The Tau News Official Graduate Brother Newsletter - Tau Nu Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta Volume AF, Issue 1 Monday, May 25th, 2015 82 3rd Street, Troy, NY The Summer 2015 Issue Contents Graduating Brothers ............................. 2 New brothers ......................................... 5 Islander Week ........................................ 6 Islander Party ......................................... 8 Semiformal ............................................. 9 Grad Weekend ...................................... 10 Housing Developments ...................... 11 Grad Interviews .................................. 12 Spring Break ........................................ 20 Brotherhood Trip ................................ 21 Local Business Spotlight ..................... 22 Weekly Brotherhood Spotlight .......... 27 Community Service ............................ 29 Miscellaneous Activities..................... 30 \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 2 / Summer 2015 Graduating Brothers Once again, it is time for the past school year to end, and with it the undergraduate reigns of ten of some of our most influential brothers. In them are three past cabinet members (including a two-timer), 22 semesters of committee positions, and 47 combined semesters of undergraduate experience. These brothers have defined the chapter tone over the past years, and we’re deeply saddened by their leaving. As put by now-Graduate Brother Tyler Gumina, “goodbye friends!” Tyler Joseph Gumina PCF’11 Class of 2015, B.S. Aeronautical Engineering Plans: Engineering, Monroe County Dept. of Environmental Services Location: Rochester, New York Senior quote: “Hi friends!” Brandon Christopher McLear PCF’11 Class of 2015, B.S. Computer Science Plans: Software engineering at Factset Location: Stamford, Connecticut Senior quote: “That’s just like, your opinion man.” Michael Robert Lee Schrider Junior PCF’11 Class of 2015, B.S. Mechanical Engineering Plans: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, SUBMEPP division Location: Somewhere near there Senior quote: “What rhymes with fact?” \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 3 / Summer 2015 Graduating Brothers (continued) Kirk Xenos Smith PCS’12 Class of 2015, B.S. Computer Science Plans: Software engineering at Factset Location: New York City, New York Senior quote: “I am become Kirk, destroyer of Kirk.” Ananth Vignesh Sridhar PCF’12 Class of 2015, B.S. Mechanical Engineering Plans: Engineering at ExxonMobil Location: Houston, Texas Senior quote: “No, I’m not done with Capstone yet.” Terrance Keith McGovern PCF’12 Class of 2015, B.S. Chemical Engineering Plans: Engineering at ExxonMobil Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana Senior quote: “Go out and challenge yourself.” Jacob Simon Merson PCS’13 Class of 2015, B.S. Mechanical Engineering Plans: PhD at RPI in Mechanical Engineering Location: Beautiful Troy, New York! Senior quote: “Nothing gold can stay.” \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 4 / Summer 2015 Graduating Brothers (continued) Joshua Kevin Goldberg PCF’13 Class of 2015, B.S. Computer Science Plans: Software engineering at Microsoft Location: Bellevue, Washington Senior quote: “Kahlua. Also, I have to return some videotapes.” Harrison Tarr PCF’13 Class of 2015, B.S. Computer Science Plans: Software engineering at Connexta Location: Phoenix, Arizona Senior quote: “That’s literally swolepression.” “The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” -President Calvin Coolidge \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 5 / Summer 2015 New Brothers The Spring 2015 pledge process was headed by Pledge Educator Harrison Tarr along with Pledge Examiner Dylan Lingenau. With new ideas and a desire for greatness, they set out to lead the new pledge class to brotherhood. Among those former pledges are: Samuel Joel Davis ‘17, Michael Thomas DiBuduo ‘17, Graigor Hervin Pierre-Noel ‘18, Tyler Allen Shepherd ‘18, Timothy Ming Ming Tse ‘17, Christopher Nicholas Valmas ‘17, and Spencer David Weiner ‘17. These guys were dedicated from day one, forming a bond and keeping it strong throughout the pledge program, and their momentum hasn’t stopped through their initiation. Several of them have taken active roles in the chapter, with Brother Davis as the Brotherhood chair, Brother Weiner as the Graduate Relations chair, Brother DiBuduo as the Risk Management chair, and others both serving on committees and acting in a position just under VP. With new pledge programs and events, along with the introduction of our first ever Islander, this group of young men has shown promise. At the beginning of the semester, we believed that they would make dedicated additions. Now that they are brothers, they’ve affirmed our beliefs, and make us damn proud to be Phi Gams. \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 6 / Summer 2015 Islander Week The Spring semester of 2015 has been an charitable one for Tau Nu. After working out the kinks of moving into the new house and starting the first full semester at our beautiful location, we decided to put together a full on Islander Week—a week of fun and philanthropic events. As the Social and Community Service heads worked on organizing the week, a devastating fire occurred just a few short blocks away from our house. Nine families lost everything they had as the fire tore through the apartment building on Fourth and Washington Streets. Many nearby neighbors quickly pulled funds together to help support these families, and we agreed we should do the same. Thus, we dedicated our Islander Week’s proceeds to them. The kickoff for the week was a 35 foot inflatable obstacle course right on the ’86 Field. The course was free to run for all, while we told participants about the rest of our events, asked for donations, and sold food hot off the grill. Moving into Tuesday, we set up our grill again outside of Russell Sage Dining Hall to promote our later event—an Evening of Performances at the chapter house, including the student band Pumper, the improv group Sheer Idiocy, and the a cappella group The Rusty Pipes. Wednesday, we hosted an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament, where groups could pay to register a team, with the winning team talking all the registrations to donate to their charity of choice. Trudge, the school’s ultimate frisbee club, won the tournament and dedicated their winnings to us to support the fire victims. On Thursday, we... \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 7 / Summer 2015 Islander Week (continued) ...partnered with the sisters of Alpha Gamma Delta, and set-up a full sized dunk tank outside of sage. Friday was reserved for the new brothers’ hosted event, Duct-Tape-a-Brother located outside Sage Dining Hall. During all this, the rest of the chapter was preparing for the end of week celebration: our first self-hosted party at the new house (see pg. 8). We’re proud of what we accomplished. Our chapter worked over 200 man hours to make it happen, and our efforts raised $1425. The City of Troy recognized our hard work by inviting the chapter to a City Council meeting, during which the chapter was presented a certificate of recognition for our outstanding efforts. We hope to make this an annual tradition, and can’t wait to hold even better Islander next year. \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 8 / Summer 2015 Islander Party On May 1, our Founders’ Day, we hosted an Islander themed party in celebration of our successful week of philanthropy events. This was also our first solo party we have thrown in the new house. Obviously without a co-hosting fraternity, brothers had to be assigned more work shifts. In addition to that we also opened up the second floor bathrooms to our guests which added two more security positions that needed to be filled. Every brother had more than one shift, but everyone stepped up and fulfilled their job and the party went off without any incidents. In addition to the new security jobs on the second floor there was another new job that one brother did all night that we titled “mission control.” Mission control’s duty was to generally coordinate behind-the-scenes work, as well as answer the calls to sober driver and then text one of the five sober drivers where to pick up the person who just called, how many people they’re picking up, and where to take them. This cut down on how much the sober drivers needed to mess with their phones while driving, greatly lowering the stress of the job. Mission Control was run by Brother Connor Rhoads, who did an amazing job keeping the calls organized. Despite competing with two other parties on the same night, both of which were much closer to campus than us, we still managed to pull in a sizable crowd. Even more important than population was retention; once people were at our party, they were having such a good time that they stayed there. Only about 4 or 5 cars of people left our party before 1:30 am. Overall, the party was a major success. The party will better our social reputation, making people more willing to make the trip to our house over settling for another party more close by. With the multiple recent recruitment successes, we’ll have no problems filling these new positions in our parties next semester. \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 9 / Summer 2015 Semiformal On the evening of April 4, 2015, our chapter held the inaugural incarnation of an event which we hope will continue into many years to come. This event was a Spring Semi-Formal. Thanks to a great turnout by members of the current brotherhood, and their lovely dates, the event was a huge success. The evening’s organization and execution was in large part thanks to the Social Chair Mark Stein. Under the guidance of Corresponding Secretary David Vanderzee, they set the creation of the event as one of their major goals during their respective terms. Over 30 undergraduate brothers and pledges attended the event, alongside an equal number of dates. Those in attendance enjoyed a meal of chicken parmesan prepared by the Spring Pledge class, overseen by Brother Michael Schrider. In addition to the home-cooked chicken-parm, the meal was accompanied by a salad, sides, and desserts catered by B-Rad’s, a local downtown Troy restaurant. It looks likely that the Spring Semi-Formal, now named White Star, will become an annual highlight for the chapter. We’re looking forward to it in years to come! \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 10 / Summer 2015 Grad Weekend This semester, from April 17-19, we had a blast as graduate members of the Tau Nu chapter returned to RPI for our annual Grad Weekend. Throughout the weekend, graduates regaled undergrads with stories of their times at RPI. It was an honor to have grads ranging from the recently graduated to founding members of our chapter, to our original Purple Legionnaire Thomas I. Burns ‘74. Saturday morning, brothers (both young and old) went over to Barker Park to service the community and clean up the area. Then, in the early afternoon, Keith Downes (as a liaison for House Corp.) gave a presentation on the current state of the house and its finances. That evening, we held the Frank AE Norris Pig Dinner at our new house. As always, it was an event full of tradition, laughs, and delicious food. Brother Spencer Pilcher ’15 gave the (rather difficult to complete) Exile’s Toast, to resounding applause from undergraduate and graduate brothers, alike. The dinner was followed by a poker tournament, house tours for first-timers to the building, and shenanigans in downtown Troy, Latham, and Albany. The festivities continued into the wee hours of the morning, generally centered in the lower floor of our new house. \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 11 / Summer 2015 Housing Developments House Corp has been hard at work improving and maintaining the house of late. Some of the most recent successful improvements have been adding security lights in both the front and back alley, winter-proofing the roof, a bird feeder next to the front door (right underneath a new bird’s nest!), and adding an additional gas line through the back alley. Other high priority future projects, most of which will be carried out within a couple of years, include painting and patching the steeple, adding cell phone boosters to the first floor, and adding locks to bedrooms. This is now being complemented by a newly re-organized system for cleaning. We are incredibly grateful to be living in the new house and for the hard work of House Corp to maintain and improve it. On our end, our Steward, Brother Nathan Greene, reacted to the opening of our expansive new kitchen with a revamped cleaning system for cleaners after meals. Brothers each have one shift a week, with four brothers cleaning on a given day. In addition, a number of brothers are “floating cleaners,” meaning they take over if a scheduled cleaner can’t make it to his shift. So far, the system has worked out fantastically. What used to take a couple of hours, now takes, at most, an hour. As a result, we’ll continue to use this system until it’s deemed unnecessary. \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 12 / Summer 2015 Grad Interviews It was the Publications Committee’s pleasure to interview three grads around Grad Weekend. Graduate Brothers Bill Brand and Jeff Lester were able to attend in person, while Gradute Brother David Glynn attended remotely from Tokyo, Japan. Bill “Bildo” Brand PCS’84 Class of 1987, B.S. Computer Science Current job: Applications Architect at Oracle Current location: Tewksbury, Massachusetts Where are you from? Bay Shore, Long Island. I’ve resided in Tewksbury, MA for the last 20+ years. What brought you to RPI? It was actually my first choice school. Probably because attending a school out in decent weather never crossed my mind. I applied for the Engineering School and NAVY ROTC for the scholarship. Failed the NROTC eye exam (spectacularly, as you can imagine), and the Engineering School was over capacity. RPI admitted me and asked if I was interested in the School of Science. As it happens, my senior year was when I had my first HS class in computer programming, where I fell in love with the field. So the switch was easy. What brought you to Tau Nu? My freshman dorm friends­—Ande Smith and Doug MacKechnie. Ande lived next to me, and Doug was across the hall. Doug was persistent in convincing me to come to their pledge party with a sorority pledge class, which was an abject failure (I recall 2 girls and 18 guys; your recollections and mileage may vary). But I had a good time, and they kept inviting me back. What positions did you hold as an undergrad? Social Chairman. My primary event was what turned out to be a large Fiji Island party, as at that time we were celebrating our chartering all year. We rented the Armory, hired a live band (Roger Wilco and the Radio Waves), and had... \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 13 / Summer 2015 Grad Interviews (continued) ...my pledge brother Tom Kura design and create a 100 ft by 40 ft FIJI mural hung up on the divider between the band. I think your parties this past fall have crushed the attendance record. What did you do outside of Tau Nu as an undergrad? Not that much, actually. I did work study as a fundraising phone caller for donations to RPI, and work study in one of the early AI labs. During summers I worked in restaurants on LI as a dishwasher to save money for the school year. What did you do after college? It took me until October after graduating to find my first “real” job. So I appreciate the angst that can come senior year for the undergrads looking. Eventually I was hired by an incubator firm in the J Building, and I moved back to Troy for my job. That led to serving as Purple Legionnaire for a stint, and early involvement in the rebuilding of the House Corp as Secretary (for Life). The incubator firm was developing a Fortran to C++ translator, and funded that work with a contract at GE Aircraft Engines. That led me to being relocated out to Boston to work there, which is when the PL role ended. What do you do now? The GE work led to training on a knowledge based engineering product to refactor my original project work (thermo analysis on turbine blades). That company eventually hired me as a consultant to implement their product on all sorts of ugly engineering problems). And eventually, that company was acquired by Oracle, which is how the Borg collective absorbed me. I’ve been with that pair of companies (Icad -> renamed as Concentra -> Oracle) for over 20 years. Has FIJI helped you in your life, and how? The friendships made while I was an undergraduate are still the strongest friends I have. I don’t know for certain if I would have stuck it out at RPI all four years without finding the friends who were my brothers. I’m pretty grateful for the guys on my floor taking me out and getting me interested. I think the fraternity can help any young man in identifying with goals greater than one’s self, prioritizing what matters, and in learning how... \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 14 / Summer 2015 Grad Interviews (continued) ...to deal with a very diverse set of personalities. I think over time you appreciate it even more— not necessarily as you’re starting out in your post collegiate life, but more and more as you age, start a family, advance a career. Book knowledge only gets you so far. The ability to work as a part of a team or group, and succeed, the fraternity excels at that. It’s not why you join, but it’s an intangible benefit. For me, the chapter is something I want to help persist so others can reap the same benefits. So the fraternity and chapter have become my surrogate family, in a way. Helping the House Corp and the fundraising have been a large element of the volunteer work over the past 30 years. But I’m also involved in the reboot of the Boston Graduate Chapter with TN Brother Rahul Parwani (2006), and hope to assist in Ekklesia planning for the Boston event in 2016. Being able to meet and work with a range of alumni from different chapters, and realize so many of them share the same philosophy helps point out how the fraternity impacted so many of us. Jeff Lester PCF’99 Class of 2003, B.S. Computer Science Current job: Contracts Business System Director at DynCorp Int’l Current location: Washington D.C. What do you do? I was computer science, so I do software development stuff mostly. It pays. What do you do for fun? I do a lot of racecar stuff. If Tim Cole’s around, I race with him. I’ve got a car mid-engine swap in my garage right now, which I really hope will work in about two weeks when I have a race. It’s a BMW 86 M635CSI. Cheap racing’s a ton of fun. I’ve been in accidents where... \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 15 / Summer 2015 Grad Interviews (continued) ...you apologize but nobody cares; it’s not like you’re racing some $200,000 Porsche where denting a fender is an $80,000 repair job. house. It was weird the weirdest thing coming to meetings where people would tell us, “hey, you know you’re the house now, right?” Did you do racing back at RPI? I did autocross. We used to do it in the RAHPs lot in front of FIJI, back in the 80s until somebody had a cart that crashed into a guard rail, though that was before I got there. When I was at RPI we started up in North Lot. Autocross is easy in that you can’t really do much damage to the car in 30 seconds. The racing I do now is mostly endurance racing, you build a car and it’s going to run balls out for 10 or 20 hours. Finding tires or brakes that will last that long, that’s expensive. Other than the house, how has FIJI changed? It’s a weird thing. Every house visit it changes, because people change every 4 years, though they’re still generally the same RPI geeky people. It’s totally the same and totally different. The Ruck is still there but it has a second and third floor now. I Loves is everything you ever expected it to be, except it’s more expensive. It was a dollar for a slice and a soda when I was a freshman. What did you do when you were an undergrad brother? I was web chair, which back then wasn’t a real job. What was FIJI like when you were here? My freshman year it was a small house, probably like 23 brothers. I don’t think they could fill RAHPs with that many. My freshman class initiated 12 people which was like half the How’s RPI changed since you left? Hmm. There’s a lot of new buildings. Barton was just being built when I was here, then you have EMPAC and Biotech, but I don’t know. I haven’t been around RPI enough to see how it’s different. I walk around and it’s the same but with new buildings. Dr. Jackson’s still dominating; my freshman year was her first. What did people think of Dr. Jackson then? Oh, we hated her. Well. She was new then, so we didn’t know what to think of her. Actually,... \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 16 / Summer 2015 Grad Interviews (continued) ...Eric Steve who’s around here somewhere, back when you could drive on campus, in front of Sage passed her car as she was walking around and they came and found him and gave him a ticket for speeding on campus. of my best friends are people I met here, or really I met in dorms and then joined FIJI. At the same time, I have friends now that live in D.C. that were FIJIs, and freshman two years after I graduated. We just became friends because of coming back here. You make good How has Troy changed? friends. College is all about that, but fraternities I think Troy’s better now that people who have kick it up a notch. graduated have moved into Troy. Some of my friends from college live here now, so it seems Do you plan on coming back for the next 10, like kind of the hip town out of Albany. There are 20 years? a lot of newer bars, which seems nicer. Brown’s Yes! Brewing Company used to be Troy Pub, but it’s still there. What’s your favorite part of coming back? Seeing people. It’s seeing people I talk to all the Do you have any advice for the chapter as a time, like Eric over here, who I talk to every whole? day but haven’t seen in months. Coming back, ...don’t be on the news? This year has been full of seeing Troy being the same and different, getting people saying stupid stuff, and everybody wants a slice of I Loves that costs an extra quarter… to pick up on fraternities doing something dumb, so don’t do anything dumb at that level, Any interesting stories from when you were a but enjoy your time here and have fun with it. freshman? Make some good friends, and come back. Some That can be repeated? That’s a good question... See all our past interviews on TauNuFIJI.com/interviews! \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 17 / Summer 2015 Grad Interviews (continued) David Glynn PCF’89 Class of 1993, B.S. Mechanical Engineering Current job: Applications Architect at Oracle Current location: Tokyo, Japan Where are you from? Watchung, New Jersey (currently Tokyo, Japan). What brought you to RPI? I wanted an engineering degree, after consulting with my math teacher in high school. What brought you to Tau Nu? My freshman year roommate, Joel Ullmann, is a legacy FIJI, and I tagged along—luckily they asked both of us to pledge! What was it like pledging back then? Pledging was probably a little easier for us than some of the other houses on campus. We were subject to the usual cleaning and organizing duties, but some of our time was (and I’m sure still is) spent learning about the history of the chapter and the backgrounds of the people we were to become brothers with. And we did it as a class­—a very diverse group, I should add. I spent more time with brothers from my pledge class, and with the next two, than I did any of the older brothers (with the exception of Dave Trayhan, who I spent more of my senior year with than I’d like to admit, and who during the Blizzard of ‘93 drove from Schenectady to Troy in order to hang out with us). What was the chapter life like back then? Chapter life revolved around the RAHPs, and you’ll hear a lot of stories about broken walls, furniture adjustments, dinners, meetings, parties, that were al influenced by where we lived. My parents wouldn’t even go in the place (so I’m glad we’re finally in a house - don’t mess it up!). We had a couple of athletes, but were almost always the underdogs (I still remember... \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 18 / Summer 2015 Grad Interviews (continued) ...a win in flag football over Castle that pissed off my freshman year roommate since they were about 3 times our size—but he still invited me to their parties!). We had representation in student government and other on-campus activities, so people who hadn’t heard of FIJI before were starting to. Remember, when I started, the chapter was only 5 years old, so we carried the momentum of the earlier brothers, but in our own way. Overall, the brothers collectively supported each other when it was needed most, which to me was the whole point. What did you do after college? After college I moved back to NJ and got a job at a pharmaceutical service company and haven’t left the industry. I went from there to Novartis and spent some time in Switzerland, and then joined a Japanese firm. What do you do now? I’m currently working in Tokyo for Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, planning the R&D budget and prioritizing the portfolio for the global company, especially with respect to the US subsidiary where I have been working for the past 7 years. Has FIJI helped you in your life, and how? I think being in FIJI during college helped me build my confidence, and I built friendships that I know will last the rest of my life. In the last 2 years I had been spending a lot of time away from my family in NJ, and my FIJI brothers in Massachusetts became my second family (again) supporting me during the week. I count them among my oldest and best friends. What do you like about travelling, and why do you do it? I’m actually a bit of a history buff, so I enjoy learning the history and experiencing the culture. I doubt I’m the most widely traveled Tau Nu, but I’ve been to almost 30 countries and enjoy finding something unique in each— the food, the drinks, the people, the scenery (which sometimes is the people!). While a lot of the travel has been for work, I always take time to get to know the people I’m working with and what makes them different from me. And I always come home, see something idiotic, and think to myself (sometimes out loud) “Stupid Americans”. Having said that, it is difficult to live in another country (starting with legal and language problems),... \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 19 / Summer 2015 Grad Interviews (continued) ...so I’ll never not be American, but one of my favorite compliments is “Huh. You’re not a typical American.” Ultimately I’d like to continue to spend some of my time outside the US each year if I can. And very recently I’ve been writing about my travels (I think Bill Brand shared the blog). I wish I had done this when I was younger, because there are many trips I remembered more of! Have you traveled with other FIJIs? I have not traveled with other FIJIs—well, outside the northeast, I guess. I have met other FIJIs on my travels—Pete Hildreth here in Japan, Joel Ullmann out in San Francisco are the two most recent that I can think of. So if anyone has a trip planned to Japan, let me know! “Not for college days alone!” \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 20 / Summer 2015 Spring Break On March 20, 2015, nine FIJIs drove over twenty hours down to Homosassa Springs, Florida to Graduate Brother Aaron Sedlacek’s house for Spring Break. Arriving late on Saturday, the brothers took the night off. On Sunday, the troop woke up bright and early to spend the day on the water on a rented pontoon. They packed cold-cut sandwiches and sailed the pontoon about half an hour out to a springs to hang out. Monday saw Fort Island Beach and its hidden glory. The brothers played Frisbee and swam in the ocean, ending the day with a breathtaking view of the sunset. The next afternoon, the group again packed their beach bags, but this time, for Clearwater Beach. After a quick Chick-fil-A dinner, the brothers left the beach for George M. Steinbrenner field to watch a Yankees’ spring training game. The next item on the menu was the John F. Kennedy Space Center, on Wednesday. On the other side of the peninsula, the day saw the launch of a satellite into space and viewings of the Center’s many exhibits. During the night, the group met with Graduate Brother Sean Phelan at Cocoa Beach, taking a refreshing ocean dip in the dark and later enjoying a filling dinner at a local English pub. The last place the brothers kicked back at was Honeymoon Island State Park, on Thursday. Boasting a colorful seashell bed and a bleach white beach, Honeymoon Island made a perfect last destination. The group enjoyed the beach’s natural and off the beaten path feel, while also stopping by the state park’s only restaurant, Café Honeymoon. The brothers had a blast on the Spring Break trip, winding down at a multitude of beaches and eating an unhealthy amount of Chick-fil-A. You can see all our photos on our Facebook page! TauNuFIJI.com/Facebook \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 21 / Summer 2015 Brotherhood Trip To round out the year, several brothers went on a Brotherhood Retreat to Boston, Massachusetts for the day. After the three hour drive, we grabbed lunch at the nearby Quincy Market, home to overpriced chowdah, cheap pizza, crazy sandwiches, and about 40 other food choices. Afterwards, we ventured over to the aquarium to take a look at the seal on display. A few pictures later and we were on our way to walk the Freedom Trail, a marked trail throughout the city that hits most of the historical landmarks in the city. On our way to the start of the trail, we met a burgeoning rapper named “Black Swan” who sold us his newest mixtape and did some freestyle for us. On the Freedom Trail, we visited several museums, a cemetery, and the old courthouse. The trail brought us to the Boston Commons, a large park where we had a fireside chat, which is a long chat between brothers of all ages on the state of the chapter and our visions for her. Having thoroughly exhausted ourselves, we grabbed dinner at the Taiwan Café before heading home in time to see Pitch Perfect 2. All ten brothers in attendance had a great time and an exciting day before parting for the summer. \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 22 / Summer 2015 Local Business Spotlight As briefly mentioned in the Spring 2015 Tau News, Nibble Inc. is a delicatessen doughnut shop that opened upon 461 Broadway just one month (September 2014) before we moved into the church. They’ve made a name for themselves as serving delicious doughnuts with wild flavors like Maple Bacon, White Russian, and Dark Chocolate Sea Salt. Nibble Inc. got its start as a small catering company and now is a small shoppe owned and operated by Michael Cunningham and Jessie Cramer, two residents of Troy. We had the pleasure of interviewing the two for the Tau News, as well as enjoying a number of excellent brunch doughnut snacks. For more information on Nibble Inc., see their website at nibbleinc.com, or ask an undergrad to take you to them. They’re great! Michael Cunningham and Jesse Cramer Co-owners, Nibble Inc. 451 Broadway, Troy NY What do you do here? Michael: We make doughnuts! I work behind the counter and make the sauces. Jessie: And I make the doughnuts; we’re coowners. How did you get started with Nibble Inc.? Michael: We took a family vacation in Maine and had a really incredible doughnut that changed our minds about doughnuts. We weren’t really doughnut people before we had this doughnut, and so we had all these things fall into place at the same time and decided that doughnuts were the thing that was going to tie it all together. We played around with some recipes, found some we liked, and opened the shop. Jessie: It was nice because I was used to the super sweet, really airy doughnuts, and so to realize there were other options for doughnuts, and we could offer them to people, was exciting. \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 23 / Summer 2015 Local Business Spotlight (continued) Michael: Treating doughnuts as a concept instead of the traditional quick and easy snack; we wanted to do something that was more meal-worthy. Something that was… Jessie: ...substantial. Michael: Substantial, yeah. You have a lot of definitely substantial doughnuts. How do you come up with all these? Jessie: Just either things that we like, flavors we like normally, or seasonal inspirations. Lots of different places. Michael: Some of them, we’ll just not have any idea what this is going to taste like, but just try it. The miso honey glaze was that we had miso on something else and wondered how it would taste on a doughnut, and it tasted awesome. How long have you been doing Nibble Inc.? Michael: We opened in the end of September. September 2014? Jessie: Yup! That’s pretty recent. Michael: Only 8 months. How do you like running the business? Jessie: It’s a lot of work! Michael: We like what we do, but being owner/ operators takes much of your time to do it. I would like more free time. Jessie: Me too, that would be nice! Michael: ...but I like making people smile. Seeing people take a bite out of something you... \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 24 / Summer 2015 Local Business Spotlight (continued) ...made and light up, that’s worth it. Jessie: I think the rewarding thing too is that in such a short amount of time, the amount of publicity we’ve got without us driving it, it’s very nice as most places don’t get that. It definitely helps a lot. Michael: The college has helped a lot too. Just the way word spreads through it. People bring their friends, who bring their friends… Jessie: ...who bring their friends… You’re nicely situated between RPI and Sage, so I imagine you get a lot of both of those. Jessie: Yup! Michael: Absolutely. It is smack dab in the middle, and we’re just down the hill from the shuttle up to the school, so you can get here in no time from it. I have to also say, the decor of this place is very good. How much effort or time do you put into making it look the way it is? Jessie: A lot. I used to be in construction and my family is in construction, so it was rather quick between them and local artists. Michael: All the stuff you see is either us or friends. We painted most everything; her father built all the cabinetry and the doughnut rack; the tables, we made…. Jessie: Except for these [circular ones]. Michael: We recovered these chairs. Jessie: The doughnut shop that we had gone to in Maine had this really cool feel about it, and I wanted to make it feel like I wasn’t at home. Michael: Right. We wanted that coastal theme. A lot of people come in and say it feels like you’re somewhere near the ocean. How long does it normally take you to make the doughnuts over the weekend? Michael: It’s about a 24 hour process. First you have to cook a bunch of potatoes, peel them, grate them, and make the dough on day one.... \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 25 / Summer 2015 Local Business Spotlight (continued) ...then you let it rest for typically around 12 hours, and then you cut it out and fry it the next day. The different sauces and stuff we make either daily or weekly. It’s about one day. Are there any other places in Troy you particularly like going to? Jessie: Everywhere. Michael: There are a lot of places. Finnbar’s, Wine Bars… Jessie: Peck’s, Malt Room... Michael: Ali Baba’s, Brown’s, Muddaddy Flats… The food in Troy’s awesome; there are just so many good places. Famous Lunch, Beirut, First Choice Caribbean, Sweet Tooth… Jessie: Oh my god Sweet Tooth! That’s what I miss more than anything, I used to have brunch there every Saturday and ever since we opened I cannot go because we have the same hours. Michael: It’s rough. Jessie: It’s terrible. Every once in a while I get a delivery. What do you think of the way Troy is right now? The way it’s changing? Jessie: It’s amazing! Michael: We’ve lived here for a few years now, and just the last two years the changes have been pretty great. Especially if you want to live and work or go to school in the same place you are, it’s really great that there’s so much happening... \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 26 / Summer 2015 Local Business Spotlight (continued) ...and so much to do that’s so easily walkable. Jessie: Everybody’s always looking to lend a hand, to collaborate with different places. Finnbar’s for a while was doing our doughnut bread pudding and we talked to the Wine Bar about doughnut and wine pairings; hopefully we’ll be doing that soon. Michael: We used Sweet Sue’s lemon curd for a while; we use beer from local breweries to make the doughnuts. Jessie: And juice! It’s fun. Everybody wants to get in. that it’ll be nice. It’s not 100% set which dates, but we’re thinking they’ll be Wednesday through Saturday. We’ll be open from 7 in the morning to around 9 or 10 at night, so we’ll definitely expand the times people can get in here. Sounds great, good luck with the expansion! Jessie: Thanks, we’re excited about it! Is there anything else you feel we should know about Nibble Inc.? Jessie: We are, for the summer, going to do later hours and carry espressos and ice cream, which we’re going to get homemade. Dante’s isn’t opening again, so we’ll be the only ice cream spot downtown other than Stewart’s. We’re going to use local ice cream and then do a compilation with the doughnuts too, so I think Want us to feature your business in a future Tau News? We’d love to, send us an email! publications@taunufiji.com \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 27 / Summer 2015 Weekly Brotherhood Spotlight Each week, the brotherhood—with moderation from the Publications Committee—highlights one or more brother(s) for going above and beyond their normal duties. We renamed this from Weekly Brother Spotlight to Weekly Brotherhood Spotlight this semester, in order to include thenPledge Brother Spencer Weiner for his weekly spotlight. Below are the latter half of this semester’s Spotlight winners; the first half were featured in the Spring 2015 issue. Week of March 15th: Michael Schrider ‘15 Brother Schrider works 3 cooking shifts per week serving amazing food, which is often unique, never repetitive, and always delicious. He also spearheaded the preparation of the supplies for our successful sushi-making mixer with the Alpha Omega Epsilon sorority. Week of March 29th: Harrison Tarr ‘15 Brother Tarr was the Pledge Educator for the Spring semester and has done an amazing job working to reshape the pledge program in a way that forms better future brothers in the new house. Among the changes he has made are requiring in-house study hours, and weekly exercise hours for the pledge class. Additionally, Brother Tarr planned and organized new pledge events that better serve pledges of our evolving chapter. Week of April 6st: Spencer Weiner ‘17 Brother Weiner, while still a pledge, took it upon himself to start a project to organize and clean the side storage room connected to the chapter house kitchen. Previously this room was completely unusable due to clutter. The pledge class worked with him to make the room more accessible, and are continuing their work now that they are all brothers. \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 28 / Summer 2015 Weekly Brotherhood Spotlight (continued) Week of April 13th: Zachary Shute ‘16 As Vice President of Graduate Relations, Brother Shute did an amazing job to organize and execute this year’s Frank AE. Norris Pig Dinner at our chapter. Brother Shute’s efforts ensured that the second dinner ever held in our new house was a resounding success. Week of April 20th: Brandon McLear ‘15 Brother McLear is the director of the improv group Sheer Idiocy, who have had an incredible presence on campus recently, performing at both GM Week events and Relay for Life. Additionally, during a blackout caused by maintenance of electrical connections, Brother McLear kept up house morale by creating hilarious parody ghost hunting videos. Week of May 3rd: Our Graduating ‘15 Seniors Our chapter will be losing a great group of brothers this semester, all of whom have made an incredible mark on what it means to be a Tau Nu FIJI. We thank them for all they have done for the chapter! They will be missed immensely, and we look forward to seeing them again soon. “Press on!” \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 29 / Summer 2015 Community Service The end of this semester has been an extremely active one for Tau Nu’s community service activities. Since the beginning of 2015, we’ve totaled 654.25 hours of community service­—that’s 13 per brother on average, or 43 2/3 a week. In total, we donated about $3,200 dollars to charity, most of which came from our Islander Week (about $1,400) and winning Meanest Man on Campus (about $1,800). Our community service activities since the last Tau News include... Meanest Man on Campus As mentioned in our Islander Week article (pg. 6), we won the Meanest Man on Campus competition this semester. Students on campus donate to a particular group, and the group with the most donations (us) chooses the benefitting charity (Peppertree Dog Rescue). High School Hacking Hope Seven Community Center Brother Josh Goldberg passed the torch for leading the weekly programming lessons (highschoolhacking.club) to Brother Will Rigby-Hall. After APs started up, Brother Goldberg started teaching LOLCODE and C# in two of Shaker High’s AP CS classes. Brother Jacob Merson has made a name for himself as one of the best mentors for the elementary school kids at the Hope Seven Community Center in Troy. He alone spent 28 hours at the center this semester tutoring math, English, and other general school subjects. Relay for Life As we have for the past several years, Tau Nu helped RPI’s Relay for Life by grilling dinner for all participants. We participated in grilling, soccer games, and the Sheer Idiocy and Rusty Pipes performances for the fundraiser. \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 30 / Summer 2015 Miscellaneous Activities Behind the scenes of all our great work on campus this past semester is a thriving community of brothers. It would be impossible to list all the shenanigans we’ve done, but some major ones are... Mikebob Meal Plan After the regular house meal plan ended, Graduate Brother Michael “Mikebob” Schrider took it upon himself to start up a new one before and during Senior Week based on his (higher quality) personal favorite dishes. At $5 a night and personally cooked by Mikebob each evening, it was a hit. The Brotherhood Board Tau Nu has a tradition of keeping a variety of photos from a variety of events on a “Brotherhood Board” somewhere in the house. We upgraded the older board with a new corkboard and a plethora of newer photos, which are now available (with extra space for years to come) in our Bob Pringle Library. Uncovering Rensselaer’s Finances Full Screen Pokemon Brother Nathan Greene, as Senior Managing Editor of The Polytechnic, spearheaded The Poly’s investigative look into the details of RPI’s current and past financial standing. It resulted in a widely popular article, available online. http://TauNuFIJI.com/PolyFinanceArticle Graduate Brother Josh Goldberg’s biggest project most of this semester was Full Screen Pokemon, a remake of the first Pokemon games. He and the pledge class postered on campus for a joke release of the game on April 1, which Rick Rolled users after a minute of gameplay. \r\nThe Tau News Pg. 31 / Summer 2015 Recognition Many thanks to the generous graduate brothers who have contributed to the Tau Nu chapter of Phi Gamma Delta. Without your hard work and generosity, especially considering the work of the House Corporation, neither this article nor its contents would have been possible. Additional thanks to Bill Brand, Javier Camino, David Glynn, Nathan Greene, Josh Goldberg, Patrick Hesselbach, Chris Leong, Jeff Lester, Terrance McGovern, Jacob Merson, Sean Phelan, Spencer Pilcher, Connor Rhoads, Geoffrey Rosenthal, Brad Schwartz, Zach Shute, Kirk Smith, Mark Stein, Dean Thanos, and Jonathan Yax for providing content inception, writing, and editing services. The Tau News Official Graduate Brother Newsletter - Tau Nu Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta Volume AF, Issue 1 Monday, May 25th, 2015 82 3rd Street, Troy, NY \r\n