Happy Holidays and best wishes for a very successful year in 2008 to you all!  December tends to be my busiest month of the year, as I help to process thousands of year-end mailing pieces-for the Zeta Psi Annual Fund and other fund raising clients with whom I work from year to year.  There are also many gatherings of friends, family and business associates, often involving holiday parties.  It is certainly a month to offer thanks to those who make an organization like Zeta Psi a great experience for all who feel as I do: that the fraternity experience will be around for many more generations of students to come.

Many Zetes reading this message have had a profound impact on the success of Zeta Psi this year, and in many cases, for many years.  Those of you who are Actives have spent this year working hard to make your own chapter the best it can be.  Many Elders expended countless hours serving Zeta Psi as local alumni volunteers and/or as members of the International Fraternity Boards.  And many more of you offered your financial support to your local chapter, the Zeta Psi Annual Fund, or (hopefully) both.  To all who participate in the success of Zeta Psi, please accept my sincere gratitude at the end of this momentous year for our Fraternity.

As many already know, Zeta Psi is poised to become the first Intercontinental Fraternity in 2008, much as it achieved two of the most important "firsts" in the Greek World: becoming the first truly national fraternity in 1870 when the Iota was chartered at Berkeley, and the first International Fraternity in 1879, when Theta Xi was chartered at the University of Toronto.   It is expected that in spring 2008, Zeta Psi will achieve another first never achieved by any fraternity when we plan to formally charter a group of over thirty students at arguably the most prestigious institution of higher education in the world, Oxford University in England.  In this age of instant communications, there is little difference between the daring trans-continental expansion in 1870 and what we are prepared to do across the Atlantic in 2008. Can it be sustained?  We hope, and believe, so. 

To follow up my message of last month, I appeal to many of you who, like myself, choose to make charitable gifts at year end to benefit causes near to your heart.  In the case of Zeta Psi, gifts to the Educational Foundation are tax deductible, so this month is a good time to make your Zeta Psi Annual Fund gift.  Please CLICK HERE to make a secure gift online through PayPal.  If you've already made, or are planning to make, a donation online or in response to an earlier mailing, let me thank you again now for your continued & generous support of Zeta Psi!

Zeta Psi deserves to feel proud of what we have accomplished in 2007, with two chapters chartered in the South (at Georgia and North Carolina State) and one in the north (at Binghamton University), an increase in our leadership programming with more regional LTIs, and more support than ever for our chapters and leadership programs due to a strong economy and bolstered by the three-fold growth of the Educational Foundation's net assets in the last fifteen years.  We anticipate the launch of an Alumni Leadership Conference in mid-2008, the establishment of the Oxford chapter, and other new and reactivated chapters to join or rejoin our Circle of Brotherhood, due to the success we're having in our ramped-up expansion program.  Is Zeta Psi strong enough to sustain all this growth?  You bet it is!  

My fellow Zeta Psi Board leaders and I are committed to improving our great Fraternity for many more generations of Active Zetes yet to come.  I hope you will join us in that journey in 2008 and beyond.

Wishing you a Happy Holiday Season in Tau Kappa Phi,