The Chi Iota Chronicle v Above: Everyone helped out putting lights up during December - the house looked great! Upcoming Events • Pig Dinner - April 2nd (see page 3 for details) • Atius - April 8th - 9th • Mom’s Weekend - April 8th-10th Fiji Goes To Kentucky Fiji welcomed 21 new brothers to our ranks on January 29th. The men of the Mu class finished out their pledging semester with flying colors, and were all initiated in better-than-good standing! We are all excited to welcome them to the brotherhood. The Mu class is one of the strongest classes to come through Fiji since rechartering, both in numbers and in quality gentlemen. It seems certain we will see plenty of future leaders in the Mu class that will do great things for the fraternity. They Grow Up So Fast... A handful of the Mu’s decided to move in a semester earlier than most of the other brothers in the Mu class. 5 of our new brothers moved in right after break. Justin caught up with Sam Taylor, one of the Mu’s that moved in, and asked him a few questions about his experience thus far: Continued on Page 3 Pictured Above: The Mu Class! (most of them) Above: Fiji and company working hard on Habitat projects. Many hands make light work. 2 0 11 Congrats To The Mu Class! This past winter, brother Chad Heins, CJ Rundell, Kevin Happ, Donnie Amfahr, Chris Johnson, Jason Wandrey, Cole Murray, Nick Parilo, Doug Klein, Eric Miedema, myself, and graduate brother Rick Bach traveled to Lexington, Kentucky, where we assisted Habitat for Humanity with their preparation for this upcoming build season. We stayed at Bluegrass Christian Camp, a small yet mildly scenic facility, set just outside of civilization in the small town of Athens. The camp provided heated cabins, 8 bunkbeds, hot showers, restrooms, an industrial kitchen, a dining area, and a living area so we weren’t exactly “roughing” it. Each day kicked off with a 7am alarm and meeting the Habitat representatives by 8:15. Despite a bunkbed collapsing, a water pipe bursting, and a gas leak in the kitchen, the guys and I always arrived full of enthusiasm and ready for anything. After meeting with the Habitat representatives, we went straight to work. Early in the week, work consisted of cleaning and organizing the workshop, moving several hundred pounds of donated lumber, and constructing roughly 60 door frames, door jams, and window frames. On Wednesday, we all donned what looked like white astronaut suits in preparation for paint bulking; the technical term for recycling paint. we sorted paint, crushed cans, dried and threw out bad Spring Sam Taylor - Mu Class What brought you to FIJI? I was looking for an element of brotherhood similar to the Naval Academy (where I transferred from), and I really just wanted to meet people. I really took a liking to the FIJI brothers and thought it’d be a great place for me. Why did you want to move in early? Well, I’m not really sure exactly when I’ll be graduating and I’m a junior at the moment, so I wanted to get as much of the in-house experience as possible. Plus, I’m naturally a quiet guy, so living in the house gives me more of an opportunity to really get to know the brothers. What do you like and dislike about living in the house? I like having people to hang out with a few feet away and lots of open doors all the way down the hall. If anything, my only dislike is living up here in the corner of the house. How do you plan on getting further involved in FIJI? I voiced my desire to get involved just recently and got some great responses. I was approached about becoming part of Pledge Ed. and I was all for it. I also want to help with the Pig Dinner preparations. \r\nA New Year, A New Cabinet Fiji welcomes it’s new administration Tyler Sendt Chapter President Justin Thiems Treasurer Meet the new cabinet! Who better to introduce our new cabinet than cabinet themselves! The guys in suits and ties put together these short bio pieces to help you get acquainted with who’s pulling the strings around the FIJI house these days. My name is Tyler Sendt and I am the newly elected President of FIJI. I am a sophomore studying Math and a proud member of the Fall 2009 Kappa Class. My major interests include golf, fishing, baseball, and movies. My biggest motivation to become a cabinet member is that I want to see this fraternity continue in the direction it is going. We have increasing pledge classes each year, and our involvement on campus has increased greatly. In five years, I would like to see this fraternity in its own house, with an active member size around 100, remaining in the top 5 in grades on campus, and competing for national awards from International Headquarters. Hello, I’m Justin Drawz. I am the new Corresponding Secretary and also the only current cabinet member part of the Lambda pledge class. I am a sophomore in Bioengineering and as of now plan to attain a MD-PhD. I am part of a single-molecule imaging research group and the Biomedical Engineering Society. Aside from that, I enjoy writing and filming (look out for our up and coming FIJI films!). I wanted to become a cabinet member because that seemed the most accessible way of giving back to my fantastic brothers. I hope our chapter continues its success and is internationally recognized for our quality. Until further correspondence! Hi, I’m Justin Thiems and I am a sophomore in chemical engineering and a proud member of the kappa class of FIJI. Most of my time is dedicated to class work and the fraternity, however, I also participate in Engineering Open House and mentor 3 groups of students. I enjoy fishing, hunting, and most anything in the outdoors. In order to give back to the fraternity that has given me so many opportunities, I decided to run for treasurer. Now that I have been elected, I aim to refine the chapters financial systems and collection strategies. This in hopes that the chapter will have the financial means to become a nationally recognized chapter of Phi Gamma Delta! Nate Burns Recording Secretary Mark McGinnis Historian Hi I’m Mark. I’m a psychology major, and on campus I am a member of the Illini Illusionists, and am now Fiji’s new Historian. I wanted to be Historian because I want to build better men for our Fraternity from the ground up. I get to be in charge of recruitment, pledge education and brotherhood as well. I really just wanted to give back to FIJI all that I have gained from it. As far as forecasting the future, I just want a place where I can come back as a graduate brother and feel at home. Hi, I’m Nate, and I am Fiji’s recording secretary. I am a member of the kappa class, and My major is Molecular and Cellular Biology. I hope to achieve admittance into a dental school with this degree. On campus I am also involved in the Pre-Dental Club, Orange Krush, and I coach a 5th-6th grade basketball team for the Urban Park District. My motivation for become a cabinet member sparked earlier this year. Moving into the chapter house and becoming closer with my brothers made me realize what this fraternity can really do to help build character, provide for your community, and make life long friends. Since realizing this I have taken every opportunity possible to get everything possible out of my commitment to this fraternity. I see this chapter winning international FIJI awards within the next five years. Perge! Justin Drawz Corresponding Secretary The Man With The Master Key Underpaid. Under-appreciated. Misunderstood. Mistreated. House Managers never seem to catch too many breaks when they sign up for the new year. It’s a turbulent ride filled with plenty of whiny brothers with something to fix or a problem to resolve. House Manager is a position that is crucial to the everyday function of the fraternity, yet cabinet manages to eclipse these poor souls entirely, stealing the adoration of the public and basking in thez the fame. This years new House Manager, Brett Munkres, sat down with the Chronicle to talk about his role, why House Manager is important, and what he does for the fraternity. Brett Munkres Major: Mechanical Engineering What are your plans for the future? I want to work for a company that deals in product design. What made you decide to take on the House Manager position? I felt like I would be good at it. I had the skill set required and I felt like it was a good way to give back to the chapter. What does the House Manager have to deal everyday in their position? A lot of mundane things like changing toilet paper, but also many critical things such as collecting rent, enforcing house regulations, and making sure the house follows fire code. Advice for future House Managers? Don’t take things personally and pace yourself with work around the house; the worst thing you can do is get burnt out early. \r\nFiji in Kentucky Continued from page 1 paint, and even mixed 2 batches of recycled paint to be sold in the Habitat store, which we dubbed Skipping Stone and FIJI Sunrise. We finally got on site for Thursday and Friday, helping Habitat to finish a home that they were dedicating the following week. On site, we installed several appliances, installed 2 doors, nailed and painted wood trimming, and put up siding. We worked hard all week and were even complemented on being the best crew Habitat has had to date. After working hard each day, us Chi Iota brothers had a lot of free time, which we spent a number of ways. Aside from frequent trips to Wal-Mart for food and supplies, we also visited the Buffalo Trace Distillery, ate at the famed Parkette Drive-In and Diner, and even paid a short visit to the KU campus for pizza and the BCS Championship. But of course, no trip to Lexington, KY would be complete without stopping by Phi Gamma Delta International Headquarters. We were lucky enough to receive a full tour from Chi Iota’s own Josh Laufenberg, seeing everything from the Phi Gamma Delta Museum to the newly hung color portraits of the Immortal Six. The trip was a huge success and the brothers of Chi Iota are highly anticipating our next Habitat trip. Scholarship. Fraternity. Self. The key that makes or breaks great college students, great brothers, and great men is time management. On any given day in Fiji you can find brothers studying in every nook and cranny with a table or a flat surface in the house. The men of Chi Iota are truly disciplined students that care about their future. As such, they show that dedication every year when the grade reports come rolling in. For the fall semester of 2010, Phi Gamma Delta placed 4th out of 45 IFC chapters in academics, with an average GPA of 3.28! Phi Gamma Delta at UIUC was also recognized as an exceptional chapter through IFC’s Illinois Greek Initiative program. Hopefully we improve even more this semester! Come find us online at youtube.com/illinifiji to see what goes on at 2nd and Daniel in glorious HD. We will be posting new videos periodically, so make sure you subscribe! Join us for Pig Dinner! m bjo s e p h s @ g ma il.c om H o p e to se e yo u i n A pr il! Chi Iota is looking to send out more frequent updates through email and through our official website: illinifiji. org. Our new webmaster Jay Prombo did a great job completely overhauling the website, and one of the new features he added is the option to make an account and profile. If you haven’t already, head over to the website and register, all you need is a valid email and a username of your choosing and you’ll be on your way. Hopefully, this way we can create a place for undergrad and grad brothers to keep up with each other and keep up with whats going on at Chi Iota. Join us on - By Matt Josephs P i g D i n n e r w i l l be h e l d th i s year on Apr il 2 n d i n s i d e th e U n i on ri gh t on the m ain q u a d . L a s t yea r’ s P i g D i nn e r was a lot o f f u n a n d a l l th e C hi Iota s w er e able to m e e t a l o t o f grad u a te broth e r s fr om all o v e r t h e cou n try. T h i s ye a r’ s Pig Din n e r i s h e a d e d up by ou r o w n M att Jo se p h s , w h o’ l l u n d o u b te d l y make this one a m e m o r a b l e eve n t for e ve ryone in atten d a n c e . M o r e de ta i l s w i l l b e a n n o unced as we a p p r o a c h Apri l . If you h a ve a n y questions, co m m e n t s , o r co n ce rns , d o n ’ t hesitate to co n t a c t M a tt Jose p h s vi a em ail at Want to recieve updates? sign up for an account on illinifiji.org! XIFIJI The Chi Iota Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta is located at: 902 South 2nd street, Champaign, IL 61820 Let us know what you’ve been up to. It’s always nice to hear from grads, so drop us a line. Let us know what you have been up to. We’d like to feature grad updates in future releases, so if you have the chance, contact us by emailing our grad relations chair: Danny Hahn at hahn17@illinois.edu