Gamma Tau of Phi Gamma Delta GAMMA TAUK Fall 2011 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS By: Chapter President Tech football tailgates on the front porch can only mean one thing: the fall semester is here! In my five years as a brother, I have never felt more excitement and energy from the house. The reason for it is simple: We're proud to be Georgia Tech FIJI's! Gamma Tau’s success continues to come as a secondary result of our passion to pursue scholarship, philanthropy, leadership and athletics. This past spring marked many notable accomplishments for our chapter. For nine consecutive years now, FIJI has placed 1st in the intramural standings. The most recent victory was by one of the largest margins in intramural history with the closest fraternity 63 points behind. Motivated to give back to our community, our chapter was poised to take on several new philanthropic initiatives including volunteering with Tech Beautification Day, Team Buzz, GOAL Soccer, the Red Cross, and the Atlanta Humane Society. Overall, our chapter was able to achieve over 950 hours of community service this spring alone. A notable portion of those hours were earned by Faraz Jamal’s (2012) own personal philanthropic service. Brother Jamal spent almost three weeks in Nicaragua offering his talents as a dental assistant on a philanthropy trip he organized as the Pre-Dental Society President. Gamma Tau’s success continues to be recognized by the International Fraternity. This year Gamma Tau was once again an honorable mention for the Jordan Bowl trophy, awarded for achiev- STAY CONNECTED Chapter Website: gtfiji.com Graduate Website: gtfijigrads.com Come out and visit the house after the homecoming festivities on October 29. (Continued on page 2) GAMMA TAU - SERVING OTHERS The brothers participated in the Red Cross spring blood drive and we are already planning to volunteer for the fall Blood Drive that is fast approaching. One of the largest philanthropic events of the year was the Fall Break trip. This year, 160 brothers and guests traveled to Panama City Beach in Florida to help out United Way. The chapter has also been supportive of IFC sponsored phi- lanthropy opportunities such as St. Baldrick’s. If there are any additional philanthropic organizations you think would be a good idea for Gamma Tau to get involved in, feel free to contact our Philanthropy Chairmen: Austin Delk: austdelk@gmail.com Jimmy Thwaits: j_thwaits@yahoo.com Brothers helping at the Fall Break philanthropy trip. \r\nGAMMA TAUK Page 2 GAMMA TAU RECRUITMENT After the chapter’s third year of successful summer recruitment, Gamma Tau has 16 outstanding pledges this fall. Georgia Tech rush was down, yet the chapter strived with over 500 possible candidates. The rush chairs organized a summer full of events, including Tech Regional baseball tournament, dinner nights, Braves games, trips to the lake, and of course rafting, which helped piece together one of the most prominent pledge classes on campus. The chapter is extremely grateful that graduate contacts accounted for three of our pledges. Please feel free to contact the rush chairmen at any time with potential contacts. Gamma Tau’s new initiates are: Sean Capps (2013), Richard Park (2014), and Clay Greene (2013). We also had a list of around 100 excellent candidates to choose from for the spring pledge class thanks to support from the brotherhood and graduate brothers. Gamma Tau’s new fall pledge class includes: Jack Anderson, Caleb Appleton, Gerald Demeunynck, Eric Ellenbogen, Mike Hashimoto, DJ Hoffer, Darryn Hutchinson, Randall Hymel, Neil Koszsuch, Merrick Metcalf, Tahmid Mohiuddin, Robert Overholt, Austin Poole, Keenan Valdez, Nema Vojdani, and Nate Williams. DEAN DULL AWARD The Gamma Tau Chapter won the coveted Dean Dull Award for the 2009-10 school year! The award goes to the best overall fraternity at Georgia Tech. Fraternities are scored on scholarship, athletics, leadership, philanthropy, homecoming, Greek week, educational programming, and other aspects of Greek life. The award was announced last fall at the Georgia Tech Homecoming game against the University of Virginia. Gamma Tau earned one of its best GPA’s last spring with an average GPA of 3.22! This was the second highest GPA on campus for the semester. Winning Dean Dull has been a major goal for the fraternity, and the brothers have worked extremely hard to earn it back. The award has been a great motivation for the chapter to excel on campus, and Gamma Tau will strive to outstandingly represent the Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta at Georgia Tech. The winner of the 2010-11 Dean Dull will be announced during halftime of the homecoming game this year on October 29. We have high hopes that we can maintain our title as best fraternity on campus. Come out and support your brothers! PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS continued... (Continued from page 1) ing the highest scholarship among undergraduate chapters. Furthermore, for 28 consecutive years now, Gamma Tau has received a Certificate for Superior Academic Achievement. Also, Gamma Tau received the John Templeton McCarty Chapter Proficiency Award which has been awarded to our chapter 24 consecutive years, which is the third longest continuous streak for any Phi Gamma Delta chapter. Despite Greek recruitment numbers being down from the previous year, our chapter still acquired one of the largest pledge classes on campus with 17 pledges and had the best bid acceptance percentage on campus at 45%. Our recruitment success continues to come from the many “Your support will only exemplify our motto “Not for college days alone.” contacts we receive from graduates and an extensive summer rush program led by Rush Chairmen Matt Mills (2013) and Chas Plaisance (2013). In closing, I want to encourage your personal involvement with our chapter. Our Purple Legionnaire, Troy Coons (1998), is doing an awesome job at organizing graduates to share their fraternity experiences with the chapter and how Gamma Tau contributed to their success. Your support will only exemplify our motto “Not for college days alone.” I’d also like to invite you all to attend our Homecoming tailgate on October 29 where (hopefully) we’ll all be \r\nPage 3 GAMMA TAUK FIJI RUN FOR THE KIDS Each year since 1998, the Gamma Tau Chapter at Georgia Tech and the Kappa Deuteron Chapter at the University of Georgia have hosted the annual FIJI Run for the Kids fundraising event. Both chapters collaborate to run a football between Athens and Atlanta for the Georgia-Georgia Tech football game on Thanksgiving weekend. This year, the 2011 FIJI Run for the Kids event will be held on November 26, as a football is run from UGA to Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, GA. Last year, with the help of over 80 brothers at both chapters, alongside generous donations from friends and family, we were able to raise nearly $13,000. Our goal this year is to raise $15,000 with the help of friends, family, and corporate sponsorships. 100% of the money raised is donated to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Children’s mission is to become the leading voice for the health of Georgia’s children as they provide treatment and enhance the lives of children with illnesses in Atlanta. If you would like to support our chapters and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, please visit: http:// fijirunforthekids.weebly.com/ index.html to donate through our secure online portal. If you prefer to send a check by mail, please send your check to: FIJI Run for the Kids c/o Nicholas Keith 841 Fowler St. NW Atlanta, GA 30313 Please make your check payable to “Children's Healthcare of Atlanta” and be sure to include FIJI Run for the Kids in the memo line. Any support for Children’s Healthcare is greatly appreciated by both of our chapters and the Atlanta community. ANOTHER GREAT YEAR OF ATHLETICS 2011 has been yet another great year in Fiji athletics thus far. This past spring, the chapter won the intramural trophy for its ninth straight year. This trophy has grown comfortable here over the years, finding its home here the last 14 out of 15 years. Our diverse athleticism has proven beneficial in the hunt for the intramural trophy. So far, we have brought home three championships, including dodgeball, co-rec dodgeball and 3 v. 3 basketball. We hope to achieve many more this fall as we look to regain the rights to the trophy. This fall began a new calendar year, and a promising one at that. To begin the school year, the A-League flag football team won the “Fall Classic,” a tournament held at the beginning of each school year. The team is currently ranked sixth in the school standings. Brothers after winning the 4 on 4 fraternity basketball championship. 2011 Gamma Tau Accomplishments 4-on-4 Flag Football Fraternity Champions 4-on-4 Flag Football School Champions 7-on-7 Flag Football Fraternity Champions Basketball Fraternity Runner-Up 3-on-3 Basketball Fraternity Champions 3-on-3 Basketball School Runner-Up Indoor Soccer Fraternity Champions Indoor Soccer School Runner-Up Ultimate Frisbee Fraternity Champions Dodgeball School Champions Dodgeball Fraternity Champions Sand Volleyball Fraternity Champions Cornhole Fraternity Champions \r\nNonprofit Org Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity 1201 Red Mile Road Lexington, KY 40504 US Postage Paid Lexington, KY Permit # 540 STAY CONNECTED - Chapter Website: gtfiji.com - Grad Website: gtfijigrads.com Information Update - Tell us about you! Please detach and return with your contact information so we can update our records. We will feature graduate updates in upcoming newsletters. If you want to share your recent news, fill in the news section for your information to be published. Name________________________________________________ School/year__________________________ Address_________________________________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip_____________________________________________________________________________ Phone (H)______________________________________(W)_______________________________________ E-mail__________________________________________________________________________________ News to share with classmates: _________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ Occupation ___________________________________ Employer ____________________________________ Spouse’s name __________________________________ Anniversary Date ______________________________ Children/Grandchildren Names and Ages: __________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ DONATE I am pleased to make a contribution to Gamma Tau of : $1,000 $500 $250 $100 $50 $25 Other ________ I would like my donation to be used in the following area: _______________________________________________ Donations can be sent to: Gamma Tau Chapter, 841 Fowler St NW, Atlanta, GA 30313. 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