Beta Theta Pi Fraternity Tau Sigma Chapter

Alumni Newsletter Spring 2008 Online Edition

Jim Fifield 1120 and Matt Prochaska 1460 pose with Actives and Pledges after A Night of Three Stars Dinner with the Presi-dent of the University Gregory Geoffroy and his wife.

Dan Petersen, Jordan Minich, Derek Jensen and Matt Cavner, hav-ing a good time at the Beta Gift Exchange.

Clint Currie, Kevin Marquart, Kevin Friedman, Ryan Kennedy and Jake Braunger show beta muscle against other chapters at the Keystone Dodge ball Tourney.

1ST PLACE OVERALL – VARIETIES 2008

Betas on winning varieties team “The Labors of Our Fruits” skits, with members of Beta Theta Pi participating, took first place in Varieties Sweepstakes! As well as winning the first place overall award, the skit won nine “best of” awards, including best male vocalist and best supporting actor for betas Kevin Friedman and Clint Currie. Varieties is an annual production of the

Student Union Board which Beta Theta Pi has been successful with in the past. Watch the performance here. Beta Theta Pi, Alpha Chi Omega, Beta Sigma Psi, Pi Beta Phi, and Phi Kappa Psi all participated in the Labors of Our Fruits, the story of how the Fruit of the Loom came to be.

What is Self-governance?

“Self-governance exemplifies that a chapter identifies areas of need and takes action upon violations of ideals and policies. If a chapter cannot handle problems internally, external forces (the University/College, the General Fraternity, local alumni) must intervene, resulting in an unpleasant situation for all parties involved. However, if a chapter suc-cessfully handles its problems internally, exercising the right to self-governance, external forces will not have to intervene.” (Taken form betathetapi.org)

This was accomplished by monthly programming events in which guest speakers present on topics such as alcoholism, fire safety and nutrition and a strong kai committee. All actives are to thank for their understanding and practice of our risk management policy. This understanding, structured events wouldn‟t be possible without the efforts of current president Ryan Kennedy.

SELF GOVERNACE AWARDED AT KEYSTONE !

The Tau Sigma chapter sent a full delegation to the 2008 Midwest Keystone Regional Leadership Conference, held in Des Moines, Iowa, February 15-16, 2008. The schedule for Tau Sigma officers was filled with break out sessions and round table discussions where much was learned for recruitment, ritual and alumni relations. The conference dodge ball tournament was also a time for fun and our chapter dominated with a 3-1 record.

TAU S IGMA SENDS FULL DELIGATION TO KEYSTONE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

Chris White, Franklin Echevarria , Mom Connie, Andrew Schmitz, Kevin Friedman, Clint Currie, Ryan Kennedy, Jake Braunger, Kevin Marquardt, and Matt Strayer.

“The Labors of Our Fruits” are Number One!

Ryan Kennedy, left, receives award for self-governance.

Beta‟s Clint Currie as the “Banana” and Kevin Friedman as the “Purple Grape”.

Greetings Beta Members, Parents and Alumnus. I am Matthew Cavner, the new House Manager this year. I‟m a fresh-man majoring in Management Information Systems (MIS). I graduated high school in Saline, MI near Ann Arbor, MI. When I was elected for this position, I had many ideas for making the position better. Overall, I wish to stabilize the position with the creation of a House Manager Binder composed of contact information of utility and repair companies and tips for keeping the house clean. My hope is I can make the position into something that any member whether a Handyman or a person has never touched a hammer can take on the position of House Manager and be successful with it. Since the spring semester started, we have had a house cleaning every week. Furthermore, attendance to these house cleanings has been nothing short of excellent. As a result is the house is cleaned an hour‟s time. On top of the house cleanings, we have looked at different parts of the house to clean and change. The old bedroom in the basement will soon be clean and repainted to officially come our 24 hour Study Room. Furthermore, we are reorganizing the attic to better utilize the space there and to rid it of unnecessary items. Like our restarted colony, the house itself is under reconstruction. Last summer, we integrated a new suite style that would allow many people to room comfortably in these rooms. One of these suites connects to a bathroom that is shared by another respective suite. I hope to see all of you in the future. If you would like, I would gladly give you a tour of the house and explain in more detail what I wish to do with the house.

Yours in __kai__, Matthew Cavner TS 1763 House Manager IFC Representative

NEW HOUSE MANAGER

PAGE 3 TRI SERP

CREATIVE IDEA FROM NEW VP OF R ISK MANAGEMENT

Jake Braunger, junior in political science, speaks on his successful new idea: “get to know a brother”... During Fall semester of '07 we went through some difficult times in the chapter. One thing I noticed though was a lot of brothers came together to try and help each other through it. I for one though still did not feel as though I knew all my broth-ers. I was still very much a stranger to our pledge class especially. So as VP of Risk Management I decided to come up with a program that would issue "Man-Dates". Basically I will pick two brothers who don't know each other as well as some others. They will hang out at the house, go out to eat, or get some coffee on campus and just try to get to know each other. Then at the next chapter meeting they will re-introduce the brother to the chapter. This way we can get to know their likes, dislikes, fears, reasons why they joined Beta and what they want out of it, future goals, and other usually amusing quirks and facts. It seems to be quite popular and I have yet to hear a complaint. I believe it effective and fun because it points out things about a person that some people didn't know. This in the end will help with Brotherhood but also could lead to helping things like recruitment because we will be able to find people with similar interests. So far we have had close to 1/3 of our chapter be reintroduced and hopefully this is a program that can stay on permanently and help keep the older members feeling close to the younger ones.

Yours in __kai__, Jacob Braunger TS 1731 Vice President of Risk Management

Alumnus Jim Fifield, 1122, and Matt Prochaska, 1460, along with Iowa State University President Gregory Geoffroy , joined the Beta colony for dinner on March 5, 2008. President Geoffroy gave brief remarks for the members and engaged in discussion over dinner. Jim and Matt also had many ears as

they shared stories of experience and advice to Tau Sigma actives. Alumni are highly en-couraged to join us here, at 2120 Lincoln Way, for formal meals which are tentatively every first Monday of each month. It is a great way to get to know current active Betas share experiences, and take a look around the house!

A N IGHT OF THREE STARS

Looking forward to

seeing you on April 7th !

Meet upstairs at 5 p.m. Dress is coat and tie.

Gregory Geoffroy , President of Iowa State University, speaks at Night of Three Stars.

Actives and Alumni look on as President Geoffroy is speaking.

Another semester opens up at Iowa State University for the men of the Tau Sigma, and we are very excited about the possibilities! As a chapter we‟ve come a long way since our re-colonization in fall 2006, and we look ahead to the fu-ture with only the highest expectations. In late February our executive committee traveled to Des Moines for the Key-stone Midwest Regional Conference. At the conference, the executive committee prioritized and developed goals for the chapter in the areas of scholarship, member recruitment, and ritual review. We were also the only chapter out of 30 at-tending to receiving the Self-Governance Award, awarded for our frequent risk management programming, our prompt and careful responses to risk management issues, and our structured organizational operations that place a high emphasis on goalsetting and follow-through. This award is on top of the 2007 convention awards we received for Leadership Develop-ment, Campus Involvement, and Excellence in Risk Management. Recruitment never fails to be important for a frater-nity. Five great individuals have been selected for the spring 2008 class, and we are already lining up potential new mem-bers for our fall 2008 class through informal recruitment and our recruitment events, such as our dry Super Bowl party and the upcoming Greek Getaway event held at the end of Greek Week. We are currently seeking fall 2008 ISU students for our Delta class, with a lofty goal established at having 20 excellent new members. Our scholarship program has been re-cently revamped through the work of Matt Strayer, our previous chapter president and new vice president of scholarship. Our chapter has created a study room in the house basement, developed an academic, and begun a successful study hours program. Lectures on study habits and time management are held once a month, and Strayer meets one-on-one with indi-viduals having problems in classes. Matt‟s excellent work has merited our receiving the Best Scholarship Program award from the ISU Greek Community in March this year. We are also going to do a better job with hosting more frequent, bet-ter-timed alumni events, which I hope you and many other alumni can attend. We are also beginning weekly ritual and song practices, to better flesh out those characteristics of a good chapter that are hard to measure. Finally, brothers are doing community service work every week while committing to an all-chapter service project on April 19th, not replacing the Beta philanthropy happening in the fall. This summer the 169th Beta General Convention will be held in Dallas, TX; we will be in attendance, but we won‟t be seeking a charter until 2009. The chapter weighed the decision to wait another year very carefully, and there are many good reasons for holding off. Basically, though, we felt that we wanted to try to charter when absolutely certain of succeeding; there still remains plenty of foundation-setting before the charter occurs, in many of our targeted goal areas that I‟ve described. Getting a charter this summer would have been possible, but would have made the active members so exhausted that our momentum would have been lost for going beyond the charter to even bigger goals next fall. Instead, we are going to take things more long-term; instead, we‟re going to power through the next convention, soar through the requirements for a charter and go beyond it, and along the way accumulate accolades from the ISU Greek community as well. There is no more exciting time to be a Beta at 2120 Lincoln Way. I‟d like to close by asking alumni brothers of Tau Sigma to do some specific things for their younger brothers still attending ISU. If you know any outstanding young men fit to join Beta that will be attending ISU next fall, please refer those men to Beta! Sec-ondly, please check the calendar of upcoming events going on at Tau Sigma- beyond our alumni events, we always wel-come alumni to events like Initiation Week or our weekly chapter meetings. My last request to our alumni is to simply stay in touch with the undergraduate chapter. The best part of our chapter‟s succeeding is being able to share that success with all Tau Sigma Betas, not just the ones taking classes. If you want to have your part in the rebuilding of our great tradi-tion, it begins with reading the Tri-Serp newsletter, visiting the chapter house, and keeping up with all of the great things going on at 2120 Lincoln Way.

Yours in ___kai___,

Ryan Kennedy, Iowa State „10 Accounting, English, and Philosophy President, Tau Sigma Chapter Beta Theta Pi Fraternity kennedy@iastate.edu

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

PAGE 4 VOLUME 1 , ISSUE 1

Greek Week March 30 - April 6, 2008

VEISHEA April 6, 2008 - April 13, 2008

Night of Three Stars (5 o‟clock ) April 7, 2008

Alumni Dinner and Recognition (2-5 o’clock) April 27, 2008

Initiation (starting at 7 or 8 o‟clock) April 27, 2008

Finals May 5, 2008 - May 9, 2008

EVENTS

Issue Recap: In this issue you can find information on Varieties Champ‟s, Keystone Leadership Conference, Self-Governance Award, Night of Three Stars Dinner, New VP of Risk Manage-ment, New House Manager, Letter from the President, and Event calendars. Alumni Event: April 27, 2008 which is a Sunday, The theme for the event is a Beta Luau! Time: Arrive by 2 p.m. meal will begin at 3 p.m. awards at 4 p.m. stick around if you can for initiation! Dress informal, but if you plan to stay for ritual bring a coat and tie. Information for Tri Serp: Please fill out the informa-tion card ! Next issue: The next issue will be a print copy of the Tri Serp so that we may reach alumni not using the internet or email.

Alumni are encouraged to reconnect with the actives at Tau Sigma, get to know your young active brothers and pass along some knowledge and memories.

Alumni are invited to stop by the house at anytime!

Welcome to join us at Chapter Meetings, Dinner, Formal Chapter, Formal Dinner, Ritual.

Content for Newsletter- Info card, News, Anything that can connect us to you if you choose, it is all up to you.

Yours in __kai__, Matthew W. Burkhalter 1753

FROM THE EDITOR Please Send Us Your Information

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c/o Beta Theta Pi

2120 Lincoln Way

Ames, Iowa 50014

Or email at: alumni@isubeta.com

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Note: Initiation and the Alumni Dinner and Recognition are both on Sunday April 27, 2008

Dinner dress is casual & Initiation is coat and tie.

Spring Alumni Dinner and Recognition A time to enjoy some good food, good laughs of the past, and a chance to meet your current beta broth-ers here at 2120. A Fraternal Fifty award will be given to alumni who have been initiated members for 50 years and a Fraternal 25 award to alumni initiated for 25 years.

When: Sunday, April 27, 2008

2 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Where: Beta Theta Pi

2120 Lincoln Way

Ames Iowa 50014

What: BBQ, Pulled Pork, chips, salad

Dress is casual

RSVP: By Saturday, April 5, 2008

To: Matthew Burkhalter

mburk@iastate.edu

Please RE: RSVP for email

Hope to see you there!