Gamma Tau of Phi Gamma Delta GAMMA TAUK Spring 2011 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS By: Dan Mantenfel (2011), Chapter President Brothers, It is my pleasure to update the brotherhood on the success Gamma Tau has shared this past semester, which culminated in being honored with the Dean Dull Award for best all-around fraternity. The fall semester began with another strong rush that brought in another pledge class of over 20 men, which ranked among the top few on campus. Moreover, they have done an outstanding job learning about the chapter, growing together as a pledge class, and becoming increasingly acclimated to the brotherhood. We look forward to seeing their contributions to the house in the near future. We would like to extend a heartfelt “thank you” to all of you who gave us recruitment contacts or helped us in the rush process in any way. Please continue to submit names to the rush chairmen at rush@gtfiji.com and help us to continue our recruitment success. We continue to place a strong emphasis on academics and philanthropy, and our hard work is evident. Gamma Tau achieved a 3.14 GPA for the year, which ranked 3rd among 32 fraternities. Gamma Tau also had an incredibly strong showing in philanthropy through our annual Habitat for Humanity trip during fall break, our blood drive partnership with the Red Cross, our philanthropy tailgate with Phi Mu to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network, and our upcoming FIJI Run for the Kids event. We have earned the top spot among all fraternities for these philanthropy efforts. (Continued on page 2) HOUSE INITIATIVE UPDATE By: Jordan Leach (2011) 2011 will no doubt be an exciting and historic year for Gamma Tau and the House Construction Initiative. As we head into our fourth year of planning, I have some very exciting and positive news to share in this update. In 2010, this initiative became much more formal as we engaged the professional support of two firms to assist us. Our goal is not only to provide the chapter a new house on campus, but also to regroup our alumni relations around this exciting milestone in the chapter’s history. By engaging in local profes- sionals with specific experience in fraternity fund raising and architectural design, we are ensuring the success of this initiative. Our fund raising consultants, The Laurus Group (www.thelaurusgroup.net), have been hard at work laying the foundation for a successful fundraising campaign. The formal campaign, named “A New House, An Old Tradition” has been receiving financial support from our graduate brothers for about six months now. We are excited to share with you that we have approximately $850K pledged so far! Included in this impressive amount is a 100% participation rate pledge by our current undergrads, whose donations will start the year they graduate from Georgia Tech. We are using this early momentum of financial support to gear up for our formal capital campaign which we plan on launching at Pig Dinner this year, on April 16, 2011. Our end goal, as designated from our 2010 Campaign Feasibility Study, is to raise over $2M. This goal will allow for the House (Continued on page 3) Join us for Pig Dinner - April 16 Dinner will be held this year at Park Tavern (only 5 minutes from the house at 500 10th Street, Atlanta, GA) from 6-10:00 pm. www.parktavern.com Carpooling will be provided from the house to Park Tavern. You can RSVP via the graduate website (gtfijigrads.com) or by email to one of the two Graduate Relations Chairmen: Stephen Fausel (sfausel3@gatech.edu) or Brett Kubica (bkubica3@gatech.edu). Advantage to RSVP online is that you can pay with a credit card, if you choose to RSVP via email, then cash must be provided at the event. The cost for dinner this year is $35. \r\nGAMMA TAUK Page 2 ATHLETIC DOMINATION This past year, Phi Gamma Delta won the Overall Fraternity Athletic Trophy and has won the trophy 13 out of the past 14 years. This year, FIJI won with a total of 304 points, a solid 62 points ahead of second place. FIJI athletics fielded 60+ teams in the 16 different intramural sports, the most out of any other fraternity on campus. FIJI continued its athletic dominance this fall receiving an unprecedented 168 points for the fall, 56 points ahead of any other fraternity, and is on track for another Athletic Trophy for the 2010-2011 school year. 2009-2010 Gamma Tau - Athletic Accomplishments Softball Fraternity Runner Up Softball School Runner-Up 4-on-4 Flag Football Fraternity Champs 4-on-4 Flag Football School Champions 7-on-7 Flag Football Fraternity Runner-up Basketball Fraternity Runner-Up 3-on-3 Basketball Fraternity Champions 3-on-3 Basketball School Runner-Up Flag Football Fraternity Champions Flag Football School Runner-Up Indoor Soccer Fraternity Champions Indoor Soccer School Runner-Up Indoor Soccer Fraternity Champions Indoor Soccer School Champions Ultimate Frisbee Fraternity Champions Dodgeball School Champions Dodgeball Fraternity Champions DEAN DULL AWARD RECIPIENTS! The Gamma Tau Chapter won the coveted Dean Dull Award for the 2009-2010 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 this fall at the Georgia Tech Homecoming game against the University of Virginia. Gamma Tau earned one of its best GPAs 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. 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. PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS continued... (Continued from page 1) FIJI Run for the Kids is our annual fundraiser held during Thanksgiving break where brothers from Kappa Deuteron and Gamma Tau team up to run a football relay style from the school of the away team to the school of the home team to raise money for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Gamma Tau has raised over $80,000 in the past four years and the event has been publicized through the AJC, Athens Banner-Herald, and local news channels. If you would like to donate your time or money, please contact Danny Guigou at runforthekids@gtfiji.com. Phi Gam athletics has continued to dominate, winning the intramural trophy in the spring and working its way to the top of the standings for the fall semester. Our social calendar has been filled with mixers, a famous couples date night, a pumpkin carving date night, and a Halloween Party, all of which were very successful. At the end of the semester, we had a Christmas party and our annual semiformal. As a Brotherhood, we made a road trip up to the Georgia Tech-Clemson game and attended a Hawks game. Homecoming was a thrilling time for us for several reasons: the unveiling of our new plaques for graduate donors in the 18.48 and 8.41 clubs, FIJI placing well in the homecoming events, Georgia Tech taking home a victory against Virginia, and Gamma Tau being announced as the winner of the 2009-2010 Dean Dull Award for best fraternity on campus. As a Chapter, we are very grateful for all of the support we have been fortunate to receive this past year. There were a number of trials and tribulations, but Gamma Tau was persistent and came out on top. “As a Chapter, we are very grateful for all of the support we have been fortunate to receive this past year.” As we look forward, I invite you to take an interest in the chapter and the achievements of its brothers. Your support is always welcomed, encouraged and appreciated at Gamma Tau. Please see the website for more information and explore www.gtfijigrads.com for updates from your fellow graduates. “Not for college days alone...” Perge! \r\nPage 3 GAMMA TAUK PHILANTHROPY The 2010 Annual FIJI Run For The Kids was held on November 26, 2010. 100% of the money raised has been donated to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Children's helps kids with terminal illness in the local Atlanta community. Each year since 1998, the Kappa Deuteron Chapter at the University of Georgia and the Gamma Tau Chapter at Georgia Tech have collaborated to run a football between Athens and Atlanta for the annual GeorgiaGeorgia Tech football game on Thanksgiving weekend. Approximately 50 brothers from both chapters worked together to carry the game ball the 74 miles between the two colleges. Together we raised nearly $15,000. Other philanthropic ventures included two successful campuswide blood drives with the American Red Cross and the annual Fiji Fall Break where 120 brothers and their guests traveled to Jacksonville, FL to assist Habitat for Humanity. The house has also been extremely active in supporting IFC philanthropy initiatives with St. Baldricks ($500 raised) and Movember. Brother Reyes getting his head shaved at St. Baldricks. RUSH UPDATE After the chapter’s second year of successful summer rush, Gamma Tau had 17 outstanding pledges this fall. The rush chairs organized a summer full of World Cup viewings, Braves games, trips to the lake, and of course rafting, which helped piece together the third largest pledge class on campus. The chapter is extremely grateful that graduate contacts accounted for three of our pledges. Please feel free to contact the rush chairs at anytime with potential contacts. Gamma Tau’s new initiates are: Jackson Chandler, Austin Delk, Will England, Camilo Espinosa, Andrew Filipowski, Brad Fulkerson, Pouria Garrett, Devon Hathaway, Matthew Heidkamp, Cameron Jones, Greg O’Neal, Kyle Quick, Dylan Robideux, Lisandro Sagastume, Andrew Taylor, Jim Thwaits, and Corey Wesselink. 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. Thanks! Gamma Tau’s new spring pledge class includes: Sean Capps, Richard Park, Devon Hathaway, and Clay Greene. House Initiative Update continued... (Continued from page 1) can share with you our preliminary designs and renderings at Pig Dinner 2011. Corporation to minimize the loan it will need to complete the project and reduce the overall financial burden and risk to the chapter. We have performed extensive pro forma analyses and are confident that we can both achieve our goals and keep the chapter safe in terms of budget operations. With this exciting progress in mind, we would like to call for your support of this initiative. We are continuously seeking both financial support and support through other means. If you have the time or capacity to give to this initiative, please do not hesitate to contact us at the information below. Our second professional firm we have engaged is Richard Wittschiebe Hand architects (www.rhwdesign.com), which in December 2010 started working with us to begin the conceptual designs for our new house. We plan on working on these designs through the early part of this year, with the expectation that we Please mark your calendars to attend this historic and important Pig Dinner, which will center on the chapter’s future with a new house. We have also updated our alumni website, www.gtfijigrads.com, to include information on this initiative to date. We are looking forward to an exciting and successful year for Gamma Tau! See you at Pig Dinner! Gamma Tau Chapter House Construction Initiative Steering Committee Chair Greg Robbins (1968) jgregoryrobbins@me.com – 513.850.5182 Building Committee Chair Alex Demestihas (2005) alex.demestihas@gmail.com – 678.644.0757 House Corporation President Marc Perla (1992) \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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