THE ALPHA GAM
Alpha Gamma Chapter of Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity | Georgia Tech | Summer 2023 Alumni Relations Office | P.O. Box 876, Ithaca, NY 14851-0876
From The Alumni President Dear Brothers, Five years ago, we rebuilt the chapter house to position Delta Sig for success in the 21st Century. Even after George the Sphinx was rebolted to the wall and the neon letters were lit back up, we have maintained sight of that vision. Thanks to your Evergreen donations, we continue to invest in the brotherhood by maintaining and further improving the house. In 2022, we executed on some phase 2 items from the rebuild plan by purchasing some new commercial kitchen equipment and epoxying the kitchen floor. This year, we are sprucing up the front yard landscaping and installing artificial fescue turf to provide more usable outdoor space year-round. Also, as you’ll see in this issue, we are undertaking a capital reserve study to better quantify our long-term maintenance needs. This information will be invaluable to the ACB as stewards of your Evergreen donations. I hope to see you at Homecoming on Saturday, October 28, 2023, when Tech takes on UNC. YITBOS, Stan Hill ’02
Save the Date
HOMECOMING 2023 Saturday, October 28, 2023
Georgia Tech v. UNC - kickoff time TBD Breakfast/Lunch served at the house 2 hours before kickoff ACB Meeting 90 minutes before kickoff
Questions? Contact Stan Hill at 727.709.8845 j.stan.hill@gmail.com
Alumni Spotlight: John Minderman ’13 How do you stay in touch with your brothers today? I keep in contact with a core group of friends I made while at Delta Sig. We stay in touch through weddings, group messages, and giving each other a call. It’s a testament to how close we became that even though we moved all across the country after college, we still stay in touch.
my early career. However, the people skills I learned at Delta Sig from chapter meetings and leadership roles, such as presi dent, have ended up comple menting those technical skills and have really helped me at work and in managing teams.
What type of work are you doing today? John Minderman ’13 After Georgia Tech, I worked for five years as a mechanical engineer designWhat did you enjoy most as an active ing advanced nuclear plants and helping with the development of those projects. Right now, member? The thing that I appreciated most about Delta I’m just finishing my MBA from the Tuck Sig was the true diversity of brothers and the School of Business and will be going to work ability to make deep relationships and friend- for Goldman Sachs doing investment banking ships with people from different backgrounds. in the power and renewables industry. Whether it was through debates about if we should listen to Blink-182 or Future or Puerto Rican music in the chapter room or more significant personal beliefs, we all expanded our perspectives. On a more specific note, I always loved staying up late and building the wreck for Homecoming.
How has your experience as an undergraduate shaped your career post-graduation? Georgia Tech provided an incredible knowledge base and toolkit to define and solve problems, which served me incredibly well in
What advice can you give alumni and undergraduate brothers about career growth? I think the best advice I ever received was to think about your career as a cumulative process. Don’t think about whether a specific job is “good” or “bad”; instead, think about what tangible/intangible assets you’ll gain that build your capacity to do well in the future (e.g., skills, knowledge, networks, etc.). In addition to building assets, I highly encourage everyone to pursue a career you care about because everyone is much more likely to do a good job and improve yourself when you care about what you do. Not to mention, most Americans will spend about a third of their lives working so you’d better find a way to enjoy it. Your brother and father are both members of Delta Sigma Phi. What is it like being in the same fraternity as them and how has that made your relationship stronger? The thing that is most interesting about the (continued on page two)
Treasurer’s Report By Joseph Caubo ’08 | Treasurer
Even though we are just five years into occupancy of our new house and everything is still in good condition, the ACB is looking ahead to develop plans around future upkeep and maintenance of the property. We need to take a deeper dive beyond our routine operations and maintenance expenses and get a better sense of major capital expenditures on the horizon. Needs such as water heater replacements, landscaping refreshes, additional kitchen build-outs, etc. all come with significant costs that we need to budget and fundraise for years in advance. In order to plan ahead, we are partnering with a local firm to prepare a capital reserve study, a forecast of major capital expenses (adjusted for inflation) we can expect over the next 25 years. Such studies are typical in communal living situations like condominiums and lofts, and the ACB foresees benefit in pursuing this for the chapter house. Not only will this information help us with developing a plan for long-term capital needs, but it will also give us targets for our annual Evergreen Fund campaign. We look forward to completing the study this summer and sharing our findings at the 2023 Homecoming ACB Meeting!
John Minderman ’13 (continued from page one)
fact that my brother and father were also members of Delta Sig is how different the brotherhood was for each of us. While the fundamental beliefs and traditions remain, the make-up of the brothers was different and happened to fit each of us very well at those points in time. While our experiences and stories certainly have strengthened our relationships and given us common ground, we each feel we had our own individual experience.
Outside of work, what do you do for fun? Outside of work, I spend a lot of time with my 2½-year-old daughter Scout and my wife, Jen, whom I met at Georgia Tech. Being a father is one of the best things in my life and I’m very lucky to have a happy and healthy family. Besides family, I pursue a never-ending series of hobbies: playing bass in a cover band, reading, cooking, cocktail making, painting, and hiking.
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President’s Spotlight: Austin Gonclaves ’20 Dear Brothers, I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude to all of you for your generous Austin Gonclaves ’20 contributions and continued support. Thanks to your efforts, we were able to renovate our kitchen with new appliances and flooring. The updated kitchen has been a great improvement to the house, and we are deeply grateful for your generosity. We can’t wait to kick off the fall with the new turf lawn and landscaping that is being installed this summer. These additions and improvements continue to foster the lifelong Delta Sig moments, memories,
and experiences that we all cherish. It’s amazing to see how much we have accomplished and how far we have come in my time here. This past year, we’ve seen stronger attendance and efforts with Greek Week, Homecoming, and intramurals, winning several events and further strengthening the bond of our brotherhood. As we keep evolving and enhancing our community, I’m certain that we will all continue to grow and develop into better men, both individually and collectively. Once again, thank you for your incredible support, and we hope to see you around the house soon for Homecoming. YITBOS, Austin Goncalves ’20 Chapter President
Undergraduate Spotlight: Matt Addvensky ’19 I joined Delta Sig in for a first-year leadership the fall of 2019 and the organization on campus, organization has been a served on the Greek vital aspect of my time as Week executive board, an undergraduate. During was a peer mentor in my my earlier years, I stayed major for three first year involved by taking on as students, worked as a TA many chair positions as for a 4000-level chemical possible: special events, engineering course, and Greek representative, hisserved as vice president of torian, and t-shirt chair. I the ambassador program found myself particularly for my major. I interned at interested in the planning Shell for two summers and Matt Addvensky ’19 and executing of all of our at Aneheuser-Busch for social events from formals to registered a spring semester. I will be heading back parties, so I took on the role of social direc- to work full time for Shell as an offshore tor from the spring of my second year to the support engineer in New Orleans. fall of my third year. In every single internTwo of my proudest accomplishments ship or job interview, I always speak about this year were being named Mr. Alpha my time as social director and all the skills Gamma at our spring formal and being a I acquired from it. One thing that is great finalist for my senior capstone project that about being in a fraternity with driven, pertained to chemical recycling of PET hardworking men is it always pushes you (recycling type 1 plastic: polyethylene to do more. As a chemical engineering stu- terephthalate). One thing Delta Sig has defdent, I would look up to the older brothers initely taught me is to work hard, and also in my major as they were always doing a develop relationships with people along lot on campus, doing well in their classes the way to find balance in life. Receiving and succeeding in career preparation while those recognitions reminded me once again still being active in the fraternity. Outside of those lessons and I will always credit of my time as social director and new Delta Sig for shaping me into the person member educator, I have been an advisor I am today.
ΔΣΦΔΣΦΔΣΦΔΣΦΔΣΦΔΣΦΔΣΦΔΣΦ Fundraising Update ΣΦΔΣΦΔΣΦΔΣΦΔΣΦΔΣΦΔΣΦΔΣΦΔΣΦ Century Campaign Nears Completion
Evergreen Fund Provides Security
By Moe Trebuchon ’83 | Century Campaign Chairman
Thank you brothers for your continued generosity and follow through as the Alpha Gamma Chapter Century Campaign completed a successful 2022. As you may recall, the campaign closed to new pledges in December 2018, exceeding expectations by achieving 361 donor pledges representing $2.32 million! Since then, we have been focused on collecting pledge payments and paying down our loan debt. As illustrated by the following year-end highlights, we are drawing ever so close to achieving our final campaign objective and establishing a new standard for Georgia Tech fraternities (I will provide more on this in my next update). • In 2022, we collected $56,000 in payments pushing our total campaign collections to $2.175 million. • We have now collected 94% of our total pledge commitments. • 86% of all donors have begun making pledge payments of some amount. • 74% of donors have fulfilled their pledge in total and are now 100% Club members (please see the accompanying insert that honors this complete list of 266 brothers!). As a reminder, every dollar collected via the Century Campaign is being applied to offset the build cost of our new chapter house. To that end, I am pleased to report that during 2022, your pledge payments were used to pay down $53,000 of our bank loan principal! At last count, 310 brothers have begun or
completed payments against their pledge. Thanks to each of you! Please keep the payments coming. If you made a pledge and have not yet begun payments, please consider taking action to do so now. If you have concerns preventing you from getting started or completing your pledge, please reach out to me at the contact info below. Please be aware that this fall we intend to make final revisions to the permanent donor board that is displayed in the fraternity house chapter room. If you are currently represented on the board but have stopped making payments on your balance or have never started, please reach out to me to clarify your intentions and the timing for completing your pledge. If we do not hear from you, we will assume you do not plan to complete your pledge and will edit the donor board accordingly. If you wish to contribute beyond your Century Campaign pledge or were unable to participate as a campaign donor, please consider donating to our Evergreen Fund. Evergreen has the mission of providing a continuous flow of funds that will be used to maintain the quality of our new house and to build a cash reserve for future improvements. Long term, Evergreen participation is going to ultimately determine the future quality of the house we were all so proud to open in 2018. To donate to Evergreen or to make a Century Campaign pledge payment, please access this link at the bottom right. As always, if you would like to talk further about the Century Campaign or Evergreen, feel free to reach out to me at moetrebuchon@gmail.com or 404-245-4017. Take care and hope to see you on campus this fall!
Initiated by the ACB in February 2019, Evergreen has the mission of providing a continuous flow of funds to be used to maintain the quality of our new house for years to come. In the past year, we had 33 brothers make donations to Evergreen totaling $17,380. Since its inception in 2019, we have now received Evergreen donations totaling more than $56,783! Thanks to the responsible stewardship of our undergraduate brothers, house repairs to date have been mostly limited to routine maintenance items addressed via operating funds. This has enabled us to accumulate your Evergreen donations as the beginnings of a modest reserve to address more significant house updates and improvements that undoubtedly lie ahead. This past year, the ACB decided with the chapter to begin replacing the aging kitchen equipment that we repurposed from the old house. As a starting point, we have installed a new fridge and freezer along with flooring improvements. Fortunately, we were able to address these costs via ACB operating funds and did not need to draw down on our Evergreen Fund balance. This year we plan to refresh some areas of the exterior landscape that have grown worn as well as repair/replace several house infrastructure problems. It is likely the ACB will need to dip into the Evergreen reserve to help fund this work. Your continued Evergreen donations are essential to sustaining and growing our reserve balance.
Thank You 2022 Evergreen Donors!
Donate to
James Sheldon ’48
Robert McElreath ’61 Tommy Thompson ’65
Roy Abitbol ’78
Rick Wilkins ’83
Albert Berst ’51
Warren Sharp ’62
Ron Edwards ’69
Tim Cronin ’78
Andrew Lovejoy ’92
Milton Hall ’58
John Powell ’63
Norman Kanwisher ’71
Glenn Caulkins ’79
Wes Funsch ’92
Jim Adams ’60
Jeff Reuschle ’63
Collier Mullins ’73
Ken Pharoah ’80
Han Chang ’00
Jim Carpenter ’61
Martin Brown ’64
Lee Girer ’76
Paul Smith ’80
Greg Munna ’01
Henry Taylor ’61
Warren Snipes ’64
Pete Minderman ’76
Dave Jaben ’83
Stan Hill ’02
Larry Hughes ’65
Bill Sandidge ’76
Moe Trebuchon ’83
Evergreen To donate to EVERGREEN or to make a Century Campaign pledge payment, please log onto:
www.godeltasig.com/alumni
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Alumni News James Adams ’62: My family is putting me to shame academically: son Joe (MBA, U Georgia), daughter-in-law Ellen (MBA U Georgia), older granddaughter Kristen (MBA Georgia State), young granddaughter Rachel (MBA, Portland State), grandson Davis (currently a junior at North Georgia/Georgia Tech and will probably go the furthest of them all). Kristen got married last Christmas, and I am just sitting around
Bond Eternal
with a herd of old people. Good to hear from you. YITBOS, Jim. Gregory Davis ’95: I took a new job at Sourced, providing back-office services to small- to medium-sized businesses. I’m also recruiting and consulting for these businesses. My first book, titled Spiral Up, was released last year. I also got married to my wife Amanda last year. We have five kids between us, plus two horses.
We are saddened to learn of the passing of the following brothers:
John Maikisch ’67 April 19, 2022
Walter Stinnett ’59 April 4, 2023
Paul Moore ’58 May 26, 2022
Golf Tournament Recap
Leonard Thompson ’34 August 11, 2005
Have Alumni News? We want to hear from you! Send your personal updates, accomplishments, adventures, and photos to recordsmanager@elevateims.com. We want to share it in the next issue of The Alpha Gam!
VISIT US ONLINE AT:
www.godeltasig.com This year’s playing of the Alpha Gamma Open, the second most prestigious golf tournament in Georgia in April, did not disappoint. With perfect weather and ample drinks, Delta Sigs from their 20s to 80s teed it up at Marietta City Club on April 29. The shot of the tournament belonged to undergraduate Matthew Pair ’24, whose tee ball on the iconic Par-3 12th hole collided with (and killed) a bird! Otherwise, no animals were harmed at the tournament.
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