Meeting Etique

What's up with the chatter, funny voices, and disrespectful attitude during meetings? Especially while Travis is reading...

Shouldn't we all be more focused on the text and less worried about entertaining ourselves?

Sure, we're supposed to have fun in our meetings, but I mean... really?

To be honest with you, it doesn't really bother me because we never really set a standard for these procedures. We haven't decided one part of the ceremony is sacred and shouldn't talk during it, and I feel like for the most part we are respectful during the important things, and we have fun during the not as important stuff. Do you guys think we need to make some rules when we should and shouldn't goof off? That kinda sucks the fun out of it for me.

I think if the brothers read the two posts above I think it'll solve a lot of things

obivously the rituals are serious

when people are talking/reading you should listen to them.
that's just about respect, and we all learned it when we were little.

when we are singing opening and closing songs, we should have fun.
I think that's what the other mentor chapter told the colony class.

Actually this has been bothering me a little bit lately.

I agree singing should always be fun, that's the point of singing. But I feel like we don't take the ritual part seriously, and it has really started to bug me now that it has been brought up. In particular the s..., well you know what I mean, I don't really want to talk about that stuff specifically here. I feel like something needs to be said. We're supposed to have fun, but we're also supposed to be serious too when it calls for it.

There are speaking parts and chants that we should all be able to clearly hear and understand. But we are a social Frat and everyone should be allowed do as they feel after a long hard monday.

Then again We must remember noblity

We are way more than just a "social frat". That's only part of what we are, we have standards and ideals to hold ourselves to, and I think it's important that we treat those standards with respect. I want to have fun just as much as the next guy, but it bothers me when people are making jest of the foundations of what our fraternity stands for.

That's only 5 minutes at most of an hour and a half per meeting, can't we tone things down for just that, and go back to having fun afterwards?

LOl i totally agree with you. It is important to keep those times sacred and for them to be clearly heard and understood. Clearly we aren't holding ourselvves to a highstandard and lofty Ideals if we are mudding up our Short ritual with unnessary distractions.

an any case before and after the meeting people shouold be able to come and be as retarded as they feel would be noble. they should be able to be social and laugh and have a good time being them selves. Even durning the meeting i feel like we should be able to all be sociable at least to a level that would not be Rude to one of or brothers. (i'm not saying we should talk when others are speaking) i'm just saying we should be free to be ourselves durning the whole of the meeting, and that the person you should be should be a person reaching those high Ideals.

Clearly if your being Loud and obnoiuxios while others are trying to be reverent, then you are being a very good sinfonian.

As of now, I don't feel like there is a time at all during a meeting for being goofy or having fun or rough housing. I enjoy the deep talks during the discussions, the effort and attention put into making beautiful music, and the necessity of talking about business. However, this takes up the whole meeting, and personally I do not blame brothers for wanting to have fun or goof around while we are standing and huddling during opening and closing time. Of course I agree that some things should be heard, but I don't think the problem lies just with the behavior and respect issues we may or may not have. I think it lies with what we expect out of this fraternity, and that is for it to be a time of social behavior, since it is a social fraternity.

Thanks for your posts on this guys, I hope that talk we had last night helped out to clarify what I feel is appropriate and what not. I like a loose meeting structure, but there's just those few times that we need to show respect in the meeting and be mature enough to flip the switch. Thanks for that!

TW