On September 2, 2010, Joe Maddon, Tau '76, received the Red Grange Award from Zeta Psi Fraternity. 

The award, established in 2008 and named for the great college and pro football player, and fellow Zete, Harold "Red" Grange, Alpha Epsilon '25, was awarded to Joe for his contributions to Major League Baseball during his professional career with the Los Angeles Angels and Tampa Bay Rays. 

The award was presented at the Lafayette Zete House prior to Joe receiving and honorary doctorate from Lafayette College. 

Congratulations to Brother Maddon!

For those of you who are not strict adherents to the precepts of creationism, there was a large scientific discovery posited this summer:

"One of the big, unsolved problems in explaining how life arose on Earth is a chicken-and-egg paradox: How could the basic biochemicals - such as amino acids and nucleotides - have arisen before the biological catalysts (proteins or ribozymes) existed to carry out their formation? In a paper appearing in the current issue of The Biological Bulletin, scientists propose that a third type of catalyst could have jumpstarted metabolism and life itself, deep in hydrothermal ocean vents."

... deep in hydrothermal ocean vents. Hmmmmm (Creationists, click HERE )

This got me to thinking, it has uncanny parallels with another catalyst and one much closer to home:  I have firm proof that if you take a Zete Convention and have it in a location in the Deep South, add extreme heat (over 90), unbelievable humidity (99.999%), over-abundant Jazz, amazing food and fabulous times, something very new and special will arise - but you need a catalyst.

Jon Ernesto Nu '04 is that catalyst. Some eight years ago, his first catalytic reaction was the founding of the Nu Sigma Chapter of Seton Hall University. This Chapter is turning out great Zetes who are infusing themselves throughout Zeta Psi.

This summer he, along with Jon Rodriguez Nu Sigma '08 has had another epiphany. [Your lack of classical training is glaring, you idiot. You've just mixed an Epiphany with a posited scientific concept. - Ed.]

The Torch of Zeta Psi! The idea is one of those where you think to yourself: "In Flanders Fields" was written 95 years ago. It's amazing that, in all that time, no Zete ever thought of this idea before!

Well, Jon did! Here's the concept: Take the torch from the last Convention (New Orleans) and pass it through every Chapter until the next Convention (New York) [It's actually in a hotel across the Hudson in New Jersey - Shhhhhh! - Ed.].

What is your Chapter doing to be a part of this great idea? Jon has set up a facebook page to organize the passing of the Torch: Facebook Torch page

You can also message Jon directly: zetapsishu@yahoo.com

We are all very excited to be unveiling yet another means to support our Foundation and in particular, our LTI program.  As you might imagine, tens of thousands of dollars are used year-over-year to support transportation costs for active members to attend regional LTIs, the Phi's Conference at Lafayette and, of course, our Convention. 

However, there is now a way for each of our elders to donate and receive tax credit.  Frequent Flier Miles can now be gifted to the Foundation to reduce travel expenditures so that this money can be spent on continually improving the content and experience of the LTIs. 

Our goal is to also expand the number of actives from US, Canada, and of course the UK who can attend. 

Please see below for details!

Zeta Psi Frequent Flier Foundation (FFF) Program

Mission:

To collect and utilize donations of Frequent Flier miles from Elders to help defray the monetary costs to the Educational Foundation to provide transportation for undergraduate representatives to Leadership Training Institutes and Conventions, allowing for a more targeted expenditure of the liberated funds toward other educational endeavors.

Process:

1)     Elders contact the managing entity (airline, credit-card company, etc.) for their Frequent Flier miles account and specify that they would like to make a gift/transfer of a specific portion of their accumulated miles to one of the following Zeta Psi accounts in the name of Michael Hunter:

a.     American - 03BRB22

b.    Continental - WM174519

c.     Delta - 9403101570

d.    JetBlue - 2102789644

e.     Southwest - 615534824

f.     United - 03261629290

g.    USAir - 40067187472

2)     The managing entity will process the request for a gift/transfer.  The company may impose a small fee ($5-$10) to conduct the transaction.

3)     Once the managing entity confirms the completion of the gift/transfer, the Elder contacts the Executive Director of the Educational Foundation, Dave Hunter, at exec.director@zetapsi.org and notifies him that a gift has been made, specifying the amount of miles transferred, any processing fees incurred, and the account into which they were moved.

4)     Once the amount of the transfer has been confirmed, the Foundation will mail contributors to the program a letter of recognition for their donation, noting the equivalent monetary value of their miles donation (using the current standard airline conversion rate of $5 = 500 miles) plus any processing fees incurred.

Benefits:

Because of the Foundation's tax-exempt status, donations to the FFF program can be recorded as charitable deductions equivalent to the stated monetary value on the letter of recognition (#4 above) on federal income tax forms.