Dear Brother,
What a great time of year to celebrate the founding of
Delta Chi! The cooler fall temperatures, football season and homecoming
celebrations across the country are bringing our alumni back to campus.
It is an opportunity to reflect on the year that will soon come to a
close as we look forward to the coming year. I think about so many
experiences we all have throughout our lives as Delta Chis, with some
of the best memories being those late night talks with chapter
brothers, when we realized they became more than our friends, they
became family.
Delta Chi celebrates 119 years since
its founding in Ithaca, New York, and it is great to hear about so many
Founders' Day celebrations going on throughout the country. A few weeks
ago I traveled to Montana for a Delta Chi brother's wedding and found
out I would be near the burial site of Founder Alphonse Derwin
Stillman.
Heading to Glacier National Park on an early morning with
another brother who was also attending the wedding, we stopped at the
cemetery to visit Founder Stillman's grave. The view of the mountains
in the background was a spectacular setting, and we reflected on how
far Delta Chi has come since its founding. At some point this fall we
will reach our 100,000th initiate - a truly exciting and historic
milestone. The fraternity continues to grow and is bringing the Delta
Chi experience to campuses throughout the country. When I thought about
the weekend and the life events experienced, I realized not one of the
wedding guests was my chapter brother. They were brothers I met after
graduation through my travels and involvement in the fraternity. It
really put some perspective on how our brotherhood can impact our lives
and how important these relationships can be after college life.
Fraternity
is still relevant today, and Delta Chi is working hard to meet the
challenges in today's ever changing world.
Delta Chi remains true to
our Founders' principles of Friendship, Character, Justice and
Education, and it is our responsibility to apply these principles in
our daily lives. We must diligently teach the core values in our ritual
to the current and next generation of brothers. The future of our
brotherhood depends on it, and there are many to thank for their
donations of time and money to the Fraternity and our Educational
Foundation. I hope the coming year is one that affords every member the
ability to consider an effort of support to Delta Chi in some way.
As
technology and social media continue to develop, it is opening up a
whole new channel for Delta Chis to communicate. In fact you may have
been alerted to this message from a Tweet or Facebook posting! Demographics are changing so rapidly that what was just recently for
children or college students now engages multiple generations - an
exciting development in connecting our brotherhood in ways we never
imagined.
I hope you will stay
informed by checking our website, subscribing to the monthly
InBRIEF
newsletter and other forms of communication as you adopt them. I hope
you will consider joining your fellow brothers this spring at a
Regional Leadership Conference, as well as making your plans for
Convention in New Orleans in August 2010. Delta Chi is making a
difference in our lives, and I wish every brother a Happy Founders' Day!
In the Bond,
Tom Horowitz, "AA"
Michigan State '87
Life Loyal Member
