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
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Topic
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Discussion
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Action/Follow-up
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Agenda
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Connor Bostedt requested to adjust the Agenda
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Request granted
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Minutes
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Minutes from January 29, 2017 were available to review
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None needed – minutes were approved by those present at
the meeting via an email vote
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President's Report
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Connor Bostedt reported that Austin Cinotto is unable to fulfill his
Vice President duties due to numerous work conflicts.
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Vic Caricato was reinstated at the Vice President and we
are looking for another Board Member.
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Secretary’s Report
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Deferred
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Treasurer’s Report
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Deferred
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Membership Report
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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
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Tom Stern will
continue to update the roster as information becomes available. Please
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Scholarship Program
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Vic Caricato
discussed the scholarship program with the active chapter members present at
the meeting.
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The Alumni Association will continue to fund the
Scholarship program
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Social Events
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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
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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.
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Newsletter
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Deferred
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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:
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-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.
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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.
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Old Business
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Policies and Procedures need to be
addressed/written.
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Steve Stapleton will present a plan at the next Board
Meeting
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New Business
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None
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Adjournment
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Meeting was adjourned at 5:15 pm.
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Respectfully Submitted,
Steve Stapleton
2017-2018 Secretary
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