A Brief Chronicle of the SIS

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The SIS is a shadowy organization, whose ultimate goals are a mystery, even to its members. The initials SIS are usually held to stand for "Subversive Intellectual Society", but are rumored to have other secret meanings as well. (Alternate explanations include "Surrealist International Syndicate", "Students for Illuminati Supremacy", and "Seekers of the Infinite Sandwich".)

The SIS was founded in 1954, by students at Coral Gables High School, on the outskirts of Miami. It was conceived as an eclectic secret society, with many facets: social club, revolutionary group, avant-garde cultural movement, and mystical fellowship. Additionally, a few people looking for the Dirigible, Blimp and Zeppelin Club wandered into the first meeting. The organizers agreed to work their interests into the Society somehow, if they would become dues-paying members.

Then as now, Miami was a haven to odd and exiled folk from around the world. Legend says that some of these eccentrics served as shadowy "elders" who mentored the founders of the SIS, initiating them into various occult and radical movements. These included Trotskyism, Surrealism, Freemasonry, Situationism, Zen, a Tahitian cargo cult, the Elks Lodge, and more.

This eclecticism has endured, as have the internal debates and disputes that come along with such diversity. Over the years, members of the Society -- who by tradition conceal themselves behind carefully-chosen pseudonyms -- have included eco-anarchists, young-earth creationists, Wiccans, Maoists, Raelians, anti-fluoridationists, crypto-fascists and unreconstructed Stalinists. In fact, that list describes the current Central Committee alone.

The SIS has always been led by a triumvirate consisting of the Grand Master, Grand Chancellor, and Grand Minister, each serving a seven-year term of office. But these three ceremonial posts are counterbalanced by a Politburo-style Central Committee, which wields much of the actual power.

Many other titles have been awarded over the years to members; early on, some ended up holding a dozen or more positions at once. For example, Juno Nevada (CGHS class of '56) was simultaneously Keeper of the Keys, Guardian of the Gates, Mistress of the North, South, East, and West Approaches, Reader of the Sacred Punchcard, Ambassador Without Portfolio, Warlord of the Air, and Special Master for Cuba.

The SIS has always been slow to recruit and confirm new members. Candidates are required to pass through 144 levels of initiation, which can take years of study and many tedious, sometimes humiliating rituals. In fact, there were originally 1,024 levels, but reforms during the mid-60s led to the elimination of low-level degrees such as "Peewee Apprentice", "Junior Space Cadet", and "Mystick Pollywog", as well as inflated higher-level degrees like "Exalted Dervish of Freedonia", "People's Cosmic Llama" and "Immortal Maximum Leader of the Worker's Nirvana".

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