THE
ALMICRON
T H E A LU M N I N E W S L E T T E R O F P I K A P PA P H I AT I O WA S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y SPRING 2021 EDITION
UPDATE FROM THE ALPHA OMICRON BUILDING CORPORATION As we enter our 92nd year of Alpha Omicron at Iowa State, we leave a year unlike any others. But, I’m pleased to report that your Building Corporation is active and focused on maintaining and improving our house at 407 Welch. Because of the work of Josh Carper, Chapter Advisor, and last year’s undergraduate Executive Council, we so far have come through the Covid pandemic safely. We had a substantial plan to deal with infected members and we executed that plan when one of our undergraduates became ill. I’m happy to say that he is well and as the next semester resumes in late January, activities in the chapter will be as close to normal as possible. But, because of the pandemic and other prior factors, the occupancy of the house is less than optimum. Recently, I met with the new undergraduate Executive Council (via teleconference) and I can assure you that the undergraduates are as dedicated and willing to work as any leadership group in the past. Although we have fewer members, my experience with the last several Executive Councils is that they are fine young men who are really trying their best. It’s now some 33 years since our current house was constructed and occupied. And, the house is showing its age. This impedes recruiting new members as the living expectations of the current incoming freshmen have significantly changed since the house was built. It’s become clear that the configuration of our house needs to change. While maybe “State of the Art” in the late 1980’s, our house no longer competes with other facilities on campus. In September, we convened a number of Building Corporation meetings with knowledgeable parties in Ames. We met with Billy Boulden, Director of Sorority and Fraternity Engagement (and also a Pi Kappa Phi brother), First Property Management, our property manager, our Banker, and with volunteers from other chapters at Iowa
State who have been involved in building or renovation projects for their chapters. Separately, in November, we hosted a visit from Jay Stuckel, of Pi Kappa Phi Properties. He toured our house as well as campus and gave us some very useful feedback. In his opinion, the structure of our house is very good, but it could use some reconfiguring and modernization. Since we also own the rental property next to 407 Welch, we have a number of options to consider. “Properties” is working on a proposal to begin to have a much closer relationship with Alpha Omicron. Our plan is threefold. Although our debt level is low, we can refinance it at a much lower rate and increase it a bit, yielding funds to perform needed enhancements on our current house configuration. In addition, we will seek additional near-term funding (i.e. support from alumni) to do a few key things to improve the house. Long-term we will work with “Properties” to develop a plan for a major reconfiguration of the house; one that will be attractive to incoming freshmen! There’s a lot going on for the AOBCII. We will communicate our progress as we make decisions down the road. As always, input from you, our alumni, is very welcome! Yours in Pi Kappa Phi, Bob Lane AO 422, Chairman boblane@sbcglobal.net Jeremy Glavin AO 825, Alumni Chairman jeremydeangalvin1973@gmail.com Paul Kula AO 1379, Student Representative pkula124@iastate.edu
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ALPHA OMICRON BUILDING CORPORATION ROBERT LANE Chairman JAY LETTOW Vice Chairman BRETT TORESDAHL Treasurer TRAE HESTNESS Secretary KELLEY BERGSTROM Alumni Chairman JEREMY GALVIN Alumni Chairman JOSH CARPER Scholarship Chairman EMERSON LINNEY Scholarship Chairman WARREN MADDEN Member at Large AJ DESAI Member at Large PAUL KULA Student Representative