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MARCH 2006 Editor: Jamie Best
jamie.best@mediaevolved.com
Co-Editor: Matt Brown
mathew.brown@bbandt.com
Alumni Newsletter Contribute to the Future of the New House
To your Brother’s Health…..
A Supreme Success
By Jamie Best
By Jamie Best
As mentioned in the article “Era of Another Fraternity House Comes to an End”, we are asking for contributions to cover the cost of the upgrades to the new Fraternity House. The chapter is going to help with the purchase of furniture, etc. for the common areas not furnished by the University. Each contributing brother will have his name memorialized on a large plaque to be permanently installed in the foyer area of the house for all to see who enter.
National Office Director of Alumni Service
The first “brother’s spotlight” column is on Mike Duffy, not just because he was my first and only little brother, but because I thought how fantastic it is to have a brother
The plaque will have three recognition levels with the top level having large and unique fonts and with each of the two lower levels in smaller more plain font. Brothers who contributing $1,000 or more will be on the top level referred to as “Founders Level” and those contributing between $500 and $999 will be in the second level referred to as “Creed Keepers Level”, and those contributing between $250 and $499 will be in the third level referred to as “Gold Nugget Level”. Those contributing less than $250 will be mentioned in the next newsletter. If you want to participate make your checks payable to “Pi Kappa Phi Delta Lambda Housing Corporation” and mail to 3205 Freedom Drive #51, Charlotte NC, 28208 by May 1st 2006. This is a once in a life time chance to show your support for your chapter’s new fraternity house at the UNCC. Wouldn’t it be great to bring your kids back to a homecoming game and showing them the house and for them to see their family name on the wall? It is an exciting time to be apart of a new chapter in our fraternity’s history at UNCC. Don’t miss out.
who used to be on TV regularly. Mike had a spot every Sunday on News Channel 14, called “Mike Duffy Your Sports Doctor”, where he reviews common sports injuries such as muscle pulls, strains, etc., and how to avoid and treat them. You could have seen him every week on Sunday on the odd hours at the 53rd minute (i.e. 1:53, 3:53
By Tom Adward
Members of Pi Kappa Phi from all over the country convened in Charleston, South Carolina, August 2003 for the 49th Supreme Chapter and Centennial Celebration. Over 1200 students, alumni, spouses, and guests braved the inclement weather to help celebrate one hundred years of brotherhood in Pi Kappa Phi. One highlight from the convention included the dedication of a 46foot bell tower, given to the College of Charleston by the Fraternity, in recognition of their support over the past 10 decades. This gift was made possible by over 225 alumni who made a minimum contribution of $1000 to support not only this gift, but the convention as a whole. As members of the Centennial Commission, these supporters made it possible to give
and so on) and the segments was also on www.news14charlotte.com. Mike says he became a chiropractor because he was in 12 car accidents, several which requiring the attention a chiropractor and he saw the benefits first hand. Through this he truly learned to care about helping people. (cont. next page)
Group Shot at dedication ceremony for Bell Tower.
(cont. next page)
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Delta Lambda Chapter - UNCC
Alumni Newsletter
March 2006
Chapter Corner cont..... Delta Lambda Update by Kenneth Jones (ARCON)
The undergraduate chapter has had an outstanding year (‘04-’05) at UNCC. This year has seen a good increase in recruitment, community service, and athletics. The gentlemen have been working hard to lift their grades, even though it is above university standards. They have also built very good relationships with several sororities, which has led to many mixers and philanthropy events. The men had two pretty good recruitment classes this year, netting them 22 new members. They had 11 in the fall
Brother Spot Light cont.....
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But let’s go back to the beginning....... Mike moved from Pittsburgh to attend UNCC in 1986. He pledged Pi Kappa in the spring of 1986 because in his words “Pi Kappa Phi was where the fun was”. Talking about the period when I first met him, Mike says he had a lot of “growing up to do” , however he will put it much more bluntly…. “I was a prick when I first pledged, and if you did not agree with me, then you were wrong”. While I did my duty as a big brother and tried to protect, coach and counsel Mike, he was ultimately BALLED OUT – the last meeting before initiations no less. Tim Smith(DL#266) felt so bad, that he stood up and proposed a motion to automatically give Mike a bid for next semester if he wanted it. Well soon thereafter Mike got turned around for the better. He credits the support and efforts of brothers Damon Diorio(DL#355), Joe Perry(DL#354), Randy Wernli(DL#390), and Rick Norvell(DL#346) with his redemption. “Without those guys to knock me in the head, or put their arm around my shoulder when I needed it, I know I would not be who I am today. These men taught me the meaning of true strength and brotherhood”. To illustrate the turn around Mike ended up being Archon in the fall of 1990. He received his undergraduate economics degree in 1991, his Masters in Health Education in 1995, and his Doctorate in 1999 from Life College, where he graduated Cum Laude. Mike is the official Chiropractor for the UNCC Athletic Department. One of Mikes classmates in the (cont. next page)
the gift to the College, underwrite valuable archiving and historical preservation initiatives now underway, and present the Pi Kappa Phi Foundation with a surplus check of $100,000! These members from Delta Lambda Chapter were members of the Centennial Commission: Bo Proctor(DL#66), Bill Jackson(DL#129, and Jamie Best(DL#293).
From L to R - President Leo Higdon(College of Charleston);Bobby Marlowe, Alpha (Charleston) & Chairman of College Board of Trustees; Sam Stafford III, Alpha (Charleston) College Trustee; David G. Lane, Omega (Purdue) Past National President; John R. Andrews, Delta Delta (Truman State) National VP & Centennial Steering Commitee Chairman, and Allen O. Woody III, Xi (Roanoke) Chairman - Pi Kappa Phi Foundation.
Other highlights included brother Randy Owen, Delta Epsilon (Jacksonville State) from the country music band, Alabama, singing the National Anthem at the Supreme Banquet; brothers Joe Forehand, Alpha Iota (Auburn) CEO of Accenture and Ed Lu, Psi (Cornell) Astronaut and space station veteran inducted into the Pi Kappa Phi Hall of Fame. In August 2006, the Fraternity will once again convene as the Supreme Chapter in…FT. WORTH, TEXAS! Mark your calendars now! Visit Pikapp.org for more information.
Alumni Newsletter
masters program is now the head athletic trainer at UNCC and gave him the in (life is always about relationships). Mike is a specially trained sports and soft tissue chiropractor; he works with mainly runners, tri-athletes and has 18 patients who went to the Lake Placid Ironman in July, 2004. Mike is divorced and has no children. If you want to contact him you can call the Greenapple Chiropractic, 4300 Park Rd. 704-527-7246 or mduffy1@carolina.rr.com.
(Beta Tau) and 11 this spring (Beta Upsilon). This semester’s pledge class will be held over until next year to confirm they made grades. When initiated, they will end up with Delta Lambda 677. With the new men, the undergraduate chapter will be 50 men strong. Which makes us the 4th largest group on campus. They have also committed to "Fall semester's Greek Conclave in the Cone Center's auditorium, sponsored presented "What it means to be a Pi Kapp" doubling last year’s by IFC where our pledge class Picture by Jamie Best initiates. Community service is another area of excellence for the chapter. Last semester the chapter won first place during Greek Week. Last semester the chapter raised $500 for PUSH by sponsoring a creative campaign called “War of the Roses” where we gave Sororities buckets to decorate with their favorite charities (i.e. Alpha Delta Phi’s Ronald McDonald House) which the Brothers put out at the “wall” and had someone keep an eye on. People then came by and dropped change into the buckets, based on the sorority or their sponsored organization. The Sorority with the most donated got half their bucket for their cause, the rest received $25 dollars for their charity. For more information please contact Kenneth Jones (Archon) at 980-254-0985. Visit the campus web site at www.sco.uncc.edu/pikapphi/ (still being updated). (cont. next page: The New House in Greek Village )
March 2006
National Scene
Chapter Corner cont..... Brother Spot ...
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Delta Lambda Chapter - UNCC
Era of Another Fraternity House Comes to an End By Jamie Best If you did not hear, the Fraternity house was the scene of a shooting last January 21, 2005. That incident lead me and the other brother’s on the Housing Board (See side bar of Board Members) to decide to sell the house sooner than we had already planned to do so in preparation for moving into the plan Greek Village in August of 2006. See the next article for more information the Greek Village. Before the details of the shooting, I should first tell you the condition of the house which led the Board to vote for initiating the move into Greek Village. The house was a mess. The plumbing was crumbling in the walls. The master bath shower and sink were unusable. The electrical box had wires exposed, and the number of power strip daisy chained off each other made it a big fire hazard. Most walls had holes in them. Also, one brother’s dog regularly relieved himself in the house. The house needed thousands of dollars worth of work for a sprinkler system that was required by code. The window frames were rotting and had some glass missing. The air conditioner barely worked. Also the undergrads were chronically behind on their mortgage payments to the Housing Corporation and thus we were behind a couple to the mortgage company. Not a pretty picture………….. Once we decided to sell the house we enlisted the help of Brother Gary Knox (DL #134) who is a commercial real estate professional (by the way Gary is also the current mayor of Cornelius NC if you did not know). Gary spent a lot of time developing a site plan, getting zoning and road construction information, along with negotiating an option on the adjacent piece of land between our land and the corner, which help the marketability. Now rewind to January 21st, 2005. The details are few but what I have been able to put together from information from brother John George (Alpha Rho, West Virginia University #385 and assistant athletic directory for UNCC) you is the current faculty advisor, and brother Matt Brown (DL #490) the current chapter advisor and others, is that Lambda Chi was having a party at their house which got out of hand so they
(cont. next page)
Alumni Newsletter
shut it down, and it moved down the street to our house, where a small gathering was already having a good time. A guy who did not attend UNCC was standing in the kitchen taking a leak into the dishwasher. A couple of brothers naturally took exception to this, and less than politely kicked him out. He went to his car, pulled a gun and started a scene. Evidently, brothers and others started crowding him and he began shooting in the air and at the ground when a bullet struck the leg of brother Jordon Taylor just before 1 am. I guess the guy was stunned just long enough for some brother’s to jump him and hold him down until the police arrived. Brother Taylor was taken to the hospital and released about 4 am the same night. My name and home phone number were on the board in the kitchen, so I received a call about 2 am but the message was cryptic, so I went back to bed only to see the news the next morning where our house’s picture was on the TV talking about a shooting. That Sunday’s meeting was attended by Mark Timmes, Pi Kappa Phi CEO, Ben Phelps, Pi Kappa Phi, Leadership Consultant; Stephen Hunt, UNC Charlotte Greek Advisor; Mike Grass, Board of Alumni Advisors, Brothers John George and Matt Brown. The events that occurred in the early morning hours of January 21st were discussed in an open forum, led by Brother Timmes. Brother Taylor was announced as doing fine and attending classes and physical therapy. Brother Timmes emphasized the need to learn from this experience and mentioned Pi Kappa Phi’s stance of “Education and Self-Governance”. Mr. Hunt spoke on behalf of the University and mentioned that they are here for the Chapter. He also mentioned IFC will meet and determine if any rules were broken with regards to rush and social event policies. This incident motivated the Housing Board members to decide to expedite the sell of the house and/ or land and not wait for the brothers to be able to transition straight to the new frat house. The property was too small for most commercial development due to the amount of parking needed, so options were limited. Based on a market valuation Gary did, and an offer that we had from the guy that owned the house next door (which included contingencies) we determined the approximate value of the house. Brother Mark Hall (DL #91) offered the Board more than the current offer with no contingencies,
March 2006
which the Board accepted. We covered our back mortgage payments, paid off the mortgages, and had a few thousands left over with which to help the undergrads get into the new house in Greek Village. With this chapter of our housing story now closed, we can now look forward to the new house in Greek Village. Pi Kappa Phi Housing Corporation Board Members
Bob Bollinger (DL#127), President Bill Kincaid (DL#9) Bo Proctor (DL#66) Louis Herford (DL#110) Bill Jackson (DL#129) Dave Schantz (DL#204) Jamie Best (DL#298) Matt Brown (DL#490)
Years of Service 16 21 21 21 21 12 16 10
Delta Lambda Housing History: Lodge on Old Concord Road from 1976 to 1979. House on Markway Drive from 1979 to 1983 House on Craighead Rd. from 1984 to 1987 House on Mallard Creek from 1990 to 2005 House in Greek Village from 2006 - ??
Chapter Corner
National Scene(continued)
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Delta Lambda Chapter - UNCC
The New House in Greek Village By Jamie Best As you may know Pi Kappa Phi is participating in the development of the new Greek Village at UNCC. They are 8 fraternities and 5 sororities that will be initially leasing housing from UNCC. The property is owned and managed by UNCC, and leased to the individuals fraternity and sorority members (not the Chapter), with certain support and guarantee by the chapters and their Housing Corporations themselves, such as insurance, etc. There are all 28 room houses, except for Kappa Alpha Psi who could only commit to filling14 rooms, and accommodations were made for them. The project was initially over budget so reductions had to be made. Some of the minor reductions were: less expensive driveway drainage system, minimal landscaping, no concrete sidewalks on (cont. next page)
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Delta Lambda Chapter - UNCC
Alumni Newsletter
March 2006
Chapter Corner cont.....
backside of houses (as show in picture below), different masonry, use wood instead of steel is certain instances, and cheaper bedroom doors. Major reductions include a chapter room decreased in size from 920 square feet to 820 square feet, bringing 4 bedrooms downstairs which eliminated the parlor room and brotherhood room (saves $2 million). Another reduction is having two bathrooms share a bathroom instead of a private bath for each. These reductions equate to about $3.8 million dollars less. The University used $3 million from a housing reserve to make up the short fall showing the University’s commitment to the project. Bedroom sizes will be 10’ x 10’ with rent at $515/month, including cable TV, phone and internet access in order to compete with surrounding housing options. The total budget for Greek Village is about 15 million. Each house will have a small patio in back and ‘’letters” in front however the exact dimension will be dictated and standardized by the University. The University is furnishing the bedroom with dormitory style furniture. The Chapter (and possible some alumni) will supply the furniture for the common areas which are the office/ parlor, the dinning room, and chapter room (couches, chairs, etc.), and the kitchen items (silverware, blender, cups, plates, etc.). If you would like to donate any item to the house, please contact me at jamie.best@mediaevolved.com or 704-622-5732. We have elected to participate with the University to install certain “upgrades” to our house such as an icemaker, and tile in the entry area, and wood laminate floors in the kitchen and dinning room, totaling about $7,275. We are soliciting donations to cover those costs for the chapter and each contributing brother will have his name memorialized on a plaque to be permanently installed in the foyer area of the house. See “Contribute to the Future of he New House” for more information.
Below is a layout of Greek Village with a legend below indicating which organization is in which house. Our house is located on the top of the slope and located between the two best sororities at UNCC (Alpha Delta Pi and Chi Omega). There will be a resident manager for the village located in the front of the complex (see square) who will oversee the security and other issues that may arise. There is also an undergrad that lives in the house that will be a “resident advisor” or “RA” of the house and will receive in return free rent.
1. Kappa Sigma Fraternity 2. Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity 3. Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority 4. Kappa Alpha Order 5. Alpha Delta Pi Sorority 6. Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity 7. Chi Omega Sorority 8. Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity 9. Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity 10. Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity 11. Sigma Kappa Sorority 12. Phi Kappa Sigma Fraternity 13. Delta Zeta Sorority
We are planning a huge founder’s day event for this year (November) to commemorate the new house and have everyone out to see it. More on that to come.
Chapter Bulletin Board
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Delta Lambda Chapter - UNCC
Alumni Newsletter Steve Smith’s (DL#379) insurance agency, InSouth Insurance recently moved to a larger building in Huntersville, off Gilead Rd (exit #23). 704-875-9596
Tim Smith (DL#266) is attempting to run for a judgeship in Mecklenburg County. See........
March 2006
Kevin Eagle (DL#300) recently moved to Myrtle Beach, SC and started a new job with Otis Elevators.
www.timsmith4judge.com
Joe Bryson (DL#307), Tommy Butt (DL#297), and Tony Redden (DL#362) are being elected as Deacons at Hickory Grove Baptist Church.
Joe Costner (DL#306) this month went to Africa on a mission trip and while there climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.
Rick Norvell’s (DL#346) company, Absolute Remodeling, was recently recognized by the National Association of Remodelers for superior craftsmanship!
I wanted to give a shout out to Brother John George (Alpha Rho #385), Assistant Athletic Director and Ticket Manager for all of his hard work as faculty advisor.
Bill Walker (DL#259) is getting married March 25th, 2006
Jamie
Please email Jamie Best(DL#298) at JMEBEST@aol.com with announcements to be published in next quarter’s newsletter.