Sunday, October 4, 2020

Theta Chi Zoom Alumni Board Meeting Sept 12 2020


Officers: President: Connor Bostedt ’16, Vice-President: Orin Rehorst '73; Treasurer: Jake Winters ‘15; Secretary: Zak DeRoo '19 

Board Members: Terry Austin '69, Jake Batusich '19; John Bokum '72; Connor Bostedt ’16; Vic Caricato ’78; Zak DeRoo '19; Chuck Hvala ’73; Ed Kelly ’72; Orin Rehorst ‘73; Tom Stern ’72; and Jake Winters ‘15

 

Alumni Present for Teleconference: all board members with the exception of Jake Batusich.


TOPIC

DISCUSSION

ACTION/FOLLOW-UP


  • The meeting was called to order by Orin Rehorst at 9:06 am.

  • The next board meeting will be in January 2021







Recruitment Team – John Bokum

  • 5 freshmen are interested

  • our goal is to recruit 5 more men

  • rush is on-line only

  • assemblies in Macomb are limited to 12 people

  • we have a house tour video Virtual House Tour


Connor Bostedt / Orin on Leadership

We created a Chapter Advisory Board CAB). The group will develop a Vision Plan by the next meeting, and host an active chapter officer transition retreat / meeting plan each election cycle.

CAB members are Connor Bostedt, Orin Rehorst, Chuck Hvala, Ed Kelly, Tom Stern, Vic Caricato, and John Bokum. We may invite Bill Russo of national, Jon Slater, and Jim Putman.

Reunion by Tom Stern

Talked about planning again at next meeting in Dec/Jan for a reunion in 2021.




Scholarship report

by Vic Caricato

We currently offer one $1,000 scholarship.

We will go over scholarship number and amount next meeting in Dec/Jan


Roster Updates, Tom Stern

Tom said he has a Premium Whitepages subscription to help update our roster.

Work on updating roster entries was planned.

Next Board Election

Tom Stern

Connor said the next election will be in late 2021 (every two years).


House Report

Terry Austin - 


Terry will complete the following list of house changes needed. We will then prioritize the list to manage our cash outlays.


Parking lot door – If we supply the door (I pick up in Quincy) , should be around $100 to swap it plus something for disposing of the old one?


Interior door in the trophy room – I found the matching door here in Quincy.  It is around $250.  If I take it up, it will be $75 to $100 to have it installed.


Lights in the gable to light the letters is had to price in advance. It might be simple or not. He will have to get into it to know, He will try for the best fix at the most reasonable price.


Lights on the sign. He can get you two solid brass lights, lamps, transformer, sensor, and timer and install for $400 to $500. This would be low voltage allowing for less digging depth and be safer if someone ever chops, cuts, or otherwise damages it.


Dryer vents. Assuming there is room slide straight pipe in without damage to the ceiling, cost starts around $500. If it involves opening the ceiling, costs go up from there. Even with straight pipe these runs are long enough to be an ongoing maintenance issue. It might be possible to clean them out and add inside lint traps for less money but someone would have to responsible for cleaning them.


Sprinkler inspection –I got a proposal for $400 which sounds too low but I authorized it and that was done on 8/17.  This is the document we are waiting for but it will also show that there have been no “big tests” done.  We will need to do that.  I requested a proposal but have not seen that and I will have to get into It more since it will take having a plumber qualified with sprinklers to be on site and check the backflow preventer operation.  This is not a cheap thing and, if they find something wrong there will be more costs.


Sprinkler system drain down for the “big test” A solution might be to use flat discharge hose out the back door. I'll have to measure the pipe diameter and distance more thoroughly, but this could be in the $100 to $150 range.


We will rekey the house.  For insurance purposes going forward, there will be a locked key box and a key log indicting who has each key.  I have been looking into this and there are some restrictions on who can have a key.  I will get this and we will incorporate into the key log.


Printer: Brothers living in the house would like to see a printer added. Perhaps leasing would be best.


Trophy / Study Room: Terry estimated the room update would cost $1,000.


Officer Reports:

a. Secretary (Zak DeRoo)

b. Treasurer (Jake Winters)

c. Vice President (Orin Rehorst)

d. President (Connor Bostedt)


a. No report. 

b. Sent email with report. Go over petty cash procedures with new president in Dec/Jan

c. Passed gavel to Connor. Went over Chapter Assessment Scorecard

d. Went over Chapter Assessment Scorecard. Connor will write up an email to get memorabilia back




New Business


  • COVID Situation – Low numbers at WIU

  • We need a replacement for house manager Sam by June of 2021


End of Minutes

Meet adjourned at 11:05 AM



Saturday, April 11, 2020

Board Meeting Minutes April 4 2020

Officers: President: Orin Rehorst '73; Vice-President: Connor Bostedt ’16; Treasurer: Jake Winters ‘15; Secretary: Zak DeRoo '19

Board: Terry Austin '69, Jake Batusich '19; John Bokum '72; Connor Bostedt ’16; Vic Caricato ’78; Zak DeRoo '19; Chuck Hvala ’73; Ed Kelly ’72; Orin Rehorst ‘73; Tom Stern ’72; and Jake Winters ‘15
Alumni Present for Teleconference: all board members, active chapter 2020 president Connor Bowels, and house grad student Sam Shehata

  
TOPIC 
DISCUSSION 
ACTION/FOLLOW-UP 
  
⦁ The meeting was called to order by Orin Rehorst at 1:07 pm. 
⦁ All 11 board members attended plus Connor Bowles and Sam Shehata.  
⦁ Thanks to Jake Winters for providing the Zoom teleconferencing system. 
The next board meeting will be held when issues dictate, likely using Zoom. 
  
President’s Report by Orin 
⦁ Presented state of the fraternity report. Orin said he is proud of our alumni board for getting "ahead of the game" on our two big issues: very low rushing numbers for the last two semesters, and the pandemic. 
⦁ Connor Bostedt will be taking over president this year. 
⦁ Connor Bostedt is optimistic that classes will be open in the fall. 
Zak will send out an email to alumni about our new house letters and 2020 Reunion rescheduling 
Reunion 
Concerns about attendance and COVID-19. Connor Bostedt is a director at a hospital. Connor said the situation is very serious and likely will continue for months. 
⦁ Motion to postpone reunion  
⦁ A super majority approved the reunion be postponed until further notice 
Scholarship report 
by Vic Caricato 
⦁ Vic talked about reducing the scholarship fund to $1,000. 
⦁ Talked about maybe taking the other $1,000 to incentivize recruitment for new members. 
⦁ Tom motioned to reduce scholarship fund to $1,000.  
⦁ A super majority approved the reduction on the scholarship fund to $1,000 due to circumstances. 
Finance Report 
by Jacob Winters 
⦁ Overall financial position is in good shape for now. 
⦁ Worked out deal with insurance company to reduce down payment to 25% of total premium. 
⦁ Vanguard account is not doing well due to market decline with COVID-19. 
⦁ Scholarship check of $2,000 was sent into WIU but hasn’t been posted yet. 
  
House Report 
by Terry Austin 
⦁ Six brothers are currently living in house. Apartments 3 and 7 are vacant. 
⦁ Look into appealing the property taxes. 
⦁ To reduce expenses, we should turn off internet that is not being used. 
⦁ We are in the process of changing our loan to interest only payments for 6 months in order to preserve cash. 
⦁ Clothes dryer situation is getting worse. Talking with a new contractor to get driers fixed. 
⦁ Jake Winters and Terry will work on appealing to the state for lower property taxes. 
⦁ Sam will talk to actives to maybe free up some internet charges and double up on networks 
⦁ We talked of "deep cleaning" the house for the virus.
 Refinancing: John Bokum, Ed Kelly, and Terry Austin will investigate options to refinance the house to save money.  
Recruitment Team – John Bokum 
⦁ Went to Macomb and attended a chapter meeting. Gave a presentation about recruiting. Going to start using move in crew again to help gain freshman interest. Volunteer to do the WIU open house.  
⦁ Rush is the last week of August 
⦁ Nationals said 1 in 6 have students deciding to not go to school next fall.  
⦁ Plans to target school clubs such as ROTC and sports clubs.  
⦁ Lake Linda will be available for recruitment events.  
⦁ Nationals might send a field rep for help with recruitment. 
⦁ John reminded us to keep news and photos flowing to The Rattle. 
  
⦁ Idea: Set up rewards for brothers that recruit the most pledges. 
⦁ Send a picture of the house with new letters to The Rattle 
  
Active chapter president report by Connor Bowles 
⦁ Connor Bowles says old bylaw states that actives must join at least two clubs. A job counts as a club 
⦁ Actives have started giving tours for Discover Western.  
⦁ Historian is giving a bigger presence on social media 
  
Continue to gather names for potential new members. 
  
Parents of Actives 
Recommendation: send out mail about our concerns and how Theta Chi is dealing with COVID-19 to active parents.  
Connor Bostedt is drafting a letter. This will be a "Letter of Confidence" to actives' parents. We will express our concerns about the virus and explain  how Theta Chi is dealing with COVID-19.  
Memorabilia 
Recommended an appeal to the brotherhood. Please forward any composite pictures, trophies, or other fraternity belongings to the house for display. 
Suggest a letter be drafted to retrieve relics and composites. 
For the Good of the Fraternity 
Alumni Dick Ecklof '71 and John Paychek '71 made sizable contributions to our alumni fund. 
  
End of Minutes 
Meeting adjourned 2:23 PM