T h e F ra t e rn i t y o f P h i G am m a D e l ta Al p h a Ga m ma Cha p t e r Not For College Days Alone Volume 3, Issue 2 Phone: 810-232-9174 Website: www.ketteringfiji.com Graduate Relation: Nirav Shah Ryan Masica Inside this issue: Presidents Gavel 1 House Manager’s Report 2 House Improvements 2 Pig Dinner 2011 2 AGU Reunion 3 BCA 4 Recruitment Report 5 Graduate News 5 Questionnaire 6 Summer 2010 The President’s Gavel Brothers, Another summer term has gone by for the Alpha Gamma Chapter and as always, this term has been a good one for many reasons as we continue to enjoy the brotherhood we share. While the A-section brotherhood is strong, currently with 34 members, we bid farewell to six seniors who all served the house as leaders at one point or another. This graduating class includes the past two presidents and a total of five cabinet positions. Zach Cain, Dan McConnon, Chris Flynn, Joe Horak, and Tom Rock have completed their academic careers and will be greatly missed. But Phi Gamma Delta is not for college days alone and we look forward to seeing them around as graduate brothers. The Alpha Gamma Chapter received grade reports a few weeks ago. We are currently 8th among the fraternities with a 2.79 GPA. The future of the house is promising as the younger members have a strong focus on grades. In keeping with the scholarship, many of the men who received bids from us this year take academics very seriously. This has been one of the smallest freshman classes in years and we have gotten to know more upper classmen, extending bids to them as well. While we have seven bids returned so far, we are still awaiting more. These men have great qualities and I see them adding great strength to the house. The brothers have impressively represented Phi Gamma Delta across the university this past term. We have members in leadership positions on IFC, Student Alumni Council, Robots, KSG, Scuba Club, Golf Club, Mudboggers, Camp Compass, Unit Buddies and Order of Omega. Many more brothers are involved being a Tour Guide, an Athletics referee, participating in three different Greek honor societies, Cliffhangers, KU Hockey, Chemistry Club, Soccer Club, Outdoor Club, Trap and Skeet, SAE Snowmobile Club, GEO, and IEEE. On the field of competition, we have excelled in intramural sports again. ATourney Softball defeated the Pikes in an epic championship game to take home the coveted champions t-shirt. A-Tourney Soccer and RTourney Soccer took third place in their respective leagues. The A-tourney Football team took home the title while R-tourney placed second. It was quite a successful yet fun season for the team. Unfortunately, due to the low membership of our B-Section counterpart, IHQ has decided that it would be best to start over. Come October, they will be sending out two representatives to live in the house and recruit full time to find new men to join our brotherhood. We will have a few A-Section brothers living in and many more in the surrounding area that will give full support. On another sad note, Mac, the house dog for years is no longer allowed to live in the house. Due to a switch in our insurance plan and the fact that IHQ is not in favor of house pets, Mac can no longer live among us. However, he is good hands; one of the B-Section brothers has taken him home and is taking great care of him. Fraternally, Steve Root A-Section President \r\nPAGE 2 N O T F O R C O LLE GE D AY S ALO N E V O LU M E 3 , ISSU E 2 House Manager’s Report This term has been a very productive term but expensive for the house. It started out with us cutting down several dead trees in the front yard that have been and eye sore for many years. Following the tree cutting, we jumped right into Work weekend which was very successful. There were a few major projects that got done to make the house look much better. Those projects included cleaning up the trees and chipping up branches which we used to line the front of the house. We also repainted the FIJI rock in front of the house by the parking lot, and added our black diamond around it. New deck furniture was made to get rid of the old beat up furniture that was being used for past couple years. The one main issue of the house this term was the main drain that leaves the house has roots growing in it which makes the drains back up. We had the drain hydro-flushed which only helped for a month. Future plans are to, have the pipe replaced, along with many other project which includes new windows, doors and have electrical repairs done. We look forward to hearing any suggestions or comments or suggestions regarding the state of the house. Fraternally, Kyle Leppek Ryan Miller Peter Klebba Joel Labor A-Section House Manager. House Improvements 2011 Norris Pig Dinner Pig Dinner for next year has been set up and is reserved for May 14,2010 at 6:30 p.m. at Fountains golf and Banquet Center located on 6060 Maybee Road, Clarkson, MI 48346. If you would like more information please visit their website www.fountainsgolf.com. The cost for attending is $50 for single and $75 for couple. There will also be a golf outing prior to the dinner at the same location, with starting tee times yet to be decided. There will be further information sent out soon, but consider this a save the date. If at all possible, please plan on attending. Come for the great food and golf outing, but stay for the company of your brothers and lifelong friends. If you would like a spot reserved early or have any questions please email Brother Aaron Tenhuisen at atenhuisen@gmail.com \r\nV O LU M E 3 , ISSU E 2 N O T F O R C O LLE GE D AY S ALO N E PAGE 3 AGU Reunion - September 2010 A special note from Graduate Brother Mark Jacobsen: On Thursday September 9th, the Brothers of Alpha Gamma Upsilon (now Phi Gamma Delta) celebrated their 55th Class Reunion during Kettering Bulldog Days. The reunion was held at the Chapter house and dinner was organized by Graduate Brother Al Macciomei. The evening consisted of tours of the Chapter house, dinner, current Chapter accomplishments, and reminiscing about the construction of the Chapter house in 1957. Many memories were shared including how the house was almost not built! Contractors went bankrupt and financial meltdowns all occurred during the construction and it took the Governor of Michigan at the time to step in and back the bonds to complete the Chapter. As the evening came to a close, more stories where shared and memories made by all in attendance. Upon departure, each Graduate Brother received a framed photograph of the group as a keepsake of the night's festivities. Numerous Brothers and their spouses were in attendance including: James Mitchner, Stan Harris, Clark Island, Ken Myers, Bob Werenski, Dick Verselle, Bob Bazzell, Buck Martin, Al Macciomei, Doug Wing, Roy Midgley, Chuck Cantwell, David Turner, John Stevenson, Bob Utter, Mac Norris Thanks to all who were able to attend, and my regrets to anyone who I may have missed. It's great to see "Not for College Days Alone" in action! \r\nPAGE 4 N O T F O R C O LLE GE D AY S ALO N E V O LU M E 3 , ISSU E 2 Introducing the Kettering FIJI Board of Chapter Advisors (BCA) Letter from Mark Jacobsen: Brothers, I hope this correspondence finds you all doing well and staying busy even during difficult times. As you may be aware, our beloved Chapter is seeing some of its own difficult, but also exciting times. A-section continues to do well with a very active brotherhood since the re-colonization almost 14 years ago while B-section will soon be undergoing a similar transformation with a re-colonization effort underfoot for the upcoming school year. With this rare opportunity to unify the operations and transition between sections, a graduate Board of Chapter Advisors (BCA) has recently been organized to help provide that glue, a link between graduates and undergrads, and a little more experience and oversight in the long-term financial matters of the house. The BCA contacts and positions are listed below. Other Graduate Brothers will be filling in roles as the BCA begins to take shape, and we look forward to working with all Graduate Brothers to ensure the continual success of the Chapter through good and bad times. My promise to you is this... We will value your time and contribution. Too often we have let graduates who wanted to be involved physically, intellectually, or financially slip through the cracks. With an "official" BCA we are striving to make sure this never happens again. What we are asking in return is this... Please connect with us (you can find our contact information below). Please help us show the undergrads what a unified and involved Graduate base looks like. Above all, please help us make a difference for the betterment of the Chapter and continue to provide new Brothers the same opportunities we had. You can expect to be hearing from us in the very near future regarding the re-colonization of B-section, State of the House, Graduate Events, and more. With your help, we can all look forward to a bright future for the Chapter. Fraternally, Mark Jacobsen BCA CONTACTS: Ed Kiell Jameson Fee Chris Mikola Vince Ferro Bradford Grems Mark Jacobsen Josh Sweers Keith Councell Bryan Forsythe Derek Frisbie Jake Obradovich Joe Kotlarczyk Marcin Fracz Rex Luzader Ron Leonard Wes Martin Ben Robinson Chip McClimans President PL / Chapter Operations Treasurer Secretary Grad Relations Grad Relations Recruitment Pledge Ed. IHQ IHQ Section Chief hugh_edward@yahoo.com jameson.fee@gmail.com cmikola@yahoo.com vnferro@gmail.com bgrems@ludwigseeley.com mark@markjacobsen.net josh.sweers@gmail.com keithcouncell@yahoo.com b4sythe1@hotmail.com dgfrisbie@gmail.com j.obradovich@hotmail.com joe.kotlarczyk@gmail.com Marcin.Fracz@gmail.com rluzader@hotmail.com Ron_lionheart@hotmail.com wmartin@phigam.org BRobinson@phigam.org chipmcclimans@gmail.com 248-345-9046 248-520-9126 248-980-3116 248-807-1408 248-750-1700 517-803-2254 810-919-7325 810-240-8566 810-599-8661 N/A 402-212-2968 517-819-0000 248-909-5757 732-996-6544 N/A N/A N/A 616-915-4342 \r\nRecruitment/Social Report We had a semi-successful Rush term. So far we have had 7 bids returned but we are continuously recruiting and are trying for a few more that maybe turning in their bids soon. I feel that it was a rough transition from the old recruitment rules to the new rules that the Inter Fraternity Council passed and since the number of freshman are close to half the year before. With that said we will continuously adjust our recruitment style to improve techniques and grow our numbers. However on a lighter note, as a house tra- dition every semester The Beta Bowl competition was once again won by FIJI by mercy rule against Beta Theta Pi 26-0. After the football game, the two fraternities socialized and grilled food by the school. Also a hearty congratulations to Stephen Root who was elected Scholarship/Academic chair for IFC following the results of the Greek Sports Cup where FIJI took third position out of 11 fraternities, losing only by one point to Delta Tau Delta for second place. IFC also awarded Phi Gamma Delta for having the most graduate brothers participate in Kettering’s Alumni weekend and presented the chapter with a plaque as an award. We will continue to recruit over the upcoming winter term, however if you have any suggestions please contact us as we would love to hear from you. Fraternally, Tyler Green Nate Kellen Taimen Taylor Gregory Barilovich GRADUATE NEWS Brothers, Another great year for the Alpha Gamma Chapter has gone by and as mentioned last year, we are still in process of recreating our Housing corporation. In our recent, very productive BCA meeting, we filled up 8 of the 10 positions, which was followed by a successful Graduate BBQ event, where 18 Graduate brothers took part in golf, food and other fun activities. Also for those who missed the Grad Email, the Alpha Gamma Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta won two awards: Certificate of Academic Achievement (2007)and Chapter Proficiency Award (2009). On Thursday September 9th, the Brothers of Alpha Gamma Upsilon (now Phi Gamma Delta) celebrated their 55th Class Reunion during Kettering Bulldog Days. The reunion was held at the Chapter house and dinner was organized by Graduate Brother Al Macciomei. The evening consisted of tours of the Chapter house followed by dinner, current Chapter Accomplishments and reminiscing about the construction of the Chapter house in 1957. Many memories were shared, including the complication faced in building the Chapter house. As the evening came to a close, more stories were shared and memories made by all in attendance. Upon departure, each Graduate Brother received a framed photograph of the group as a keepsake of the nights festivities. Thank you to all the brothers who joined us and we hope to see “Not for College Days Alone” again in action! Please visit our website at www.ketteringfiji.com; we try to keep it updated as best as possible. We also have a yahoo group for graduate brothers. If you are not receiving these or would like to be a part of the group please contact me at shah1891@kettering.edu. If you are ever in the Flint area, please come visit us, share your own stories with our undergrad brothers and see the house and the changes we have been making to improve the conditions. Once again, I request you to stay in touch and remember that Phi Gamma Delta and the Chapter are “Not For College Days Alone”. \r\nV O LU M E 3 , ISSU E 2 N O T F O R C O LLE GE D AY S ALO N E PAGE 6 ATTENTION GRADUATES! This chapter newsletter is published twice a year by the undergraduates at no cost to the graduates. If you wish to relay information, have any interesting stories of your college days, suggestions, comments, or wish to donate any photographs for publication, please contact the chapter. We would appreciate your getting in touch with us by completing this graduate questionnaire and mailing your responses to the chapter. We look forward to hearing from you. GRADUATE QUESTIONNAIRE Name______________________________________________________ Class Year___________________ Nickname______________________________ Offices held at Fiji________________________________ Wife’s Name____________________________ Children_________________________________________ Company ___________________________________ Home Phone_________________________________ Email Address_______________________________ Cell Phone__________________________________ News to share, Announcements____________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ Would you like any of the above information in the next newsletter? Yes ___ Yes, I’ll be attending this year’s Pig Dinner on May 15th, 2010. No ___ No, but maybe next year. Comments, Suggestions______________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ *There is a new PayPal link on our website, www.ketteringfiji.com, if you would like to make any donations toward the house. We appreciate any financial support and hope you enjoy this newsletter and remember that Phi Gamma Delta is “not for college days alone.” Please provide any feedback, comments, suggestions or any additional information you would like to see in the next edition of the newsletter by emailing: Stephen Root: stephentroot@gmail.com \r\nV O LU M E 3 , ISSU E 2 N O T F O R C O LLE GE D AY S ALO N E PAGE 7 FRIENDSHIP, THE SWEETEST INFLUENCE THE FRATERNIT Y OF P HI GAMMA DELTA ALPHA GAMMA C HAPTER 1702 Flushing Road Flint, MI 48504 Phone: 810-232-9174 Website: www.ketteringfiji.com A-Section Grad Relations Nirav Shah Ryan Masica Place Stamp Here