T he T iger F iji Chi Sigma Chapter at Colorado College ‐ Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity ‐ Fall 2012 Edition A NOTE FROM THE CHAPTER PRESIDENT By: Charles D. Noel (2013) - Chapter President 2012 has proven a monumental year for Chi Sigma here on campus. We have just undergone our first Field Secretary visit and I look forward to sharing the results as soon as they are returned. I assure you we are in excellent standing with the International Headquarters and the campus itself. As brothers and as an organization, we are collectively working together to continue to weave ourselves into the fabric at the Colorado College. We have made many changes this year, namely in terms of recruitment. We adapted a new model—People Join People, not an organization. Brothers Johnny Reed (2013) and David Wright (2015) worked tirelessly to secure an 18 man pledge class. This is an exciting moment for us because we will be graduating 22 seniors in May. I have every faith that we will all replace ourselves. To us 22 freshmen and sophomores means that the process of colonization is complete as the founding fathers “Today, Chi Sigma is the strongest fraternity at Colorado College.” graduate. I look forward to watching our new initiates take the reins as our brothers move on. Our mission at Chi Sigma is to offer a framework from which our brothers are able to express themselves and build a skillset that compliments the high quality education they receive in the classroom. Thanks to Brother Kirksey, we have implemented a new visiting speaker program. This program is open to professors, alumni, parents and students, • Chi Sigma welcomed 18 giving them the chance to new pledges this year. share their ideas, opportunities or interests with • This fall , FIJI-Theta the chapter. Chi Sigma’s hosted Psychedelic Bowlvisiting speaker program ing with over 500 attenextends into the pledge dees and benefits going to class as well. Brother the American Red Cross. Smith has welcomed our current Field Secretary, • What are you doing now? Russell Ward (LSU 2012) Send us your updates to and former Field Secretary include in a future newsletDavid Smith (UCLA 1987) ter. See the form on the to share their experiences as back page to find out how. Fijis. Things to Know I firmly believe that this year will decide the fate of Chi (Continued on page 2) CHI SIGMA AAA SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS Academic Achievement Awards (AAA) are just one benefit the Phi Gamma Delta Educational Foundation provides to undergraduate brothers - a $250 check to new initiates for achieving at least a 3.0 GPA during their pledge term. Phi Gamma Delta is the only national fraternity or sorority to offer this blanketed scholarship that helps get our new brothers focused on their academics. Thanks to those donors who support the Phi Gamma Delta Educational Foundation. Since its inception in 1999, AAA scholarships have been awarded to 44 Chi Sigma brothers, including the brothers listed below who received the AAA this year: Gabriel D. Patterson 2013 Kangmin Kim 2015 Jon J. Kirksey 2015 Zachary D. Smith 2015 \r\nThe Tiger Fiji Page 2 A VERY SOCIAL GROUP By: David Wright (2015) - Social Chairman This year began as yet another busy and active fall semester for everyone involved in the school and the fraternity. Having officially chartered last year, FIJI now has a more stable presence on campus and can breathe a bit, though the pursuit for more will never stop. Arguably the most unique part of this chapter is the proactivity of its members to become involved not only in the fraternity, but so many different campus organizations as well. As Colorado College is not a school dominated by Greek life, the challenge to succeed is a tall order. The only way to do so is by encouraging all involved to get out and explore the other facets of this beautiful school’s existence. Though we have participated in social events as a group or as representatives of the group, the main social focus lies in the hands of each individual. Group social events have included large gatherings with the sororities on campus in order to reach out and interact with the lovely ladies, delivering flowers or food to the sororities to greet and welcome them this academic year, and most likely hosting psychedelic bowling (an all-campus event where everyone dresses silly, bowls, and has a blast) with another fraternity on campus. On an individual basis, however, multiple brothers led freshmen orientation trips out into different parts of Colorado and New Mexico, many participate in student government (including the class president), six are a part of the newly formed President’s Council of 21, and several lead other campus organizations. One pledge participated in a slam-poetry event, and one brother even debated against the Air Force concerning the presidential election in a well-attended event (filling Armstrong theater past capacity). The social aim is not necessarily to direct the group as one, but instead for the older students to introduce younger students into what they enjoy on campus and show them how to participate in a number of different things. Though the fraternity does work collectively to meet people and engage as a unit, the work done by individuals throughout campus is what makes CC FIJI so interesting. Everyone doing so much individually comes together in the fraternity to improve their values and habitual practices. A NOTE FROM THE CHAPTER PRESIDENT continued... (Continued from page 1) Sigma. This chapter will not only succeed, but thrive! Over the next few months, FIJI will see a massive shift. As we graduate the majority of our class, we will move from groups of friends who joined an organization to an organization people join to establish a group of friends. To realize that reality, we are fostering the closest pledge class yet. We hope that the closeness of this pledge class with each other and the initiated brothers will serve as an exemplar for brotherhood and Greek life in general on this campus. Today, Chi Sigma is the strongest fraternity at Colorado College. We are nearly three times the size of our counterparts Sigma Chi and Kappa Sigma. Academically we hold a cumulative 3.5 GPA, higher than all other Greek organizations. That said, we do not want to stand out as the only fraternity on this campus. Healthy competition leads to healthy growth. As such, we have extended our hand to the other fraternities and established a functioning IFC that intends to mirror the strong and sustainable relationships the sororities have fostered at CC over the last century. Phi Gamma Delta is “not for college days alone.” As 22 brothers graduate and enter the workforce, we are eager as the first graduates of this newly established chapter to create a network to support future graduates. In the end, this is a big year for FIJI, and we’re feeling great about the future! Feel free to contact me or our Corresponding Secretary if you have any questions or are interested in participating in our visiting speaker program. Brothers Brooks Fleet (2015) and Reed Gorsage (2013) hold court at a recent chapter meeting. The chapter is very proud to have a newly renovated house this year. \r\nThe Tiger Fiji Page 3 PHILANTHROPY STILL THRIVES By: Stephen Gayle (2014) This year we've taken great strides in community service and philanthropy. After chartering last year, we organized our annual Psychedelic Bowling event. This event involved renting a bowling alley and providing 500 tickets for students to go bowling and all proceeds went to the Red Cross. We have also continued serving the greater Colorado Springs community through the Colorado College Community Kitchen. Every Sunday, brothers volunteer at the on-campus soup kitchen and benefit from the experience of serving a needy population of people from outside of the CC community. Something new we did this year was or- Brothers (from left) Nate Liss (2013), Charlie Noel (2013) and Johnny Reed (2013) setting-up the FIJI-Theta Fun Run. ganize the FIJI Fun Run in conjunction with Kappa Alpha Theta. This event was open to Colorado College and the proceeds went to the USO. All in all, we have had a successful year as far as community service goes and we hope to participate in more philanthropy events next year. Some of the ladies from Kappa Alpha and the gentlemen of Chi Sigma enjoying pizza at the finish line of the FIJI-Theta Fun Run for the Troops. CHAPTER TREASURER REPORT By: Kai Ory (2013) - Chapter Treasurer As we start our first full year as a fully chartered chapter, we have remained in sound financial condition. We are grateful and fortunate for the support of our graduate brothers and some parents. With their support, we have been able to meet our financial obligations, while keeping dues relatively low, and still having money left over to give to charitable organizations, fund brotherhood events, and fund our small but growing academic scholarship program. I am very thankful to Colby Diamond (2013), my predecessor, for his financial insight and organization, which has made maintaining the fraternity’s financial stability easy. This year, we have already been able to help fund events such as the FIJI-Theta Fun Run for the Troops, an all-campus event which raised money and awareness for the USO. We have also been able to fund social outings such as going to see the new James Bond movie together. We look forward to being able to fund similar events during the remainder of the semester. As with any new organization, we are still trying to obtain more financial flexibility so that we can achieve more of our goals. Looking to the future, there are several long-term goals we have. First, we would like to be able to buy furniture for our vastly unfurnished house. Secondly, we would like to be able to fund several scholarship opportunities for our members. The first of these is an academic scholarship, which will reward brothers for scholastic achievements and exemplary GPAs. We would also like to be able to fund service scholarships to reward those who exceed our service hour requirements. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we would like to set up a need-based scholarship to help those brothers who struggle to meet their financial obligations. With our commitment to keeping dues low, we will need to do large amounts of fundraising to meet these goals. We are always looking for ways to improve and expand. If you have any suggestions or advice, we love hearing from our graduates! We would love to have you become involved in any of our initiatives or suggest new goals for us. Please contact me at Kai.Ory@coloradocollege.edu if you have questions, would like to make a donation, or become more involved with the fraternity. \r\nThe Tiger Fiji Page 4 FIJI FLASHBACK October 7, 1983 (l to r) Steve Louis (1984), Brad Burghart (1978), Former Fraternity Executive Director Bill Zerman (Michigan 1949) and Kelly Powers (1984) at the 75th Anniversary Celebration at The Broadmoor Hotel. May 1, 1948 Chi Sigma brothers at the Regional Centennial Year Founder’s Day Banquet at The Broadmoor Hotel. 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: ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ CONTRIBUTE TO CHI SIGMA I am pleased to make a contribution to Chi Sigma 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: Chi Sigma Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta c/o Andrew Baird, 902 N Cascade Wb # 1637, Colorado Springs, CO 80946-0001. Make checks payable to Chi Sigma of Phi Gamma Delta. Design and emailing services provided by the International Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta.