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Dave's Desk - New Year Begins
This month marks the beginning of a new school year for
Zeta Psi. We just finished a very successful 162nd Annual Convention and
now it is time to move forward. We have ambitious plans in the fraternity
and the foundation.
For Zeta Psi Fraternity we need to concentrate on the
following goals: increase the number of active chapters, increase our initiate
numbers, we must improve/grow our alumni associations, and we must operate
our chapters more effectively, especially regarding financial operations and
risk management. On the Zeta Psi Educational Foundation side we must increase
alumni involvement, trumpet our very effective LTI program and gain more
attendance, and we must find more scholarship dollars through increased
donations.
Our IHQ staff will be out in the field meeting with
chapters. We'll especially target the chapters needing help the most, but
all chapters will receive visits and help. As an alumnus you might
ask "how can I help?" The answer is simple - get
involved. Our chapters thrive with involved alumni support. If
you need to be pointed in the right direction contact me!
T.K.Phi, Dave Hunter, IA '80 (email me)
Expansion - More Growth This Year
The Grand Chapter of Zeta Psi Fraternity approved four
new colonies for this fall - George Washington University, American University
(Delta Chi), Dalhousie University (Alpha Mu), and Queens University. We
look to charter these groups in Spring of 2010. Also on tap is the
reactivation underway at Dartmouth under the direction of the Psi Epsilon
alumni. Plus Zeta Psi has two other interest groups, one at SUNY Stony
Brook and the other at Guelph University. We''' also be pursuing leads at
the University of Minnesota (Alpha Beta) and the University of
Pittsburgh. This should become a monumental year for Zeta Psi.
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Convention 2009 is Over!
Ben Meck
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 Convention 2009 has come and gone and the city of Cleveland still
stands. Over 250 Zetes visited Cleveland last week, some driving over 38
hours for the event, others flying in from across the seas. Alumni,
actives, and even members of colony chapters were in attendance for a great
week of Leadership Training Institute courses and brotherhood opportunities.
Convention 2009 marked 25 years since the Nu chapter hosted convention
and was in conjunction with the 125th Anniversary of being chartered at Case
Western Reserve University.
- Wednesday
night, the brothers had the chance to see the Indians play in Progressive
Field. The brothers and guests were hosted on the Party Deck and
enjoyed an All-You-Can Eat Feast. The Indians might not have won the
game, but the experience was a great start to the Convention.
- Thursday's
event at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included a fantastic catered
dinner before the museum was opened just for convention-goers to explore
the exhibits on rock and roll and Hall of Fame inductees.
- Friday,
the Nu Chapter continued an ongoing tradition of an Alumni Clambake every
year - just upgraded for the convention-goers. Alumni and helpers
prepared nearly 3,000 clams and hundreds of chickens, baby back ribs, corn
and coleslaw before the buses arrived on the Case campus. Attendees
had a chance to tour the chapter house and a bit of campus before either
returning to the hotel and festivities downtown or heading over to Little
Italy for the Feast of the Assumption. The Feast is one of Cleveland's
most popular events and was a great time for brothers to attend.
- Saturday
was the Zete Kids Silent Auction (List of Auction Winners) and the Grand Chapter Banquet - another
amazing event but more so for the quality of the awards presented.
The recipients were most deserving and example-setting in their
dedication and contributions to Zeta Psi. It was a fitting tribute
to the end of a fantastic week.
The brothers of the Nu chapter greatly enjoyed hosting
Convention and having so many brothers and guests join them in their fine city
of Cleveland. Next year's Convention 2010 promises to be equally exciting
and packed with great events. Thank you for attending Cleveland if you
had a chance to, if not we'll see you next year in New Orleans!
Ben Meck, Nu '09
Convention Co-Chair
Click HERE to view or add Convention 2009 Photos
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163rd Zeta Psi Convention in New Orleans
August 2010
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 New Orleans in 2010 is a GO and the
Beta Tau Chapter at Tulane University is excited to have one of the largest
conventions in history hit the Crescent City! Make sure to join
the "Zeta Psi Convention 2010 in New Orleans!!!" Facebook page which
will keep you updated on all New Orleans related activities for the
upcoming year.
We'll be staying at the beautiful
Royal Sonesta, directly on Bourbon Street, with a fantastic room rate of $119
per night. For more information, please visit the Royal Sonesta New Orleans
website at http://www.sonesta.com/royalneworleans/
 For more information regarding
sponsorships, events, and anything else New Orleans please feel free to email
the Convention Chair Stephen Halperin (stephen.halperin@gmail.com), the Co-Chairmen Will Woldenberg (wwoldenb@gmail.com),
or Jason Murphy (murphyj@gmail.com)
Laissez les bons temps rouler!
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Zete Kids
David Loomis
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 During the Cleveland Convention, the Zete Kids'
President, Dave Loomis Nu '06, showcased the new Zete Kids website and logo.
Many thanks go out to Ben Meck, Dylan Thomas, and Ed Guy for their support
of the new launch. The website is much easier to navigate and easier for
chapters to use to Apply for Grants to help get started with a philanthropy
event. It also includes examples of past programs and contact information
to communicate with trustees on the board to set up specific events. One
of the important changes we would like to impress upon all of our brothers is
the nullification of the letter 'z' in Zete Kids. We are abandoning the
branding of Zetekidz, in an effort to avoid confusion and miss-labeling on more
official documents like checks for money-raised. We appreciate everyone's
patience and support in this update.
Along with a new look, Zete Kids is reaching out to our chapters to help
run more meaningful philanthropy events. We encourage all of you to look
through the new website,
and start asking us how we can help you do more worthwhile projects and service
events. The board has a wealth of experience and is enthusiastic towards
helping you with your philanthropy and service events. We ask that you
please contact a board member before filling out any grant applications to make
sure we can better assist you in the process.
Many thanks to everyone who supported our 7th Annual Silent Auction at
Convention 2009 this past weekend. We raised just under $4,000.
This money is used by our Board to fulfill grant applications to support
philanthropic events focused on helping children in the fields of leadership,
education, and medical support. We cannot thank our donors enough for
their continued support of this event. If you were a donor or winner of
items, please send us your updated contact information, so we can tie up any
loose ends and thank you again. If you are unsure if you were a winner,
check the website for a list of all the winners. (in the coming days)
If you have not done so already, please check out the link at the bottom of the
webpage to our web-based giving partner, JustGive.org. JustGive enables us to
offer an online donation opportunity for you, and was used with great success
at the silent auction this year. We look forward to working with all of
you, and thank you again for your help!
In TKPhi,
Dave Loomis
Zete Kids USA President |
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Membership Education at the 162nd
Zeta Psi Convention
Maurice Ducoing
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For another year, the Dr. Lou Cappozoli Zeta Psi Leadership Training
Institute and the Alan Rice Alumni Academy were delivered to membership with
great success. With dozens of courses at both the Active and Elder
levels, we were able to provide the value we set out to a few years back.
Our courses covered many different topics
including Recruitment, Resume and Cover Letter writing, Interviewing, Housing
Management, Risk Management, Liability, and Leadership. In addition, our
Alumni Academy focused on a new strategy of courses branded as Best Practices
Forums. These focused on a hybrid of instruction and Information
Gathering that had great success.
With over one hundred in attendance at this
three day conference, and up to four rooms at a time in use, the conference
once again proved one of the largest of the year. We continue to evolve
our courses and improve our services. In this process, we certainly
request continued feedback and new ideas. Should you wish to discuss,
please contact us at ducoing@zetapsi.org.
In Tau Kappa Phi,
Maurice Ducoing
Chairman, Membership Development |
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SELF
Eric Romeril
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 SELF would like to thank everyone that made our success
of this past year possible, and all of those that lent us their support at
Convention. We look forward to further planning, and communications, as
we move forward together into next year. I would like to take this chance
to introduce, and welcome the SELF Regional Director of the Boston Hub: Steven
M. Kelch (Rho Alpha '08).
 He is a recent graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a
Bachelor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a graduate of the
Washington Scholars program (Summer 2008). He currently resides in Cambridge,
MA.
While in college, Steve served as his chapter's
President, as Speaker of the Undergraduate Senate, as a planner for small and
large community events, and on various institute and student committees. He
continues to be involved in community theater productions, both on stage and
off.
Steve is currently employed at Formulatrix, Inc. as a
Software Engineer, where he writes and maintains controller code for applications
and robotics involved in protein crystallography, and has previously worked for
the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area, IBM, The MIT Media
Lab, Solo Cup, and Snyder's of Hanover. His future aspirations include law
school and a career in policy, particularly in information policy.
Please join me in welcoming him to our growing organization, and if you have
leads for SELF placements in the Boston area please do not hesitate to contact
him: kelch@mit.edu. Thanks
for your time.
Always in TKPhi |
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100th Anniversary of The Circle
Jonathan Agresta
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21
Years of Circle Editors, from left to right: new Editor Jon Agresta, Steve
Halperin, Dan Backer, the legendary John Birchfield, Anthony Shibata, and
publications committee chair Tom Roerdon
This year we are celebrating the 100th Anniversary of The Circle and we want to make it the best edition yet.
Please
take the time to contribute to this momentous issue. We would like
articles about your chapter, philanthropic events, success stories,
experience with The Circle, pictures from Convention, etc.
Please send all materials, including pictures, to me (jonagresta@gmail.com).
If you have any non-digital materials please send them to:
Jonathan Agresta
315 Autumn River Run
Philadelphia, PA 19128
All
contributions will be considered and greatly appreciated. Let's honor
Bill Comstock's vision with a great Circle Centennial!
In TKPhi,
Jonathan Agresta, Upsilon Mu '05 |
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Washington Scholars Fellowship Program
Chris Bond
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Washington Scholars had its finest and largest graduating
class this summer. Washington Scholars graduated 27 fellows this term in
front of a record crowd of parents, employers and representatives from
government, military and private industry.
This year, the program honored
Captain Chris Christopher of the Department of Homeland Security and Captain
Marshall Hanson of the Reserve Officers Association for their great
contributions to the program.
 We also had some fun at the ceremony with a
presentation of awards for the inaugural year of the program's softball team: The
Admirals, which included the presentation of a team jersey and game ball to
program founder, Admiral Carey.
That night, we showed that the Washington
Scholars program is growing rapidly, and class standards remain ever higher as
we continue to attract some of the nation's best and brightest. Guests
could feel the electricity in the room that there is great enthusiasm in our
program and strong pride within the intern class and among all our Washington
Scholars Graduates.
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Wall Street Scholars
Ben Meck
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Congratulations to the graduates of the Wall Street
Scholars Program for completing their summer internships at their respective
employers.
Andrew Shaffer (Phi Epsilon '10) was employed at the
Independent Film Channel.
Eric Pearson (Psi '11) and Mark Karatoprak (Nu
Sigma '11) were both employed at the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants.
 The 2009 Wall Street Scholars with host Doug Donaldson, WSS Board
members, SELF members, New York City alumni, and actives at the WSS
Kick-Off Dinner.
The Wall Street Scholars program helped place these three
accomplished Zeta Psi members in positions in New York City. Both
companies were referred to us by Zeta Psi alumni currently working at the
companies, and we're hoping more alumni in the New York City area will help us
connect with their companies to place even more interns next summer.
Contact WSS.Zeta.Psi@gmail.com
for more information about becoming a part of this program.
Congratulations again to the most recent graduates, best of luck to them
as they finish school.
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Washington DC Elders
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Last week the Annual Zeta Psi Convention was held in Cleveland,
Ohio. As special as this convention was, it was made even more special by
the fact that not one, but two more Universities have new colonies: American
University and George Washington University!
Congratulations to the young soon to be brothers and a very special
thanks to IHQ, Jeremy Snyder and Dan Backer for helping to foster
these new colonies.
Here is a recap of some of the awards and the DC area Zetes didn't come
home empty handed: - Maclane Key won one of the 5 Outstanding
Alumnus awards for his DC Elders service.
- Out of 5 Outstanding Undergraduate
awards, WSFP'ers Dan Florencio & (UK) Rob Isaacs won, as did Maryland Phi
Ryan Gundrum.
- Stu Bowers was recognized as
joining the Founders Circle (the rarified top giving club).
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2 DC-area Elders received Silver
Circle awards (25 years service): Ozgur Karaosmanoglu & Lauck
Walton. Ozgur has been a consistently loyal donor and has volunteered to
help with our Capitol Foundation Financial Planning for Undergraduates program
in the Fall.
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Edison Dick received the gold
circle award (50 years service).
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Rob Trombley won an Award of Merit
(one of 5 not related to the Convention) for his work with DC area expansion.
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The Maryland Chapter won the McElroy
Order of Excellence, an award give for a chapter winning a Gold award at least
three years in a row.
- Dan Backer, Upsilon Mu '99, was honored to win the Henry Elliot Volunteer of the Year Award.
Upcoming Events
DC Elders Happy Hour
When: 7pm-9pm on
Tuesday, August 25th
Where: Capitol City Brewery, located at 1100 New York Ave, NW,
Washington, DC, 2005
Who: Zeta Psi members and any friends/guests are welcome
No RSVP required! For more info visit Cap City Brewery on: www.capcitybrew.com
Any questions, please contact Will Brooks at 202-379-6389.
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Full Circle
The Phi Alpha's Speech from The Phi Alpha Luncheon
162nd Zeta Psi Convention - Cleveland, OH
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 Good
Afternoon.
I'm pleased
to be able to address this group of brothers, Elders and friends here at our
162nd Convention in Cleveland at this Phi Alpha's Luncheon.
For any of you that actually read my column in UpZete you know I am fond of the
generalities, metaphors, aphorisms and the like, for their inherent concise
wisdom in expressing (however accurately) those common understandings we all
carry about the world.
Well, I want
to use a phrase here to express a concept ...It's come Full Circle; everything
old is new again; there's nothing truly new under the sun...to reflect my
perception of one of Zeta Psi's "newer" roles.
Some
background: In the early development of the country, (and, no, I was
NOT here with Ben Franklin, btw!) education (and higher education in
particular) was almost exclusively reserved for the upper classes; occurred at
an earlier age than college does today; and, by and large, was done at
institutions far from home. Based on the available transportation and
communication models then, college was often a fairly lonely experience for a
young man --away from his family and friends for the first time and thrust into
a totally unknown environment.
Fraternities
originated with Phi Beta Kappa's creation as an elite literary society of likeminded,
mostly senior year, men at William and Mary in 1776. But the true "social"
fraternities were developed in the early 1800's, with a strong reliance on the
existing Freemasons organization. By
nature, fraternities were selective and elitist. Then, new institutions
were formed to address some of those initial exclusions (year in school, e.g. Skull
and Bones at Yale was initially seniors, Jewish and Catholic fraternities
formed to accommodate those who were often excluded from the early versions) or
specific emphasis on academics, philanthropy, life work, and other
concepts.
Beyond the
history lesson, I believe these developments were in many ways a psychological
response to the sudden isolation into which young college men found
themselves. In a way, it was a "substitute family and friends"...those in
our social circle that we are most comfortable with and enjoy being with.
For much of
its development, I believe the fraternity movement, in some ways, was a
response to America's standardization and homogeny--- noted as "tyranny of
the majority" by Tocqueville in Democracy in America. To
distinguish themselves from each other, each fraternity tried to draw from the
diverse masses, its own selected group, those most similar to themselves.
Initiation and hazing developed as a "more effective" means of teaching,
ensuring and enforcing those standards of similarity.
Those
objectives and procedures have obviously changed over time and
experience.
Today, Zeta
Psi's Mission Statement says in part that our objective is to develop "...academic
excellence and life-long bonds of brotherhood...of members (who) are committed to
the development of leadership, character and intellect and to the service of
their brothers, their communities and mankind." [This better be right,
cause I got it from our Webpage!]
This is not
unlike many other fraternal, and social, organizations today. But let's
really look at this Statement:
Members
of "academic excellence" who display "leadership, character and
intellect" and "who serve their communities."
Notice that
all of these are individual traits - there is absolutely nothing here that
requires a "group" to achieve it. This sort of supports Ayn
Rand's contention that groups have no "characteristics"; only
individuals do. And that's how our mission statement describes it.
So, our
fraternity has developed over time to this more advanced, morally improved set
of individual goals, none of which require a group or fraternity! So, why
do we exist; and do we have a real purpose?
Today,
unlike the 1800s, it seems, there is no isolation. Cell phones, Twitter,
MySpace, Facebook put us in constant contact with anyone we want! We
couldn't be more "social".
Seriously
though, since we can now control virtually and in reality how much "contact" we
have with family, friends, acquaintances etc., we don't always truly
"interact". Because we can, we now keep a virtual "bubble" around us only
allowing those we want, and at the time we want, to see in or interact.
In many ways, the college student of today is more isolated from the
unconditional support and connection of family and friends than they were in
1800.
I believe
the fraternity was always a partial substitute for family; and I believe today,
it is again. It is this new selected "family" that allows you not to
always have your Facebook on and accessible; that allows you to fail without
public condemnation; that recognizes, supports and encourages your successes;
that, in fact, ultimately enables that member "of "academic
excellence" to display the "leadership, character and intellect"
that he is developing, and learn to "serve their communities".
Other than
family---nuclear, extended, spouse and kids-there is probably no other
institutional organization you will join that so emphasizes lifelong
connection, and in fact, achieves it in many instances.
We are borne
into our family circle; we select our significant other often symbolized by a
ring.
I
propose that the closest correlate to this is when we call to us those who
share our values and hopes; invite them to make a mutual commitment for life;
and recognize commitment as a continuous Circle of support, leadership
and service.
Consider
this when you return to your schools and chapters and begin rush. With
every rush event, pledge program, chapter meeting, Elder discussion---you are
creating a contribution to a Circle of mutual commitment that will continue
unending among those before you and those after you.
I suggest
that our Fraternity has come "Full Circle", that the modern Zeta Psi has a very
real, necessary role in today's society-much as it did when it was founded in
1847---by again keeping us in a Circle of support --enabling each of us to
reach our full potential as men of "leadership, character and intellect".
As you expand those characteristics during this convention, consider how you
will contribute to expanding that Circle when you return.
When you
again start school, occasionally think about your Circle and the mutual impact
it has. In that light.... choose wisely; treat others respectfully; serve
selflessly.
And, call
Mom and Dad once in awhile!
Always in Tau Kappa Phi,
David W. Busacca, Phi Alpha CXXXII |
Click below to visit our Online Archives of the Circle magazine or our monthly e-newsletter, the UpZete.
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Circle Centennial
Sponsor-a-Circle Today
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June
2009 marks the 100 years of the Circle of Zeta Psi. We hope to
commemorate this major milestone - and the enduring vision of Bill
Comstock - by archiving all 100 years of the Circle online in the
coming years! SPONSOR-a-CIRCLE: This huge task will take many years and many dollars, but with your help we can start now. CLICK HERE to pick an issue and donate the cost of archiving ($200). Sponsors will be recognized in the Circle Centennial's Honor Roll.
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Zete Ties!
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CLICK HERE
to buy
your very own Zeta Psi neck tie - Only a few dozen left, buy
soon!
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Zeta Psi Active &
Elder Services
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Get "LinkedIn" with Zeta Psi - CLICK HERE to join 625+ Brothers on this networking site, or
look for smaller groups for several individual Chapters.
Kaplan offers Zetes 10% off - CLICK HERE for GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, DAT and OAT courses.
NEW: 15% off Living Language products: 
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