbert G. Horton.

The Lafayette College Faculty approved the petition for recognition. On December 16, 1925, I conducted the Ritual Initiation at Brainerd Hall, second floor, and Alpha Phi Omega was born.

[LeslieAGD]

Alpha Gamma Delta was founded at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York on May 30, 1904.

When Alpha Gamma Delta was founded at Syracuse there were many professors of great reputation, but none more widely known than Dr. Wellesley Perry Coddington, head of the department of philosophy and psychology. Dr. Coddington graduated from Wesleyan University in 1860 and was a member of Eclectic Fraternity, Phi Nu Theta and Phi Beta Kappa. He taught Greek, Latin and German at old Genesee College and became one of the first five members of Syracuse University's faculty when Genesee became a part of Syracuse in 1871.

"Fraternity life must have meant much to him in his undergraduate days," wrote Georgia Dickover, Founder. "Over a half a century in a college community as student and professor, he remained as enthusiastic as a recent initiate."

From 1900-1905, however, enrollment at Syracuse doubled. This is what led Dr. Coddington to discuss the need for more organizations with Marguerite Shepard, class of 1905.

Because Marguerite was ending her junior year and would soon be graduating, she shared Dr. Coddington's idea with her younger sister, Estelle, a member of the class of 1908. Estelle saw the chance to make college friendships deeper and more permanent and discussed the possibility with her close friend, Georgia Dickover. These three women embraced the idea and made a list of other women to consider for membership. With Marguerite, Estelle and Georgia's approval, Dr. Coddington spoke with Jennie Titus, a member of his ethics class about the opportunity. She joined the group at their second meeting and became an energetic and eager worker.

On May 30th, 1904, 11 pioneering women came together to form Alpha Gamma Delta.

Side note: AGD was also the founded with the intention of becoming international.

[aephi alum]

From the AEPhi website:

AEPhi was founded by seven Jewish women at Barnard College on October 24, 1909. Only one of the founders, Helen Phillips, lived in the dormitory on campus and it was her longing for companionship that proved to be the impetus.

"It was her idea and her persistence more than anything else that brought Alpha Epsilon Phi into existence," one founder wrote. "I sometimes think that some of those ties were more necessary to Helen than to the others in this group because Helen had no mother and no sisters or brothers, and to her a group of adopted sisters was more of a need and had more significance." The seven founders were Phillips, Ida Beck, Rose Gerstein, Augustina "Tina" Hess, Lee Reiss, Rose Salmowitz and Stella Strauss.

My understanding is that an additional driving force behind these women's decision to create a new sorority, is that they wanted the bonds of sisterhood, but had difficulty joining the existing sororities at Barnard because they were Jewish (whether they were actively discriminated against on the basis of religion, or just didn't feel comfortable with sororities whose ideals and rituals were rooted in Christianity) - so they founded their own.

[AlphaSigOU]

Originally posted by aephi alum
My understanding is that an additional driving force behind these women's decision to create a new sorority, is that they wanted the bonds of sisterhood, but had difficulty joining the existing sororities at Barnard because they were Jewish (whether they were actively discriminated against on the basis of religion, or just didn't feel comfortable with sororities whose ideals and rituals were rooted in Christianity) - so they founded their own.

That's correct... back in those days it was not unusual for Jews and Irish Catholics to be discriminated against because of their religion. Many prestigious universities at the time were bastions of the WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) elite, and looked down at the Jews, Irish and other immigrants as second-class citizens. This attitude exteded also to the fraternities and sororities of the time as well, whether through clauses in their ritual, constitution and bylaws or by mutual exclusion.