Fall 2012 Beta-Rho Bulletin

BETA-RHO!BULLETIN!

California State University, Northridge

Volume 40, Issue 3

Fall 2012

Susan Press

Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity

Celebrating at CBS Studio Center. The brothers at Carla’s Café, crouching (from left): Antony Gluck, Anthony Pinkett, Justyn De Leon, Can Ergen, Rick Childs. Standing: Bob Koch, Tim Pena, Richard Ohlberg, Brian Megginson, Mike Cooperman, Gio Pernudi, Drew Singer, Pat Duffy, Chris Dyer, Rob Press, Rob Lange, Howard Brightman, Spencer Schmerling, Mark Widawer, Christian Cruz, Dennis Crain, John Bonilla, Dr. Rich Shulman, Paul Gritsch, Jacob Holmes, Alex Samovitz, Joey Solano, Scott Press, Max Eberle, Jeff Flocken and Tao Chang.

Chapter Turns 40, But It’s Still Growing Across the street from a soundstage where the TV Land sitcom Happily Divorced was being taped, just over 50 brothers and guests convened for BetaRho’s 40th Anniversary Charter Day Celebration & Banquet on Nov. 16. The event returned to the CBS Radford Studios in Studio City, the site of the 35th anniversary soirée. Members and guests went back to Carla’s Café, the studio’s dining and banquet facilities.

Event planners Rick Childs (BP 83) and Sue Press managed to pull off the event despite schedule conflicts that forced

two date changes. Originally, the banquet’s date was slated for Sept. 22, but the event was pushed back to Oct. 20 when it became clear that the minimum number needed to secure the banquet room weren’t sending in RSVPs. The second date didn’t work either since the chapter had planned to help promote and attend an outdoor concert at CSUN known as The Big Show.

Had it not been for Sue Press’s adroit handling of the date problems with the studio’s banquet manager, the gathering might have ended up at a venue Next Page >>>

Charter Installation page 6 1

Annual Meeting page 12

40th Anniversary Celebration

Alex Samovitz

<<< Charter Day Celebration nowhere near as stately as its original chartering location, the Sheraton-Universal Hotel.

Former chapter adviser Tom Lawrence’s (AI 620) extensive collection of scrapbooks spanning nearly all of the chapter’s eras was spread out on a table near the main entrance.

He was also in attendance.

Printed newsletters from earlier in the year, an item that has not been mailed to alumni since the middle of 2011, were available to anyone who wanted one.

After a leisurely hour or more of socializing, Housing Corporation President Spencer Schmerling (BP 288), the evening’s master of ceremonies, provided some introductory remarks. They were mostly about the chapter finishing its first year occupying the Lindley House.

As with the corp. board’s Annual Meetings and formal openings for chapter meetings, the brothers recited the fraternity’s creed from memory.

More than a few alumni forgot a line here and there since there were no printed programs with the creed written out.

Once everyone had taken their turns at the café’s buffet line, Brother Schmerling returned to the podium and introduced the first of the evening’s two speakers, Brother Childs. For his segment, Brother Childs recalled some of the chapter’s earliest history by citing anecdotes that he had been told by its first initiate, Mike Ehrlich; the original chartering banquet’s keynote speaker, Executive Vice President Emeritus George Spasyk, plus the chapter’s founder, Dr. David Trimble.

Brother Spasyk’s quotes had also been heard during his speech at the 35th anniversary banquet.

Before introducing the next speaker, Brother Childs called Sue Press to step forward. For her diligence and grace under pressure as the event’s coplanner, he reached under the podium and presented her with

a bouquet of roses. Then the members of the corp. board were summoned. Sue’s husband, Scott Press (BP 55), displayed a green plaque emblazoned with a group photo of the board members from 2011 that read, “In Appreciation: The Brothers of Beta-Rho Zeta, Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity Recognize Spencer Schmerling & the Housing Corporation Board For All Their Efforts in Securing the Lindley House in 2012.”

The night’s keynote speaker, Bob Koch (M 991), reflected on his role as a longtime professional in finance who has held various positions on the Grand High Zeta, including Tau and Gamma.

Not one to mince words, Brother Koch shared his thoughts about his volunteer work on the Grand High Zeta. As its Grand High Delta, he has been charged with developing strategies to help or close chapters experiencing various challenges. Fortunately, Beta-Rho has not been on his radar screen, and he thanked Brother Childs for getting him up to speed on the chapter’s recent accomplishments when he received copies of the most recent newsletters.

“Thank you for the recognition and the plaque,” Brother Schmerling said after Brother

In the actors’ lair. Clockwise from upper left: Dennis Crain and Brian Megginson were among the under 100s initiates. Mug shot. Master of Ceremonies Spencer Schmerling (top) gave a mini state of the Lindley House report before dinner.

Undergrads are seated in the foreground. Rick Childs, Brother Schmerling and Scott Press display the corp board’s plaque. Jeff and Martha Flocken, with thespian extraordinaire Tom Lawrence (above), were surrounded by some of the alumni who could recall when the Music Field wasn’t occupied by the Valley Performing Arts Center.

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Koch’s speech. “It’s very humbling to receive that.”

Deejay Shawn Press upheld the chapter’s longtime tradition of rocking out to Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride” before they assembled for a group picture.

Members who stepped in front of the line of photographers, besides Brothers Schmerling, Childs, Koch and Scott Press, were alumni Howard Brightman (EΣ 528), Tao Chang (BP 294), Mike Cooperman (BP 386), Dennis Crain (BP 22), Patrick Duffy (BP 493), Chris Dyer (BP 500), Jeff Flocken (BP 43), Antony Gluck (BP 302), Mahdiar Karamooz (BP 549), Rob Lange (BP 580), Brian Megginson (BP 79), Rich Ohlberg (BP 356), Tim Pena (BP

264), Gio Pernudi (BP 473), Anthony Pinkett (BP 484), Rob Press (BP 495), Dr. Richard Shulman (BP 344), Drew Singer (BP 545) and Mark Widawer (BP 220). Undergrads in the picture were John Bonilla (BP 593), Christian Cruz (BP 614), Justyn

Holmes (BP 609), Alex Samovitz (BP 568) and Joey Solano (BP 597).

Brian Garfield (BP 59), James Richardson (BP 425) and Brother Lawrence missed being in the shot.

The CBS Radford, more recently referred to as the CBS Studio Center, has become one

De Leon (BP 602), Max Eberle (BP 634), Can Ergen (BP 632), Paul Gritsch (BP 622), Jacob

of the busiest studios in Southern California. It started in 1928 as the Mack Sennett Studios, and it

was once the home of such TV staples as Gunsmoke, Gilligan’s Island, Get Smart, My Three Sons, Bob Newhart, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Seinfeld, Big Brother, plus lots of movies.

A light drizzle fell just as the celebrants took their last dances and headed to the parking structure a few blocks away. The audience for Happily Divorced filed out of the soundstage across the street from Carla’s Café at about the same time. For BetaRho, it was a wrap for its latest charter celebration, and despite the numerous planning snafus, ideas were being bounced around very casually for a tenth anniversary observance of the chapter’s re-chartering in 2014.

A Leap of Faith

By Rick Childs

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Beta-Rho Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha International Fraternity

Beta-Rho Bulletins, I thought it might be better if I let our chapter’s alumni and a former executive vice president tell our story in their own words.

Lambda Chi Alpha expanded to our campus in a random act of serendipity. Dave Trimble had attended Arizona State for two years and rushed Lambda Chi there in his freshman year. His parents no longer wanted to pay the out-of-state tuition fees, so he transferred to Valley State in the summer of ’68 and moved back home.

Here’s how Brother Trimble described the origins of our chapter.

“I had been initiated at Arizona State. It was coincidental when I went back [to Valley State] that I inquired if there were any chapters around. USC and UCLA were a little too far away for me while living out in the Valley. So I inquired if there was a possibility of starting a chapter at Valley State. Tom Helmbock [the executive vice president who preceded our current one, Bill Farkas] had met [our future chapter adviser] Tom Lawrence at Arizona State.

He came out to my [parents’] house in Woodland Hills along with [USC Lambda Chi affiliate] Lance Shermoen.”

Around the same time, a UCLA Lambda Chi who had just completed his bachelor’s degree in business named Howard Brightman was enlisted to help the chapter. Eventually, Dave and his fellow affiliates found ten students from Valley State and Pierce College to form a colony. They were initiated at the UCLA chapter house on Feb. 15, 1969. A certain piece of music nearly all Beta-Rho initiates are familiar with was played there that night.

We were geeks to be in a fraternity in the late sixties, Brother Trimble observed, and a lot of us were business majors at the time.

Next Page >>>

PictureMe Portrait Studios, Lancaster, CA

wo score and four years ago… sorry, I couldn’t help but make a reference to Steven Spielberg’s new movie about Abraham Lincoln… BetaRho Zeta started out 44 years ago as a colony at what was then Valley State, or San Fernando Valley State College.

While I haven’t seen the movie Lincoln yet, I was quite moved by another recent movie you may not have seen called Cloud Atlas, based on the 2004 book by David Mitchell. One of the lines in the film feels like it’s torn from a page of my fraternal life.

“Faith, the least exclusive club on Earth, has the craftiest doorman. Every time I’ve stepped through its wide-open doorway, I find myself stepping out on the street again.” I’ve been so fortunate that a leap of faith led me to Lambda Chi Alpha and has kept me walking on a path with lifelong friends through these doorways for the past 37 years.

We celebrate 40 years of Beta-Rho as a chapter tonight. The original chartering banquet convened in one of the SheratonUniversal Hotel’s basement ballrooms on Sept. 2, 1972. We returned to that hotel every five years from 1982 until 1997, and now we return to the CBS Radford Studios after meeting in this same banquet room for our 35th anniversary in 2007. Not to forget our chapter’s second act at Cal State Northridge, we also honor our chapter’s re-chartering on March 27, 2004 at the Odyssey Restaurant in Granada Hills.

It goes without saying: I’ve taken more than a few pictures since I joined Beta-Rho in 1975. Some of you are probably familiar with my newsletter interviews that I’ve been conducting with various alumni since 1980. I’ve also run a video or mp3 recorder at several banquets off and on since 1993. As I was looking through some of the recent 3

40th Anniversary Celebration <<< A Leap of Faith Probably the least popular thing to do at Valley State in that time period was joining a fraternity or sorority.

While some of us might only remember 1968 as the year Steppenwolf first performed our chapter’s unofficial theme song “Magic Carpet Ride,” it was a pretty wild idea to start a college fraternity chapter at Valley State from scratch.

The Vietnam War was in full swing. Brother Trimble recalled that one of their chapter meetings on the Admin Building’s second floor lasted for hours after the police barricaded the doors in the lobby from violent protestors. A Life Magazine cover in the spring of 1969 admonished readers that Valley State had become “the most dangerous campus in America.” By the way, this predated the massacre at Kent State.

Mike Ehrlich, Beta-Rho’s first initiate, described what the first semester was like. At the time, students were rallying for civil rights issues such as the establishment of cultural programs like African-American and Chicano Studies.

“Of course we had to share the joy of the SDS, [a.k.a. the Students for Democratic Society] riots on campus,” Brother Ehrlich told me. “They were marching on the administration building, not knowing that the LAPD had a whole ton of officers in the lobby.

“I remember that a number of us weren’t real excited about doing traditional pledgeships as the fraternities were doing in those days.

Realizing that they were starting from scratch, we could start our own traditions. We didn’t have to do regular pledge hazing. Then Ben Gafford got interested because he had transferred over from Pierce College. And he had belonged to a local fraternity there and steered some people over [to us]. Then they exposed us to the chapter at UCLA where Howie was involved.”

The colony’s aversion to pledge hazing predated the general fraternity’s official ruling on the matter and the abolishment of the word “pledge” by four years. We were in the forefront of what we now know as associate membership.

It took four years to assemble a large enough membership to coax our general headquarters into recognizing us as chapter #180, better known as Beta-Rho Zeta.

Under the leadership of Brother Brightman as the first housing corporation president, Beta-Rho’s housing corp. rented its first private residence at 19243 Cantara Street in Reseda in 1969. Eight years later, on July 1, 1977, the corp. board took on its first mortgage and we moved into the first of three homes purchased on Halsted Street near the campus. In the ensuing years, we also rented out our first Halsted

Dr. David Trimble in 2011.

Mike Ehrlich in 2010.

George Spasyk in 2008.

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property and rented homes at the northeast corner of Merridy and Zelzah and across the street from what was then the Music Building on Nordhoff Street in the early 1980s. Our three Halsted properties were sold between 2007 and 2008 under the guidance of current Corp. Board President Spencer Schmerling to enable us to own our current residence that we know as the Lindley House. August 1st marked the first anniversary of its occupancy.

By the numbers, we are 628 brothers, 16 soonto-be-initiates. We are husbands, parents, grandparents, CEOs, entrepreneurs, marketing specialists, sales professionals, realtors, house flippers, ministers, soldiers, accountants, producers, best-selling authors, movie directors, motivational speakers, musicians, deejays, artists, web designers, engineers, social workers, K-12 and college educators, and administrators. We are the university’s undisputed homecoming float construction champions. Two of our brothers, Josh Lodolo and Adam Salgado, have served as CSUN’s student body presidents in the last nine years, and many others have been involved in student government offices, campus organization leadership and sports teams.

Brother Lodolo has also served with General Headquarters as both the associate director of alumni affairs and chapter expansion. We are multicultural, multiethnic, socially adaptable, spiritually diverse, mobile, forever seeking knowledge, and bound by our shared fraternal experience. We are acolytes walking on a shared path forged by brotherly love.

I’d like to close with a passage spoken by Executive Vice President Emeritus George Spasyk here five years ago. George has been an ardent supporter of Beta-Rho stretching back to our original chartering banquet.

He used the analogy of an athletic race to characterize our place in the pantheon of Lambda Chi chapters. With a little updating of a couple of details, this is what he said.

“In a very real sense, the undergraduate brothers of Beta-Rho are always in the position of the third runner in a relay race. More than 600 brothers have run before you and, yes, just over a decade ago, some of them dropped the baton.

And we lost a few generations of brothers here. If you, the current undergraduates, drop the baton, the efforts of those who have rebuilt this chapter, again, will have been wasted. Remember, you have an obligation to future generations of Lambda Chis at Northridge, some yet unborn.

What kind of chapter will you leave for them?

Better than when you joined? Worse? Or will there be a chapter here at all? It’s really up to you.”

Thank you all for being an important part of our chapter’s history this evening.

Fall 2012

A View From the Grand High Delta Keynote By Bob Koch y background: yes, I started in Lambda Chi in 1965 at Berkeley.

I was not a very good student. I was in and out of Berkeley. And the government thought I was better off with a gun in my hand than a book, so I was drafted. I went overseas.

By the way, are there any veterans in the room today? [No one raised their hands.] It’s Veterans’ Week. [One of the audience members said, “We have some, but they didn’t show up.”] Alright. I was going to recognize the veterans.

I got back into the house in 1969 after serving overseas. I didn’t know one guy in the house, and they welcomed me back as if I was a brother. That commitment, that bond that I share with people I’d never gone through Hell Week with, never done anything with in the fraternity really solidified my relationship with Lambda Chi. I graduated in ’71, got married in ’72, was the High Pi in ’72 [at Berkeley] until the mid-seventies. I was on the house corporation board in ’73, ’74. And they wouldn’t throw me off until 2004 when I moved to the desert to start a bank. I got lonely for undergraduate activities so I became a High Pi at UC Riverside which, unfortunately, is closed.

I’ve served on the Grand High Zeta since 2004. I was appointed because the Fraternity was in trouble. Through a lack of proper management, our finances weren’t as they should be. And so they were looking for a brother who was living on the West Coast because we had a brother who was at Cal Poly [San Luis Obispo] who left the board, and they wanted someone who had a financial background.

I’ve been a banker since 1969. So I was appointed to the board as the [Grand High] Epsilon. After the Epsilon they made the banker the Tau for four years. We righted the ship. Then I became Gamma.

Now, actually, I am Delta. Flexibility….

The Grand High Zeta is made up of elected members, alums, for four years. Appointed alums, as I was for one stint for two years and, more importantly, undergraduate members. We have four undergraduates. We have two on the Council of Presidents, and that may not mean a lot to a lot of people here. The Council of Presidents we started about eight years ago, nine years ago. Two of the Council of Presidents serve on the board—and they vote. Then of course we have SAC [Student Advisory Council] members. I would encourage the undergraduate members to run for SAC and get on the Student Advisory Council. Two members from SAC also serve on the Grand High Zeta and they vote.

As we talked about at dinner, those that went to the General Assembly this July worked, didn’t they? No partying. And who voted?

The undergraduates run our fraternity. They have a big voice on the Grand High Zeta and they are the decision-making body of the Fraternity—which is unique among fraternities.

You started in ’68, became a chapter in ’72. In 1972 George Spasyk, who has spoken here before at least once, took over as executive director, and he made a bold move. He scrapped pledging (I was a pledge) in favor of associate membership. It was a huge move, the only fraternity to do it.

Still, 40 years later, there are still fraternities that go through

initiation like we did 40 years ago. But last year I heard a statistic about our fraternity that bothered me. I shared it with [your fellow brothers at the Conclave] in March. Almost half of our chapters today still haze, and still have some level of pledging going on after 40 years.

It’s clear that Beta-Rho has embraced associate membership. You didn’t know what pledging was.

Those that came to start the chapter from Arizona State didn’t bring that with them; that legacy wasn’t there, and that’s a big strength for your chapter to not have the hierarchy, the workforce as we had.

But with the chapters that did there was a void when associate membership took over in 1972.

What was left was an emptiness that really wasn’t effectively filled through impact leadership training and all this stuff until 2007.

In 2007 the fraternity made another bold move: we began True Brother. We usually use the phrase program, but we have had so many programs at Lambda Chi over the years that we call it an initiative.

And it really is a change. I know that many of you are going through.

You’ve got the Outer Circle now with Cole Recruitment. You’ve got the Exoteric Mysteries, and you’re working on the Inner Circle. It is something that will change the individuals who go through it because we’ve got data that tests individuals afterwards. The term we use is co-curricular. Universities love to hear that.

The True Brother Program came from West Point. And we used our core values... and every AM goes through, understanding what the core values are. The point with True Brother is that it doesn’t stop when you finish as an AM. It doesn’t stop after you get initiated.

It continues on. Those members of the house whose AM days are way behind them, they know that’s true. It continues beyond graduation.

And there are many here tonight: being a brother for life. You are brothers for life. That’s clear by what you do with this chapter and what you do with the house corporation.

Being a numbers freak, I have to give you some numbers just to give you an idea of where we stand. We have just shy of 200 chapters.

We have roughly 11,000 undergraduates. We are close to 300,000 graduates, alums. We’re in the upper echelon, if you will. We’re fifth in graduates, and seventh in numbers of chapters.

You all got hit last year with a big insurance bill. We had a chapter in Florida [where] a gentleman shot somebody. He shot a brother, and he killed his date. He had an automatic assault weapon, and he was looking at a scope, and [he] somehow killed somebody [by accident]. That’s hiked up your insurance and every other chapter’s insurance. That’s why you got the assessment, unfortunately. We’ll get through that. We had probably the least amount of accidents, problems. Risk management was very good, thanks to a gentleman named James Faber who passed away last month. But we own a piece of that insurance company, and so it will continue. Bob Kerr is the president.

I think I’ve overstayed my welcome in terms of discussions. I will say that the fraternity is healthy, financially. We generate roughly five million dollars a year in revenues. All of it comes from you. And almost all of it goes right back to you....

And with that, thank you very much for having us.

M

Beta-Rho Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha International Fraternity

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Beta-Rho’s Original Charter Installation Banquet

Remember That Night Several alumni were contacted between 2008 and February 2013 to offer their recollections about the Charter Installation Banquet that took place more than 40 years ago at the Sheraton-Universal Hotel. As a few of them pointed out, the banquet had followed a General Assembly by three days. Although many had not slept in more than 24 hours prior to the event, most of them were still alert enough to remember that night. Even the colony’s first High Alpha Dr. David Trimble (ZΨ 276), by now an alumnus living in Tempe, Ariz., drove to the event. Around 100 were in attendance.

Beta-Rho, unlike other Zetas of its era, began as an experiment that ultimately took root. Typically, a colony would form when an interest group or a local fraternity chapter would make a request with General Headquarters to become part of a national fraternity, according to Dr. Joseph Coyne (ΒΡ 6). “My understanding was that this was the first time that they had ever tried this model, which was to begin a colony from scratch,” he observed. “Because of the way it was started, it was something totally unique that had never been tried before.” Cal State college campuses that had established Lambda Chi chapters before Northridge were San Diego State (1948), San Jose State (1950), Fresno State (1952) and Cal State L.A. (1970).

ept. 2, 1972: Dodger pitcher Doug Rau cruised to a 5-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium II. The Lakers were the NBA champs. “Alone Again (Naturally)” by Gilbert O’Sullivan sat atop the Billboard 100 pop music chart. Gasoline averaged 55 cents a gallon. The Godfather was among the hit movies of the summer. Vietnam war stories were still front-page news. The Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, billed as the “Games of Peace and Joy,” were three days away from being remembered as the killing grounds for 11 Israeli athletes at the hands of Palestinian terrorists. These news events were far from the minds of the brothers of the Lambda Chi Alpha colony at Cal State Northridge, formerly known as San Fernando Valley State College; the charter installation banquet was about to begin.

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Photographer Unknown

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While a Pierce College fraternity named Phi Gamma Kappa might have supplied a core interest group, the only one who ended up joining from that organization was their group’s leader, Ben Gafford (ΒΡ 2), according to Henry Lederman (ΒΡ 5, formerly Lee). The colony met occasionally at the ΦΓK house in an industrial area of Canoga Park in 1968 or ’69 that predated the colony’s first official residence. The house that was used for a few meetings and parties off Nordhoff Street “was kind of a junky old thing,” Mike Ehrlich (ΒΡ 1) remembered.

Another brother who figured prominently in the colony’s final efforts to secure chapter status was former chapter consultant Frank Maez. “He got tired of hearing us moan about not having a charter,” former Housing Corporation President Howard Brightman (EΣ 528) noted in his 2007 speech at the 35th anniversary charter banquet.

“And he said, ‘look, we’re going to sit down, we’re going to do this, we’re going to get you a charter, and we’re going to do it next fall!’”

Brother Coyne remembered that Brother Brightman’s early involvement made a huge impact on the success of the colony. “His original capacity was he came in as an adviser, and then he was instrumental in forming the alumni board. He helped with the

finances. If it wasn’t for Tom (Lawrence, AI 620, the chapter’s adviser from 1969-93) and Howard, we probably wouldn’t have owned a decent piece of property ever. He came in very early on, but not from the get-go.”

The soon-to-be-chapter couldn’t have picked a balmier evening to throw a party. “I just remember a beautiful fall night,” Brother Lawrence, the evening’s toastmaster said. “And oh God, those clothes!”

Many of the brothers scraped together some extra money to look sharp. Dennis Crain (ΒΡ 22) was one of the brothers wearing a tuxedo.

“It was probably the first time I ever wore one.” As Paul R. “Skip” Sonksen, Jr. (ΒΡ 13) saw it, “We were low budget, and to be able to do something that was such a nice, elegant event—that made it real special.”

Brothers, parents, wives, dates, and representatives from General Headquarters, among them two Grand High Zeta members, convened at the lower level ballrooms on the north side of the hotel. Initiates, many of them wearing a wide color palette of formal wear and ruffled shirts, drove their cars to the side hallway entrance to drop off passengers. As they strolled in, a couple of the event’s organizers, Bill Greene (ΒΡ 16) and Brother Coyne, took turns sitting near the Next Page >>>

Checking in at the chapter’s original Installation Banquet. Clockwise from upper left: Some of the guests dropped off their passengers at the side hallway entr ance of the lower level ballrooms on the north side of the Sheraton-Universal Hotel. Guests checked in with Bill Greene. Steve Goldman, wearing a light-colored sport coat, can be seen with Henry Lederman behind him and Skip Sonksen. Charlie Murphy, Jan Van Muyden, Howard Brightman, Hans Reichl and some dates looked over their programs after they were seated (left). Craig Warren and Marsha Smith relax before dinner.

Ditto for Joe and Betsy Bale.

Beta-Rho Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha International Fraternity

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Beta-Rho’s Original Charter Installation Banquet

ballroom hallway entrance at a table with a typewriter and a guest book handing out name tags.

While the guests socialized, Skip Sonksen could be seen playing a grand piano in the ballroom, although he had no recollection of doing it. “Oh he did,” Brother Crain said. “Before the thing started, Skip sat at the piano and just started playing. He was really talented.

There was nothing else to do, and it occupied people until the festivities got going.”

“The reason I got involved was because my dad was a Lambda Chi,” Skip Sonksen continued. His parents were in attendance, and his father, Paul J. Sr., an alumnus from the Theta-Lambda chapter at Simpson College in Iowa, had been instrumental in helping the colony secure its first rental property, the Cantara House in Reseda.

Some of the evening’s attendees had just returned from the 34th General Assembly & Leadership Seminar held at the Hilton Hotel in Portland, Ore. Brother Greene recalled making the trip back to L.A. in 17 hours with Brother Coyne after the closing luncheon on Aug. 30.

“It was a funny weekend because Joe and I were the chapter’s [reps],” Brother Greene recalled. “We drove down in my Ford Galaxy.” He had brought along two other passengers, among them

Rick Kapp from the University of Ohio – Cincinnati, who also attended the banquet. Driving along the interstate somewhere in Northern California, his car started acting erratically. “All of a sudden I notice my car is going, like, 120 miles an hour, and I can’t stop it. The accelerator pedal is on the floor. I screamed at Joe, ‘You’ve got to drive this car while I get this accelerator pedal up!’ He leans over and grabs the wheel and with my right hand I lift the accelerator pedal and start to brake the car. It took us about four or five exits to slow down.” When they pulled into a gas station, a repairman came out and nonchalantly diagnosed that the accelerator pedal spring had broken, charged Brother Greene only a buck to replace it, and they were back driving on the freeway in ten minutes.

Once he had arrived home, Brother Greene had little time for sleep. Aside from his banquet planning committee responsibilities, he also served as the ritualist.

As if the banquet weren’t enough to prepare for on the 2nd, an initiation had just wrapped not long before everyone started to arrive at the hotel. In order to secure the charter, the colony needed to initiate three more members, according to Mike Culbertson (ΒΡ 34).

They finished with the ritual just under the wire. He had been one of

Chapter architects. From left: Tom Lawrence, Rev. S. George “Doc” Dirghalli, Lew Plourd, David Trimble and George Spasyk.

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three brothers who had gone through it starting between 10:30 and 11 a.m. at the Reseda Masonic Lodge. The other two new initiates who were at the banquet were Craig Warren (ΒΡ 32) and Gary Payne (ΒΡ 33). Most of the previous initiates going back to ΒΡ 1, including Brother Ehrlich, were there too. They constituted, as attendee Robert Kacik (ΒΡ 23) put it, the chapter’s charter members.

The Grand High Phi, Rev. S. George “Doc” Dirghalli (Florida 1950), gave the invocation and benediction while Grand High Alpha Lewis Plourd (Butler 1949) delivered the keynote address. “The timing of the banquet was such that all of those high pooh bahs were just finishing up the convention in Oregon,” Brother Lawrence continued. “And they put Northridge on their route home.”

As told by Brother Brightman, General Headquarters had authorized only one representative to attend charter installation banquets. He said that they found a way around that issue. They started by inviting Executive Vice President (then executive director) George Spasyk (Michigan 1949) to officiate as the charter presenter.

Brother Brightman then phoned Brother Plourd, an attorney who lived in El Centro, before the convention. “George is going to make the presentation of the charter,” Brother Brightman informed him.

“Would you like to be the person who is the main speaker?” That was done far enough in advance so that the banquet’s date was set to follow on the weekend immediately after the General Assembly.

While he was at the General Assembly, Brother Brightman showed Brother Dirghalli a copy of the colony’s banquet program. Although he hadn’t been mailed an invitation, Brother Dirghalli was shown the booklet’s guest lineup and Brother Brightman pointed out, “You’re on the program; we’d sure like to have you attend.” With that, Brother Dirghalli replied, “I guess I’m coming.” So the banquet now had three national reps. attending instead of the customary one.

Associate Dean of Students Walt Bollinger represented the university on behalf of the Student Affairs Office. “He got so impressed that we got to be good buddies and [the chapter] ended up initiating him,” Brother Lawrence said. Brother Bollinger became ΒΡ 35 on Nov. 4 that year. “I had no affiliation and I was an independent when I went to Penn State,” Brother Bollinger said during a phone interview in 2008 shortly before his 90th birthday. “But at any rate, he got me started, and one thing led to another.”

Brother Spasyk also reflected on the original charter banquet Next Page >>>

Pre-show. Skip Sonksen at the piano.

Tributes. David Primes, Joe Coyne and Bill Greene.

Part of our history.

David Trimble, Mike Ehrlich and Rick Kapp (far left), Steve Goldman (left) and Walt Bollinger.

Beta-Rho Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha International Fraternity

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Beta-Rho’s Original Charter Installation Banquet

during his keynote address at the chapter’s 35th anniversary charter celebration. He told the audience he presented “the charter of BetaRho to a group of courageous brothers. A firestorm of protest was raging on the college and university campuses throughout North America. Most fraternities lost a fourth or more of their chapters. So the formation of a colony in [the fall of 1968] at what was then known as San Fernando Valley State College was either an inspiring act of courage or an abject exercise in stupidity. And come to think of it, I still haven’t figured out which one it is.”

The chapter probably set a record in the seventies for having taken eight semesters to achieve the minimum membership requirement for a charter. “I remember Lew Plourd used to say that he could start a chapter at El Centro Junior College and get it chartered before we’d ever get ours, but I guess it gave us an incentive to do better than we were doing,” Brother Crain said.

University of Arizona affiliate Scott Sonken (ΖΒ 314) was in his second and final semester as High Alpha. He accepted the charter on behalf of the chapter from Brother Spasyk. “What finally moved this forward was that [General Headquarters] gave us a [finite] number of years to get our acts together and meet their criteria,” Brother Coyne

noted. “Scott was certainly one of the ones who put the push on to get us over the hump insofar as membership numbers and having a certain amount of reserves.”

In a rare moment of happenstance, a prospective member named Charlie Murphy (ΒΡ 36) experienced a unique opportunity when he accepted his bid that night. The Grand High Alpha stepped up and pinned his associate member badge on his lapel. “I wanted to go visit some other fraternities, and that night I was just swayed,” Brother Murphy recalled. “There was a lot of energy in the air.” Regarding the ceremonial pinning, “We were told by all the people who had just come in from Portland, ‘It’s not a pledge pin anymore; that’s an associate member pin,’ a term we had never heard,” Brother Lawrence added. “That was the assembly that they had just done away with pledgeships. So we were the first chapter that never had a pledge.”

Despite the gaps in memory forty years later, every alumnus who was contacted expressed great satisfaction about watching the chapter receive its charter that night. Brother Lederman had left Valley State in the years between 1969 and 1972, and he felt extremely lucky to experience a part of the chapter’s earliest history. “It was quite an affair,” Brother Lederman said. “For someone who had been away

When Colony #180 became Beta-Rho. Scott Sonken is presented the original charter by George Spasyk. Lew Plourd moments after he gave Charlie Murphy his AM pin. A familiar refrain of “We’re All Good Brothers” followed the ceremonies.

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Fall 2012

from it for a while, it was really exciting to get back into it and see the guys again.”

Aside from the keynote speech by Brother Plourd, I’m pretty sure that Bill Greene spoke,” Brother Culbertson said. “I think that Joe Coyne spoke. There were a lot of heartfelt speeches. There was a lot of singing as I remember. The thing I remember more than anything else was there was a tremendous camaraderie that night.”

“I do remember at one point we formed a conga line and we were kicking our heels up,” Brother Trimble vaguely recalled. “It’s just such a long memory ago at this point.”

Once the banquet’s dancing and singing had wound down, Brother Culbertson said that many of the brothers returned to the Cantara House and continued the celebration well into the early morning hours. “I seem to recall hitting the coffee table at the fraternity house with my head later on that evening because I was laying under it,” Brother Crain said. He broke the coffee table’s marble top, “but I didn’t feel anything, so I guess it was okay.”

Aside from Brothers Coyne, Greene, Skip Sonksen and Brightman, the other planning committee member who attended the banquet was David Primes (ΒΡ 25). Charter members who also witnessed the

evening’s festivities were Jim Allison (ΒΡ 3), Eric Taylor (ΒΡ 10), Mark Eskander (ΒΡ 18), Dan Ryan (ΒΡ 26), Jim Wirosko (ΒΡ 27), Joe Bale (ΒΡ 28), Maury Sanders (ΒΡ 29), Jan Van Muyden (ΒΡ 30), Craig Warren (ΒΡ 32) and Doug Green (ΒΡ 39). Other guests included Mike Elley, (EΣ 514), Steve Goldman (ΓΠ 731), Marshall Trager (ΛΡ 97), Dan Tew (East Carolina University), Geoff Gunn, Hans Reichl, Bruce Baker, the parents of Brothers Brightman, Crain, Green, Primes, Sonken, Wirosko, plus brothers from other chapters. Presidents from a few of the various CSUN fraternities were comp’d as well, according to Brother Crain.

It was “the culmination of a lot of work,” Brother Crain said. “Just trying to get everyone together and get enough initiates in so that we could get the charter. I never had more fun in my whole life.”

Brother Crain keeps a couple of mementos from the occasion handy. “And still to this day I have a picture in my wallet of my parents at the installation. It’s pretty beat up, but it’s there. I’ve still got the I.D. card the fraternity gave me when I was initiated that says ‘colony’ on it. I carry that thing around with me and it’s getting pretty long in the tooth, to put it mildly. I pull it out every now and then, usually at the Annual Meeting. I’ll pull it out and show it to somebody, and they’ll go, ‘yeah, yeah, that’s nice.’”

Most of Beta-Rho’s charter members. Front row, from left: Charlie Murphy, Howard Brightman, Rev. S. George “Doc” Dirghalli, Bill Greene, Lew Plourd, Scott Sonken, Mark Eskander, Jim Wirosko, George Spasyk, David Primes, Robert Kacik, Skip Sonksen, Craig Warren, Jan Van Muyden and Henry Lederman. Second row: Tom Lawrence, Dennis Crain, Steve Goldman, Joe Coyne, Maury Sanders, Mike Ehrlich, Gary Payne, Jim Allison, David Trimble, Mike Culbertson, Eric Taylor (we think) and Mark (last name unknown).

Beta-Rho Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha International Fraternity

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Corp. Board Annual Meeting

Two presidents. Alex Samovitz is introduced by Corp. Board President Spencer Schmerling.

Seeking a Full House at Annual Meeting During its fifth anniversary at the Golden Hunan Restaurant on Dec. 4, the housing corporation celebrated milestones the chapter had passed such as the first anniversary of the occupancy of the Lindley House. However, the house also presented the chapter’s most challenging issue: coming up with a workable plan to raise enough capital to consistently satisfy its monthly debt obligations.

Keeping the Lindley House filled with tenants topped the evening’s agenda.

As stated in Corporation President Spencer Schmerling’s (BP 288) written report, he “told the chapter that they have to make a choice. Either they choose that they want the house and get [a full complement of] live-ins, or they choose that they can’t support the house and we look outside for more tenants.” His concerns about finding enough renters for the Lindley House were also shared during a chapter

meeting over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

“When I started as president of the corp. board 14 years ago, I reduced our debt from over $100,000 down to $20,000,” his report continued. “I want to do that again – I want to reduce our debt by 50 percent over the next 5 years.”

Howard Brightman (EΣ 528) voiced his support for the steps Brother Schmerling had undertaken to keep the housing corporation’s investment in the Lindley house solvent. He then volunteered to take over as the coordinator of a new capital fund drive.

“Having been up there for a long time [in Brother Schmerling’s position as a previous corp. board president],” Brother Brightman said, “I know the amount of effort and time he’s put in, and he’s done absolutely fantastic. By the way, I will need everybody’s help.” He went on to say that

alumni who loan money to the capital fund can earn 4 percent interest, a considerably higher rate than what banks are currently paying for loan amounts of $10,000. “Banks are paying, like, 1 percent, and if we can pay off an old loan [from previous capital fund loans that were started over a decade ago when banks were paying higher interest rates], that’s going to balance the budget. And that will take some pressure off of the undergrads.”

Gary Thomas (BP 146) encouraged the undergrads to keep the Lindley House fully occupied. “For someone who lived in the house most of the time while I was at CSUN, there’s nothing [like it]. I think you’re missing out on a big part of being a Lambda Chi if you don’t experience being a live-in.”

Aside from his discussion about house finances and the tenant situation, Brother Schmerling upstaged High Alpha 12

Alex Samovitz (BP 568) with some praise for the new brothers who had been initiated over the previous weekend. There were also 3 from the spring bringing the chapter’s total membership up to 644.

“At the risk of stealing some of Alex’s thunder… we have 16 top-notch guys,” he said. “Thank you guys for coming. Obviously, you are the future of our chapter.

Beta-Rho’s in good hands.”

To assist the chapter with improving neighbor relations, Brother Schmerling became one of the voting members of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. He and Chris Dyer (BP 500) ran for two of the board’s vacancies, but only Brother Schmerling received enough votes to win one of the seats.

“It’s good because we’re getting involved in the community,” he commented. “There were some shocked faces when I was sworn in at that first [NENC] meeting.”

Vice President of Communications Rick Childs (BP 83) told the audience that the 2013 directory had been delayed for a few weeks. While the directories weren’t available at the meeting for the first time since 2006, a number of the chapter’s most recent newsletters were scooped up. Since the newsletter had gone to an e-zine format in 2011, printed copies were only being made available at certain alumni events. In lieu of mailed copies, the audience was told that they could download them at the chapter’s new URL, www.lambdachicsun.com.

Brother Childs had purchased a new domain name for the chapter’s website in April after it failed to renew the old one.

“At this time last year our chapter’s website slipped into neglect and vanished for a few months,” he said. “The domain bill wasn’t kept up to date. Then somebody with a fifth grade level of English proficiency bought out our old domain name and it became The House Improvements Fall 2012

Place with lame promotions for things like ‘hands (sic) and bulk manufactured area rugs.’ Honest, that’s what lambdachibp.com’s [home page] read last weekend.

“A.J. Jaegle volunteered as the webmaster for several months,” he continued. “The domain name is now a lot like what many of our other chapters use for their websites: the name Lambda Chi followed by the college or university name [or acronym].”

Next up was Brother Samovitz who gave his final report as High Alpha. He noted the total of 19 new initiates for 2012. After mentioning that Beta-Rho had co-hosted the Pacific Southwest Conclave with UCLA’s chapter in March, he talked about the philanthropy projects tied to the Pumpkin Bash in early November and the previous fall’s North American Canned Food Drive.

“We raised over a thousand articles of clothing for the [Mend] charity,” he said. “That was more than [all the other organizations that took part] combined.”

The chapter’s overall GPA had also improved, he added.

Corp. board elections resulted in a new alumnus filling the post of secretary. Yesai Fstkchyan (BP 598) took over with a one-year term for Rob Press (BP 495) who stepped down after the dinner

meeting. Re-elected for two-year terms of office were Brother Childs and Scott Press (BP 55) as vice president of communications and activities, respectively. Twoyear terms were also given to Brother Dyer as treasurer and Steven Shapiro (BP 575), one of two members-at-large. Brother Samovitz also received a one-year term as a member-at-large since he was graduating in December.

Among the chapter’s newest initiates at the Annual Meeting were Max Eberle (BP 634), Can “John” Ergen (BP 632), Brinton Marsden (BP 636), Will Medina (BP 629) and Eric Planas (BP 630).

Aside from those mentioned, the rest of the evening’s alumni in attendance were Cesar Ayllon (BP 453), Dennis Crain (BP 22), Andrés Dominguez (BP 628), Mark Eskander (BP 18), Vahan Khodanian (BP 562), Jorge Reyes (BP 618), Jon Rice (BP 82), Neil Sanchez (BP 535), Joey Solano (BP 597), Rick Trevino (BP 451) and Mark Widawer (BP 220).

Catching up with the corp. board.

Brinton Marsden and Can “John” Ergen looked over some newsletters. Mark Eskander met with Jorge Reyes and Eric Planas. The corp. board with the fall High Zeta members, from left: Alex Samovitz, Spencer Schmerling, Brinton Marsden, Andrés Dominguez, Steve Shapiro, Rick Childs, Chris Dyer and Scott Press.

Beta-Rho Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha International Fraternity

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Alumni News Courtesy of Kevin Daum

in Escondido. Weighing in at 8 lbs., 3 oz., Leonidas is Brandon’s son Keaton’s first child and the mom is Veronica Goekler.

Newsmakers. Kevin Daum and his soon-to-be bride Van Van (clockwise from right) struck a pose in Ho Chi Minh City in November, 2011. The Stonefield wedding.

(Dave is on the right.) Christopher Aston (fifth from left) holds the Don Dorsey Excellence in Mentoring Award. (John Bonilla is second from left.) Brandon Cesmat’s grandson, Leonidas.

Courtesy of Brandon Cesmat

Brett Butterstein Photography Alison Lynn

It took two continents, but now Kevin Daum (BP 226) has tied the knot with Van Van, a UC Davis graduate. The Inc. Magazine columnist traveled to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam for the first wedding ceremony on Feb. 10 where 300 of his bride’s family and friends awaited.

Back home in New York City’s Lower Manhattan, the couple held a private ceremony at The Players Club where about 45 guests gathered on July 10 – two years to the day after their first date.

The couple also visited Ho Chi Minh City in November of 2011 where they had some pre-wedding portraits done. The couple honeymooned in Cambodia.

Cal State Northridge’s EOP, the Educational Opportunity Program, recognized Assistant Director for Student Development and International Programs Christopher Aston (BP 452) and three others on Nov. 5. He was among the EOP’s 2012 recipients for the Don Dorsey Excellence in Mentoring Award. Professors and staff received the awards during a campus reception in the Whitsett Room on the fourth floor of Sierra Hall.

Dave Stonefield (BP 178) had an excellent excuse for missing the 40th Anniversary Charter Day Celebration: he and his bride, Lauren Chang, were celebrating their eight-day “minimoon” in South Beach, Fla. They were married at the Calamigos Ranch in Malibu on Nov. 11. Beta-Rho was well represented. Gary Thomas (BP 146) served as Best Man. Jim Emmerson (BP 137), George Raquel (BP 161) and Jeff Friedman (BP 154) were among the groomsmen. Also joining the celebrants were Brian Schneider (BP 188), Bob Meadows (BP 158) and Mark Green (BP 166).

Just in time for the holidays, the third generation has arrived for first-time grandfather Brandon Cesmat (BP 175). Leonidas Archer Cesmat is Brother Cesmat’s first grandson. Born on Dec. 23 at 5:48 p.m. at Palomar Hospital

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Fall 2012

Directory Cover Demystified

2012 Alumni Loyalty Fund Supporters

The 2013 membership directory’s cover subjects were all drawn from Facebook profile pictures that appeared in October. This is the who’s who list of the cover matrix (the number key is below right): 1.

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George Spasyk* Carlos & Joan Valdez Eric Roberts Jeff Tinnes Jeff Friedman Eric Gonzalez Nick Volkov Vahan Khodanian Mike Cooperman Anthony Pinkett Rick Trevino Mike Press Chris Lynch AOPi coaches team photo, May ’12.

John McFarlane Chris Dyer Gary Thomas Justyn De Leon Rob Lange Daniel Ramos Christian Cruz Rich Bluth Kurt Helin Cesar Ayllon Brian Garfield Giovanny Pernudi Josh Lodolo Pat Duffy Adam Salgado Bob Meadows Todd Baker Ladi Saka Rick Childs Scott & Sue Press Kamran Karamooz

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Rick Isaac John Leynes Jaryd Tashiro Dave Nelson Steven Shapiro Jay Friedman Joe Nguyen Tony Suarez Tom Lawrence* Steven Shapiro & Matt Rice Paul DePascale Howard & Dana Sapper Patrick Schaefer Robert Gantman Ernie Norrman* Mitch Silberman Malcolm Mc Intosh Spencer Schmerling Alpha Xi Delta “Xi Champs” group.

Mahdiar Karamooz & Michelle Rhea Chetwynd Jim Emmerson (“Doc Savage” painting by Frank Frazetta) Beta-Rho Fall 2012 AM Installation Scott Seward Neil Sanchez Alex Samovitz & Jenee Galindo John Hart Tim Pena Robert Hartung Sam Renbarger Christopher Aston Steven Zavala Steven Zavala, Corey Davis, Jaryd Tatter, Mychal Davis and Can Ergen

Beta-Rho Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha International Fraternity

Activities Fund Support David Cary, PhD Rick Childs Chris Dyer Richard Greenberg David Gill Ellis San Jose Scott Press Howard Sapper Spencer Schmerling Sponsored Brothers at the 40th Anniversary Banquet or Annual Meeting David Adelman Rick Childs Kevin Mojaradi 68.

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Wedding group photo with Rick Trevino (groom), Mike Press, Cesar Ayllon, Jason Barner, (2nd row) Rob Press and Josh Lodolo.

Robert Bedley John Gezelius* Robert Scher, PhD Mark Widawer Mike Gregory Joey Solano Duke Anderson & Stacey Rigney Kevin Mojoradi Doc Ellis Jessie Arciniega & family Yesai Fstkchyan

*Lambda Chi Alpha affiliates & friends

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Cesar Ayllon Mike Cooperman Richard Greenberg

2013 Membership Directory Sponsors Howard Brightman Doc Ellis Jim Emerson Mark Eskander Jay Friedman Robert Gentian Jon Gardner Gary Goodstein Barry Green Richard Greenberg Mike Gregory John Hart Alex Lucero Dave Nelson

Ellis San Jose Howard Sapper Spencer Schmerling Mark Swedelson Gary Thomas Mark Widawer

Pumpkin Bash

Return of a Fall Pumpkin Classic Collecting clothes for charity and attracting sororities for friendly competition, the chapter revived its Pumpkin Bash – identical to its former namesake, the Pumpkin Bust – for the first time since the 1980s. Several days of smaller events on campus led up to an afternoon of games and various excuses for dressing up or demolishing pumpkins on Nov. 10 at the Lindley House. The fall classic replaced the Watermelon Bust that they conducted almost exactly a year earlier.

High Theta Corey Davis (BP 596), the event coordinator, saw ways to make the Pumpkin Bash a bigger celebration than its predecessor. “I wanted to make it a little bigger, so I expanded it to about five days worth of events,” he said.

From Nov. 6 though the 8th, Brother Davis set up a “Find a Lambda Chi” stunt on campus, “basically a ‘Where’s Waldo’ kind of event,” he said. Sorority women were awarded tickets each time they encountered a brother or associate member at CSUN. Each sorority that fielded a team earned participation points for each event.

On Nov. 8, a beauty pageant called “The Queen of Fall” was held, the first time where event points were awarded. The winner walked off with 100 points for their sorority’s team.

Throughout the month, the sororities donated used clothing for the chapter’s MEND Charity’s collection. Trash bags of clothing piled up in the Lindley House living room before the games got underway.

Sororities that participated were Alpha Omicron Pi, Alpha Phi, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Zeta and a new Panhellenic group, Phi Mu. Kappa Kappa Gamma’s initiation kept them from taking part this year.

When asked how many were at the games, Brother Davis deferred the question to the High Beta. Justin De Leon (BP 602) estimated that the crowd swelled to about 150 during the height of Saturday’s festivities.

The games kicked off at the basketball court with a pumpkin toss, more of a shot put event.

Once the distances were measured, the teams lined up for pumpkin rolling.

Participants packed the living room, study and kitchen to watch the judges check out four pumpkin decoration entries. A short time later, each sorority team was timed as they took turns wolfing down slices of pumpkin pie.

Returning to the backyard, a pit that had been partially dug out for a future volleyball court served as the tug of war grounds.

Dozens of pumpkins had been pulverized and placed between the teams. After Delta Zeta’s team had been declared the winner, the remaining sororities presented various stunts while bashing pumpkins.

Once the points were totaled, Delta Zeta won the trophy for first place. Alpha Omicron Pi took second place and Delta Delta Delta came in third.

“My favorite part (of the events) was seeing the turnout and all those clothes,” Brother Davis commented. A campus award was eventually presented to the chapter for the most clothes donated to MEND – over 1,000 pounds. Not to mention that the chapter has steadily built cordial relations with all of the Panhellenic sororities on campus.

The first Pumpkin Bust took place entirely on campus in early November of 1975 at the former Engineering Field, a space now occupied by Sequoia Hall. This was the ninth event of the series.

On a roll. Clockwise from top: Jorge Reyes marks the tug of war’s center line.

The Tri-Delts “whistle while [they] work” as they clobber a pumpkin. The pumpkin roll starters get underway. Brittany Tanner and Wesley Lamphere check in donated clothing bags. Corey Davis alerts the teams using his bullhorn. Opposite page: everyone who survived the games gathers for a group shot; Delta Zeta’s team photo.

16

Fall 2012

Logo Design: Eric Roberts

Volume 40, Issue 3

Version 2.4 Editor, reporter, designer & photographer: Rick Childs The Beta-Rho Bulletin is the official publication of Beta-Rho Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha, Inc. at California State University, Northridge. Articles, directory revisions, weddings, bir ths and professional info should be snail mailed, e-mailed or sent via Facebook to the editor. His mailing address is 44044 Engle Way Apt. 65, Lancaster, CA; 93536-6660. Email: rc4x4profit@verizon.net. All other correspondence to the corporation should be sent to P.O. Box 280311, Northridge, CA 91328-0311. Made on a Mac Mini with iWork Pages ’09 v.4.1. Last revised on March 20, 2013. Editor’s phone number: (661) 948-3260

Fall 2012 House Corporation Board of Directors:

Beta-Rho Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha International Fraternity

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President

VP, Communications

VP, Activities

Secretary

Treasurer

Alumni Director

Chapter Adviser

High Alpha

High Tau

High Rho

House Manager

Spencer Schmerling Rick Childs Scott Press Rob Press Chris Dyer Steven Shapiro Eric Gonzalez Alex Samovitz Andrés Dominguez Malcolm Mc Intosh Eric Roberts

On the Web: Headquarters

Chapter Website

Facebook

www.lambdachi.org www.lambdachicsun.com CSUN Lambda Chi Alpha

Chapter News

Scheduling conflicts with alumni events aside, Beta-Rho conducted a busy fall schedule of social, voluntary, Intramural Sports and philanthropic activities.

Among the many things that preoccupied the chapter’s attention were volunteer hours.

The first opportunity for actives to help out started on Sept. 27 when Justyn De Leon (BP 602) reminded the brothers on Facebook about a Natural Disaster Simulation at the University Student Union’s Northridge Center.

Coinciding with the AlumniActive Softball Game on Sept.

30, some of the newest actives took part in the first of three consecutive Sunday afternoon Greek 101 sessions on campus.

The workshops have addressed topics like “the explosion of Greek life on campus, conservative fiscal spending and insurance risk,” according to a Facebook comment by Assistant Director for Student Development and International Programs Christopher Aston (BP 452).

Associate members and the vast majority of the actives spent the weekend of Oct. 5-7 at a retreat in a cozy Big Bear cabin owned by Pat Schwing.

With more music majors joining the ranks, some band instruments were set up in the so-called “Rainbow Room” of the Lindley House in late September and October. Joey Solano (BP 597) could be found there occasionally practicing Ravel’s ‘Bolero’ on his EWI. Brother De Leon, Andrés Dominguez (BP 628) and Richard Strobel (soon-to-be BP 640) were among around ten participants from the chapter at the AIDS Walk Los Angeles in West Hollywood Park on Oct. 14.

Having some musicians in the chapter paid dividends on the

night of Oct. 23 when the annual Big Show unfurled before a crowd of thousands in front of the Oviatt Library. A live performance by some of the brothers and Delta Delta Delta sorority sisters was part of the evening’s entertainment. With practically the entire chapter on board to watch the concert, the 40th Anniversary Charter Celebration planners made a second date adjustment to steer clear of the event.

At the Oviatt Library Lawn on Nov. 14, the chapter received recognition from Unified We Serve for its clothing drive participation. According to Brother De Leon, 944 articles of clothing had been collected before the closing ceremony at noon, more than all the other organizations that participated combined. The clothing went to the MEND charity, a non-profit organization based in Pacoima.

Later that same night, brothers attended the first of two workshops with Nolan Ryan, an ELC, at the Lindley House. Group activities were followed by a Harm Reduction session on the 15th.

Some of the actives who didn’t make it to the 40th Anniversary Charter Celebration on Nov. 16 could be found performing at the KKGlee show, an event sponsored by the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority.

While the news media clogged the airwaves with stories leading up to end times at the outset of the Winter Solstice, the chapter had other ideas. An End of the World Party that recalled the absurdly themed Aluminum Head nights from the 1980s debuted at the end of Finals Week. The night of Dec. 20 turned into a festive occasion complete with a distinctly duct tape couture look.

Pat Schwing

Retreat, Full Social Calendar Set the Tone for Fall Semester

Chapter highlights. Nearly all of the actives could be found at a retreat in Big Bear over the weekend of Oct. 5-7 (top). Joey Solano (middle) practices in the “Rainbow Room” on his Electronic Wind Instrument, or EWI, on Oct. 10. John Leynes (above) describes parts of a chart his group created during an ELC meeting on Nov. 14.

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Fall 2012

Fall Initiates

William Medina

Myke Davis

Cody Raschella

Zareh Baboomian

Eric Planas

Max Eberle

Daniel Chukhman

Adrian Morales

Jason London

Michael Hilliard

Devin De Leon

John DeVaughn

Can Ergen

Brinton Marsden

Richard Strobel

Chris Burgos

“Will” Medina Major: Political Scnce Class Level: Junior Big Brother: Glen Probst Favorite Lambda Chi moment: “Receiving my Big Bro.”

BP 629 Age: 21

Mychal “Myke” Davis Major: Undeclared Class Level: Freshman Big Brother: Nick Volkov Favorite Lambda Chi moment: “Being initiated.”

BP 633 Age: 22

The chapter’s newest 16 brothers wasted no time becoming major contributors to the chapter’s overall success. As always, the newest initiates represent an eclectic roster of academic pursuits and interests.

Initiation took place at an undisclosed location on the evening of Nov. 30. For the first time in a couple of years, there was no group photo taken afterwards when the big brothers gave them their hoodies. Pictures for this article were drawn from Facebook profile pictures and ones the editor took at the Pumpkin Bash, 40th Anniversary Charter Celebratsion Banquet, and the night of AM Installation.

Four of the newest members were elected to High Zeta positions during the last two chapter meetings of the fall semester. William Medina took over as High Gamma. Can “John” Ergen took on the job of High Sigma. Max Eberle and Brinton Marsden became the new High Theta and High Tau, respectively. Myke Davis became the team captain for Intramurals.

Matthew C. “Cody” Rachella BP 637 Major: Deaf Studies Class Level: Sophomore Age: 19 Big Brother: Daniel Ramos Favorite Lambda Chi moment: “The bond created at initiation.”

Zareh Baboomian BP 641 Major: Business Administration - Mgmt.

Class Level: Sophomore Age: 19 Big Brother: Lamphere Wesley Favorite Lambda Chi moment: “Initiation Week when our knowledge was tested.”

Adrian Morales, Jr. BP 642 Major: Business Administration Marketing Class Level: Freshman Age: 18 Big Brother: Kamran Karamooz Favorite Lambda Chi moment: “The first retreat at Big Bear.”

Eric Planas BP 630 Major: Communication Studies Class Level: Junior Age: 20 Big Brother: Christian Cruz Favorite Lambda Chi moment: “Brotherhood retreat because we all bond.”

Maximilian “Max” Eberle BP 634 Major: Music – Commercial & Media Composition Class Level: Junior Age: 22 Big Brother: Zach Payne Favorite Lambda Chi moment: “Brotherhood retreat.”

Daniel Churchman BP 638 Major: Biology Class Level: Sophomore Age: 20 Big Brother: Eric Roberts Favorite Lambda Chi moment: “Becoming True Brothers at Big Bear Retreat.”

Jason G. London BP 631 Major: CTVA Class Level: Freshman Age: 18 Big Brother: Steven Zavala Favorite Lambda Chi moment: “How the lounge turned out in the garage.”

Michael P. Hilliard BP 635 Major: CTVA Class Level: Junior Age: 22 Big Brother: Luis Canton Favorite Lambda Chi moment: Initiation, because it made me feel I accomplished something bigger than myself.

Devin De Leon BP 639 Major: Undeclared Class Level: Freshman Age: 18 Big Brother: Arturo Olvera Favorite Lambda Chi moment: “When my big brother gave me his letters and welcomed me into the King’s Family.”

John A. DeVaughn BP 643 Major: Animation Class Level: Junior Age: 24 Big Brother: Oliver Grau Favorite Lambda Chi moment: “The retreat was unpredictable and amazing.”

Brinton R. Marsden Major: Civil Engineering Class Level: Junior Big Brother: Corey Davis Favorite Lambda Chi moment: “Brotherhood retreat.”

Richard Strobel Major: Music Class Level: Sophomore Big Brother: Joey Solano Favorite Lambda Chi moment: “Initiation.”

Christopher M. “Chris” Burgos BP 644 Major: CTVA Class Level: Junior Age: 20 Big Brother: Jacob Holmes Favorite Lambda Chi moment: “Putting on letters for the first time.”

Can “John” Ergen BP 632 Major: Music – Industry Studies Class Level: Junior Age: 21 Big Brother: Justyn De Leon Favorite Lambda Chi moment: “The initiation made me realize what really bonds us as a brotherhood.”

Beta-Rho Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha International Fraternity

BP 636 Age: 22

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BP 640 Age: 20

BETA-RHO BULLETIN Beta-Rho Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity P.O. Box 280311 Northridge, CA 91328-0311

Address Service Requested

Editor’s Journal What if there was a way to go back and relive the night Beta-Rho first became a chapter? The key to finding that answer was sitting on top of a pile of scrapbooks in my living room.

When I first started visiting the Cantara house in the summer of 1975, I spent a lot of time looking at a photo album that Charlie Murphy had built. It was the biggest, most awesome scrapbook that I had ever seen. The covers were two pieces of off-white wall panel Masonite bolted together, and the pages were almost three feet wide. It weighed about as much as a bowling ball. I was so impressed with it that I decided to make a few on my own for the chapter.

My interest in photography helped me get appointed as the chapter’s historian in 1976. It was sort of a consolation prize for not becoming the High Rho or Gamma. Jon Rice served as the High Rho that spring, and Bruce Marks followed. Brian Megginson had a lock on the Gamma for most of my semesters in the chapter, and he was great at it.

Somebody gave me an envelope full of pictures from the 1972 Charter Installation Banquet after my appointment. There were also two copies of the green installation dinner booklet with the little gold tassel plus several of the original name tags. I found some stationary store on Reseda Boulevard – maybe Tam’s – and picked out a burgundy photo album for the task. All of the scrapbook’s lettering was done with Letraset dry transfer sheets and a wooden burnishing tool, a skill I had picked up building 1/72 scale model warplane kits.

I left the scrapbook I had made at the Cantara House and it found its way to Halsted 1 in 1977. Photo albums did not age well there. Someone began using cigarettes to burn the faces on pictures they found objectionable. Brother Murphy’s scrapbook fell into disrepair, and one day it disappeared altogether. Almost every scrapbook I worked on eventually met the same fate, but a few years 

ago the burgundy one resurfaced. Tom Lawrence had rescued it from Halted 1 and kept it safe at his home with several of his own he had assembled over the past three decades with reprints I had been mailing to him.

Brother Lawrence called me in 2011 and asked if I could take his scrapbooks off his hands. They were becoming too heavy for him to carry to alumni events.

When I visited him on the evening of the Screen Actors Guild Awards telecast last year, I was reunited with my old Chapter Installation photo album. Not only had it managed to survive all these years, I had luckily waited to reclaim it until after my house had foreclosed in 2010. If I had retrieved the photo album five months earlier, it might still be locked away with my boxes of old photos, slide trays, negatives and scrapbooks that have been languishing in five storage pods somewhere in Chatsworth.

I had produced a newsletter in 2007 that featured some photos I had scanned of the Installation Banquet from a few duplicate prints that were put in storage. With the entire album back in my hands, I could study the event more carefully. Then I interviewed about a dozen alumni I had befriended over the years who had attended the banquet. The chapter also returned to those ballrooms between 1982 and 1997, so I had a pretty good idea what it felt like in that place. I even remembered that S. George “Doc” Dirghalli gave the keynote at the tenth anniversary charter celebration banquet, and a live band in the next partition of the ballroom almost drowned out his speech.

Scrapbooks might seem passé in this era of Instagram, Flickr, and other online storage sites for photos. I do hope that the chapter keeps shooting pictures (and occasionally video) with good digital cameras and not just their smartphones. Make some prints. Pictures still tell a thousand words, and my old photo album of the original Charter Installation Banquet helped me write about 2,000 more of them.

B BETA ETA-R -RHO HO B BULLETIN ULLETIN Beta-Rho Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity Fall 2012 edition

Beta-Rho Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity 2013 Alumni Loyalty Fund

The chapter’s alumni loyalty fund could use your first-time or continuing help! Newsletters are a vital part of keeping in touch with what’s going on with the chapter and our alumni. This newsletter has morphed into an e-zine due to the difficulty we have had sustaining it with alumni donations. Digital PDF file copies of recent Beta-Rho newsletters are now posted at www.lambdachicsun.com where they can be downloaded. If you would like a printed copy mailed to your address, send the editor $7 to cover printing and shipping costs. Contact the editor, Rick Childs, at (661) 948-3260 or rc4x4profit@verizon.net for address, phone number or email changes. Any financial support you could provide in these fiscally restrictive times would help too. Use the P. O. box address at the top of this page.

Thank you in advance for any support that you can offer. And please, visit your brothers at the next alumni event!

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