PEP/PEF Meeting – March 2015

We recently held a joint board meeting at 58 Pinewoods  Present in Troy were yours truly, John Pfaff ’71 (PEP President), Dan Zuber ’10 (PEP Secretary), Larry Mentz, ’68 (PEF Secretary), Jim Manocchi, ’75 (PEP President), Bob Eckart, ’73 (Chapter Advisor), and several active undergraduates.  On a conference phone were PEP board members Jim Rossetti ’79, Bob Bedard ’75 and Jim Campbell ’70 and on Google Hangout were PEF board members Paul Cosgrave ’72, Dan Hudson ’70 and Ken Sobel ’12.

Organizationally, we elected Thom Kouletsis ’76 to the PEP board to fill Anu Srivastava’s unexpired term as Treasurer.  Jim Monacchi was confirmed as President of PEF and we approved the expansion of the PEF board from three to five, Paul Cosgrave was made President Emeritus and Ken Sobel was added to the board.

Cos and Jim Manochhi reported on PEF’s recent activities  Cos is working on Scholarships and the completion of our pledges for the fund raising.  Ken, a recent addition to the board, has been working with recent grads on fund raising.  Jim announced he, Bob Bedard and others, including Rui Soares, are putting on three educational seminars at 58 Pinewoods and on campus in March and April.  Foss Hooper ’66 has been talking with the PEF board about setting up a formal system for tax advantaged legacy gifts and it was suggested we set up a system for tax deductable Annual Gifts, similar to  the Rensselear Fund we all know so well.

Dan Hudson reported that our taxes and Form 990’s were complete and will be sent in soon.  Our financial position is strong and we expect to be in good shape to pay of our Constantine Loan and rollover our current mortgage with Pioneer Bank in 2018.

I reported that Bob Eckart and myself met with Dean Todd Schill and Dean Cary Dresher to discuss the RPI campus activity and the Greek Community at RPI.  This is a relatively new initiative to gauge how Sigma Chi is doing on the campus, especially with respect to the latest bad press for fraternities nationally.  Todd and Cary were very complimentary about RPI Greeks and told us that Sigma Chi ranked at the top.  He told us that a strong alumni group makes all the difference and that we are ahead of the pack. We committed our cooperation and told them that PEF’s charter is to work not only with our own chapter but also with the Greek Community and the overall RPI community.  I plan to meet with these guys every 6-8 weeks.

In addition, I met with Geoff Seber in the Alumni Office.  They expect to be able to provide all the data management for maintenance of our address database.  This project has been moving slowly, but Geoff expects to complete it soon.  We will be able to access all the contact information of all our Sigma Chi Alumni anytime we want from our laptops, cellphones, home computers, or other smart devices.

Upcoming events, as outlined in the newsletter, are our summer work party, the weekend of August 22ndand Alumni Weekend, October 2 and 3.  During the summer work party we will be doing various projects and holding our annual House Corporation Meeting and election of our directors.  Alumni Weekend and Homecoming in October will feature our celebration of Delta Psi’s 65th anniversary and the 95th anniversary of the founding of Phi Epsilon Phi.  Be sure to make plans on attending as Oedipus and the Mothers, composed of mostly graduates of the Class of ’65, will be on stage in our Chapter Room.

The final two things I want to report are first that we recently put together framed Order of Constantine photos and certificates for the six members from Delta Psi, including Arch Love ’42,  Larry Mentz, ’68, Bob Jones ’74, Bob Shortle ’74, Bob Hutnick ’71 and Bob Eckart ’73. (See the attached JPG).  Secondly I want do something similar for Delta Psi’s Significant Sigs.

I also would like to elicit your help to put forward more Delta Psi Sigs for recognition by the General Fraternity as Significant Sigs.  Please give this some thought and send me your recommendations.  If possible include a CV with your thoughts.  I know that, like me, you are all proud of being Sigma Chi’s and there is no better way to combat some of the recent adverse publicity about fraternities than to publicize our chapter’s achievements and the outstanding accomplishments of our bothers.

In hoc,

John “Leroy” Pfaff