The Rho Alpha Chapter at Virginia Tech Rho Alpha Report Spring 2010 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS Things to Know By: Eric Wittoughby (2011), Chapter President The past few years have been a time of constant growth and improvement for Fiji at Virginia Tech. We have reached record high numbers while maintaining value and commitment within our chapter. The brotherhood has continually accomplished feats that weren't imaginable just a few years ago. With our numbers FIJI Run Across Virginia raised $42,000 this year! The fall 2009 chapter GPA was 2.955 and pledge class GPA was 3-076. REGISTER NOW for Pig Dinner 2O1O on March 27. You don't want to miss it! Visit the website www.vtfijigrads.coTn for more news and updates! higher than ever our opportunity to be an influential group on campus has never been greater and we are doing all we can to (Continued on page 2) 2009 PIG DINNER RECAP & 2O1O INVITATION By: Hoyt Banner (2OO6) The 37th annual Frank Norris Pig Dinner took place the weekend of April 4, 2009, and was an overwhelming success. The Rho Alpha Graduate Association had its annual Pig Dinner meeting Saturday morning at the Inn. The weekend was highlighted by the roasting of a 20O-lb pig at the fraternity house Saturday afternoon. The dinner took place at The Inn at Virginia Tech with Bob Baney (Perm State 1984), the Director of Graduate Development of the Phi Gamma Delta Educational Foundation, giving an emotionally charged keynote address. For the first time, live music was featured during the "Dancing and General Mayhem" portion of the evening by a local cover band, Shack Band. Overall, about 250 undergraduates and graduates took part in Pig Dinner weekend. In 2010, Pig Dinner will again take place at The Inn at Virginia Tech during the weekend of March 27. Registration is available now online at www.vtfijigrads.com. The website provides information on Pig Dinner pricing and hotel accommodations. Register now! REGISTER NOW! PIG DINNER Saturday, March 27 Location: The Inn at VA Tech \r\nPage 2 Rho Alpha Report WEBSITE UPDATE - WWW.VTFIJIGRADS.COM Bl/: Chris Gabb (2005) The new and improved graduate website is now online. This past summer, the website was transferred from Affinity Connection and is now being maintained by Phi Gamma Delta's very own IHQ. The alumni relations, website, and donations will be completely integrated by IHQ, decreasing overhead costs while continuing our goal of increased graduate relations and alumni database functionality. The website can be accessed using the original address of www.vtfijigrads.com. The site continues to provide information on the latest news and events as well as donations. Also available on the website is an enhanced calendar function, photo gal- lery, and download center. Registration for events such as Pig Dinner will also be accessed here. If you would like to submit a news article for the front page, please send the information to Chris Gabb (chris.gabb(Sgmail.com). We encourage all brothers to visit the site and become familiar with the new layout! FIJI RUN ACROSS VIRGINIA - ANOTHER SUCCESS! By: Hunter Owens (son) This year, the FIJI Run Across Virginia was, as usual, a huge success. After months of fundraising, organizing, and promoting our cause, we surpassed last year's chapter total by raising just under $24,000. The total between us and UVA came in at roughly $42,000, which is the first time we have surpassed $40,000. The best part of this is that we gained several new sponsors and revamped our oncampus fundraising. This year, on-campus fundraising amounted to nearly $5,000 which more than doubled last year's total. We plan on continuing to improve this area and hope that it becomes an even greater strength in the coming years. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS continued. (Continued from page i) 'The brotherhood has continually accomplished feats that weren't imaginable just a few years ago." take advantage of such an opportunity. As many people know, we raised more money for the Fiji Run Across Virginia than ever, and more than tripled our local campus philanthropy. Our efforts are beginning to inspire other chapters across the country to start their own runs for different charities. Our academic commitment continues to put Fiji at the top, exceeding the allmale fraternity average yet again. The past semester has been full of new developments and distinguished accomplishments for Fiji. Each semester brings with it new challenges and new opportunities for our brothers to better themselves and the surrounding community. As we move into the new semester, we hope to facilitate better graduate relations, improve our recruitment plan and restructure the pledge education process to better facilitate the needs and values of our chapter. As the incoming president, I hope to lead the chapter in the direction that those who preceded me have done and take our chapter to new heights. \r\nPage 3 2009 HOUSE IMPROVEMENTS By: Brae Webb (2005) One of our key improvements this past year was renovating the house kitchen. The kitchen had become a sad site that was complained about by both undergraduate and graduate brothers alike. Through much deliberation, we decided it was the right time to correct this problem. The old cabinets, counters, and floors were removed. The old white cabinets, all though classic Phi Gamma Delta, were replaced with much sleeker oak doors and frames. The counters were replaced with a heavy-duty vinyl. And last, but certainly not least, the old wood floor was replaced with sturdy, yet attractive, linoleum flooring. We hope that this floor will do an even better job of standing the test of time. While we had people working on the house, we also took the time to replace the front and side doors. They were old and caused a lot of heat to be released from the house. The new doors should help us save money throughout this winter on heating bills. The repairs totaled $10,030.00. We paid for the expense from our home equity line of credit (HELOC). Between these repairs and past expenses, the HELOC has a current balance of $14,486.94. This is a manageable value that the RA Chapter House Corporation should be able to pay off over a period of a few years between house rent and parlor fees; however, we would graciously appreciate any graduate donations to help pay off the repairs. By paying the HELOC off faster, the Chapter saves money on interest. Furthermore, our g_"MJs to one day be debt -free so we can begin saving money and paying for repairs and other house improvements up front. PHASE IV - FRATERNITY & SORORITY HOUSING The Office of Student Affairs has been discussing in recent months about expanding the on -campus fraternity and sorority housing. While the current 18 Greek houses (opened in three phases in 1983,1990, and 2001) are University-owned and leased to fraternities and sororities (http:// www. studentprograms .vt.edu/ grccldife/documents/ SPHinformation.pdf), the phase IV houses would be privately financed and owned by house corporations, which would lease land from the University adjacent to the existing Oak Lane houses. If you are interested in attending a special meeting by the University that explains the process and answers any questions, please contact Mike Maret (mdmaret@gmail.com) for more information. The meeting is scheduled for Saturday, February 27, i:OOPM, at the Graduate Life Center (Donaldson Brown) Auditorium. \r\nNonprofit Org US Postage Paid Lexington, KY Permit # 540 Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity 1201 Red Mile Road Lexington, KY 40504 ** *** Dana W. Hesse 9238 Maxwell Ct Laurel, MD 20723-5836 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) E-mail Occupation . Employer News to share with classmates: DONATE I am pleased to make a contribution to Rho Alpha of: $1,000 $500 $250 $100 $50 $25 Other. I would like my donation to be used in the following area: Donations can be made on-line at www.vtfijigrads.com, by phone at (859) 255-1848 ext 136 or send checks payable to Phi Gamma Delta - Rho Alpha to: Virginia Tech/Rho Alpha Donations, PO Box 4599, Lexington, KY 40544 and include this form. Design, printing and mailing services provided by the International Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta.