brothers quickly established a fund to assist the Shelton family in their time of need. We were able to raise over $1,000 to help Lucas and his two siblings. I would also especially like to thank brothers at the University of Louisville Delta Pi Chapter for their contributions. If you are interested in contributing to the Shelton Family, please do so at donate.billhighway.com/LucasSheltonFund.

I‟m very excited for all

that this fall holds for our colony. Please consider joining us for a great time on October 29. We would love to meet you. Feel free to contact me with any questions about the Colony or our events. Go Beta and Go Cats!

Yours in _kai_, Brent White „11 Colony President brent.white@uky.edu (270) 227-3204

Brothers, For the first time, hello

from the Epsilon Omicron Colony of Beta Theta Pi. We are pleased to begin a tradition of an alumni newsletter to keep you informed about the incredible experience of Beta Theta Pi at the University of Kentucky.

Our Colony has had an

incredible time in our first year on campus. In our first appearance at an inter-Greek event, we were the 2011 Greek Sing Fraternity Champions. We had the highest GPA amongst all fraternities (3.41) in the spring, and are looking to achieve even better this fall. Currently, we have 60 brothers and pledges, with the Fall 2011 class being our strongest ever at 16 men. We sent seven men to leadership development programs this summer: Manny Cortez ‟14, Brad Elliott ‟13, Chris Goodale ‟12, Corey Neal ‟14, Lucas Shelton ‟14, Elijah Zimmerman ‟14, and Charlie Mounts ‟11. We have given out over $1000 in recruiting scholarships through the Men of Principle Scholarship program. Brothers are involved in leadership on campus and are in the presidential or advisory roles of UK SAB, UK Habitat for Humanity, and the UK Solar Car team.

We have an exciting fall semester lined up with events including numerous social events, a brotherhood retreat in Oxford, OH, intramural sports, and football tailgating. Even though you may not be an alumnus of our chapter, we would love to meet you when you are on campus or in Lexington. We have a special event planned for YOU on Homecoming, October 29. We want to meet all Kentucky Beta alumni, so we will be tailgating on homecoming outside of Commonwealth stadium.

Even though our colony

hasn‟t reached the one-year mark (in November), our brotherhood is incredibly strong. On August 3, 2011 we learned of a tragedy: the home of our brother, Lucas Shelton ‟14, was destroyed by lightning related fire. The Owenton, KY home was a total loss, but incredibly nobody was hurt. Our

The Epsilon Omicron Colony in April, 2011

A Welcome from President Brent White

A Word on

Recruitment

2

Our

Brotherhood

2

Around the

Campus

3

Intramurals 3

Upcoming

Events

4

How to Get

Involved

4

A L U M N I

N E W S L E T T E R Beta Theta Pi

Epsilon Omicron

O C T O B E R , 2 0 1 1 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1

Executive Officers

2011

President-

Brent White ‘11

VP Brotherhood–

Matt Warner ‘13

VP Recruiting–

Nick Camic ‘13

VP Member Education-

Palmer Grigsby ‘13

VP Programming-

Elijah Zimmerman ‘14

VP Risk Management-

Charlie Mounts ‘12

VP Finance-

Landon Sallee ‘13

VP Communications-

Tyler Lewis ‘14

In this issue:

P A G E 2

“The first mark of

a Beta will be his

Beta spirit.”

- Willis O. Robb,

Ohio Wesleyan

1879

Our Brotherhood

A Word on Recruiting The foundation of a

great brotherhood and an outstanding fraternity is the brothers themselves. But no matter how strong the brotherhood is within the chapter, it is of the utmost importance to constantly and thoroughly search for outstanding men. As a colony in the early stages of growth and establishment on campus, our recruitment efforts are perhaps our most important.

We view recruitment as a year-round activity, with nine brothers initiated last spring and

16 pledges this fall, bringing our roster to 60 men. We are extremely excited about how recruitment has gone thus far. In addition to our new members seeking active roles in organizations on campus, many have already taken strong initiative within our chapter and have joined committees and helped lead our social and service events.

Our recruitment team has done an outstanding job and deserves to be commended for their efforts. In addition, we

are very thankful for the help we received from Alpha Delta Pi sorority. Being such a new colony, we do not have a house at the moment. This made finding a location for spring/fall Rush difficult. Fortunately, ADPi kindly assisted us by allowing us to use their prominently-located house. We have contributed to their charity, the Ronald McDonald Foundation, and will serenade them as a thank-you for their incredible assistance.

putting together the curriculum and tests for the education of our pledges.

Following initiation last spring, we had a brotherhood retreat that was a great time for everyone. It gave us a chance to gather together for an evening of fun (football, Frisbee, hiking, a bonfire) and growth, with the night including a special time of reflection upon initiation, our brotherhood, and sharing more about ourselves with our brothers.

Brotherhood has also been strengthened through smaller, but still significant, ways. Last

Throughout this first year, we have watched our brotherhood grow stronger and stronger. Each and every member of this fraternity cares for one another as brothers and friends, and we are excited to continue that growth this semester.

Last year, we learned the values, traditions, and rituals of Beta Theta Pi. And this year, we have begun weekly pledge education classes held by our education committee. These meetings focus on passing down the history and ideals of our fraternity, and building the brotherhood in our pledges. The team did a great job this summer of

fall, we set up a mass-texting system to allow each of us to send out a text to every brother. It is common for us to receive messages about meeting up for lunch, or for getting a group of guys together to check out a concert at a local venue. Meetings and rituals will always be special ways to grow brotherhood, but these “everyday” hang-outs have been the driving force behind getting to know our brothers in a more personal way.

B E T A T H E T A P I

E P S I L O N O M I C R O N

Brothers at the retreat following

initiation

P A G E 3

Around Campus

Ronald McDonald House.

Students that live on campus are allotted $300 per semester of “flex money” to spend on food and groceries at campus locations. However, if there is flex remaining at the end of the year, that money would be lost. Flex for a Cause gave students the opportunity to donate their unused flex money to the local shelters. Alpha Delta Pi sorority was also involved with us, as well as Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt, who offered a coupon for free five ounces of yogurt to those who donated.

Our first campus-wide service project was “Flex for a Cause,” organized by our community service chair, Andrew Jones ‟14. The event raised nearly $6,000 to go to local shelters, such as God‟s Pantry, Hope Center, Salvation Army, and

B E T A T H E T A P I

E P S I L O N O M I C R O N

Greek Sing 2011 Greek Sing is the biggest inter

-Greek event on campus, taking place at Memorial Coliseum, with over 7,000 people attending last year. The event benefits the Make-A-Wish foundation, raising over $100,000 each of the last two years.

Many of our brothers participated in our Greek Sing routine this past February. The evening was a great way to get our name out there amongst the other Greek organizations, and winning it in our first year participating was a huge accomplishment for us. We are looking forward to the challenge of repeating this year!

Intramurals Update

Our brothers participated in nearly every intramural sport

available last year.

This semester is off to a great start in intramurals

also, with our soccer team coming in second out of all

the fraternities, narrowly being defeated by way of

penalty kicks in the championship game.

Keep checking this section

throughout the year for updates on our intramurals!

Several brothers were actively involved in K-Week activities. K-Week is a campus event that takes place all week long during the first week of classes and the weekends before/after. It is designed to help freshmen get used to being on campus through fun activities. Our brothers assisted by being K-Crew leaders, sharing their insight about UK with a specific group of new students. They led their groups on tours, answered questions, and organized meetings to discuss any topics that were on the freshmen‟s minds.

Fusion, a large community service event that involves thousands of UK students each year, also took place during K-Week. Several of our brothers were site leaders for this, leading a group of students in a specific service event.

K-Week

We invite you to join us on October 29

for our Homecoming tailgate! Whether

you are a Beta from UK or from

another school, we’d love for you to

come enjoy an awesome day of

brotherly fellowship with us outside

Commonwealth Stadium.

Alumni Tailgate!

Homecoming, October 29

How to Get Involved

If you would like to know more about our chapter and how you can get involved, or if you would like to make a donation, you can contact us at ukybeta@gmail.com. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Follow us on Facebook at

www.facebook.com/ukgobeta

Follow us on Twitter at

www.twitter.com/ukgobeta

www.ukbeta.org