Brainstorm Alpha Tota Chapter - Phi Gamma Delta - Spring 2010 (enya aA ee - — = letter from the 2 ee) —— aces TCily er * ; ‘ aa ay \r\nDear Brothers, Greetings from Alpha Iota! We hope this letter finds you well. As usual, spring semester has kept 325 Ash very busy. With Greek Week, VEISHEA and Pig Dinner behind us, we anticipate a summer filled with internships, recruitment and the second summer of third party renting. Looking back at the past year Alpha Iota has a lot of recent accomplishments to be proud of. Most recently we were awarded the Cardinal Circle of Fraternal Excellence award, which means that we are accomplishing at least 85% of the Greek Community’s recommended practices. This is certainly a sign of a very healthy chapter. Our International Headquarters has recognized us with an astonishing number of awards in the past year. First of all, congratulations to Wes Cole ‘62, the 2009 recipient of the Coulter Cup! The Coulter Cup is awarded to the graduate brother who has contributed the most to an undergraduate chapter through service in a capacity other than as a Purple Legionnaire or General Officer. Alpha Iota also received an honorable mention for the Brightman Trophy. This is awarded annually to the chapter that has done the most to maintain and improve graduate relations in the past year. Another honorable mention was awarded to us through the Coon Plaque for our work on the Brainstorm. This award is presented for the best chapter publication in the fraternity year. And if that isn’t enough, for the 12th year in a row, Alpha Iota has been recognized with the John Templeton McCarty Award. Chapters receive this award for overall proficiency in operations, adhering to fraternity laws and for the promotion of the high standards of Phi Gamma Delta. We are also very proud to report a house GPA last fall of 2.93, continuing our trend of ranking in the top 10 of 28 fraternities. This past fall marked an improvement of .16 from the fall of 2008. We are assiduously pursuing our goal of 3.025 for this spring semester. Achieving this will put us well above the all-Greek GPA at Iowa State University. As our fraternity continues expansion to new campuses in an effort to be 170 chapters strong by our 170th anniversary, Alpha Iota has been honored to help the cause. This past fall, brothers from Alpha Iota jumped at the invitation to help recruit for the Mu Deuteron colony at University of Iowa. Congratulations to the “Mu Du” chapter on making a remarkable return to the Iowa campus with the recruitment of 22 men who will be excited to call 303 Ellis their chapter house this coming September. Recruitment within the chapter is certainly on an upswing. Our recruitment chairmen have set an ambitious goal of a recruitment class of 30. We consider recruitment to be an all house effort. The work of every brother contributed to the stellar retention of 90% last fall. Considering the results of this year coupled with the ambitions for next year, it is reasonable to forecast nearly 100 members this fall, up from the current 74. At current numbers, this would move us from the fifth largest house to the number one largest fraternity in our community! As we grow larger and continue these successes we look forward to relying more heavily on the invaluable guidance and support of our dedicated graduate advisors including our Section Chief Pete McNally ‘90, Purple Legionnaire Scott Moore ‘96, and our hard working House Corporation and Board of Chapter Advisors. \r\nThis fall will bring another round of Philanthropies. Our current committee has three philanthropies in the works. Two of these events have been past successes: FIJI S’more Roast and the Drake Basketball Run. Stay tuned for the third event, which is still in the early planning stage. Alpha Iota has a lot to be proud of. We have even more to look forward to. We want to continue to become the kind of chapter that exemplifies what it means to be a Cheney cup house. We want to align ourselves with the ideals that our founding fathers have set forth for our fraternity. And through all this we will never forget the ties of brotherhood that bond us together, for our love for one another is our fraternity’s greatest strength. So as we move forward, let us constantly remind ourselves of who we are and what we stand for. And together let’s strive to bring out the best in Phi Gamma Delta, because Phi Gamma Delta brings out the best in all of us. Fraternally, Thomas J. Crary President Pergé! With summer upon us once again the new faces of recruitment are pushing for unprecedented numbers. Alex Sash has taken up the responsibility of head chair with Ryan Goetzl as his co-chair. They developed a new program with the help of Eric Kvam ’91 to recruit more potential members, called the Fiji Expansion Challenge. The program offers sorority houses a chance to receive money for the philanthropy of their choice in return for the names of young men they know. They get one point for putting a valid name down, one point if he joins our Facebook group, and five points if he signs a bid card to our house. The girl awarded the most points also receives a fifty-dollar gift card to anywhere in Ames. This year we obtained over fifty-seven names from the sororities; not a bad start to the recruitment year. As of now we have satellites in three locations: Dan Donatucci in Minneapolis, Chris Teney in the Quad Cities, and Sam Pearce in Omaha. Additionally, at the end of the spring semester we had three legacies signed. Our goal for recruitment this year sits at thirty men and, assuming success, will put us over a hundred members, making us the biggest fraternity on campus. Any help from the alumni is always welcomed and appreciated. Brother Kvam will also be assisting with any young men that need a little nudge in the right direction. We at Alpha Iota are extremely excited about the new recruitment program. However, no matter how great the success, it can always be improved if undertaken by the house in its entirety. It is, after all, the life source of our fraternity. The spring semester activities at Iowa State kicked off to a great start with Greek Week. It is a time for all of the fraternities and their sorority pairings to show true team work and house spirit. The men of Alpha Iota had been waiting anxiously and when the time came to compete, they showed real heart and character. \r\nMany activities kept all of Greek Land busy in the weeks leading up to and all the way through Greek Week. Various tournaments including softball, treads (or indoor) football, broomball, swimming, volleyball, and soccer occurred during the week before Greek Week. In these Greek Week tournaments, Brothers Ryan Peetz, Spencer Holten, and Chris Cassling took 1st in swimming. Greek Week banners were also displayed throughout Greek Land on April 5th. These were judged on creativity, craft, and how well each pairing conveyed this year’s overall theme, while also correlating it to their pairing’s particular theme. This year’s overall theme was “Pride We Share in the Letters We Wear,” and our particular theme was based on Greek mythology. April 5th also marked the start of the Karaoke Contest and Can Sculpture Contest. Also, a new event called the All-Greek Talent Contest made its debut on Central Campus. All these competitions provided a great opportunity to be involved. In addition to the previously mentioned competitions, members of the chapter wrote a script for a lip sync dance competition known simply as Lip Sync. The first round of Lip Sync took place on the evening of April 6th. Our skit was based around our Greek Mythology theme and titled, “The Book of Zeus.” Although we did not advance to the second round, we put on a great show and those who participated had a terrific time. The following day, a barbeque took place on Iowa State’s Central Campus for all fraternities and sororities. The purpose behind it is to reinforce the ideas of unity and friendship throughout the Greek community. Competition after competition had great turnouts and tremendous Greek support. Through thick and thin, the men of Alpha Iota showed unquestionable pride in the house and their fellow brothers. Saturday April 10th marked the most notable day of Greek Week known as the Greek Olympics. This is the main event and the time where the Greeks are the most competitive. The day consists of events such as Tug-O-War, Canoe Race, and the ever-popular Bed Race. Some of the new events included: Dingle Dangle Donut, and the Senior Stall Essentials. All new games turned out to be a huge success, especially the Senior Stall Essentials. This was an entertaining but crude game in which only seniors from all houses in the Greek Community competed. The FIJI fraternity came to these Olympics ready to \r\nprove their strong athleticism and brotherhood. Towards the end of the day, FIJI placed 3rd and 4th in the game called Egg Joust. This is a game where guys carry girls on their shoulders, and the girls attempt to break eggs attached to the foreheads of the other men by swatting the eggs with newspapers. Needless to say, all of the Greek Olympics were entertaining to participate in and watch. With Greek Week coming to an end, the final event to attend was Vespers. This is the time of the week when all awards are handed out and different houses are recognized for excellence. Awards are not limited to just Greek Week events, but recognize all the honors for the previous calendar year. The men of Alpha Iota were very proud to see Brother Scott Dierckx of our house on stage announcing tournament awards earned throughout the week. We were thrilled when we received a trophy for 1st place in the Can Sculpture Contest. This was the first year that Greek Week Central Committee decided to do this competition, thus we will go down in history as the first ever to take that prize. Also, the Cardinal Circle Award was awarded to the men of FIJI due to strengths in member retention, scholarship, risk management, leadership, and recruitment. This serves as an improvement from last year’s Certificate of Merit for Fraternal Excellence. The men of Alpha Iota have represented the fraternity with pride not only this Greek Week, but this year in it’s entirety, and will continue to do so in all years to come. VEISHEA is a long-standing tradition at Iowa State University that dates back to 1922. Before 1922, the separate colleges at then Iowa State College would hold festivals for prospective students during different weeks in the Spring. Unfortunately, this meant that some students would have to miss multiple weeks of class to go to the festivals. In 1922 the celebrations were combined and held during the same week, which helped promote the college as a whole instead of individual schools. Professor Frank Paine came up with the name VEISHEA as an acronym for the different colleges that hosted prospective students. The acronym stands for Veterinary medicine, Engineering, Industrial Science, Home Economics, and Agriculture. Since 1922, Iowa State students have been organizing and running the week long celebration every year in honor of the different colleges and their roles in making Iowa State University one of the best colleges in the nation. Since VEISHEA's early years it has continued a long history of traditions, and this year was no exception. The celebration started with the Opening Ceremonies during which President Joeffry gave a speech and welcomed everyone in attendance to Iowa State. The week also included several other traditions such as the Governor's Run in which an invitation written by President Joeffry was delivered to the Capitol in Des Moines by way of a marathon style run with several checkpoints along the way. During the week the annual canoe races were held. Over the years the event has become less focused on winning the race and more centered on staying in your canoe as you joust with the other racers. \r\nThis year the VEISHEA parade drew a crowd of around 70,000 people. Also, campus organizations, fraternities and sororities, and Ames community organizations all participated with uniquely crafted floats. Each float takes about 3,000 hours to build and the creators of the most impressive float are awarded a trophy. The festival also continued the long tradition of baking and selling cherry pies. This tradition actually goes back to 1919, and each year anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 pies are sold with the proceeds going to Iowa State scholarship funds. One of the most important traditions is VEISHEA Village. This year over 80 open houses displayed information about clubs and organizations, departments, and colleges on the ISU campus. VEISHEA Village is a way for students and parents to see what is currently going on in different organizations on campus, and awards are given out to those with the most creative, educational, or inspirational displays. One of the final events is Stars Over VEISHEA. This is a student run musical production that has been a part of VEISHEA since its first year. Originally the show was solely a student run musical held in the armory. With growing numbers the event has moved from location to location and is now held in Stephens Auditorium. Some newer traditions have been apart of VEISHEA for several years now including Battle of the Bands, Tournaments, and the annual concerts. This year's concert included several well-known bands such as Envy Corps, Landon Pigg, hellogoodbye, Emerson Drive, and Leslie and the LY's. The concerts drew in tens of thousands of spectators and finished the week with a bang. VEISHEA 2010 went off without a hitch and demonstrated how students at Iowa State are some of the hardest working in the nation. Being a student run event requires lots of communication with local businesses and authorities, and demands a lot of time to raise money and organize events. The festival has faced challenges in recent years following riots earlier this decade, but has made a strong comeback since it was canceled in 2005. After the success of this year there is no doubt that the celebrations will continue and grow long into Iowa State's future. This spring, Alpha Iota celebrated its 102nd Frank Norris Pig Dinner. Phi Gamma Delta's Pig Dinner can trace its origins to the University of California Berkeley in 1893. Ralph Hawthorn (Berkeley 1893), speaking at the university's “Class Day,” talked of two rival clubs' stranglehold of the Glee Club. He hoisted a barrel on stage and out burst a squealing pig representing the Glee Club's singing ability. A raucous gathering of Fijis chased and captured the pig, and celebrated by roasting it and having a dinner in its honor. The following year, author and Phi Gam Frank Norris (Berkeley 1894) drafted up a ceremony for the dinner, reuniting undergraduate and graduate brothers for a night of festivities. Frank Norris suffered an untimely death in 1902, two years after his famous poem “an exiles toast.” After this tragedy the dinner was named in his honor. To this day chapters everywhere celebrate by inviting graduate \r\nbrothers back to their chapters to tell of their times as undergraduate Fijis. Alpha Iota’s 102nd Pig Dinner was a huge success with attendance reaching well over one hundred guests. Our keynote speaker was Executive Director Bill Martin (Mississippi State ’75) who talked about our chapter and how it has set an example for Phi Gamma Delta chapters across the country. Sean Cassidy ’88 served as this year’s toastmaster. The weekend started off with a reunion at Legends Bar & Grill where undergraduate and graduate brothers alike shared stories of their experiences at Alpha Iota. Back at 325 Ash Ave, some of the older Fijis toured the house and marveled at how it has changed since their college days. An Alpha Iota museum was set up in the study room. The museum had several scrapbooks dating back to the chapter's founding in 1907, as well as portraits of outstanding Alpha Iota Phi Gams. The following morning members young and old gathered in the dining room for brunch and a House Corp Meeting. That evening everyone convened at the Iowa State Alumni Center for the highlight of the weekend, Alpha Iota's 102nd Norris Pig Dinner. The gathering went off without a hitch, and several Fijis were given awards for academic success. The following freshmen received the Award for Academic Achievement: Lance Goettsch, Ricky Williams, Eli Krambeer, Pat Cahalan, Caleb Evers, Jackson Rhode, Jeff Ploessl, Andy Moy, and Kyle Gaul. Four brothers were also awarded the Byron Toot Memorial Scholarship: Ryan Goetzl, Evan Eastman, Tim Sprick, and Jared Koliha. Wes Cole ‘62 spoke on winning last year’s Coulter Cup. Though of a humble nature, it nonetheless remains an honor well earned. Amidst these traditional awards a new scholarship emerged. With the announcing of this year's White Star Pledge, Caleb Evers, the Jim Hildebrand White Star Pledge Scholarship was introduced. Several brothers returned for their Silver and Gold Owls. These men were graduates of the class of ’63 and ’86-’89 respectively. It was excellent to see so many graduate brothers return to show their dedication to this chapter. The involvement they have exemplified in their undergraduate chapter is something we should all strive to emulate as loyal members of Phi Gamma Delta in years to come. Bill Palmer As an undergraduate, I had the distinct privilege of being able to get to know brother Bill Palmer ’62. He was at the forefront of a class that exemplified the meaning of the phrase; “FIJI is not for college days alone.” He truly was everything a Phi Gam should be. He stood up for what he believed in, and while he listened to others, he refused to compromise if compromise meant anything less than the very best for the house. He was persistent, and while he may have rubbed a few the wrong way he always had the best of intentions. He worked tirelessly to have a positive impact on those he cared about for no other reason than he had a big heart. He wanted nothing more than to see those he loved prosper and succeed. There was no doubt brother Palmer loved Alpha Iota and his fingerprints are all over the \r\noI oO =| I = ec aay a o| =| io} “4 ao} Fs Qa So = et] i = ne) \r\n2010 D ra) NI B < gs ©) iS} r= eS; 9 \r\nsuccess of our chapter. Examples of this are too numerous to record here, however I would like to list a few that I have seen during my time. Most prominently, he spent a great deal of time fundraising for our chapter, leading towards a first class remodel of our dining room, recreation room, library/study room, and formal room. I think that almost every graduate I have spoken with has said that the house looks the best it ever has. This is due in large part to the work of brother Palmer. Another example includes his constant communication with our housemother Joyce Allen, myself, and other undergraduate members. It was very important to Bill to make sure he was helping in every way he possibly could. We also knew that we could contact him about any issues we were having and we could expect his best effort in return. The chapter operates better today because of the legacy Bill Palmer left. Finally, and I believe most telling of the type of Phi Gam Bill exemplified, was his no-fear attitude towards rolling up his sleeves and getting his hands dirty in order to solve the problems our house faced. I remember being at the house one summer day in 2008, and seeing Bill personally putting drainage tile in our front lawn to alleviate some of the flooding problems within the house. He did this with only one expectation in return: a better house for his fellow brothers. This leads me to my final praise of brother Palmer. He was a man of his word, and he backed up his words with actions. You could always rely on Bill to do what he said and give only the best he had in selfless service to our great chapter. Our Fraternity is much better today because of the great work of Bill Palmer. The thing I will always remember the most about him, was his belief that there is never an excuse to give nothing but the very best of ourselves to our Fraternity and to the fellow brothers we love. - Kyle Vansice ‘11 Richard Pecaut This past year, the Alpha Iota chapter lost yet another fine graduate. Brother Richard A. Pecaut passed away on Wednesday, August 19th after a long battle with Multiple Sclerosis. As an undergraduate, Pecaut was known for being a jokester, fine scholar, and a man with a positive attitude toward everything he did. Members of his pledge class also spoke of his ability to light up the room with his smile and his fun personality. After graduating from Iowa State University in 1952, he went into the stock broking business with his father. From there, the two men created Pecaut & Company in 1960. His hard work and discipline got him an article in INC Magazine for being an outstanding market broker of the year. Also, he received Rookie of the Year from CNN in 1988. His name was known throughout the Midwest as a hardworking and honest investor. Richard did not keep his investing talents to himself. These skills also played a major role as he taught his kids about money management at a young age. This became a major influence on sons David and Daniel who both worked with Brother Pecaut at the investment company. Richard Pecaut also had two daughters named Shelly and Stacy. He continued to stay as involved as possible with the happenings of the Alpha Iota chapter. He attended every Pig Dinner that he could and was a speaker numerous times. Also, he played in the Alpha Iota Golf Classic for 15 years straight before MS kept him from playing any longer. In 1965, he was awarded the title of Distinguished FIJI and became one of four to come from this house. Richard was also a booster of the Nike Golf Outing in Sioux City, South Dakota. Giving money to a good cause was something that he was very passionate about. Iowa State Cyclone Football was always on Brother Pecaut’s mind. He loved to come back and watch his favorite team play. It was said that \r\nthere are few people who were bigger fans than he. Those who knew him raved about his personality and charisma. His slogan as an investor was, “When it comes to investing, vanilla is a pretty good flavor.” However, outside of his investing life, Dick strived to be anything but ordinary by exemplifying what it means to be a true Phi Gam. After his beloved wife Dorothy passed away, he founded the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center in 1985. Throughout the last years of his life, he became quite the family man. He began working with his grandson John and showing him the ropes of the family business. As time went by, his Multiple Sclerosis progressively got worse and caused him to give up working at Pecaut & Co. When he passed away he was surrounded by loved ones and will surely be missed. If he were here today, we could count on him to encourage all brothers to continue their education and finish out college life strong. As a side note, I would like to thank brothers Bob Cassling ‘52, Howard Logan ’46, and Barclay Stebbins for their help with writing this article. I also need to thank Dan Pecaut for his kind words of wisdom and great advice. Without them, this could not have been possible -Caleb Evers ‘13 \r\nNonprofit Org Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity 1201 Red Mile Road Lexington, KY 40504 The Brainstorm Alpha Iota - 325 Ash Avenue, Ames IA US Postage Paid Lexington, KY Permit # 540