Not initiated yet, can I rush another fraternity?

[lucgreek]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Not necessarily. At all.

While the pledging ceremonies/associate member ceremonies/whatever-they-may-be-called-ceremonies of some fraternities are open, not all are. In fact, without doing a study of it, I'd guess that the majority of pledging ceremonies are secret. So the mere fact that one has been through a ceremony that cannot be discussed with non-members doesn't mean one has likely been initiated.

And given that the OP is a member of a colony that will be chartered this spring and said the colony members become "official brothers" when the colony is chartered, he probably hasn't been initiated yet. Again, I haven't done a comparative study, but it is common in my experience that colony members are not initiated until chartering.

I might have been overgeneralizing a little.

I'd be interested in knowing if other fraternities (besides DU, which is open) reveal confidential, secret information prior to their own initiation ceremony. In my GLO, for example, secrets are only revealed at the initiation ceremony. So if you knew secrets, you were most definitely an initiated member.

Slight derail but: Say a colony dissolves after two years but never gained its charter, are those members who were in the colony not considered members and never initiated? Or does the national organization initiate those guys? Seems like a raw deal if the national org just up and dumps them. (Not sure if there are general guidelines or if each GLO views this idfferently)

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by lucgreek

I'd be interested in knowing if other fraternities (besides DU, which is open) reveal confidential, secret information prior to their own initiation ceremony. In my GLO, for example, secrets are only revealed at the initiation ceremony. So if you knew secrets, you were most definitely an initiated member.

Alpha Kappa Lambda's ritual is also open.

Then there are other fraternities that have closed initiation rituals but open pledging (by whatever name they use) ceremonies -- Lambda Chi Alpha, Kappa Alpha Order, Theta Chi and Delta Chi come immediately to mind (some of these fraternities publish these ceremonies on the web), though I think there are others. I know a Phi Mu at GreekChat once said that their New Member Ceremony is also open.

As for the second question -- how many orgs reveal secret info prior to initiation -- I guess no one could know this without knowing the rituals of specific orgs. I can say, though, that I've had the definite impression over the years that some orgs do reveal some secrets in their pledging/new member ceremonies (perhaps related to things like the meaning of the pledge/new member pin, for example?), though I would suppose that they save the "bigger" secrets for initiation. As far as that goes, I know that some at GreekChat have said that their orgs have a ceremony for those transitioning from collegiate statuts to alumni/ae status at which still more secrets are revealed.

Another example of different orgs doing things in different ways.

[AlphaFrog]

The OP said he was not initiated, so I'm not sure where the debate about that is coming in...

There might be a format depledging process, but after following that protocol, and campus rules allowing, he should be free to rush again. Whether any group would take him is really campus spesific. I believe I have heard of at least one group with actual by-laws against taking someone who has ever pledged another group, but that could have once again been campus specific.

Bottom line is that no one here can give the OP a set-in-stone answer. Doubt he's coming back anyway.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

The OP said he was not initiated, so I'm not sure where the debate about that is coming in...

Oh, who reads the thread titles?

But yeah, it's also pretty clear from what he said in his post that he hasn't been initiated yet.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

I know a Phi Mu at GreekChat once said that their New Member Ceremony is also open.

Unless things have changed since my collegiate days, ours is not "open", but may include "invited guests". For example, our (non-member) house mother regularly attended, and sometimes mothers would attend if they were local.

I think the idea is more to protect the solemnity than for it to be actually secret. After all, your pledges are not initiates yet, so by including them in a pledging ceremony, you are, by definition, revealing secrets to non-members.

[MysticCat]

^^^ Thanks for the clarification. I was trying not to make assumptions or put words in anyone's mouth.

[steveg]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Oh, who reads the thread titles?

But yeah, it's also pretty clear from what he said in his post that he hasn't been initiated yet.

Hit the nail on the head!
Thanks AlphaFrog. "Not initiated yet"! That is the key!