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We do two things to keep ritual relevant. Firstly, we have something called ritual proficiency. Any member, alumnus or active can learn the ritual and be tested on it so that during a formal ceremony they can be called to take that place. Testing is every few months and it's a nice way to keep brothers active, together and focused on something other than Iota Tappa Keg. It gets to be a competition and its very important in the fraternity. If you get a certain level of ritual proficiency, you get a certificate, and often this happens well after graduation, so alumns get involved.
The other way ritual becomes important is that its spiritual. We have certain signs, tokens, passages, etc used in the ritual. If you are initiated, you learn the value of these metaphors and it means more than the words in the book. It's like at church how if you're not baptized, Holy Communion is a chance for a drink of wine, but a baptized member has a spiritual reaffirmation. To us, ritual means more than a mere chore.
Something else we do is require that respect be shown during the meetings and that there is a traditional method of recognition and transferring of the floor, so it's not like you just stand up or shout across the room. Sometimes things get boisterious, or in a very long meeting we choose to dispense with such pleasantries, but they're a nice touch in a short, efficient meeting.
Thomas
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