Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Congratulations to incoming chapter president Cole Harris. Here he is on the left with outgoing president Jake Batusich. Cole takes up the reins next semester.


Cole is a junior from Rock Island majoring in Agricultural Sciences.

Cole says his goals for the chapter are:
  • Increase member involvement in our campus community, and throughout Macomb. 
  • Motivate members to participate in groups outside of the fraternity.
  • Assist brothers in any way I can, to continue to build the chapter into the best it can be.
Brothers, let's support Cole in maintaining and strengthening the momentum presidents Jake, Connor Bostedt, and all the active and alumni brotherhood have generated.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Board Meeting Minutes September 24, 2017 Wheaton Illinois

2017-2018 Officers:      President: Connor Bostedt ’16; Vice-President: Vic Caricato ’78 
Secretary: Orin Rehorst ‘73 Treasurer: Chuck Hvala ‘73

2017-2018 Board:         Connor Bostedt ’16 Vic Caricato ’78; Chuck Hvala ’73; Ed Kelly ’72;
Bill Kotzum ’69; Randy Moore ‘13, Dennis O’Connell ’78, Orin Rehorst ‘73
Tom Stern ’72, and Jake Winters ‘15.
Alumni Present:           Connor Bostedt ’16; Vic Caricato ’78; Ralph Hinkle ’70, Chuck Hvala ’73; Ed Kelly ’72; Orin Rehorst ’73, Tom Stern ’72; Jacob Winters ’15;

Active Members:          Jake Batusich ’19; Garrett Lisle ‘19

Topic
Discussion
Action / Follow-up
President’s Report
Connor recommended two board vacancies be filled by Jake Winters and Orin Rehorst. In addition, Orin to take the Secretary position vacated by Steve Stapleton.
Motion on board changes made and approved.
Active Chapter President Report
Jake Batusich reported
·        our chapter now has 19 pledges and is 47 men strong. We are the 2nd largest chapter
·        starting community advisory board
·        GPA: 2.98
·        A website was created: thetachiwiu.com

VP Report
·        Vic Caricato stated the scholarship process was in the works.
·        Vic recommended we donate $250 each to the cystic fibrosis, and Re;Act charities.
Motion on donations made and approved.
Treasurer Report
Chuck Hvala reported financial results of the reunion and overall financial position. Brothers may request details.

Reunion
·        Tom Stern announced that 77 spots were paid for and 75 attended.
·        Tom recommended cards be mailed to brothers for whom we have no email addresses. The cards will provide news and request email addresses. Another card will be mailed later to solicit contributions for charities
·        An email blast will be sent soon to solicit contributions for charities
Motion on card mailings made and approved.
Housing
·        Connor restated the need for a house to help the fraternity and attract new members. He requested that a housing committee be formed. Tentative members are: Connor, Bob Schumaker, Chuck Hvala, Tom Stern, Bob Leoni (legal advice), and Jeff Pivaronas (a realtor).
·        Many rules are in effect. For example, new builds must be within a defined geographic area, and houses must display their Greek letters.
·        An amount we are willing to provide as a down payment was agreed upon.
Motion to create a Housing Committee made and approved.
End of Report
Orin Rehorst, Secretary

Thursday, May 18, 2017

 Board Meeting April 29, 2017 with the Active Chapter in Macomb


2017-2018 Officers:   President: Connor Bostedt ’16; Vice-President: Vic Caricato ’78 Secretary: Steve Stapleton ’79 & ‘80; Treasurer: Chuck Hvala ‘73

2017-2018 Board:      Connor Bostedt ’16 Vic Caricato ’78; Chuck Hvala ’73; Ed Kelly ’72; Bill Kotzum ’69; Randy Moore ‘13, Dennis O’Connell ’78, Steve Stapleton ’79 & ’80 and Tom Stern ‘72.

Alumni Present:        John Bokum Jr ’72; Connor Bostedt ’16; Vic Caricato ’78; Patrick Fallon ’16; Randy Fritz ’71; Chuck Hvala ’73; Ed Kelly ’72; Randy Moore ’15; Dennis O’Connell ’78; Bob Schumaker ’74; Steve Stapleton, ’79 & ’80; Tom Stern ’72; Jacob Winters ’15;
Active Members:       Jake Batusich ’19; Connor Bowles ’20; Anthony Clarke ’19; Rob Cormier ’18; Luke Harris ’19; Anthony Madrigal ’19; Andy Ott ’18
Topic
Discussion
Action/Follow-up
Agenda
Connor Bostedt requested to adjust the Agenda
Request granted
Minutes
Minutes from January 29, 2017 were available to review
None needed – minutes were approved by those present at the meeting via an email vote
President's Report
Connor Bostedt reported that Austin Cinotto is unable to fulfill his Vice President duties due to numerous work conflicts.
Vic Caricato was reinstated at the Vice President and we are looking for another Board Member.
Secretary’s Report
Deferred

Treasurer’s Report
Deferred

Membership Report
Tom Stern outlined his efforts to find current address, phone and email information for the membership. Copies of the current list were available to review
Tom Stern will continue to update the roster as information becomes available. Please
Scholarship Program
Vic Caricato discussed the scholarship program with the active chapter members present at the meeting.
The Alumni Association will continue to fund the Scholarship program
Social Events
Tom Stern discussed the 2017 Theta Chi Reunion
Date:  Saturday, July 29, 2017
Time:  11:00 am – 04:00 pm
Place: Hawthorne’s Place
           1200 West Hawthorne
            West Chicago, IL
Menu:  Pulled pork, sides, desert, beer, wine, soft drinks.


Old Timer’s Event
Date:  Friday, July 28, 2917
Time:  6:00 pm
Place: Tom Stern’s House
           423 West Thomas Road
           Wheaton, IL
Menu: TBD

Golf Event – To Be Determined
    
The Board agreed with the reunion plans and thanked Tom Stern for all his work with this event.














Dennis O’Connell and Vic Caricato will plan this event to coincide with the 2017 Theta Chi Reunion if enough interest is gained.
Newsletter
Deferred

Chapter Report
Jake Batusich-President:

Chapter members submitted a written report that was edited by Steve Stapleton.












































Anthony Clarke-Vice President















Cole Harris-
Vice President for Health and Safety:








Antonio
Secretary:







Rob Cormier-Treasurer


Cody Ott-MARSHAL:














Connor Bowles-Recruitment Chair:






-There are a total of 883 active men in IFC fraternities.  
-The average IFC fraternity GPA was a 2.8 and our chapter GPA for last semester was a 2.9. We were recognized for this as being one of the 3 IFC chapters above the all men’s average.
-We won the bronze award for excellence as a chapter and we are shooting for a gold or silver next year.
-Alpha Sigma Phi is coming on campus in the fall and they will begin to recruit after the major rush cycle has died down.
-We had 2 members on the IFC Executive Board this year and our Greek relations has improved to a point where we no longer here “Theta Who?”
-We have started writing in journals to leave advice for future officers that hold our position to help with officer transition.
-We have finally cleaned up our roster on Omega Fi where every Theta Chi is on the right status.
-We reviewed and revised our By-Laws.
-We started doing gavel passes because we have 2 gavels and it's better than a candle. This helps brothers get things off there chest if they need to or to address any problems they have with any of the brothers.
-By far one of the biggest things I am excited to tell everyone here today is that I have never heard a brother say that they want to drop because the brotherhood is bad. I hear it all the time from other chapters on campus and I believe that we always stick to our recruitment model of quality over quantity.
-Pi Kappa Phi has just bought the old Pike house.
-TKE has just rented the Theta Xi house but can't put letters on it
-Sigma Pi had their house demolished last year. This leaves Theta Chi, Theta Xi and Sigma Pi the only fraternities without a chapter house.
-Overall WIU’s enrollment rates are dropping. As of this last fall there are only 8,531 people enrolled.
-I am confident that we will be getting 40 members by this next fall even with the drop in enrollment. We have not wavered from getting quality men even though a lot of other chapters have done that.
-Currently we have 29 members and I think the highest chapter on campus is around 50 active members. We are growing at a fast rate but this fall rush will be extremely important because we have a lot of sophomores that will be graduating in 1 ½ to 2 years. To help us reach more people I have created a website that you can preview for now until we buy a domain name for it.
-We are currently looking for an advisor for our chapter because the ones we get always leave for some reason. If we do not have an advisor 4 weeks into the fall semester we will have to be shut down until we get one. I can guarantee this won't happen and I have been actively emailing staff members and we will continue to do so over summer.
-Overall we are headed in a good direction and I am confident we will continue to grow stronger as a chapter.



-Intramural chair (Chris): not trying to sound biased but I think Chris is the best intramural chair we have had for Theta Chi. He always notifies when we have games, he has gotten all the teams that the fraternity wanted to together.
Scholarship chair (Dennis): one thing that he started doing this semester that we haven’t had was the inclusion of study tables. He also brings up any scholarships up in chapter that he finds online
Brotherhood (Coffey): We made brotherhood bi-weekly so we can make them bigger and better. Matt did planned a spring break vacation to the Wisconsin Dells.
Philanthropy (Josh): We had a successful spring philanthropy (especially for the first one we have done). Josh also has offered a lot of different opportunities for getting community service hours, one of which being reading to the preschoolers.
Social (Jaime): For our social status we had our very first spring party and we had two socials one being a sober social.

-Working on a schedule for 5 health and safety events for the next two semesters.
-Contacting the not on my campus organization for a starter pack to hold a campus wide event about sexual assault awareness/prevention.
-In contact with other chapters about the VPHS position, and currently trying to improve education about the position by attending leadership events, and seminars dedicated specifically to the position.
-Contacting all of the brothers in the chapter to assess their physical/mental situation at the end of the semester, asking if they need any type of direction, or access to any resources.

-Not much to report, chapter minutes are getting better besides my spelling/grammatical errors.
-Making sure we have rooms reserved for events has gone pretty well. I have already reserved our chapter room for next semester. Also reserving venues for events outside our campus has gone well too.
-Relaying information has also gone well; I am in the process of updating all of our members’ information, such as shirt size, phone number, email, and full legal name.  

Discussed the budget and the use of Omega Fi as the dues collecting services all Greek organizations are to use at WIU.
Please see the attached preliminary budget for Spring and Fall 2017.

-We recruited a good pledge class this past semester. Our process was a little rough and took a bit of getting used to. We have finally decided on a cut-off time frame for new pledges joining the class. Having Jake around was good, we ran on a good cop/bad cop approach.
-IHQ just recently emailed the standardized pledge process to me and I have been looking over that. I will use that, but throw in my own touches.

Diverse pledge class as far as majors – Education, computer science, Business.
17 new brothers this year (11 fall, 6 spring).     
29 returning brothers.
           

Theta Chi experienced a successful recruitment this semester and activated several good quality guys.
Ways to get Theta Chi’s name out there/people at events:
-Welcome week leaders/ move in crew
-Flyers in all buildings including the art and music building (not normally targeted for recruitment.)
-Have as many brothers in letters at Rocky after Dark talking to PNM’S and girls duh
-Eat at the freshman dorms
-Leave flyers of our rush events on tables at the union.
-SNAPCHAT FILTERS
-Will be giving a presentation about Theta Chi on Honors floor and possibly one other floor.

-Rush Week Schedule:
  Mon September 4th-Breakfast for Dinner
  Wed Sept 6th- Dodgeball
  Fri Sept 8th- Staple event working on it (need alumni help).
  Mon Sept 11- Glow in the dark football (glow sticks)
  Wed Sept 13-Chi and fry game night @bayhenn
  Friday Sept 15- Steaks and stogies
OTHER:
Some individual members suck at talking to girls and come off as creepy so I will be holding a workshop early in the fall on what not to do when talking to someone new.

- We are aiming for a 15 member pledge class minimum to replace Beta and Gamma classes. We are focused on good quality men instead of numbers. One bad pledge class has potentially 4 years to ruin a fraternity.
-Going to use “Not On My Campus” as a recruitment tactic.


































Dennis O’Connell donated money for the domain name fee.




Steve Stapleton contacted Ms. Lindsay White, a member of the Nursing Faculty who has agreed to be the Chapter Faculty Advisor. Jake Batusich will contact Ms. White do finalize plans.

























Steve Stapleton volunteered his services regarding Health and Safety events


















Alumni members present gave several helpful suggestions to Brother Cromier to assist him with his Treasurer Duties. Chuck Hvala will contact Brother Cromier several times throughout the year. 
Old Business
Policies and Procedures need to be addressed/written.      
Steve Stapleton will present a plan at the next Board Meeting
New Business
None

Adjournment
Meeting was adjourned at 5:15 pm.


Respectfully Submitted,
Steve Stapleton
2017-2018 Secretary



Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Board Meeting Highlights

Sunday, January 29, 2017
12:00 – Milton Township Hall, Wheaton, Illinois

Your new alumni board president Connor Bostedt ’16 conducted the meeting.

The next scheduled board meeting:
When:   Saturday, April 29, 2017
Where:  Macomb, IL
* A block of rooms will be reserved at the Macomb Hampton Inn.
* A schedule of events will be posted soon.
* All alumni are invited to attend.

2017 Reunion

Date:  Saturday, July 29, 2017
Time:  11:00 am – 04:00 pm
Where:   Hawthorne’s Backyard
              1200 West Hawthorne
              West Chicago, IL 60185
Cost:      $35 per person/$60 per couple
Menu:  Pulled pork, sides, desert, beer, wine, soft drinks.
RSVP: Tom Stern
(630) 436-8288

To pay using Paypal, go to paypal.com and pay to hvalacpa@aol.com.Those wishing to make donations, please use Paypal.

Old Timer’s Event
Date:  Friday, July 28, 2917
Time:  6:00 pm
Place: Tom Stern’s House
           423 West Thomas Road
           Wheaton, IL
Menu: TBD

Golf Event – To Be Determined

Roster: We have about 850 alumni brothers. We only have about 275 email addresses and 650 good mailing addresses. Tom Stern reported he has found 40 good mailing addresses to update our roster using the White Pages website. Please volunteer to help find contact info for brothers.

Jake Batusich, the current Chapter President, attended the meeting and gave a Chapter update.
  • ·       Current Chapter membership is 28 with 3 members expected to graduate this semester.
  • ·       Spring Rush (Recruitment) is currently in progress. Brother Batusich expects 6 -10 new members will pledge.
  • ·       There were 12 pledges in the Fall 2016 semester. Brother Batusich stated the most pledges a fraternity recruited was 16.
  • ·       The Chapter discussed the number of members they would like to have and feel 40 is a good number. They are working diligently to obtain and sustain this number.
  • ·       The Chapter obtained a 2.965 GPA during Fall Semester 2016. This was slightly below the all men’s average (3.01).
  • ·       Brothers not maintaining a 2.50 GPA are suspended for the semester and a mentorship program is initiated to assist the Brother with his studies so he may increase his GPA and return to active status.
  • ·       Brothers are majoring in Law Enforcement Administration (LEA), Micro Biology, Fire Science, and others.
  • ·       The Active Chapter recently initiated a system of fines for such things as not attending Chapter meetings.
  • ·       Brother Batusich attended the Theta Chi National Leadership Conference where presentations were given on how to run individual chapters, the Resolute Man Program, and financial responsibilities.
  • ·       Two Brothers attended the Recruitment Boot Camp and are actively recruiting members.
  • ·       Two fraternities are no longer on campus; Delta Sigma Phi (Nards) and Pi Kappa Alpha (Pikes).
  • ·       One new fraternity was granted permission to begin recruiting during the Fall 2017 semester.
  • ·       Pledge Initiation will take place on Saturday, April 22, 2017.


Brothers will be on the lookout for a house to rent. The target size of the house will be about 10 brothers.

Thanks to Steve Stapleton for preparing these minutes. Click on the link to the right for the complete minutes.