Recognized vs. underground members

[James]

Many times, if an organization is suspended or loses recognition, it will pledge in new members underground. In fact some organizations (some NIC chapters that I have known) will pledge a certain amount of their new members underground so they don't have to report them to National for insurance reasons (many groups are charged a fee per member).

In both cases these members are not Nationally counted as members even though they have been exposed to the Ritual of the organization. I know one group that has been off campus for years and still uses Ritual initiation . . . even though there may be no Nationally recognized members left.

Would you consider these people to be members of your organization? Would you be comfortable receiving the grip from them or taking part/discussing your Ritual (assuming you knew)?

I was always curious about this question . . .