Fall 2008 Carnation

Delta Sigma Phi | Fall 2008

UNLOCK YOUR LOVE OF VOLUNTEERISM DELTA SIGS MAKE A DIFFERENCE Profile of Wal-Mart Vice Chairman Mike Duke Joe Tiller, Leaving a Winning Football Legacy at Purdue University

letter from the editor

Hello readers!

I’m excited to bring you the Fall 2008 issue of The Carnation magazine, and I hope you enjoy what you are about to read!

This issue’s feature story delves into volunteerism, something that most brothers across the country took part in while undergraduate members of their chapters, and many have continued as alumni. We will profile five Delta Sigs who have found tremendous value, and also a good amount of fun, in their post-graduation volunteerism. Their stories and causes are all different, which shows that volunteerism is not a one-size-fits-all effort. It’s how you decide that you want to make a difference that is important.

While I don’t remember the first time I volunteered for something, I know that personally I get a tremendous amount of value out of giving back in my community. I have found ways to volunteer that are fun, allow me to meet interesting people, and help the community all at the same time. As you will read, our featured brothers have done the same.

When I think of volunteerism, I think of a quote I once read attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands – one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”

That quote has stuck with me, and definitely articulates the fact that being willing to give back and help others is incredibly important. Think of the victims of the Midwest floods from the early summer, or the victims of the hurricanes that occurred in September in southeast Texas and southern Louisiana. They needed help following their ordeals, and many people stepped up to volunteer their time to assist.

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Also in this issue, we bring you a number of stories about Delta Sigs excelling in business, journalism, the Armed Forces, and sports. You’ll read an alumni profile of a brother in each of those areas throughout the magazine.

In our Health & Fitness section, we discuss the importance of organ and tissue donation, and how this subject touched the lives of the family of one of our brothers during the 2007 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

You’ll also read stories about what employers are looking for in today’s job market, tips for traveling on the cheap in our tight economy, and the importance of renters insurance.

All of these stories are meant to help educate you on important topics that might affect you, and prepare you should you need information in these areas.

As always, if you have any questions, ideas for stories, want to provide feedback (both positive and negative), or if a particular story touched you in some way, please feel free to e-mail me at Hammond@deltasig.org, or give me a call at (317) 634-1899 x425.

Thanks for reading!

YITBOS,

Bruce Hammond Editor, The Carnation

Contents

CARNATION THE

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Editor Bruce Hammond, Ohio Northern ’98

2009 Convention Preview

Contributing Writers Brian Beaupied, Grand Valley State ’06 Scott Clark, Grand Valley State ’01 Chris Cannon, Shorter ’06 Mike Hart, Arizona State ’81 Chris Linden, Millikin ’05 Art Director Shelle Design Incorporated

12 Volunteerism: Delta Sigs Making a Difference in Their Communities

25 Alumni Profile: Mike Duke, Georgia Tech ’68, Vice Chair International, Wal-Mart

Address publication materials and correspondence with national office to: Delta Sigma Phi 1331 North Delaware Street Indianapolis, IN 46202 (317) 634-1899 FAX: (317) 634-1410 TTY: (317) 687-3593 E-mail: info@deltasig.org Web: www.deltasig.org THE CARNATION OF DELTA SIGMA PHI (USPS 091-020), official publication of Delta Sigma Phi, 1331 N. Delaware St., Indianapolis, IN 46202, is published semiannually. Publication postage paid at Indianapolis, IN and additional mailing offices.

Postmaster: Send address changes to THE CARNATION OF DELTA SIGMA PHI, 1331 N. Delaware St., Indianapolis, IN 46202. Subscription price to non-members is $8.00 per year. Single copies $3.00.

Copyright 2008 by the Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity; 1331 N. Delaware St., Indianapolis, IN 46202. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the copyright owner.

DEPARTMENTS 2 4 8 22 25 32 40

Letter from the Editor Letters to the Editor News Feed Health & Fitness Business & Finance Sports Government & Politics

42 46 49 50 52 55

Leadership & Education Travel & Tourism Books by Brothers Technology Trends In Their Own Words Bond Eternal

THE CARNATION® and Delta Sigma Phi® are registered trademarks of Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity, Inc.

www.deltasig.org

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Letters to the Editor Delta Sigma Phi | Spring 2008

MAKING AN IMPACT ACROSS THE COUNTRY DELTA SIGS LEAVE LEGACIES

Delta Sig a Finalist for National Teacher of the Year Delta Sigs Fly the Friendly Skies

The following Letters to the Editor came to The Carnation following the Spring 2008 issue.

General Comments The Spring issue of The Carnation was absolutely the best, head and shoulders above the rest, of any previous edition of The Carnation.

I glanced through previous issues looking for news of interest and usually found only fluff pieces of little interest. I read the latest issue nearly word for word and found lots of information. Congratulations on making

Spring 2008 issue? As I scanned -

private school. But that time I spent

and then went back to flesh out the

as a Delta Sig member in Manhattan,

reading of the articles - I was really

Kansas 60 years ago was one of a great

impressed by the way you captured

awakening and helped round off the

the essence of Delta Sigma Phi. All

rough corners of a Kansas farm boy.

of it together made a great impact,

I am most proud of my fraternity.

just as you had planned. Seemingly

Your Spring Carnation is a “keeper”

each article “topped” the one before

and deserves careful reading by all.

it. The legacy of distinguished Delta Sigs in fine buildings that honor them; the informative article about the auto industry that carried things

Lafe Williams

I had never known before; the stories

Kansas State ’47

of medical breakthroughs; finding jobs

San Antonio, TX

for members; the Delta Sig pilots; coaching phenom Sam Boghosian, and even something on looking for

Just a quick note to say how much

a greener way to help save the

I enjoyed reading the Spring 2008

planet. And as a dedicated internet

edition of The Carnation.

surfer I particularly enjoyed Steve

From the articles about the

Banfield’s piece on “The Web that

Airline Pilots and the Chef who

Became a Cloud” and his eight web

lost so much weight to the warnings

sites that show how networking has

about skin cancer (and the kidney

changed. I already have been experi-

donor/recipient) and the article on

menting with Zoho Writer, which

Mortgage 101, I was thrilled to see

Karl Engleka

promises to help me update from my

such relevant and useful content

IUP ’55

old MS Office 97 which is getting

in our publication. I have re-read

pretty clunky by now.

several articles as well, in particular

what has been a complete remake for the better. I’m impressed with your publication. Keep it up.

YITBOS,

I was a charter member of Alpha I wonder if I hadn’t been paying attention before, or was I just in the mood to read about the many astounding and outstanding Delta Sig Brothers as highlighted in your

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YITBOS,

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the article on our Brothers serving

Upsilon Chapter at Kansas State

in Afghanistan, as we have several

in 1947 when it came back from a

veterans in our chapter who have

suspension. I actually veered into

served in the military both stateside

journalism before getting my degree

and overseas.

at K-State and my BA is from a

I particularly enjoyed the articles on

the cover picture and article you did

Phil LeBeau and Matt Espe - I watch

on Joe Fasano. I’ve known Joe since

Phil often as he reports on the auto

I got out of the Marines and went to

industry and Matt had very easy to

school at Alfred, and he was a major

follow advice on how to maximize the

influence on me joining Delta Sig

workweek. Often, young people come

(he was like a big brother to me).

to me and ask how a person gets to a

Joe has TONS of friends that were

position in upper-level management -

not brothers, but would love to see

Matt‘s words have reinforced what I

the cover and article that was so well

have been telling our Brothers for years

written in The Carnation. I plan on

and his position speaks for itself. I’m

sending my hard copy to his daughter

thrilled so many of our finest invested

to show his grandchildren.

the time to share their collective knowledge with our membership.

YITBOS,

In short, the magazine talked about what matters to Delta Sigs.

Jim Grillo

We try to stay healthy, help each

Alfred ’69

Editor’s Note: We certainly did not mean to imply that the gentleman in the photograph on page 31 was a Delta Sig. As far as we know, he is not.

There are certain stories where we must utilize stock photography to enhance the story that we have written. To accomplish this, we utilize stock photography that is available online, and by doing so, we cannot guarantee that all men who are in photographs within The Carnation each issue are Delta Sigs.

To close, we do our best to identify all Delta Sigs who are in photographs within the pages of The Carnation, which will hopefully help to alleviate these concerns in the future.

other and mankind, and we are

Making an Impact

successful in our endeavors.

After our Spring issue, we were alerted to a number of additional things named after Delta Sigs: • Lee O. Hills Hall, University of Missouri • Sidney H. Taylor Field, DeLand Municipal Airport • Black Engineering Building, Iowa State University

Thanks again for a job extremely well done. The content made me proud to be a Delta Sig. YITBOS, Scott Bucklin

UW Oshkosh ’87

The Use of Stock Photography I find it offensive you took a picture from an advertisement for your Mortgage article. The picture on page 31 is used over and over on the Home Page of Yahoo.com to advertise mortgage insurance.

By the use of the picture in your article, you imply that the man

Comments on the Feature Article I’m an Alpha Zeta Chapter alum, class of ’71, and I’d like to applaud

pictured is a Delta Sig.

After reading this issue, we would enjoy hearing your comments. Please send

Larry Burritt

Eastern Illinois ’69

letters via e-mail to Bruce Hammond at Hammond@deltasig.org, or by mail to: 1331 North Delaware Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202.

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Meet Us In

ST. LOUIS!!!

Join your fellow Delta Sigs from across the country at the 56th and Biennial Convention of Delta Sigma Phi, which will be held July 22-26, 2009 at the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark in St. Louis, Missouri.

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‘‘ I have attended every

National Convention since 1963. I continue to be amazed at the content

of our Conventions and

the very excellent leadership training and chapter

management skills being

taught to our undergradu-

Attending the Convention allows you to re-engage and connect with the Fraternity, meet new friends, and experience the camaraderie of being a part of the national fraternity. You have a say in the way your Fraternity is governed and where it will go in the future, so come let your voice be heard in St. Louis!

• Grand Council Candidate Forums • Afternoon In Convention Assembled business session and Grand Council Elections • Awards Dinner and Keynote Address by a Delta Sig Alumnus • Pilgrim’s Degree (Ritual for FirstTime Convention Attendees) • Brotherhood Event

In addition to the business sessions, many exciting and fun things are being planned for next summer’s event. And as the date nears, more detailed information will be made available on the Fraternity’s Convention web site at www.deltasig.org/convention.

Below is a tentative agenda for the week’s events.

FRIDAY, JULY 24

(Educational Day at Convention) • Morning Service Project in St. Louis and Educational Programming • Afternoon Free Time to Explore St. Louis • 1899 Society Dinner sponsored by the Delta Sigma Phi Foundation • Evening Free Time to Explore St. Louis

WEDNESDAY, JULY 22 • Registration Opens • Afternoon Pre-Convention Educational Sessions • Evening Welcome Reception with Entertainment

THURSDAY, JULY 23 • Morning Delegate Orientation • State of the Fraternity Address

SATURDAY, JULY 25 • Morning Interfaith Service and Bond Eternal Ceremony • Morning In Convention Assembled business session • Afternoon Educational Sessions • Evening Convention Photo • Evening Cocktail Reception and Closing Banquet

ates. For the upcoming

Convention in St. Louis, I will again look forward

to reconnecting with both alumni and undergraduates from across the

country. In addition, I

look forward to learning the very latest information on our growth and success in both our alumni and undergraduate chapters.

Lee Dueringer Illinois ’60, Scottsdale, Arizona (25-time attendee) National President 1975-1979

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News Feed Fraternity Appoints Two New Grand Council Members Jim Larson, Cal Poly SLO ’72, has been unanimously appointed to serve on Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity’s Grand Council through the 2009 Convention, to be held July 22-26, 2009 in St. Louis.

His appointment will fill a vacancy left on the Board by Bob Dudolski, who Larson resigned to pursue other professional opportunities.

Larson’s involvement in the Fraternity began as an undergraduate and has continued in many ways since. He served the Epsilon Rho Chapter at Cal Poly SLO as Rush Director, Engineered Leadership Director, Treasurer and President while a student as well as President of the Interfraternity Council. Upon his graduation and up until his appointment to the Grand Council, he served as an active member of the chapter’s ACB and as a Deputy District Governor, attended a number of Fraternity Conventions and is a member of the Delta Sigma Phi Foundation’s 1899 Society.

In addition to his extensive Fraternity volunteer experience, Larson has enjoyed an extensive career in human resources working around the world for a number of Fortune 500 companies. He currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Global Human Resources for JohnsonDiversey, Inc. a $3 billion world leader in sustainable industrial safety, health and hygiene services with 12,000 employees in 70 countries.

According to Mike Hoffman, Delta Sigma Phi’s National President, “We are extremely happy to have Jim Larson serving on the Fraternity’s Grand Council. His past Fraternity service, plus his extensive and impressive professional background, will make him a tremendous asset to the Board as we continue to work on our mission of building better men.”

Seto Appointed as Second Undergraduate Member of Grand Council On August 7, 2008, the Fraternity announced the appointment of Tom Seto, a 2005 initiate of the Delta Delta Chapter at Purdue University, to the Grand Council as the second undergraduate member. Seto will serve a two-year term that expires May 30, 2010, and joins Jared Thomas, Kentucky ’04, the current undergraduate member whose term expires at the conclusion of the Fraternity’s 2009 Convention.

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Seto

Seto’s leadership experiences on campus and in the fraternity community are extensive. He has served as both the vice president of operations and vice president of administration for Purdue’s Interfraternity Council, as an intern at both the Undergraduate Interfraternity Institute (UIFI) and the Mid-American Greek Council Association (MGCA) Conference, as a lobbyist during the North-American Interfraternity Conference’s (NIC) Day on the Hill, and as the vice president for the Fraternity’s Delta Delta Chapter at Purdue. In addition, prior to his appointment, Seto served on Delta Sigma Phi’s Undergraduate Advisory Committee (UAC), and graduated from the Pi Class of the Fraternity’s Leadership Institute in early August 2008.

National President Mike Hoffman said, “The Grand Council is happy to have Tom Seto join our ranks as our newest undergraduate member. He will join Jared Thomas, our current undergraduate member, to continue to ensure that we are keeping the undergraduate membership’s needs at the forefront of our conversations and decisionmaking process.”

A pharmacy major at Purdue expected to earn his Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 2011, Seto is a proven leader not only within the fraternity community, but also on campus at Purdue.

He has served as a senator in the campus’ student senate, the president of the Pharmacy Student Council, a team leader and supervisor for the campus’ new student orientation program called Boiler Gold Rush, and as a student researcher for the Center for Authentic Practice in Education. He was also named Purdue’s 2007 Homecoming King, and has volunteered extensively in Greater West Lafayette, Indiana.

Delta Sig Hires New Staff Members In June, the Fraternity hired five new staff members to enhance the organization’s chapter and colony service team. They include: Paul Lawson, Stetson ’89 – Paul serves as the organization’s Assistant Executive Director, a position in which he is responsible for managing all of the Fraternity’s undergraduate operations, including chapter services, expansion, and local volunteer management. He Lawson has worked for Delta Sigma Phi on two previous occasions, and has a tremendous background in the Greek world, having worked for three other fraternal organizations during his career.

Ry Beck, North Texas ’04, and Kyle Libra, Transylvania ’05, were hired as Regional Directors.

In this role, they will travel to chapters Beck Libra and colonies in their specific regions to provide support and training to those groups’ members. Beck will travel the Ohio Valley and Plains Regions, and Libra will travel primarily in the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Northwest regions. They join Beau Hanger and Chris DeMartino who remain on staff as Senior Regional Directors, and Matt Katsaros, who remains on staff in a new role as Director of Chapter Development.

Matt Kearney, Stetson ’05, and John Regner, Millikin ’05, were hired to serve as Expansion Coordinators.

Regner Kearney In this position, they are responsible for leading the development and redevelopment of Delta Sigma Phi chapters and colonies on college and university campuses across the country.

Four Colonies to Become Chapters This Fall Four of Delta Sigma Phi’s colonies will be granted chapter status in installation ceremonies this Fall.

The Delta Epsilon Colony at the Missouri University of Science & Technology (formerly University of Missouri-Rolla) will be granted its charter on November 15. Originally chartered in 1957, the current colony formed in spring 2006, and has a 2.97 Grade Point Average, which beats the All Men’s Average on its campus.

The Shorter College Colony will become the Theta Psi Chapter of Delta Sigma Phi during its chapter installation ceremony on November 22 in Atlanta, Georgia. The colony was formed in the spring 2003 semester, and has doubled in size each of the last two semesters.

The Georgia Southern Colony will become the Theta Omega Chapter of Delta Sigma Phi during its chapter installation on November 22 in Atlanta, Georgia. The colony formed in the fall 2004 semester, and has initiated 55 undergraduate members. The new chapter annually volunteers with the American Humane Society, and hosts a blood drive

for The American Red Cross each year in conjunction with a volleyball tournament.

The colony at Georgia College and State University will become the Iota Alpha Chapter of Delta Sigma Phi during its chapter installation on November 22 in Atlanta, Georgia.

The colony formed in fall 2006, and has had the highest GPA of all NIC fraternities on campus since its beginning.

In addition, they raised $1,300 for The American Red Cross in the last academic year.

Congratulations to the new chapters of Delta Sigma Phi!

Fraternity Expands to Oklahoma State, Recolonizes at Northern Colorado This Fall, Delta Sigma Phi returned to the Sooner State by expanding to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. This is the first time the Fraternity has been on campus at this institution, but the beginning of the expansion process has shown that there is a great deal of excitement for the organization’s presence.

According to John Regner, Expansion Coordinator for Delta Sigma Phi, “We have had great success in our expansion efforts thus far. In our first four weeks on campus, we have successfully pinned 31 new members, all of whom are great leaders both on campus and off. We are continuing to recruit, and are hopeful that our efforts will continue to produce great results here at Oklahoma State.”

Oklahoma State is a campus of approximately 26,000 students, and is located around 60 miles from Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The new group is currently looking for alumni involvement and participation, so if you are in or around Stillwater and are interested in assisting, please contact John Regner by e-mailing Regner@deltasig.org or by calling (317) 634-1899 x442.

In addition to the expansion to Oklahoma State, the Fraternity returned to the home of its Zeta Kappa Chapter at the University of Northern Colorado this Fall. With the assistance of the very active Colorado Alumni Association and the chapter’s alumni, the new group has tremendous alumni support and has gotten off to a great start in its inaugural semester.

This Spring, the Fraternity is expanding to Kent State University in Ohio, and is in the process of finalizing other expansion opportunities.

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News Feed Fraternity’s Online Presence Grows As social media and the use of social networking technologies continue to expand, Delta Sigma Phi has entered the arena by providing outlets for brothers to not only connect with one another, but also learn about the Fraternity’s updated news and information quickly and easily.

Delta Sigma Phi Circle online community – The Fraternity launched its branded online community for undergraduates and alumni in March 2007. Since it launched, the Delta Sig Circle has had over 3,800 brothers join to network and connect with one another in a social atmosphere. With groups ranging from Delta Sig Travelers to Sports Enthusiasts, there is literally a way for any brother to connect with someone with similar interests through this site. Take advantage by signing up today at http://deltasigmaphi.affinitycircles.com.

Upcoming Kappa Chapter Centennial Celebration The Kappa Chapter of Delta Sigma Phi at Auburn University will be holding its Centennial Celebration the weekend of February 6-7 in Auburn, Alabama. Brothers from the chapter and area are welcome to attend the event to share in the excitement surrounding the chapter’s first 100 years on campus.

The main event of the weekend will be a dinner held on Saturday night, February 7, where members from the chapter, alumni, and special dignitaries from the national Fraternity will speak to the crowd and congratulate the chapter.

For more information or to RSVP for the events, please contact Matt Furin, ACB President, at smfurin@earth-link.net or by phone at (256) 682-1838.

Upcoming Event Dates Set LinkedIn – The Delta Sigma Phi Group on LinkedIn, an online professional networking site, has grown to over 900 members since it was launched in early 2008. The brothers who have joined have been able to make connections with their fellow Delta Sigs in a professional space, connected for job opportunities, and expanded their network of professionals by leaps and bounds.

For more information on joining the LinkedIn Group, check out the Delta Sig web site at www.deltasig.org.

Twitter – Delta Sig developed a presence on the microblogging site Twitter early this past summer. The Fraternity utilizes the service to get its news out to alumni and undergraduate followers who have asked to receive it by posting links to the Fraternity’s Headlines section of its web site on the service. Once a link goes live on the Fraternity’s web site, it is also posted on Twitter, which makes it the best and quickest way to find out the latest news of the Fraternity. We hope you will go to www.twitter.com to join, and upon doing so, make sure you follow DeltaSigmaPhiHQ to receive the Fraternity’s most updated news.

Dates for some of the Fraternity’s most anticipated events have been set for 2009.

See below for additional information on the events and their dates.

The Summit – The second annual Summit will be held January 9-11, 2009 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The program, which trains undergraduate presidents and recruitment chairmen effective recruitment techniques, was attended by 170 undergraduates representing 83 chapters and colonies in its inaugural year in 2008. Registration will open soon at www.deltasig.org.

Regional Leadership Academies (RLAs) – The Fraternity’s 2009 Regional Leadership Academies will be held throughout January and February in five cities across the country. In their seventh year, the RLAs are held to help participants increase their knowledge and skills in areas such as alumni relations, finances, risk management, and other areas of chapter operations. The 2009 dates are below, and registration will soon be available at www.deltasig.org.

January 17, 2009 – Atlanta, Georgia January 24, 2009 – Chicago, Illinois January 31, 2009 – St. Louis, Missouri February 21, 2009 – Los Angeles, California February 21, 2009 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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Alumni Executive Roundtable (AER) – The third annual Alumni Executive Roundtable, presented by the Delta Sigma Phi Foundation, will take place February 5-8, 2009 at the Omni Orlando at ChampionsGate. The three-day program’s relaxed schedule allows time for casual, meaningful dialogue and opportunities to network and connect with fraternity leaders and brothers from across the country. Gain new insights that will enhance your business, relax in a luxury resort location, and learn more about the accomplishments and vision of your Fraternity. For more information, check out www.deltasig.org, or contact Foundation Executive Director Randy Peterson at Peterson@deltasig.org or (704) 907-9815.

Delta Sigma Phi Convention – The 56th and Biennial Convention of Delta Sigma Phi will be held July 22-26, 2009 at the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark in St. Louis, Missouri. The Convention is Delta Sigma Phi’s largest gathering of undergraduates, alumni, spouses, and friends.

At the event, the business of the Fraternity is conducted, networking and relationship-building happens among members, professional development and life skills are provided, and the accomplishments of the Fraternity’s undergraduates, chapters and alumni are celebrated. It is a great opportunity to connect, or re-connect, with Delta Sigma Phi! Registration will be available in December at www.deltasig.org.

Delta Sig Alumnus Becomes Board President of International Association Bob Herbert, Youngstown State ’69, has become the president of NACE International’s board of directors. NACE International, formerly known as The National Association of Corrosion Engineers, is the 20,000 member leader in the corrosion engineering and science community and is recognized around the world as the premier authority for corrosion control solutions.

A 27-year member of the organization, Herbert most recently served as the vice president during the 2007-08 term, and his goals for his term as president include making NACE the technical society that is the most efficient, the most effective, the most energetic, and the most envied.

Herbert has extensive volunteer experience in the organization, initially serving in the Pittsburgh Section, then moving up to the Northeast Section, and finally as a National Director. He has also received a number of awards, including the Pittsburgh Section Outstanding Service Award in 1985 and the NACE International Distinguished Service Award in 1996.

Professionally, Herbert has 35 years of experience in corrosion engineering, including 27 years with a large international engineering, procurement, and construction firm specializing in services to the chemical process industries, where he was Manager of Materials Science and Corrosion Technology. Currently, he serves as a consultant for Ashland Performance Materials in Dublin, Ohio.

THE THIRD ANNUAL ALUMNI EXECUTIVE ROUNDTABLE Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate February 5-8, 2009 Bring a spouse or guest and join your brothers in Orlando for a relaxing weekend in February. The AER provides time for casual, meaningful dialogue and opportunities to network and connect with fraternity leaders and brothers from across the nation. Gain new insight that will enhance your business, relax in a luxury location, and learn more about the accomplishments and vision of your Fraternity.

For more information or to RSVP please contact Randy Peterson at peterson@deltasig.org.

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the face of

volunteerism

DELTA SIGS MAKE A DIFFERENCE How often are you sitting around saying “I’m bored” or “I wish there was something better on television today”? Think about that for a second… We all have said or thought it before. Now, how often have you decided that instead of sitting there thinking how boring it is or wishing there was something better on TV, you would go out and do something to make the world around you a better place?

Used with permission from The American Red Cross 12

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In our Spring 2008

issue’s Feature story, The Carnation discussed the legacy that has been left

by Delta Sigs across the country in terms of having buildings named for them. The efforts and accomplishments of our brothers, which led to the recognitions we highlighted being possible, are to be commended and applauded.

Now, six months later, the Feature story of this issue of The Carnation will talk about the dedication and selflessness of our brothers in a different arena – volunteerism and doing good for our communities through service.

Across the country, Delta Sigma Phi’s undergraduates and alumni are taking to the streets often to make an impact on their communities through service. Each and every chapter and colony is doing community service in one way or another.

Whether it is working with the local American Red Cross chapter in their area on a blood drive, or doing a neighborhood clean up co-sponsored by another campus organization, our undergraduates are out there making a difference.

In addition, many of the Fraternity’s alumni are doing community service or volunteer work in their local communities that is desperately needed. Whether it is answering the phones during a telethon raising money for charity, sponsoring a clothing drive for local homeless men, or even just getting out and being a volunteer coach for a team in their local community, the alumni of the organization are also putting themselves to work to better the world around them.

Community service and volunteerism are not only encouraged at the local level, however. At the 2007 Delta Sigma Phi National Convention, a community service project was included in the program, and a number of brothers from across the country came together to assist a local organization that provides assistance to boys placed by the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. This was a great opportunity for our organization to showcase our dedication to service.

Finally, the Fraternity’s Blood, Sweat and Cash project in conjunction with The American Red Cross is another way that nationally, Delta Sigma Phi is encouraging members to get involved in volunteerism and community service.

One of the aspects of the project includes giving 75,000 hours nationally to The American Red Cross in service to the organization. It is an audacious goal that Delta Sigma Phi is excited about working toward.

So, as you can see, Delta Sigma Phi is committed to encouraging volunteerism and community service – and our

brothers are responding. On the upcoming pages, you will read about a number of Delta Sig Volunteer All Stars, brothers who are taking volunteerism and community service to an amazing level in their areas. You’ll also read about brothers who have figured out ways to make volunteerism fun, and have chosen to be involved in activities that engage not only themselves, but also family members and friends.

As we found out by writing this story and speaking with these brothers – the key to unlocking your love of volunteerism is to take something you already enjoy, and make it a regular part of your life through volunteerism.

Hopefully, the subsequent stories will encourage our brothers who don’t find joy in volunteerism to head out and make a difference today, and leave the complaints about being bored behind – for good!

Delta Sig Volunteer All-Star #1

John Andre, Purdue ’90 Volunteering: Doing Something for Which You have a Passion On the weekdays, John Andre is a Manager of Regulatory Affairs for the global specialty pharmaceutical and medication delivery company, Hospira. He prepares data/documentation, and writes that into a comprehensive submission to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for new generic drugs or significant changes to existing generic

© Shedd Aquarium/photo by Heidi Zeiger John Andre, Purdue ’90, standing outside the Caribbean Reef Exhibit at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago

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© Shedd Aquarium/photo by Heidi Zeiger Andre in the water giving his presentation to attendees of the exhibit. He regularly provides maintenance services, feeds the animals, and provides educational presentations during his volunteer shifts.

drugs. As he jokingly put it, “at social events when being introduced to people, I give them this explanation as to what I do at work, and the look they have is like they are trying to divide 237 by 13. I tell the next person I meet that I’m a professional diver at the Shedd Aquarium, and their face lights up as they tell me their childhood memories of visiting the Shedd for the first time.”

That’s right – when the weekends come, Andre “sheds” his business suit for a wet suit, where he serves as a volunteer diver at the Shedd Aquarium in downtown Chicago. The Shedd Aquarium is a facility that opened in 1930 and that houses nearly 22,000 aquatic animals representing some 1,500 species of fishes, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates, birds and mammals from waters around the world.

For an average of 20 hours per month, Andre volunteers in the Caribbean Reef exhibit, where he is a part of a three person dive team that prepares food for the fish and sea turtles, performs in-water maintenance of the habitat, performs animal care duties like administering vitamins or medications, and feeds the animals in the water during a dive.

The group also gives an in-water presentation during the feedings – something he remembers seeing the first time he visited the Shedd on a school field trip in 7th grade.

“I remember seeing the Caribbean Reef exhibit and the diver’s presentation. I actually said to myself I would do that

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one day. I still think and smile about that when I enter that same tank and fulfill my childhood goal.”

For Andre, volunteerism has been an important part of his life, and since he loves diving and sharing his knowledge of the animals in the exhibit, it makes the experience fun as well. “To see a 12-year old kid going crazy at an event saying that he remembered reading about the fish, or seeing the fish on television, you can see your efforts come to fruition.

Everyone at the Shedd, myself included, has that love and connection for why we’re volunteering and giving our time.”

In fact, he and other volunteers routinely make 40-50 mile commutes just to do their volunteer work – an amazing testament to the value they see in what they’re doing.

Delta Sig Volunteer All-Star #2

Brent McCurdy, Indiana State ’98 Volunteering for Fun The key word for our next Volunteer All Star is dedication.

You’ll see why below…

Have you ever been the champion of something? Felt the exhilaration of winning on the biggest of stages? Understood what it takes to help others have that same feeling?

For Brent McCurdy, Indiana State ’98, he never was able to become the champion rugby player when he played for

of his team were selected to play on the U-19 Select-Side Team of Indiana (essentially an all-star team), one of whom was picked to play on the U-19 Select-Side Team for the Midwest, was completely evident in a recent conversation.

So why volunteer? Why is it important to him?

“I love the game of rugby – I think it’s a great sport – and that’s why I volunteer to coach because watching the players excel is what makes it worth the time.”

Delta Sig Volunteer All-Star #3

Fred Pheiffer, St. Francis ’62 Brent McCurdy (far right back row) and his team after winning the state championship earlier this year

Indiana State’s Club team as an undergraduate. However, he had a love and passion for the game, and decided to continue that as the volunteer coach of the Noblesville (IN) High School girls rugby team.

In just four short seasons as the team’s coach, in 2008 McCurdy’s dedication and outstanding coaching led the team to its first state championship since 1999, as they defeated the two-time defending state champions in the title game, a team they had never previously beaten.

For an average of 15-30 hours per week, McCurdy is coaching his team. That is on top of the time he spends working at his day job for Principal Financial Group. “We have 2-2 ½ hour practices every night Monday through Thursday, plus travel time on Saturdays and Sundays when we go play,” he said.

As the team’s coach, he is not only dedicated to their success, but he has seen the tremendous dedication they have put into being the best as well. His greatest pride is seeing the kids achieve something that they otherwise might not be able to.

“A lot of these kids might not be athletic enough to make a varsity team here because the school is so big, but they are able to get out on the field, take their frustrations out and get great exercise. For me, it’s great to take something that I know and that I love, and teach them this game that a lot of people in the United States don’t understand,” he said.

The players also find pride in winning, but also in just having the opportunity to play and achieve. According to McCurdy, “They get so much out of it, including getting exposure to other states where they play and meeting those other kids. They know people from all over the country because of this, and they have been able to broaden their horizons through playing this game.”

Speaking about the state championship win, McCurdy said that it was an unbelievable experience. Taking over a team nearly four years ago, and seeing them succeed was a great feeling. In fact, his pride in the fact that nine members

Volunteering to Help Animals For Fred Pheiffer, volunteerism has been something he’s done for many years. As a retired state government worker and campaign manager, Pheiffer has a lot of time to devote to his two passions – volunteer work and writing poetry.

In fact, he even put his two loves together after writing his third book of poetry, as he began going to his local nursing home in 2004 once per week to read poems to its residents.

He calls the time he spends Talk Around with Fred and said, “It’s very rewarding.”

“I visit the residents on Monday mornings,” he said.

“I read some prayers to them, poems, articles of interest from old TV/radio shows, like Red Skelton, Don McNeil Breakfast Club, and Milton Berle. Recently, I brought in an old RCA 45 rpm record player and records from the late 1940s and 1950s. I simply try to give the residents an hour or so of laughter and joy and to make it different from their normal day to day.”

Not only has he continued to read the poetry and make visits to the nursing home on a weekly basis, but he and his wife Maryellen have devoted their time to also helping our

Fred Pheiffer, with two of the Springer Spaniels that he has saved, Flip and Raisin.

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Pheiffer with rescued Thoroughbred Boez at the stable on his farm in upstate New York

furry friends – specifically springer spaniels and horses bound for slaughter.

Nearly 11 years ago, Pheiffer’s wife had seen an article about the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, which rescues and provides adoptive homes for off-the-track Thoroughbreds, many of which would be slaughtered without this organization. The Pheiffers currently have five horses that were bound for slaughter, one of which was bought by a veterinarian off a meat truck that was going to slaughter in Texas.

The interesting thing is at that time, they had just recently applied to adopt two thoroughbreds on their 30-acre property in upstate New York, and this horse ended up being one of them. For Fred, it was interesting because as a young Boy Scout, he had been thrown from a horse and broke ribs, and was never put back onto the horse. “All those years, I lived with a fear of horses, but now, I take care of them.” He was able to get over his fear and they have been caring for five of these horses since, although he has still not gotten on one to ride.

The Pheiffers feel so strongly about this cause that Fred serves on the Board of Directors of Spring Hill Horse Rescue, a 501-C3 non-profit equine rescue organization dedicated to saving unwanted and abandoned horses from slaughter.

In addition to the horses, Pheiffer and his wife have been involved with rescuing dogs – springer spaniels to be exact.

Throughout his life, dogs had always been around Fred and his family, mostly mutts. They were a part of his family’s life, and Fred and his wife purchased a springer spaniel from a co-worker a number of years ago. Springers have been the only breed in his life since, and he and his wife have devoted a great deal of time and effort to making sure that dogs of this breed are cared for in the Northeastern part of the US.

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As volunteers for English Springer Spaniel Rescue of Long Island, they transport the springers who are found in “kill shelters” to their foster or adoptive homes, and their rescue territory extends from Maine down to Pennsylvania and New Jersey. “There is a huge connective activity among a lot of volunteers in the Northeast. Maryellen does all of the interviewing to screen people whether they should have a dog, and we will transport these dogs to the approved owners,” he said.

In general, volunteering is important for Pheiffer for a number of reasons. “It has been fulfilling for me, first. It has deepened something inside me, and when I walk out of the nursing home especially after an hour or an hour and a half, I thank God that I am able to give a little bit to make them happy for a little bit of time. Life’s so short, and it really gives me energy to give of my time to help others.”

Recently, Pheiffer was dealt with a blow to his volunteerism when he was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). However, he has worked hard to overcome that, and is even planning on doing a marathon as a race walker – something he has taken up to stay in shape and to stay healthy so he can continue the outstanding volunteer work he’s already done.

Delta Sig Volunteer All-Star #4

Jason Kalis, Grand Valley State ’94 Volunteering for a Cause When Jason Kalis found out that two of his friends had lost their homes due to a fire in April 2008, he sprang into action and decided to become a volunteer for The American Red Cross’ Disaster Action Team so he could be there to assist people in their times of need.

“It’s about preparedness for me,” he said. “Our local American Red Cross has been doing an initiative where they have been installing smoke detectors in different neighborhoods in the city, and I volunteered for that a few Saturdays talking to people and installing smoke detectors so that every house in the city has a working smoke detector and is prepared.”

While the 1994 initiate of the Epsilon Tau Chapter at Grand Valley State doesn’t have a great deal of experience in his role as a case worker during disasters, Kalis literally got his feet wet in volunteering earlier this year from June 12-26 when in Wisconsin during the floods that ravaged a number of Midwestern states.

His role, which took around five days total of training plus the need to be first-aid and CPR certified, is to assist those affected in getting aid and services while they are trying to recover. In this disaster, he was assigned to the small town of Beaverdam, Wisconsin where the Red Cross had set up a service center in an elementary school. “A serv-

ice center is a place where affected residents can come to meet with people like myself called client case workers to talk about what happened, and what their immediate needs were in terms of housing, food and shelter,” he said.

In addition to the counseling that people like Kalis provided, there were bulk products like mops and bleach that were available to help people clean up, and health services staff including doctors and a mental health worker to provide necessary medical assistance.

According to Kalis, his responsibilities included talking with the people affected, and providing them the necessary assistance they needed, including client assistance cards, which are pre-loaded debit cards. “For the financial assistance for meals and replacement of things like clothing and bedding, I would determine based on the size of their family and how they were affected how much financial assistance the Red Cross could provide them,” he said.

Being that this was the first national disaster that he worked, the emotion was evident to him as he talked to the people affected. “It sometimes took a stiff upper lip,” he said.

“You’re sitting there empathizing and sympathizing with people, some of whom had lived in their homes for 50 years, and everything including their keepsakes and memorabilia was

lost. We had people who weren’t able to get within a mile of their house to see what the extent of the damage was as the water was coming up. That sense of not knowing was really hard on people, and I needed to just do a lot of listening to let people get things off their chests.”

For Kalis, his experience in Wisconsin was incredibly rewarding to know that he was making a difference. “It’s a great feeling to be involved,” he said. “We were going around in marked vehicles, and the people in Wisconsin were very appreciative. Most everyone I worked with said thank you, which is always great to know that you’re making a difference.”

Volunteering actually had a lot to do with him joining the Epsilon Tau Chapter of the Fraternity at Grand Valley State. “Members were involved in volunteerism and campus leadership, and I kept running into them as I was doing the same thing on my own. I thought that they really had their act together, and that was one of the big reasons I was involved in Delta Sigma Phi.” Kalis closed out his thoughts on volunteerism this way: “Volunteerism is the way we live our values, not only as undergraduates on campus, but also in our adult lives.”

Used with permission from The American Red Cross The American Red Cross responds to nearly 70,000 disasters annually, including the floods that happened this summer in the Midwest.

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‘‘

Volunteerism is the way we live our values, not only as undergraduates on campus, but also in our adult lives.

Jason Kalis Grand Valley State ’94

Delta Sig Volunteer All-Star #5

Bob Carroll, Michigan State ’59 Volunteering to Lead the Way

The volunteer efforts of Bob Carroll are truly amazing.

The retired, three-time cancer survivor who resides in Sugar Grove, Illinois, spends the majority of his time volunteering for a variety of organizations and causes. All the while, he is doing something more than just helping these organizations – he is getting his grandchildren involved in volunteerism from their early lives.

His volunteerism in his area started after his initial bouts with cancer when he and his wife had moved to Sugar Grove to be closer to their daughters and their families. They decided to drive around to see what was in the area, and while on that drive, they saw what’s called the Fabyan Windmill in Geneva, Illinois.

“After seeing an ad in the newspaper talking about the windmill needing docents to lead tours, I called to volunteer and we arranged for me to go get some training,” he said. “In that conversation, I had mentioned being a cancer survivor, and the woman training me asked if I went to the Relay for Life. I said I didn’t know what it was. So, through that one conversation, I got involved with the windmill and the American Cancer Society with the Relay for Life.”

His volunteerism with the American Cancer Society is extensive. He is responsible for the Patient Navigation Services for the Fox Valley ACS, which provides current cancer patients with several things: “rides to doctors or treatment centers; Look Good - Feel Better sessions for females, providing make-up lessons and wigs; Man to Man survivors talking to men recently diagnosed with prostate

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cancer; and Reach for Recovery - talking with someone who has survived the same type of cancer you have recently been diagnosed with.” In addition, he is heavily involved in the Relay for Life each summer.

As if those groups didn’t take enough time, Carroll, who is an Eagle Scout, got involved with his grandsons in the scouting movement in his area. He is a committee chairman for Cub Scout Pack 341 in Sugar Grove where one of his grandsons is a member, and is on the committee for Boy Scout Troop 7 in Elburn, Illinois, where two other grandsons are striving for their Eagle Scout rank.

In 2007, Carroll served on the committee to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sugar Grove’s incorporation, a role in which he helped plan the two-day event. In addition, he introduced the area to something new – a Medallion Hunt.

“I designed and hid a Medallion commemorating the event.

Then I had clues to its location published in several of the local area’s media,” he said. The Mediallion Hunt was such a success that this year, he was recruited to do another for the community’s annual festival, now in its 41st year.

He also serves as his home owners’ representative to the village board meetings, is a member of the Lions Club participating in their many charitable activities, and belongs to the Sugar Grove Historical Society and Genealogical group.

Bob Carroll stands in front of the Fabyan Windmill in Geneva, Illinois, one of the many causes he gives his time to throughout each year.

While he’s not volunteering outside the house, he gets his grandsons off to school in the morning and off the bus after school, and is the caretaker for his wife of 45+ years who is a polio survivor.

As you can tell, his family and grandsons are extremely important to him, and as was mentioned above, he is engaging them in volunteering as well. “When I first started going over to the windmill, one of my grandsons would go with me. He was 8 years old at the time. We got him an official badge and a shirt as a junior docent. He is 11 now, is ready to lead groups through on his own, and is learning the value of volunteering because he enjoys it. His cousin, who is a few months older, wants to get involved also at the same level if possible, and has gone with me as well,” Carroll said.

His dedication to his family, his community, and his causes make Bob Carroll a fantastic ambassador for volunteering.

“One of my philosophies is that my day is not complete unless I have learned something new or taught someone else something new. I have tried to live that for many years. I wanted to meet people and to more or less pay back all of the things that have been set up for me in the past.”

Mission accomplished.

Delta Sig Volunteer All-Star #6

Delta Sig Undergraduate Chapters and Alumni Associations During the 2007-08 academic year, many chapters and alumni associations also took part in community service events, some of which are outlined below.

•In May 2007, Delta Sigma Phi received national exposure thanks to the Alpha Chi Chapter at Stetson University.

Three members of the chapter were featured on the front cover of USA Weekend editions distributed in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina standing at the edge of a lake in Hontoon State Park, where the chapter took part in a clean-up project for Make a Difference Day. • At the Fraternity’s 2007 Convention, many brothers took part in a community service project at the Boys House in Phoenix. The brothers took on a painting project at the house, which provides shelter, counseling, job development, educational services, tutoring, and skill building for boys placed by the Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare systems.

• The Eta Kappa Chapter at the University of Michigan – Dearborn volunteered and played an integral role in the October 9, 2007 GOP Presidential Debate held in Dearborn, MI. Their roles included directly assisting the NBC crew set up their audio and video equipment on the stage, and standing in for the candidates at a pre-debate sound and systems check at the Arts Center. In addition,

the University administration had secured 12 debate tickets for 12 distinguished student leaders on campus. Out of these 12 students, 4 were Delta Sigs.

• On November 18-19, 2007 the brothers of the Delta Omega Chapter at Cleveland State participated in two events sponsored by the LeBron James Family Foundation, called Meal and a Movie. These events included Thanksgiving dinners for homeless families in the Cleveland and Akron, Ohio areas, appearances and speeches by NBA basketball player LeBron James, and a premiere of the new Alvin & the Chipmunks holiday movie. The brothers helped staff the event, which included guiding traffic, serving food, and handing out giveaways.

In all, Delta Omega provided 32 volunteers for these events, including local sorority women and friends of the chapter. In addition, on Tuesday, November 27, the chapter worked along with the Cleveland Browns and Tyson Meats, to help distribute over ten thousand pounds of chicken to different churches and shelters around the greater Cleveland area. This helped feed many families in the Cleveland area.

• The Shorter College Colony gave back to the Shorter community on Saturday, December 1, 2007 as part of their Fall Semester Service Project. The fraternity came together to renovate the 24-hour Student Computer Lab, a project that consisted of cleaning walls, windows, and trim; painting walls, cabinets, trim, and the door; and finished with final touches to make the room more appealing. In total, the brothers spent a combined total of 66 hours working on the project, arriving at 3:00 am to begin cleaning and priming the walls. A second team worked from sunrise to lunch, and a final group finished the project in the late afternoon. Bryan Goresh, colony President, said, “The brotherhood really came together to impact Shorter College by restoring a room that has been neglected for a long time. We had a great time working together and the project really looks great!”

• On Sunday, January 13, 2008 the Washington, DC Area Alumni Association sponsored a charitable men’s clothing drive. The brothers collected a total of 300 pieces of clothing, which included coats, shoes and boots, business clothes, socks and other men’s clothing. They delivered the items, using a box van provided by alumnus Bob O’Toole, IUP ’71, to the New York Avenue Housing Assistance Center, which in addition to clothing, also provides professional career and development services including career counseling and IT/computer training.

They provide clothing items to enable the shelter residents to not only live and survive the elements, but to go for job interviews and other employment meetings.

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ANNUAL REPORT “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision.

You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.” – Theodore M. Hesburgh

As the past year began, the leadership of Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity – its elected board of directors known as the Grand Council – set forth a bold vision to become America’s Leading Fraternity by 2025. To accomplish that vision, they publicly articulated key metrics by which organizational performance would be measured and reported on a regular basis. The report that follows is presented as an update on performance for the year ending June 30, 2008.

Growth of Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity Since the start of the current strategic planning cycle three years ago, the number of men initiated into Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity has grown by 26% – this rate outpaces our interfraternal peers and is the highest in over two decades.

At the same time the average size of Delta Sigma Phi chapters has grown by +4 men/chapter during that same period. To further emphasize the importance of strengthening the base of existing chapters in Delta Sigma Phi new resources and training initiatives were launched in the previous year – including the inaugural Summit, a three day recruitment and leadership training program developed for chapter presidents and recruitment officers designed to build the skill sets needed to lead dynamic recruitment programs on campus.

Building Men, Building Leaders During the same period of time, the Fraternity has launched an unprecedented campaign to reach undergraduate members with the leadership training that will give them the edge over their peers on campus, and that they will need in an increasingly competitive global economy. During the last three years these efforts have more than doubled the reach of sponsored leadership training initiatives and now reach more than 1,200+ men annually.

These efforts would not be as far-reaching, nor would they be positively impacting as many young men, if not for the support of the Delta Sigma Phi Foundation and its thousands of loyal supporters. Due to their commitment and generosity, sponsored leadership training initiatives have increased by 875% (an additional 1,100 men trained 20

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per year) since the completion of the Leadership for Second Century Campaign.

Increasing the Ranks of our Volunteer Army There is no one indicator more telling of a strong, successful chapter than that of strong, actively engaged alumni support.

Specifically, that of an alumni corporation board (ACB), comprised of volunteers representing multiple eras of membership who provide the consistency, advisory support, guidance, mentoring and support needed by today’s college students. This is an area where progress has been made, but there remains significant room for continued involvement and improvement.

While some 80% of our undergraduate chapters and colonies have alumni support, nearly 1 in 5 chapters and colonies do not. The pie chart on the opposite page illustrates alumni support at the chapter-level for all chapters and colonies of Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity.

• 34% of chapters/colonies have an actively engaged, functioning ACB that provides counsel and advice to undergraduate members and the chapter/colony.

• 46% of chapters/colonies have some type of ACB structure that is at least passively involved in the daily operations of the chapter/colony.

• 20% of chapters/colonies have little or no volunteer support.

By 2025 our aim is to triple the ranks of alumni volunteers to more than 2,500. In the last year, we have seen 10% growth...a good start.

Sound Financial Operations For the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2008, the Fraternity operated on revenues exceeding $2.2 million. That represents revenue growth of 46% in the last three years. The pie charts on the opposite page illustrate Fraternity operating revenue and expenses for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008.

We’d welcome your involvement in the year ahead as we continue advancing our mission of building better men as we seek to become America’s Leading Fraternity. To learn more, visit us online at www.deltasig.org.

Building America’s Leading Fraternity: Membership Growth 2000

1500

1000

500

0

FY05

FY06

FY07

FY08

Increasing our Volunteer Army

Developing Strong Leaders: Undergraduates Trained 1500

20%

1200

little or no volunteer support

46%

900

34%

600

actively engaged, functioning ACB that provides counsel and advice

300

0

FY07

FY06

FY05

FY08 Operating Revenue

FY08

FY08 Operating Expenses 4% alumni services

4% 5% other income foundation 6% pledge fees

15% initiation fees

2% foundation

6% programs

22% general & administrative

8% communications

7% programs

9% grants

some type of ACB structure that is at least passively involved in the daily operations

54% dues & insurance

19% chapter & colony services

20% risk management & insurance 19% education

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Health & Fitness

THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGAN AND TISSUE

DONATION The Story of How the Family of a Delta Sig Was Affected

It was March 23, 2007, and the University of North Carolina men’s basketball team was in New Jersey preparing to play the University of Southern California in an NCAA Tournament game when tragedy struck.

The Tar Heels’ mascot, Jason Ray, had walked along a divided highway near the team’s hotel to a local convenience store for a snack when he was struck by a car and badly injured. The motorist immediately stopped and called 911, and the 6 foot 5 inch devout Christian, known for his intelligence and incredible zest for life, was transported to the local hospital with multiple injuries including a traumatic brain injury and fractured skull. Upon arriving, he was in a coma.

Halfway across the country in Denver, Jason’s half brother Emmitt Ray, UNC Wilmington ’86, got a call from his father that Jason had been in what they thought was a car accident.

At that point, they were unaware that he was a pedestrian and was hit by a car. From his father’s demeanor on

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the phone, Emmitt knew that it was something serious, and he immediately went to the airport, got on a plane to New Jersey, and arrived at the hospital by 1 am.

“When I got there, I realized right away that Jason was hurt really badly because his head was incredibly swollen,” Emmitt said. “When we got there, the doctor said ‘I’m not God, so I’m not going to tell you he’s not going to make it, but he’s hurt very badly.’”

Over the next two days, the doctors were giving Jason many tests, including brain scans to see if there was any brain activity. After those two days of tests, the doctors realized that the pressure on his brain following the accident had caused fatal damage. Jason did not have any brain activity. At that time however, they had yet to tell the family because they were finishing up additional tests.

With his parents being incredibly distraught, Emmitt had been the family’s go-to person, and following the tests, someone from the Sharing

Network came to speak with him about organ donation.

“I said, ‘absolutely not. We’re going to see if Jason can make it.’ At that point, we still had hope that he was not brain dead, and that he was going to make it,” he said. “The lady asked if they could at least test his blood to see if he would match for organ donation.”

Emmitt told the woman that as long as the blood being tested could not be used to help Jason, she could test his blood. The family was still praying for a miracle, but the realization that the blood could not be used to help Jason made it easier for him to allow the testing to happen.

The following day, the family was told that Jason had no brain activity, and that he was, for all intents and purposes, dead. However, if the doctors declared him officially brain dead, he would be taken off the ventilator and machines that were keeping his body alive. The doctors asked again if the family would consider organ donation for Jason.

(L-R) Jason Ray, his father Emmitt Ray, Sr. (holding Emmitt Jr.’s son Brady), and Emmitt Ray, Jr., UNC Wilmington ’86 (holding his son Jack) eight days before the accident that took Jason’s life took place.

“At that point, my step-mother spoke up and said that Jason was an organ donor,” Emmitt said. “He had a conversation with her when he got his license and told her that ‘if I’m dead, why bury me with all of my parts when they might help people?’”

Up to that point, Emmitt’s father didn’t like the idea of his son having his organs removed. However, since the family knew that being an organ donor was what he wanted, they asked one more time if he would be able to live with any quality of life. When they were told that he would not, they agreed to allow Jason’s body to be used for organ donation.

After returning to North Carolina, they conducted the services, not knowing whether the surgeries to

remove the organs for transplant were successful. They had no idea how many people Jason’s organs had helped or were going to help, but they found out soon thereafter.

“About two to three weeks later, the people from the Sharing Network contacted us, and told us that the people who had received Jason’s organs all lived,” Emmitt said. “They all had figured out who Jason was and wanted to get in contact with our family.”

One of the doctors remarked to one of the patients before he went into surgery to receive one of Jason’s organs, “I’m not sure if you’re a basketball fan, but you should be rooting for Carolina.” One had figured it out by the timing and seeing the stories in the paper.

After this happened, ESPN picked up on the story, and set up a reunion between Jason’s family and three of the recipients of his organs. The connections that were created between the recipients and Jason’s family are amazing. The recipients have visited the Rays in North Carolina, and in some cases have become their friends.

“One of the things I like about the story is that Ronald couldn’t get a heart transplant because they couldn’t find a heart big enough for him,” Emmitt said. “He’s a big man, about 6 foot 4, 260 or 270 pounds. Literally and figuratively, they had to find someone with a big heart for Ronald, and Jason had it.”

Another man, David, had diabetes for years and years. He was nearly blind

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‘‘ Health & Fitness

The only good thing to

come out of Jason’s death

was the organ donation

side of it. Knowing that the

lives of those who have

received his organs have

been positively affected by

Jason’s passing makes it a

little easier to take.

Emmitt Ray UNC Wilmington ’86

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and had been on dialysis for so long that he had requested to be removed from it, which would have meant his death. “He’s no longer on dialysis at all.

Jason’s one kidney is functioning well enough that he almost has normal kidney activity in the tests,” Emmitt said.

The fact that the family and the donors have become close is not uncommon according to Tom Cycyota, Illinois ’77, who serves as the President and CEO of AlloSource, a non-profit organization in the area of organ and tissue donation. “Donor families have their lives instantly changed with the loss of a loved one. Those who choose to donate their loved ones’ organs and tissues seem to gain a great sense of peace and purpose knowing that their loved one was able to help others upon their death. Many donor families and recipients meet and correspond and their lives are changed in ways they never thought possible and organ and tissue donation helps people make sense of the tragic event.”

Jason has literally been a life saver for a great number of people who were on the waiting list for organs, a waiting list that as of September 8, 2008, included 99,435 people according to The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

According to Cycyota, “One organ and tissue donor can save and enhance the lives of about 60 people.

Approximately 1,500,000 tissue grafts are transplanted each year for a variety of life-saving and life-enhancing surgeries, including bone grafts for patients whose bones have degenerated from cancer, cornea transplants to help people restore sight, skin grafts to save the lives of burn patients, and tendon, meniscus and soft tissue replacements to help people lead active lives. Just imagine having bone cancer and being told that you need to have a limb amputated. Donated bone can take the place of the diseased tissue and will allow for full mobility following the operation.”

Right now, there are fewer donors than there are people on the waiting list, and each time someone passes away who is not a donor, a chance is missed to help save lives. According to the government’s web site www.organdonor.gov, “Each day, about 77 people receive organ transplants. However, 19 people die each day waiting for transplants that can’t take place because of the shortage of donated organs.”

As we have told you in past issues of The Carnation, organs are not only donated by people who have passed away. In our Spring issue, we told the story of Patrick Handrahan, Saint Louis ’97, who received a kidney from a chapter brother earlier in 2008. Both are doing well. There are opportunities to be a donor and help others while you’re still alive to see their benefits as well.

If you take away anything from this story, we hope it is that organ and tissue donation saves lives. Being a donor can help numerous people who are struggling to live better lives. Jason Ray has helped countless people, something that his family is happy about, even though they lost a friend, a son, and a brother.

As Emmitt said, “The only good thing to come out of Jason’s death was the organ donation side of it. Knowing that the lives of those who have received his organs have been positively affected by Jason’s passing makes it a little easier to take.”

For more information on the story of Jason Ray go to www.espn.com and search “E-Ticket: Ray of Hope.”

The family has set up the Jason Kendall Ray Foundation, which has been set up to endow scholarships at UNC Chapel Hill for business students who complete a semester of study abroad, something Jason did the summer before he passed away. Go to www.jasonray.org for more information.

Business & Finance

ALUMNI PROFILE MICHAEL DUKE, GEORGIA TECH ’68

According to New York Times columnist Tom Friedman in his book The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century, the world is becoming more interconnected every day. Globalization, for better or worse, is the norm in today’s economy, and if you are a business leader, you have to be thinking about the nearly limitless possibilities that are available outside the borders of the United States to sell your product or service.

One company that is embracing globalization (as well as every other type of growth opportunity) is the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart.

And the man who is heading all international operations for the company is one of our own, Mike Duke, Georgia Tech ’68.

Duke is the Vice Chairman in charge of all international operations for Wal-Mart, a job in which he heads the fastest growing segment of the company’s operations, with sales this fiscal year approaching $100 billion (25% of the company’s total sales) and more than 620,000 associates (nearly 1/3 of all of the company’s associates) in 14 countries. The company is currently also exploring entering the Russian market, which will be the 15th country to be able to take advantage of Wal-Mart’s mission of saving people money so they can live better.

Since starting at Wal-Mart in 1995, Duke has worked his way up through the company’s logistics and administration areas to become the #2 executive in the company. Not only have his responsibilities grown, but the company itself has as well.

Wal-Mart has quadrupled in scope to its nearly $400 billion in sales and 2 million associates since he began there, and interestingly, the international segment of the company is larger than the entire company was when he started.

So how did Duke get to where he is today?

As a child growing up in a rural area south of Atlanta called Fayette County, an area he referred to as “a small town environment, and I didn’t even live near the small town,” his parents instilled in him a tremendous work ethic that he has carried with him to his position today. They also

emphasized the importance of education, which led him to do well in high school.

As a high school senior, he met a physics teacher named Mr. McDaniel who ended up becoming one of his mentors, and who gave him three pieces of advice for the future that he took to heart.

1. Go to Georgia Tech.

2. Major in Industrial Engineering.

3. Upon graduation, don’t go into manufacturing like everyone else. Go into some type of service business such as retailing.

As for the first piece of advice, Duke was already an avid fan of Tech’s sports teams, and he was so interested in attending Georgia Tech that he didn’t even apply to another college. As he said, “It was a good thing I got in!”

Duke did end up majoring in Industrial Engineering just as the second piece of advice instructed.

In fact, while many other students, both in the 60s and today, change majors a number of times throughout school, Industrial Engineering was his major throughout his undergraduate experience.

As for #3, it’s pretty obvious that Duke has excelled by following this excellent piece of advice. He said, FALL 2008

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“He (Mr. McDaniel) said it’s all about people, and that service is the future of the economy in America, not manufacturing.”

As he looked back on the advice given to him by Mr. McDaniel all those years ago, you could feel his admiration and affection for the man he called “a smart guy in the late 60s.”

He followed Mr. McDaniel’s advice, went to Georgia Tech, majored in Industrial Engineering, and while on campus, took a little detour by joining a Fraternity – the Alpha Gamma Chapter of Delta Sigma Phi – a group of men he referred to as “balanced with a focus on athletics, academics and social.” After visiting other fraternities on campus, Duke recalls feeling as though Delta Sig was more balanced than the other fraternities, and having clicked with the members and having made good friends prior to pledging, he decided Delta Sig was right for him. As a bonus, during his time in the chapter he married his wife of 38 years, Susan, with whom he has three grown children and five grandchildren.

After graduating from Georgia Tech, he once again followed Mr. McDaniel’s advice by going into retailing – a sector he has not left since.

He started upon graduation with Rich’s Department Stores in Atlanta, which is a division of Federated Department Stores, now called Macy’s.

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A fellow Georgia Tech alumnus was his first boss, and as he was determining whether to take the job, he was told that it would be a 90-day probation to determine whether he could add enough value so that he could keep his job, his offer would be 20% less than the other offers he was going to receive, and that he would probably work a lot more hours.

Duke said, “When I told my wife that I wanted to take this job in retailing that paid 20% less for more hours and very high risk, she said ‘why?’ It was all about people. Retailing is a people business and a very competitive, fast paced, high energy career, and that’s what I enjoy doing. I accepted the role, and it has worked out reasonably well for me.”

After working for eight years in Atlanta for Federated, he was offered a position with May Department Stores, a company for which he spent 16 years being promoted several times to numerous positions. He then received a call in 1995 from Lee Scott, the current CEO of Wal-Mart, to join their team, which he did after having several meetings, visits and discussions.

As was mentioned above, the company was not the same in 1995 as it is today. It was a quarter of the size and was virtually a fully domestic business, with a very limited international footprint. In 13 years, it has grown to include service in 14 countries, and employs more than 620,000 workers outside of the borders of the U.S., an impressive fact that Duke does not take lightly. “It is interesting. I have to pinch myself at times to think that I get to be a part of this international growth,” he said.

Before he was a part of the international growth however, Duke made his way up through many different areas of the business, which all gave him the skills to lead the overall international operations of the company.

When he started in 1995, he was hired as the Senior Vice President of

Distribution, where he only spent a few months before being promoted to lead all of the logistics of the company. As he put it, “Logistics at Wal-Mart is really one of the core competencies. It’s one of the foundations of the strength of our company.

How we move product from supplier and manufacturing to the consumer, is the behind the scenes core competency, so getting the chance to lead that was a great thrill, and was a big operation.”

Following that appointment where he stayed for two years, he was promoted again to Executive Vice President of Administration, a position in which he maintained responsibility for the Logistics area, but also picked up responsibility for other administrative areas like real estate, corporate affairs, legal, and a number of others.

After that position, where he stayed for three years, he was promoted again to become the President of Wal-Mart’s US business, a position he held for two and a half years before assuming his current position as Vice Chairman International for the company in 2006.

The international side of the business for Wal-Mart has grown through a mix of acquisitions of companies in the different areas in which they have expanded, and organic growth by setting up shop and developing a foundation in the country from which they can grow through organic means or through acquisitions that are layered on top of their foundation. “We have had two great acquisitions in Brazil that layered on top of our foundation that we had built ourselves. We also had a major acquisition last year in China called TrustMart that was similar. That was a company about as big as we were in the country, and we layered it on and more than doubled our size.”

The company also puts a great deal of effort and attention at growing their comp sales, which are the sales at the same stores that were open a year earlier, at a rate higher than the market itself is growing. As Duke says,

comp sales are really the true measure of the health of the organization, and are the most significant way the company measures growth. “What’s really pleasing is how much more rapidly our international comp sales are growing,” he said.

One of the major aspects of the company’s continued growth and expansion internationally is the fact that the Wal-Mart culture is maintained across the world. In his position of responsibility, Duke works with the company presidents of the different countries to ensure that the company’s culture makes its way down to the associates on the floor of the individual stores through training, teaching and communicating about it regularly.

He actually said that the hiring of the president who runs the business in each country is one of the most criti-

‘‘

how we can help people in India live better in the future,” he said.

In addition to helping the customers with prices, the company has embarked upon a sustainability and environmental initiative that is meant to improve the areas that it serves, and the world.

Each country’s division of the company has an environmental or sustainability program in place, which has stemmed from both top-down directives and bottom-up desire of the associates.

Duke said, “The great thing about our sustainability program is that our associates are really excited about it. And when you get 2 million people excited about something, you can change the world. It’s been easy for me to drive it in the international areas because our international associates and management around the world are so excited to be a part of it.”

When I told my wife that I wanted to take this job in

retailing that paid 20% less for more hours and very

high risk, she said ‘why?’

It was all about people.

Retailing is a people business and a very

competitive, fast paced, high energy career, and

cal decisions he makes in his role.

Although there are some societal cultural differences between the US and some of the regions Wal-Mart serves, there is little difference in the company’s culture in these different areas.

In his role, Duke travels internationally approximately half the weeks of the year for varying amounts of time in those weeks. In his travels, as he puts it, “I do a little of a lot of things.” He visits presidents of countries and government officials, and any other stakeholders who have a major part in the business of Wal-Mart, like suppliers. He also meets with associates and customers, even visiting customers in their homes.

“Some of my greatest experiences have been in India visiting some middle and lower income customers that can benefit from a company like Wal-Mart helping to improve the supply chain in India. That’s a thrill to get to see

As Duke also says, it’s not only the right thing to do for the world, but it’s good for the shareholders, as it saves millions of dollars in utility costs and in elimination and reduction of packaging. That makes the environmental initiatives that the company has undertaken a win-win.

As you could imagine, no two days of his are ever the same, nor are two trips ever the same – both of which excite him about coming to work everyday. And when he’s not working, he gives of his time serving on several boards of directors, spends time with family, and occasionally plays golf.

From a small town boy growing up in the rural area south of Atlanta, to a high powered executive for the world’s largest retailer, the decisions Mike Duke has made, including joining Delta Sig, have served him exceedingly well!

that’s what I enjoy doing.

I accepted the role, and it has worked out reasonably well for me.

Michael Duke Georgia Tech ’68

FALL 2008

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Business & Finance The Importance of an Often Overlooked Type of Insurance

RENTERS INSURANCE

By Bruce Hammond, Ohio Northern ’98

What happens if the apartment or home you’re renting catches on fire?

Floods? Lightning hits it? While the owner of the apartment should be covered by their own insurance for the structure itself, many times, the importance of having renters insurance is overlooked.

Renters insurance is a type of insurance that provides relief to renters for the contents of their living area should something happen that causes the contents to be no longer usable or viable. In most cases, renters insurance only costs a few dollars per month, which is a very good investment should something unfortunate happen.

It should be pointed out that many apartment complexes are now requiring renters insurance to be carried prior to allowing tenants to move in. However, in some cases like when it is an individual house or single apartment that is being rented, it is not required by landlords. It should be.

In addition, many undergraduates are covered by their parents’ homeowners insurance while full-time college students, which helps in case something would happen that would require coverage. These types of situations are more prevalent than one would think, and include fire, water damage, natural disasters like tornados, etc.

According to insurance giant State Farm’s web site, there are a number of common myths when it comes to renters insurance.

“Renters insurance is expensive.” – It’s not. For a minimal monthly payment, you are covered for your personal property and in most 28

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cases, a liability lawsuit that comes from something happening to where you live.

“The landlord’s insurance covers me.” – Your landlord’s insurance generally only covers the building where you live - not your personal

belongings and your liability.

“I don’t need personal liability insurance.” – Your landlord’s policy most likely does not include liability for something that happens in your rented residence. You could be held responsible for injury to another person or damage to another person’s property if an incident occurred within your rented residence, or elsewhere.

Without liability coverage, your current and future earnings could be at risk. Renters insurance may also provide legal defense costs.

“I don’t own very much.” – Most people’s belongings are often worth more than they think. That’s one reason why you need Renters Insurance.

Everything you personally own, you can claim. Each piece of clothing, your dresser, your CDs and CD player,

etc. can be claimed. You own more than you think!

In an effort to show a couple of real life examples of the importance of being covered by insurance, we have come up with two stories from brothers who have been dealt with tremendous losses from fires, and how having insurance affected them in the fires’ aftermaths.

The first story comes from Brian Beaupied, a 2006 initiate of the Epsilon Tau Chapter at Grand Valley State University, whose house that was being rented near campus caught fire in the Fall semester of 2007, and who happened to be covered under his parents’ homeowners insurance.

As September rolls in and classes get underway, brothers across the nation will be settling in to a new school year’s routine and place of residence.

As fraternity men, our lives get pretty crazy this time of the year to say the least.

Recruitment, community service, and philanthropy work are a few things that occupy our time.

But I urge you all to take a couple minutes to look into protecting yourself with renters insurance, a low cost policy that could potentially save you thousands of dollars and plenty of headaches.

As some of you may recall, last November a house that I lived in with four other brothers caught fire. One poorly discarded cigarette butt, rolling seemingly harmlessly across the porch, found a crack between porch boards, dropped into a nest of dead leaves and ignited the house.

It took minutes for the front of the house to go up in flames, and just as quick to throw off five young men’s lives.

What you don’t realize is what happens after the fire fighters clear out and media outlets vacate the premises – when the alumni and local aid agencies leave.

It takes a couple hours for it all to settle in. Your house burned down.

Where are you going to sleep? How are you going to eat? What are you going to wear? What are you going to do?

I, fortunately, was covered under my parent’s homeowners insurance because I was a full-time student. Despite being covered, it took weeks for insurance agents to inspect the house and personal property damaged by the fire and cut me a check. It took over a month to find a new car, mine was a casualty to the fire and because I had basic coverage a replacement would be out my own pocket.

I was lucky that I was at least covered to an extent. One brother who lived with us but was not in school was not so fortunate.

He recently purchased a brand new Play Station III in addition to a 40+ inch high-definition television. He had pet rats, paintball gear and an old chest full of books and other possessions of great sentimental value.

In minutes it was all gone, and reimbursement was out of the question.

Not to mention the psychological effect of being the last man out of the house, having been soundly asleep while flames were peeking up through a vent in the floor.

Being insured will help alleviate the pain and ease the inconvenience.

After reading Brian’s story, it is probably evident that insurance is a good thing to have. Although Brian was covered by his parents’ homeowners coverage, it is always a good idea for our undergraduates to check with their parents to see if they are covered in the same way. If not, consider renters insurance.

Brian’s experience of essentially complete disbelief as the incident was happening was much like one that I had while working in my previous job.

In 2005, I was living in Ada, Ohio, working as the Assistant Director of

Alumni Affairs at my alma mater, Ohio Northern University. A fire happened in the downtown building that was attached to the building in which I lived, and looking back, having renters insurance was the best investment I had made to that point in my life.

It gave me piece of mind while I was without a place to live for a while and during the aftermath of seeing the remains of my personal property following the fire. I knew I would be reimbursed, even after seeing that much of what I had was severely damaged by smoke and the water that was poured on our building to keep it from going up in flames like its neighbor.

I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been for the process of filing my claim, and really wasn’t as educated on the policy itself as I should have been. There are a number of things I wish I would have known, and I have outlined those below.

1. You should have an inventory of what you own. As you move into your apartment, be sure to have an inventory of what you own that you can easily access should an incident happen where you will need to use your policy. In addition, having photos and videos of what you have in their present condition is also a good practice. It will make the process of being reimbursed a lot easier following the incident.

2. Check your deductible to be sure it’s not too high. If you only have $2,000 worth of things in your

apartment, having a $1,000 deductible doesn’t make any sense. Be sure you have a good ratio of deductible to what you own.

3. There are different ways you may be reimbursed – actual cash value or replacement cost. Actual cash value essentially means that if you bought a television five years ago for $500, it does not have that same value today. You would be reimbursed the actual cash value as it stands today of the type and model of your television. Replacement cost is essentially just what it says – you will be reimbursed (minus the deductible) of what the replacement cost of what you own is. In my situation, I believe there were some things that my insurer gave me actual cash value for (my electronics), and some were replacement cost (like my clothes.)

4. You can be reimbursed for additional living expenses should your place of residence be unlivable.

I wish I would have known this so I didn’t have to sleep on someone’s couch for a month! In most policies, you are able to have the company pay for your rent somewhere else and essential other things for you to live, like food.

I believe Brian and I would both urge you to be as educated as you can about renters insurance, and if you are renting and don’t have it, please check it out. Believe us – it’s worth it!

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Business & Finance

10 STEPS

TO A MORE SUCCESSFUL JOB SEARCH

By Chris Cannon, Shorter ’06

“If people can’t understand the employment process, they can’t perform it.” Truth prevails in this statement from an alumnus who understands that the employment process is a game that only a small amount of individuals have mastered.

The competition for top jobs has become fiercer as more women, senior citizens, and non-Americans have emerged into the job market with extremely high qualifications. With more people and less jobs due to outsourcing, an individual must work hard to obtain the American dream. However, anyone can earn the job of his dreams by understanding the employment process and what employers are looking for.

Alumni have identified 10 steps required to understand the game of employment and find career success.

STEP 1 – IDENTIFY YOUR NEED FOR CHANGE The first step in the employment process is deciding if you are ready for a change. Have you reached your potential at your current company? Are you looking for a change in atmosphere? Are you simply tired of your current job?

Identify the reason that you wish to begin a job search.

Knowing your desire to leave your current company can drastically improve your success by allowing you to immediately identify companies that offer what your last job did not.

Ensure that it is the right time to leave your current position. According to the US Department of Labor, the average American will change careers as many as seven times during his lifetime. With these facts, employers are looking for someone who will commit to a job.

Jake Smith, Grand Valley State ’02, a Recruitment Specialist for Glotel, Inc., said, “We avoid hiring people who switch jobs every year. I want someone with stability - someone who has stayed at a company for longer than a year or two.”

If you do not have many years behind you in your current job, consider waiting until you build up a standing.

STEP 2 – COMPLETE A SELF-ANALYSIS Before you begin the search for a job, understand your employment past. Harry Thompson, NC State ’62, said “The past is the best indicator of future performance.”

On paper, identify your strengths, weaknesses, successes, and failures of your past jobs. If you understand where you had

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trouble in your career, you can find jobs that center on your successful traits and do not require your weak traits as often.

STEP 3 – IDENTIFY YOUR IDEAL JOB If you could do anything in the world, what would it be?

“Decide what job you want and find out what path you need to take to get there,” said Thompson.

Research which entry level jobs will offer the promotions you need in order to reach your dream. Mike Forbes, Saint Louis ’64, said “Looking for a job with advanced possibilities is more important than looking for a job.”

STEP 4 – NETWORK “The people I have known have provided me with 75% of my clients and employees,” said Forbes.

Networking is a key part in finding the right job. Jason Welch, Stetson ’92, a Managing Partner for RIC Executive Search, recommends developing a personal employment campaign. “Make a list of everyone from your professional and personal life that might have a lead for you. Schedule meetings and see if they know of any career opportunities.”

Once you have a solid list of career options, you can begin to understand if they are the right positions for you.

STEP 5 – RESEARCH The most important element of the job search is research. In order to find the right job, you must understand companies in your field, potential jobs, and market trends.

Your local library will have many career resources including the Peterson’s series, Career Opportunities Directories, and other listings. The internet provides many research opportunities including wetfeet.com, online.onecenter.org, and monster.com.

Decide what companies are best for you by looking at their core values. Just as a college man chooses Delta Sigma Phi based on the alignment of values, a business man should choose his work based on the same mission. “What is the company’s creed? Look at the company philosophy and see if you fit in with their mission,” said Thompson.

If the company’s goals do not line up with your personal goals, then that organization is not a good fit. “Look for a company where your work will be worthwhile,” added Thompson.

STEP 6 – KNOW WHAT PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYERS WANT FROM YOU Although each employer is going to differ in their desired traits, some core values are found in almost every company.

According to Harvard and Dartmouth studies, companies that hire people with the traits of strategy, culture, structure, and execution out perform every other company. Be sure to understand these top business traits and how you live out each one in your work. Furthermore, understand the specific desires for your position. An entry-level position will entail different work and responsibilities than an executive position.

For Forbes, who primarily works with small businesses, the key is retention. “You have to show a commitment to the employer. Small companies do not want turnover.”

Welch, who primarily recruits for top executive positions, said “Overall, I am looking for someone who can put together a strategic plan for any company.”

The key to understanding the company’s needs is research.

If you research a position and gain an understanding of its duties, you will have an advantage in providing the employer with their desires.

STEP 7 – CREATE A UNIQUE IMAGE OF YOURSELF The resume is considered to be one of the most important employment documents, so make it a priority in your employment work. “Your resume is your face to your employer.

Make sure to highlight unique qualities,” said Smith.

Highlight your accomplishments, not your previous job duties. Show the employer your success in the past, so that they can envision your success with their company in the future.

Don’t be afraid that you don’t have the right qualifications. “You don’t have to have a specific degree if you can show them that you are worthwhile,” said Thompson.

Work hard to develop your positive image and you will have a greater chance of being hired.

However, be careful not to create a false image of yourself.

A recent report from Forbes.com states that over 40% of recent college graduates lie on their resume in order to gain an upper hand. As a result, recruiters are spending more time checking references and facts on resumes.

“Honesty is the most important [quality] and a good interviewer will immediately pick up if you are lying,” said Forbes. Therefore, save yourself and the employer trouble by not including any white lies in the process, no matter how small they are.

STEP 8 – DEVELOP A CAMPAIGN Once you know what companies are right for your goals and advancement, develop a plan for applying to companies. “Just

don’t blast your resume. Know the company and position you are applying to,” said Smith.

Would you market one of your company’s products through spam email? Just as you wouldn’t use such a negative form of advertising for a product, only use reputable sources for yourself in the employment process.

“Make sure that when you do a job search, you protect your brand. Don’t let anyone throw your brand around.

Market yourself,” said Welch.

Do not post your resume to every website on the internet.

Use the connections you have made to reach out to potential employers and personally create a positive, successful image of yourself.

STEP 9 – BE PREPARED FOR THE INTERVIEW Within the interview, “be cordial, be professional, and be prepared,” said Thompson.

Do not stray from the interview norms of being early, shaking hands firmly, and remaining standing until asked to be seated.

Be prepared for the questions that will be asked. By doing prior research, you will understand the company and feel at ease answering questions about your future with the organization. “All questions in the interview come back to the core of ‘What have you done in the past that would be a value to us,’” said Thompson.

Thompson went on to add that remaining positive is extremely important within the interview. “Never talk negatively in an interview. If you are willing to talk negatively about any company, then you will be willing to talk bad about the company you are interviewing for.”

STEP 10 – FOLLOW UP After your successful interview, continue to create a positive image with the interviewer by sending a thankyou letter. “Only 5% of interviewees write a thank you letter following the interview,” Thompson said.

With this small step, you will set yourself apart from the standard applicant who fails to reach out to prospective employers.

By following the key steps presented here, the employment process can be reduced from a stressful, unorganized process into a successful plan for career advancement.

Thompson presented his final words of advice as “Them that work the hardest has the most luck.” In the game of employment, the only luck available is preparation and determination to follow through on each step of the process.

If the process is completed, luck will come to all those working hard to earn the job of their dreams.

Thank you to all brothers who assisted with this story. For more information, contact Bruce Hammond at Hammond@deltasig.org.

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Sports

BEING A SPORTS AGENT

WHAT IT’S LIKE When many people think about professional athletes, they think not only about their tremendous ability and athleticism, but also the staggering salaries that many of them make annually.

As The Carnation was thinking about different topics for the Sports Talk portion of this issue, we decided it might be interesting to delve into the business side of professional sports, and have enlisted the help of folks from both sides of the field, a former certified sports agent and a current NFL General Manager.

Todd Newman, Louisiana Monroe ’84, is an attorney by trade. Currently, he has limited his practice to personal injury, workers compensation, domestic law and criminal law, but has done many different things over the years.

These include being the owner of the Monroe Moccasins, a minor league hockey team in his hometown, and being a part-owner of a Bingo Hall that raises approximately $1 million a year for charity.

But back before these other pursuits, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Newman tried his hand at being a sports agent, which was an up and down experience. During those six years, he represented such clients as NFL third-round draft pick Steve Foley, NBA second-round draft pick Mike Smith (who happened to be Michael Jordan’s first draft pick when he was with the Washington Wizards), and Arena Football League quarterback Raymond Philyaw, in addition to others.

Getting into the Business He became an agent after meeting Foley while he was teaching a class at the University of Louisiana Monroe in the mid-90s.

Having gotten to know Foley and his mother, he felt strongly that he could make a difference for him. So, he went through the process and got certified as an NFL and NBA agent.

To become an NFL agent, there is an exam on the collective bargaining agreement, and the agent must attend a seminar and pay the requisite fee. For the NBA, Newman mentioned that all you had to do was pay the money and you were an agent.

When he first went to the seminar in Indianapolis for the NFL, he felt naïve about the process, “I thought Good Lord, who in the world would want to pay $1,500 or whatever it was back then on the chance that they might get somebody,”

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he said. “I had just assumed everyone there had a client, but when I went the first time and they asked how many of us had someone that we expected to go in the Draft, I raised my hand. Out of 400 people, there may have been 50 that had a client that was going to go in the Draft.”

Finding Clients While most people think that being an agent is all about negotiating the best deal for their clients, many people forget that there is a step before that – finding the clients in the first place! Apparently, for the many people who were at his seminar back in the mid 90s, that was easier said than done.

Newman’s experience was that all of his clients were local to his hometown – Monroe, Louisiana. As someone who taught on campus at the University of Louisiana Monroe, he knew some of them from classes. Others he knew about from talking to the coaches. He always followed all rules, and never lured a potential client with money and “toys” to get them to be his client.

However, he saw some other agents who used different tactics, even on players who ended up as his clients! A very easy example of this was evident when he helped Steve Foley move to Cincinnati after being drafted. They moved 100 pairs of high top sneakers that were gifts from other agents trying to get him to become their client. “They literally followed his mother at the Senior Bowl, would stay in the same hotel as her, and would call her before she went to bed at night to talk to her about how I had never been an agent before, that it was my first time, and all of that stuff.”

While one would think that it would take more than developing relationships to land an athlete as a client, according to Newman, all he had to do to land Foley was make his mother feel comfortable. He was a like a college football coach going into the player’s home to sell him and his parents on going to school, but instead was selling them on him and his attributes to be the player’s agent.

And once he landed Foley, he began getting all of the ULM football players who were potential professional prospects. The same happened once he got basketball player, Mike Smith. “There were a lot who called wanting me to be

their agent, but the chances are that if it’s the player calling the agent, they probably don’t have a very good chance,” Newman said.

rang, and they did end up picking Foley as the 75th pick in the 1998 NFL Draft.

The Negotiation Getting Ready for the Draft After recruiting his clients, then came the opportunity to assist them in getting ready for the Draft. In Steve Foley’s case, the first step was the NFL Combine in Indianapolis.

Newman helped prepare him for it, and his philosophy for Foley was “do it all.” A lot of times at the Combine, players decide not to do certain aspects of the workouts because they don’t want their draft stock to drop, but for Foley, who was being projected anywhere from the late first round to the end of the fifth round, Newman knew it would be in his best interest to do it all and show them what he had.

Following the Combine, around ten coaches came through Monroe to see him work out, and Newman oversaw this and set up all of the workouts. Following those, it looked like he would be picked by the Green Bay Packers, as Newman had received a call from a Green Bay television station asking him questions about Foley.

When Draft day arrived, Foley and his many friends and family members gathered at Newman’s house for the event.

While they were watching, Green Bay got through their first round pick, but it was not Foley. Then, Newman saw that they had traded their second round pick, so the likelihood of him going to Green Bay was close to zero. All of a sudden, Cincinnati was on the clock, and they were one of the teams who worked him out. But Newman knew that they had already picked Takeo Spikes and Brian Simmons in the first round, two players at Foley’s position. However, the phone

After the Draft the next step was negotiating the contract and getting him the most money possible. Cincinnati had another pick four spots later in the third round, and the thought was that Newman would not allow Foley to sign a contract until the player picked four spots later signed. Had he done so, the other player’s agent would have been able to say that he could have signed his player for more money had Newman not signed early at a lower price.

So, the other player’s agent who worked for IMG, one of the top agencies for athletes, was calling Newman seeing what he was going to do. Newman held strong and told him that he was not signing until the other player did.

So, they moved Foley to Cincinnati without a contract, had him report to camp and do all of the workouts on time while other players were holding out, and Newman met with the team. Nothing was getting worked out the first day. “The NFL Players Association will let you know what everybody signs for, and there is a rookie salary cap. It’s really not as magical as people like to make it out to be, but you still have to know what you’re doing to do the best job for your client,” he said.

He knew where the numbers were and where he needed to be, but he had the other player’s agent continuing to call him trying to make sure he knew what he was doing. “He was being very professional and just making sure I knew what I was doing. He was essentially making sure I wasn’t going to short-sell Steve so his client wouldn’t then get less money. But I had already made up my mind that I wasn’t signing before he did.”

So, Foley and Newman went to a Reds game and he ended up calling the other agent while there to make sure things were still moving along. The other agent told him that his client had just signed, and so Newman was free to sign Foley the next morning. He went in, and with the information on what the other player made, he negotiated a salary for Foley higher than the other player.

He did that all without putting himself in a position where others could say that he made a mistake, and actually at the time he signed Foley, he had negotiated the highest signing bonus in the history of the third round of the draft.

Pretty good for a first-timer!

Once the Player Makes It Todd Newman, Louisiana Monroe ’84, and his son Ty at their home in Monroe, Louisiana. Ty is proudly wearing his Dad’s 1987 E. Allen James Outstanding Undergraduate Award medal.

It seems as though Newman’s biggest responsibility once his players made it to the league was almost being their babysitter.

As he brought them into the fold, he had to try to educate them on the process of becoming a player, the biggest part of which was financial. It didn’t always sink in.

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Sports The Thoughts of an NFL General Manager The Carnation: Talk a little about the GM/agent relationship. In general, is it usually positive, or are the talks and negotiations always tense and adversarial?

Heckert: The relationship that I have with agents is generally a very positive one. I’m not saying that we agree on everything during a contract negotiation, but we can normally find a common ground and get a deal done that is both acceptable for the player, as well as for our organization. In the more complicated contracts, there will always be times that both sides may need to agree to disagree and just move on from a certain point and try to work things out, but I can say that most deals are done with a hand shake afterwards and there are no hard feelings no matter how tense the negotiations get.

The Carnation: What is your personal philosophy in your work with players and agents surrounding contract negotiations?

Heckert: My personal philosophy regarding players and their contracts is pretty simple. We try to only sign and re-sign players who we think are going to be good players for a long time. The mistakes that are made in the NFL are usually ones that are made because of a situation where a team thinks that they HAVE to have a player and are willing to do whatever it takes to get that player.

That can be a disaster if it doesn’t work out so you have to be willing to walk away and let that player go.

The Carnation: As the GM, how much of your job is dealing with agents and players on salary and contract issues, and how much is evaluating talent?

Heckert: My primary responsibility is evaluating players.

That is where we earn our money and what makes our team what it is and this has to be the main focus of my job. That being said, I do have many other responsibilities that go hand in hand with how our team performs. The salary cap is a huge part of our game and managing that is a day to day necessity that we meet on almost every day.

We have to not only be in compliance with the salary cap every day, but we also have to play for the future.

We are always looking at current and future contracts and deciding how they will affect us not only today but also up to three years from now. Most of my dealing with agents is done in the off season so that does not play a real big role during the season.

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“Take Mike Smith for example. He goes up there and is making the rookie minimum, which is less than half a million dollars. That’s more money than he has ever had or that he thought he’d ever have. They really don’t have a concept of how much money that really is. Then, they turn around and think that they can’t ever spend all of it. But guess what?

You can go through that money mighty fast,” Newman said.

He had all of his players set up in a trust, and a financial institution would manage all of their money. That arrangement included paying all of their bills, setting up investment opportunities, etc. The player would then be able to call and tell them what they wanted to get and Newman and the player would make the determination of whether the purchase should happen.

At one point, Smith had called him after having bought a $25,000 necklace, (mind you, he was making the rookie minimum) and asked Newman to have a check cut to pay for it. Newman returned the necklace, because it was not in Smith’s best interest. What was it really worth? About $7,500 according to a local jeweler in Monroe.

“They literally have these caravans of people going into the locker rooms who sell clothes, jewelry and everything else. You have guys like Juwan Howard in the Wizards locker room making $11 million per year buying $10,000 worth of clothes. Guys like Mike feel the pressure to keep up with the other guys, and I had to try to help them understand how to manage their money.”

Leaving the Field After losing Foley to another agent who was wining and dining him all the time, Newman decided that it was time to go back to the law practice. He felt as though the players had the philosophy of “what have you done for me today,” and it ended up that his initial thoughts on the field were different from what it turned out to be for him.

In fact, while he was Foley’s agent, the player was arrested four times in one year, three of which Newman got dismissed, and the fourth, Foley pleaded to a probation offense and never missed a game. Foley’s career ended (with another agent) after he was shot by a police officer who had tried to stop him for DWI, but he led the officer on a chase through San Diego.

“I had this vision of one of my guys getting into the Hall of Fame, and I would be able to present him, and he would be happy that he had someone who had guided him,” he said. “The bottom line was, you can’t save someone from themselves, and they are going to blow through that money unless they have enough sense not to.”

Todd Newman received the 1987 E. Allen James Outstanding Undergraduate Award from Delta Sigma Phi, and currently coaches three girl’s softball teams, two basketball teams and two soccer teams, where he makes a difference in kids’ lives.

ALUMNI PROFILE JOE TILLER, MONTANA STATE ’63 Photo Credit: Purdue University Sports Information

It’s that time of year. Getting to the parking lot at 8 am to stake out your spot before a 4 pm kickoff, firing up the grill to cook brats and burgers for not only you, but everyone else around you, and tossing the football between the rows of cars – that’s right tailgate season. Better yet, it’s college football season, and Delta Sigma Phi is lucky to have a number of coaches stalking the sidelines on an annual basis. However, the distinguished career of one of our brothers is coming to an end at the end of the 2008-09 season, hopefully on a winning note!

As the final seconds tick away off the clock at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana on November 22, they will also be ticking away on the career of Joe Tiller, Montana State ’63, the all-time winningest football coach in Purdue University’s history.

Tiller will retire at year’s end, leaving a legacy of winning on a program that had only one winning season in the 13 years prior to his arrival.

To say Tiller’s impact on the program was large is a tremendous understatement. Not only did he turn Purdue’s program into an upper level Big Ten contender year after year, he also introduced a new way of playing the game to the Big Ten Conference.

His spread offense is more reminiscent of the Houston Oilers’ old run and shoot with Warren Moon at the helm, than the typical smashmouth football you see week after week in the Big Ten. Tiller’s offensive scheme was honed as he was working his way up the

coaching ladder, most recently serving as the head coach at the University of Wyoming, where he had a respectable 39-30-1 record in six seasons for the Cowboys. During his 42-year career, he spent time at his alma mater, and even in Canada, before becoming a major Division I head coach in 1991 at Wyoming.

However, his greatest success has been at Purdue, as he has led the Boilermakers to 10 of the school’s 15 bowl appearances, including the Rose Bowl in the 2000-01 season. He has also coached a number of great players who have made it and have been quite successful in the NFL, including Saints quarterback Drew Brees, Patriots offensive tackle Matt Light and Bears quarterback Kyle Orton.

While Tiller wasn’t ready to talk about the one player who was the most talented that has ever played for him during a recent conversation with The Carnation, for fear that he would exclude or offend former players, he was very willing to talk about the player he thought was the most athletic that has ever played for him – former Steelers great Rod Woodson.

“Rod was a unique guy in that when I was an assistant here at Purdue, I came in the same year Rod came in. He started for us as a true freshman against Notre Dame in the opener as an 18 year old. When the season was over that freshman year, he left the football field after the last game of the year and went over to our indoor track, where he practiced for

one week and then set an all-time record for the low hurdles. He was a hold out for the Steelers after they drafted him in the first round, and actually went over to Europe and ran professional track and made a good living,” Tiller said.

While Woodson was the best athlete, Tiller has a great deal of love and admiration for all players who have played for him, whether at Purdue or previously. In fact, one of his greatest accomplishments of his long career is when his players become successful and return to talk to him about their careers and families. “The single biggest reward in coaching is the impact you can have on the players that play for you. I find a great deal of joy in a guy that comes back who wants me to meet his wife and his child and reminisce, and tells me that he remembered when I told him a specific lesson that he now takes and teaches to his employees. To me, those are the real rewards in coaching. It’s not the wins and losses. The biggest thing I am charged with is to develop productive citizens. That’s my goal.”

Not only has he developed productive citizens, but much like the Fraternity, Tiller has succeeded at building outstanding leaders during his coaching career. So what traits make up a great leader in his eyes? Having tremendous work ethic, outstanding character and principle, having a vision and providing a vision for others make up his definition. He also said, “It was General Eisenhower who said

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Sports What He’ll Miss – “Game days, particularly here at the Big Ten level. These are all very large universities and all have large stadiums. The excitement and noise in the stadium can be deafening at times, and you will miss that adrenaline rush.”

Favorite Games He’s Coached – One of the many he mentioned “We’ve had some great games over the years. We beat the University of Minnesota in Minnesota when we were down by three. They punted with 17 seconds and downed it on our seven yard line. The very first play, our left tackle jumped offside. Then we completed a pass to a guy who ran out of bounds, then another and the guy slid down which stopped the clock. Our field goal team sprinted on the field and when they blew the whistle, our center who was a management major, snapped the ball to the holder, who was also a management major, who held the ball for the kicker, who was also a management major. So there were three smart guys down the middle, but to get that play off, tie it up and win the game in overtime, I have never been around a game like that.”

How He’s Going to Feel as Time Winds Down on the Season – “I made a comment multiple times here locally that maybe the very last game of the year it will hit me between the eyes that I’m not going to do it anymore. I avoided thinking about it from the time I announced it until April for our Spring game, and as I was walking out onto the field, I got to thinking that I was only going to be doing this one more Fall. I thought ‘look at this field and at this stadium.

This is going to be kind of tough to walk away from.”

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‘A leader is someone who gets a person someplace that they couldn’t get to by themselves.’ In other words, if they could have gotten there by themselves, they wouldn’t need a leader.”

Tiller’s leadership certainly has moved Purdue’s football program to a place that it likely wouldn’t have been able to get to by itself. And as Tiller contemplated his future during the 2007 season, not only was he thinking about his own future, but he also was thinking about Purdue’s future success.

He decided that it was time to hang it up after much thought and consideration, and after realizing that the 24/7/365 time commitment was beginning to be more than he wanted.

As he put it, “I started out as a coach 42 years ago, and am finishing as a manager.” As the head coach, his commitments include not only his coaching duties, but also coordinating a large staff of support personnel, spending time with the academic assistants, doing speaking engagements and media interviews, and everything that goes into recruiting the best players throughout the year.

In exploring the idea of recruitment, as the undergraduate members of the Fraternity must do this everyday, Tiller gave some great advice on what to look for and how he has been able to effectively recruit players – a talent that not everyone possesses.

“The number one thing about recruitment is the fit. Does the person fit the Fraternity and does the Fraternity fit the guy. Whether it’s a fraternity, a team, an organization or an Army, if it’s not a good fit, it’s not going to work. The other things that enter the picture are whether the person is going to add value to where we are today, and what kind of value can we offer the person? Everybody ultimately has to answer the one big question in my mind ‘what’s in it for me?’ If they can answer that positively, you have a good chance of recruiting that person. In my particular case, I

wanted to improve my social skills.

My primary motivation was being around good people and developing social skills, and when it came to me answering the ‘what’s in it for me’ question, I was able to positively with Delta Sig.” As he finishes off his career, and no longer has to be on the road recruiting for much of the year, Tiller’s plans include spending more time with his wife and family – something he wasn’t able to do as much as he had wanted earlier in his life. “For 42 years I have never done a single thing on a Sunday with my family. I’ve always been watching the game tape from the previous day and the game tape of our next opponent for next week.”

He’s also planning on kicking his feet up on the porch of his new home in Wyoming, relaxing and taking a well deserved break from the game of football. “I’ve had people ask me what I am going to do next season, and I say I’m not going to do a darn thing.

People tell me that the Falls are absolutely beautiful and that the leaves on the trees actually change different colors. (laughs) I’ve never seen that for 42 years.”

While he wants to relax, he’s also looking forward to taking advantage of something he has never been able to do – getting to the parking lot at 8 am to stake out his spot before a 4 pm kickoff, firing up the grill to cook brats and burgers for not only him, but everyone else around him, and tossing the football between the rows of cars.

That’s right, he’s looking forward to the ritual that the 70,000 around him for his 42 years have done on a weekly basis – the tailgating. “They tell me tailgating is fun, but I’ve never been able to partake,” he said.

So, if you happen to be at either a Wyoming or Montana State game this season, watch for Tiller in the parking lot and give him a hearty YITBOS for his outstanding career on the sidelines.

A FOOTBALL FIRST IN...

DELTA SIG HISTORY! On Saturday, September 13, two Delta Sig college football coaches took to the field to battle it out in what is a first in the history of Delta Sigma Phi. Joe Tiller, Montana State ’63, the head coach of Purdue, and Mike Bellotti, UC Davis ’70, the head coach for the University of Oregon, battled throughout the game and into overtime, before Bellotti’s Ducks rallied for the win 32-26.

For Tiller, he was denied the opportunity to become the Boilermakers’ all-time winningest coach, but he

ended up getting that title the next week in a win over Central Michigan.

This event was one for the record books in Delta Sigma Phi, and the brothers of the Delta Delta Chapter at Purdue took it upon themselves to create commemorative paddles to present to each coach prior to the game.

As you will see in the photos on the right, the coaches were excited to receive them, and for the opportunity to make Delta Sigma Phi history in playing this game!

Photo Credit: Purdue University Sports Information Joe Tiller, Montana State ’63, head coach of Purdue, and Mike Bellotti, UC Davis ’70, head coach of Oregon talk prior to the game on Saturday, September 15, 2008. This is believed to be the first time two Delta Sig head coaches took to the field against one another in any sport since the Fraternity’s founding.

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Sports

THE OLYMPICS

THROUGH MARTY SNIDER’S EYES

For Marty Snider, UNC Charlotte ’89, a once in a lifetime opportunity was presented to him in August when he covered The Olympics in Beijing, China for NBC Sports.

Upon his return from Beijing, Snider sat down with The Carnation to share some of his experiences and thoughts on this amazing experience.

The Carnation: Can you tell us about your trip?

Snider: I went out August 1 and was there for 26 days. The first week was neat because I was there with my wife and we were able to travel around to see all of the sites like the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. We also went to the silk markets to go shopping and things like that. After that first week, I really got down to business.

The Carnation: Tell us about the sports you broadcasted, and what that experience was like.

Snider: We were the very first thing on the air. We did men’s road race cycling, which was one of the first events. I did a little bit of everything, and there was a lot of publicity for the things I did. I did cycling for men and women, both the road races and time trials, five or six different events in whitewater which were kind of crazy, the triathlons for men and women, and BMX for men and women.

With another team of announcers, I did fencing, men’s and women’s volleyball, women’s softball and the closing ceremony.

I was quite busy while I was over there, all the way up until that last night and then I left the next morning to come home.

Throughout my time there I had two scheduled days off, and both days before them, it rained and the events were pushed back to our days off. We never wound up getting a day off while over there.

The Carnation: Obviously, some of the sports you covered aren’t your normal sports. What was that like?

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Snider: It was a lot of fun to learn all of those new sports, the people to cover, and even just how to cover those sports.

I have certainly grown a lot by having that experience and dealing with those people and sports. I certainly widened my horizons a little bit.

The Carnation: What was it like just being in Beijing itself? How were the safety and logistical things handled?

Snider: Certainly any time you’re in a foreign country you have to be safe, and there was a large language barrier in China.

They just don’t learn English when they’re young, and there are very few people who are native to China that speak English.

With the Olympics coming over, a lot of the signs were written in English, which made it a little easier.

NBC took tremendous care of everything.

Our hotel was very secure, and they went way out of their way to make sure everything was safe. The way the Beijing Organizing Committee worked everything around, it was very safe to get from point A to point B. When I was traveling on the road, there were 26 people on my team. They just went to make sure everything that we did at the venue technically, logistically, and safety-wise went well. We also had translators with us.

When everyone showed up, we all got cell phones, and there was a book published with everyone’s China cell phone number in it so it was easy to communicate with anyone at any time. All of the communication, safety, and logistics were very smooth, and really there were no issues at all.

The Carnation: What other events were you able to check out during the time you weren’t on air?

Snider: I got to catch a number of other sports. Obviously, I covered the NBA for Turner, so I went to go see the NBA players a few times. We saw two American games and I saw Argentina play a couple times. We also went to boxing one

time, because one of my close friends was the producer for that event.

Our crew call was at different times each day, and I got to see Michael Phelps win his fourth gold medal. I recorded that on my little handheld camera, so that was good. I sat up in the booth with Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines to watch that. And then I also saw Usain Bolt break the 200-meter world record since one of my close friends is also the track producer, so we were right on the finish line. It was really a special thing to be able to see those things.

While we were busy, we weren’t working 24/7 so I was able to take in some other events. We tried to maximize our time to be able to go and see all of these events.

The Carnation: What was it like for you to be with those athletes as they were competing in the biggest sporting event in the world?

Snider: It’s pretty amazing being around the athletes because most of them have either been through an Olympics or have had some sort of exposure. But then there’s the group of people who have never seen this before and are wide-eyed about all of the things that go on. They are really happy to be involved.

The one thing that really struck me is that you learn that there are a lot of sports that aren’t as important in the US. We think we have done a lot of sports here, and that we’ve covered a lot here in the States, but some of the sports that we don’t cover are really big in different parts of the world.

Take the whitewater event that we had for example. That’s not an A-level sport in the US, but in Europe, it’s everything. Some of these guys, like Fabien Lafevre, who carried the French flag in the opening ceremony, is tremendous figure in France. He is like the biggest icon in French sports, and he is a paddler in whitewater. I took a picture of him after he won the silver and he was crying because he was upset that he didn’t win gold and was worrying about what his country would think. The reporters were stacked 15 deep to talk to him from Europe.

You get a different perspective and see that there are a lot more sports outside the US. You turned on the television, and on ESPN there was cricket. They love cricket. We don’t get cricket here. They don’t get the NFL in China and don’t understand it.

The Carnation: What were the best and worst parts of the trip for you?

Snider: The best part was that being there, it wasn’t just the Olympics, but there was something special about this specific Olympics. We were getting reports from back home about everyone watching, and that the opening ceremony was through the roof rating-wise, and that everyone was watching Phelps. I just had the feeling that this was a special

time beyond the norm. It was great to just be a part of it, and the great team that we had put together for NBC. The worst part was being away from home for so long.

The food over there actually wasn’t too bad. Everybody was worried about the food, but we found some outstanding food.

That was never an issue. The language barrier was sometimes difficult and being gone from my kids, but that was it.

The Carnation: What was the thing that you take away from the experience that you will never forget?

Snider: The Chinese people were really spectacular. They really enjoyed having everyone there in their country. It was neat because early on, my wife and I were at the Summer Palace, this enormous place spread over all these acres where the emperor would go in the summer on vacation, and we had a group of school children walk by us and say “hello.”

They were all so proud that they all knew a little English, and that was just a neat process. Overall, the Chinese people were so warm and embracing, and they not only enjoyed having Americans around, but everyone else.

Also, the ability to go see some amazing sporting events at the same time and take those in, and to witness a Michael Phelps gold medal and Usain Bolt winning a 200-meter race and setting a world record in the process. Those things, and the ability to be a part of all that was really cool. Having The Olympics in China was unprecedented obviously.

Having The Olympics with such a big delay was unprecedented but it worked out. Just being a part of that special moment was really worthwhile.

To read the full interview, check out www.deltasig.org/olympics.

Marty Snider, UNC Charlotte ’89, (back row center) along with his team at the Beijing Olympics in August 2008

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Government & Politics

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT STEVE FAINARU, MISSOURI ’81 Steve Fainaru, Missouri ’81, a reporter for the Washington Post, received the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in April 2008 for his series of stories on private security contractors in Iraq that operate outside most of the laws governing American forces. The stories can be found online at www.washpost.com.

Fainaru spent some time with The Carnation talking about the award and his reporting career in early May 2008.

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The Carnation: What made you decide to get into journalism?

Fainaru: I have asked myself this question a lot. It comes up, especially now, and I must have been 14 or 15 years old when I made the decision, but I don’t know why.

Newspapers were always around me. Everyone in my family was an avid newspaper reader, and when I was young, I have vivid memories of my Dad reading the Los Angeles Times sports section, particularly Jim Murray. Once I moved up to San Francisco, I just remember it always being around.

I also have some family lineage. My grandfather on my Dad’s side was a journalist. He was a Romanian-American journalist, and edited a Romanian-American newspaper out of Detroit. I never knew him, but perhaps it was generational osmosis! My grandfather on my Mom’s side was a songwriter, so we have writing in my family. I also have a younger brother, Mark Fainaru-Wada, and he is also a journalist who along with his partner, Lance Williams with the San Francisco Chronicle, broke the BALCO steroids scandal and wrote the book Game of Shadows.

In addition, I played baseball in high school, and there was a guy from the Chronicle who used to cover our games, and I was always fascinated with what he did. I just thought it would be the coolest thing that you could write a story, and it would appear in the newspaper with your name. It is to this day, the best decision I have made in my life. It has given me years and years of happiness and fulfillment, and I just feel very fortunate that somehow I knew when I was a teenager that this is what I really wanted to do.

always dressed informally, but were always carrying guns.

There was always this curiosity about what these people did and who they were.

At the end of 2006, I went back to Iraq and started trying to do stories on the private security industry. We started out just trying to look at one company and its culture, and try to understand how many there were, who they worked for, what the contracts were like, how much risk was involved, how much combat they were seeing, and then it expanded to be something more investigative. We kept hearing about undocumented shootings of civilians that these security contractors had been involved in, huge amounts of money being spent to support these guys, and the lack of regulation that surrounded the industry.

There weren’t enough troops in Iraq, so these things just started organically. There weren’t enough troops, so they didn’t have enough people to do the jobs, like convoy protection, protecting military installations, or guarding diplomats, so they needed to hire these security guys to do it. Since the industry grew up on the fly, there were literally hundreds of companies and tens of thousands of armed men running around with zero regulation coming out of the military and the US Government about how they should be monitored, prosecuted if they committed a crime, and all kinds of other things. None of that existed.

So we did all kinds of stories that got into those issues, and those were the stories that ultimately were submitted for the Pulitzer and that ultimately won.

The Carnation: Tell us a little more about your Pulitzer Prize winning entry.

Fainaru: They submitted ten stories that were representative of the work we had been doing all last year on private security contractors in Iraq. I had started covering Iraq in 2004, and I covered the military mostly. While I was there, these private security contractors were everywhere. I didn’t really know what they did, but I’d see them everywhere. They were

The Carnation: Can you give us a perspective of what it was like for you reporting from the war zone in Iraq?

Fainaru: There has been a lot of criticism about the media from both sides. People have said that the media had portrayed the war too negatively, and other people have felt like it has been glossed over.

The one thing I would say about it is that I always felt as bad as it seemed over here, it was always like a hundred

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times worse when you were there. The pervasive violence and the militarization of a culture, it’s really an awesome and humbling thing to behold. To me, there is no real semblance of a country left in Iraq. It’s a war culture where everyone’s world is basically dictated and controlled and lived in response to the reality of the violence around them. The profound ways in which that affects your life can’t be overstated.

People would say to me “it’s just isolated bombings” and my response would be that Baghdad is a city of 7 million people. There were times when I was there that there would be four, five or even six bombings in a day. Imagine four, five or six bombings per day in downtown Chicago, and what that would do to a society. It affects the way you take your kids to school, the way you socialize, the way you shop, and every single aspect of your life. Not to mention that there are now very few people in Iraq that don’t know someone close to them who has been killed.

I think what’s it’s like being there is living with this oppression of violence. It’s a culture that went from the oppression of Saddam Hussein to the pervasive oppression of violence. The irony is that a lot of Iraqis would prefer to go back to Saddam just because it was somewhat peaceful in its own weird way. There’s not anything even remotely glamorous about it, like it is sometimes glamorized or glorified in the movies and in literature.

The Carnation: What’s it like to know that now and forever you will be called “Pulitzer Prize Winning Writer Steve Fainaru?”

Fainaru: It’s surreal basically. It doesn’t seem quite real, even now after it has happened.

The Carnation: How did you find out that you won?

Fainaru: It was actually kinds of sad how I found out. One of the stories we did included me following around a private security company, and in particular four Americans who were working for this company. And shortly after I left, all four of them were kidnapped on the main road in Southern Iraq, and I ended up writing two long stories. One was about the company that they worked for, and one was about them.

They had been missing for almost a year and a half, and finally their bodies were recovered in Basra. Nobody had known what had happened to them, but finally it was suspected that they weren’t alive. The US authorities were able to recover their bodies.

So, I had gone to a funeral for one of these contractors in Lees Summit, Missouri outside Kansas City, and the funeral was over, but I had gone back to the reception at one of his relatives’ houses. There were a lot of people there, and all of a sudden my phone started ringing. I thought I had turned it off, but I saw it was the office and walked outside to get it, and that’s when they told me. So, it was this really somber setting, but at the same time, I had just been told something

Photo Credit: Eileen Barroso/Columbia University Steve Fainaru, Missouri ’81, (right) stands with Richard Oppel, Pulitzer Board co-chair, as Fainaru was presented with his 2008 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting

that was completely inconceivable to me. I was kind of numbed by the news, and it was so mind blowing that it was hard to compute at the time.

It really started to hit home when the Washington Post had a big celebration after they had won a record six Pulitzers this year. I went back with my son, Will, and brother for the official announcement, which was two days after I was told, which was really quite amazing. To be surrounded by your friends and colleagues and to be honored for an award that doesn’t seem like it would have ever happened to you, it was amazing.

The Carnation: Talk about what the best part about it has been.

Fainaru: Since it’s happened, by far the best thing about it has been that I have heard from hundreds of friends, including lots and lots of Delta Sigs that I hadn’t really been in touch with in years, the old high school math teachers. It has been so amazing to be able to share with these people who you have these connections with throughout your life.

The fact that my mother is so incredibly thrilled is great as well! (laughs) The Carnation: Tell us about the book you’re working on.

Fainaru: It’s about private security contractors in Iraq. It’s about the four Americans who went to work for the private security company, and were kidnapped and ultimately killed.

It’s in a context of the explosion of the private security industry in Iraq, how that happened, and what it meant to the war. It’s a look at mercenary life in Iraq.

Steve Fainaru is an international reporter for the Washington Post, and resides in El Cerritos, CA. To read the full interview, check out www.deltasig.org/pulitzer.

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Leadership & Education

A DELTA SIG PREPARES FOR

BOOTCAMP

By Chris Linden, Millikin ’05

Three soldiers stealthily ascend the sunlit stairwell, gently, quietly, to avoid detection. They reach a door and surround it, signal a code, then organize for the assault. Closest to the door, one soldier painstakingly turns the knob. He looks back at the others, double-checking his backup, his grip on the M-16 rifle tightening. He throws his weight into the door and it flies open. A lone enemy scampers to new hiding as the soldiers storm the room. The lead soldier, a tall, gangly, overconfident young man, rushes to the back of the apartment. One companion follows as backup; the other lingers to clear a perimeter.

Shouts ring out as the soldiers ambush the startled insurgent.

“Get down,” they shout. “Or we’ll shoot.”

More shouting from the lone gunman. “Stop it – not today,” he says, followed by the rapid pop-pop-pop of the M-16 and a series of shattering ricochets. Everything in the room, including the insurgent, is sprayed with a merciless clamor of munitions.

In the imagination, this is a war zone.

In reality, three friends stage a war in their apartments using plastic BB guns, one of which looks like an authentic M-16 made of clear plastic.

In their imagination, they practice for the real thing. It’s an unsettling reality as David Cluver, Millikin ’04, bides his final weeks until he begins boot camp with the U.S. Marine Corps. By this

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time next year, he might re-enact a similar scene in the neighborhoods of Baghdad.

Cluver has always been fascinated with war. As a boy, he imagined himself in the jungles of Vietnam and the sands of Normandy, in an epic battle. Sure, he played sports like baseball, basketball and football, but Cluver’s long, narrow body frame always made him a bit awkward. He enjoyed sports but when it came to war, he was in his element. Back in elementary school, when he lived in suburban River Grove, Illinois, Cluver and his friends swapped strategies and teams as they dueled with Nerf guns in the schoolyard.

He was inspired watching war movies with his father, who served in Vietnam. Cluver played Army with his friends, wore camouflage clothing to school and begged his father to visit the Army surplus store every weekend.

It was not uncommon to find Cluver at the library, engrossing himself in any book he could find on World War II and Vietnam.

His mother, though, was less enthusiastic. Never one for violence or guns, Ellen Cluver discouraged her son’s military dreams. “My mom hates weapons and guns,” Cluver said. “She was worried I’d become a serial killer.

Her brothers always played sports, and I did that too, but I loved playing Army more.”

The games continued until the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

When a Marine recruiter called him the next day, he skipped classes to enlist. His parents convinced him to attend college instead, and he agreed.

By the summer of 2007, Cluver approached Staff Sgt. Brian Zeifang, a Marine recruiter in Decatur, Illinois.

About a year before boot camp, he began a strenuous physical regiment in preparation. Bare minimum, Marines must do at least three pullups, 44 crunches in two minutes and run a mile and a half in under 13 minutes. Cluver and his fellow “poolees” also spent one night a week practicing calisthenics and trivia to further prepare them for the most rigorous requirements of the nation’s five service branches.

Their weekly poolee meetings begin with the same routine. Entering the storefront office where the Marines, along with the Army, Navy and Air Force recruiting stations operate, Cluver approaches the office door, stiffens his poise and waits for his staff sergeant to begin. The tall, lanky officer steps outside the office and mutters, “Motivate me.”

Cluver pounds on the door frame.

“Good evening, gentlemen. Poolee Cluver requests permission to enter the office, gentlemen.”

Zeifang, standing opposite Cluver, wrinkles his eyes and analyzes every minutiae, then mutters in his low voice, “Get in there.”

Cluver lumbers to the desk and stands at attention, rigid as a soldier

awaiting orders. “Poolee Cluver reporting as ordered, sir.”

“Get down,” Zeifang orders.

Cluver drops to the ground and pounds out 10 Marine pushups, which means he must go down-up-down-up to have done one. The other poolees, already prepared for the day’s workout, mock Cluver’s technique and his long, lanky frame, which takes up most of the small office.

Since the ground is covered in a spring snow, Zeifang tells his poolees to stay in the building for drill, so the men practice their Physical Fitness Test requirements and additional calisthenics. Everyone begins with pull ups. Sizemoore, who looks like a lumbering linebacker, jumps on the bar and pumps out 14. Then Cowboy, a thin teenager little taller than 5 feet, jumps up to the bar. The guys rile him: “How many this time, Cowboy?”

Cowboy makes the first 14 pull ups look easy. He struggles through two more as the poolees rile him and tell him to finish more than the 15 he did last week.

Then Cluver steps up. He’s so tall he can reach the bar without effort.

He barely finishes six, then quits. Pull ups aren’t his strong point. “I shouldn’t have worked my arms yesterday,” he says. The others nod, agreeing that an arms workout was a bad idea. They laugh at him.

Despite all their preparations, there’s only so much a Marine poolee can do before boot camp. “It’s a total reality check,” Zeifang tells the men later in the evening. “It’s going to open your eyes a lot. Boot camp is tough; it’s hard. But it’s all about heart and drive and determination.”

There’s a long road ahead of Cluver, and his father, Dan, is one to know. Dan received his draft notice the day he graduated from high school and served in Vietnam. “I don’t think the boy understands what’s ahead of him,” he said. “They are going to

David Cluver, Millikin ’04, with his parents on a trip to Washington, DC in March 2008.

break you down. Boot camp, I think, will be a shock to him.”

During the 12 weeks, his only communication with the outside comes through letters home. It’s a challenge with a high price. He calls home several times a week and maintains a strong bond with both of his parents, especially his father. It’s similar to the relationship Dan shares with his own father, a veteran of World War II. As his son embarks on a familiar journey, he’s learned some startling truths about himself.

“You’ll find me with a mixed bag,” Dan said. “I’m proud of him that he’s decided to do this, but I know I will lay awake some nights just thinking about him. Now I’m learning what it’s like to have a son in that situation.

I’m beginning to feel how my father must have felt when I went away.”

David looks up to his father as a best friend, a father and a hero. In spite of his admirations, he is also keenly aware of the price that comes with the military. One thing Dan always told his son, through all the war movies, all the games, the clothing and the books was to respect the sobriety of war. “I want to go to war,” he said. “My dad served, my grandpa served, so why should I get off easy?

I don’t want to take the high road.”

Cluver left for the San Diego training base June 23, and the likelihood of him seeing combat is almost certain, Zeifang said. Despite a lifetime of preparation, the impending reality of Cluver’s dream slowly sinks in, each day becoming an ever more present reality. “My whole world is going to be turned upside down,” Cluver said.

“Everything you wanted to be you are now. I don’t know how you can be ready for that.”

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Leadership & Education

ALUMNI PROFILE BOB CONWAY, ST. FRANCIS ’69

Bob Conway, St. Francis ’69, never thought he’d be where he is today – the Vice Admiral in charge of all US Navy Installations around the world.

In fact, in a recent interview, he said, “I never in a million years thought I would get to where I am today.”

A native of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania who attended the small St. Francis College (now St. Francis University) in Loretto, Pennsylvania, his post-graduation life has been a whirlwind full of travel and immense responsibility, all from his choice of careers that he made as he was finishing up college.

Conway was an education major with an emphasis in history at St. Francis and was preparing to become a teacher and football coach upon his graduation, when the influence of his father helped him look at a different career path with the United States Navy. His father, who had served active duty in World War II and the Korean War, was a reserve Navy Captain during Conway’s childhood, and his son grew up seeing him doing his weekly drills with the reserves.

“As I was finishing up school, I looked at the Navy options because of that affiliation, took some tests, and ended up getting accepted to the Navy Officer Candidate School.

Come graduation, I started my training and my Naval career,” he said.

While Conway was in college and while as he was beginning his Naval career, the Vietnam War was still going on, which caused many of his classmates from the Officer Candidate School, and Conway himself, to go to shore duty because there was no room on the ships since the war was winding down.

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His first stop on his career-long journey was on shore duty at a Naval facility in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. “I had the influence there of someone who said ‘what are you doing here? You’re a designated surface guy so why aren’t you at sea?’ So, I went to sea about 18 months later,” he said.

His first ship was from Charleston, South Carolina where he served as a designated surface warfare officer. His primary expertise is on both cruisers and destroyers. In fact, most of his career has been spent with those ships.

He began as a division officer, the entry-level position where he accumulated leadership skills, managed budgets and for the first time, had men to lead.

This was the first time he learned the maxim “You manage things, but you lead people.”

From there, he continued on more ships as he moved forward in his career, leading to positions of

increased responsibility. His characterization of them – “they were like lilly pads leading to positions of increased responsibility within the Navy.”

Within the Navy, the increased responsibilities are recognized in a couple ways – first, through promotion in rank, and second, within the ranks are various competitive assignments that lead to command at sea.

After a number of promotions, he was selected for his first command on a ship that went over during the first Gulf War in the Middle East in 1990.

Upon returning from his first command, Conway bounced between shore and sea positions, including commanding the first Expeditionary Strike Group in the current Iraq War. “That group took a whole bunch of ships, including Marines, over to the Gulf, and in the other places in the world where you have the terrorists operating right now,” he said. “In that command, I actually went ashore in Basra in Iraq doing a couple patrols with the Brits and the Marines.

We were also patrolling the Al-Faw Peninsula on the border of Iran, where all of the oil is,” he said.

His current command, which is his seventh, is a shore command where he serves as the Vice Admiral in charge of all US Navy Installations around the world.

The scope of his position is huge, mammoth, amazing, (insert your superlative here). He oversees 80 Navy bases worldwide, which are separated into 13 Navy regions. “What that means is that we’re in charge of about 60,000 people with a PRV, or plant replacement value, which means the value of all the stuff we have on

those bases, of about $104 billion. I have an annual operating budget exceeding $9 billion,” he said.

With that type of scope and responsibility, Conway frequently visits those installations around the world to support the fleet, the fighters and their families – the main responsibilities of his command. How do they accomplish that?

“We support them as I say from soup to nuts on all of the bases,” he said. That soup to nuts approach includes properly maintaining the infrastructures on the bases so the sailors have a good place to work.

In addition, there are things that you might not think about that are in Conway’s command, including supporting the families through the child care centers that they have on the bases. “We do child care in one form or another, from the ages of 3 months to 18 years old, in terms of providing recreation and infrastructure for this to happen. That is because our sailors, both men and women, are involved in jobs and there is an insatiable demand for child care that wasn’t there 10 years ago,” Conway said.

Also in Conway’s command is developing the infrastructure for providing educational opportunities to the sailors, where off base colleges come onto the base to educate the sailors so they may get additional college credits.

The command also provides the morale, welfare and recreation, which includes providing fitness facilities, gyms, ball fields and intramural sports, as well as training facilities for the Navy’s world-class athletes.

His role and command is also in charge of the galley support and mess halls on the bases, the utilities on all of the bases worldwide, salaries of the civilians who work on the bases, the planning for operating with agencies and interagencies for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, security, training, and housing for all of the people.

“There are a lot of different moving parts here that we do on a daily basis worldwide,” Conway said. He doesn’t do it alone, and like the Fraternity, there are different levels in place to handle the different aspects of the large scope of the responsibilities of his command.

“We can break it up into three levels. The bases operate at what we call the tactical level. That’s the execution of everything we have talked about like keeping the lights on, running the place, entry control points, etc. When you roll those bases up into those 13 regions we talked about, the regions are at the operational level where they are doing the overview of the bases in their region. Then, here at the Headquarters, we are at the strategic level, which is like the umbrella over all of this.”

All of the efforts that are undertaken by Conway on a daily basis stem from his tremendous leadership and management abilities. As he said, he leads people and manages things, and does each very well.

Around the time this interview took place, Conway had given a talk to the graduates of the ROTC program at the University of Notre Dame about his thoughts on leadership. He told them that leaders are taught and not born, something that flies in the face of what is often heard. In addition, he said, “Real leadership gets down to being truthful, having integrity, taking care of your people always, executing the mission, and taking the responsibility and accountability that goes with being a leader.

When you’re leading people and they’re looking up to you, there is a modicum of respect that goes both ways. You’ll get the respect when you give the respect.”

His success in his leadership has been plentiful, as have the commendations and awards that he has won.

They include the Defense Superior Service Medal, six awards of the Legion of Merit, four awards of the

Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, and many more. As a true leader however, he gives all the credit to others, “They represent the hard work of other people. All those ribbons mean that someone else was doing a lot of work, and I got the credit for it,” he said.

Going back to his days as an undergraduate member of Delta Sig, he was as humble as he is now, and also honed his leadership skills.

He served as the Pledge Educator where he led the new members to brotherhood, a pre-cursor to his leadership of the men he commands today. He has a great deal of positive memories about his time in the chapter, and what has come out of the time he spent while at St. Francis as a Delta Sig. “I think the four years in college, three of which in Delta Sigma Phi, were very, very positive. In fact, the Fraternity is still a big part of my life.

Some of my closest friends today are Delta Sigs, and we get together with them every year. We’ve kept in touch over the years, and I am probably more friendly and more in touch with my fraternity brothers than others.

That’s because of that bond we struck up while in school,” he said.

As Vice Admiral Bob Conway prepares to retire from the Navy in 2009, the leadership and passion for his job over the years make his retirement likely bittersweet for the people in his command. They’re likely happy that he is able to retire, but will miss his outstanding leadership going forward.

As he leaves his position, he has some pieces of advice for the brothers across the country.

“Jump into your job with a passion.

Always tell the truth. Know your business. Have fun with what you’re doing. That’s infectious with those you’re leading, and when they pick up on that, they’ll do whatever you need to get done and you’ll have a great time doing it!”

FALL 2008

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Travel & Tourism

HOW TO TRAVEL ON THE

CHEAP Airlines are cutting back flights and charging for everything they possibly can – including checking luggage and in some cases even sitting in an aisle seat. Pretty soon, they’re going to begin charging you for each piece of toilet paper you use, or each napkin you are required to have to put under your cup for your soda. (Not really, but that seems to be where this is heading…)

Gas is hitting the roof. To drive from home to work is becoming increasingly expensive due to the continued rise in the cost of gasoline.

On the news, you see that more and more people are beginning to bike or take public transportation – both good moves if feasible!

In this down economy, our brothers, and everyone else, who used to travel regularly are taking more and more time off from hitting the roads/skies.

However, when travel is necessary for business or pleasure, we hope that you will find value in the resources outlined below that are intended to assist in helping you travel more cheaply and efficiently.

AIRFARE When booking airfare, there are a number of ways and places to look to find the best fares. If you look online, there are hundreds of sites that give you travel ideas and tips for finding good airfares. We tried to consolidate the main tips below to help you.

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TIPS: 1. Buy early – With airlines continuing to cut down on service and ground planes, it is best to look for your fares early. If you can book four months ahead of time, you are likely to easily find a flight and seat that you want, and you lock in your fare in case it rises as your trip gets closer.

2. Know When to Buy – Use the web site www.farecast.com to see a history of when airlines have the cheapest fares. In my research, I did an example search from O’Hare in Chicago to San Diego for a trip I was taking about a month and a half after I wrote this story. The site advised me to buy, as it was likely that the cost would rise within the next seven days by between $26 and $52. There was a high level of confidence using their history tracking technology.

3. Be Flexible – According to Rickseaney.com, a travel blog led by travel expert Rick Seaney, the cheapest day of the week to travel is Wednesday. If you can book your trip for a Wednesday, you are likely to find cheap airfares. The next best days are Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Rick also says not to travel on holidays or major events to find cheap fares.

4. Sign up for all of the Frequent Flyer Programs – While these days, it’s harder and harder to find non-

blacked out seats when you want to use your miles, you might as well sign up for all of these free programs to get something for traveling on the airlines. If you happen to fly enough to earn a free flight, you’ll be glad you signed up originally.

WHERE TO LOOK: 1. Online sites like Orbitz, Hotwire, Expedia and Travelocity are all good for comparing prices of the major carriers. However, when you go to buy the tickets, you are better off going to the carrier’s site specifically to avoid the service charge (usually $5) that are charged by the aforementioned travel sites.

2. Don’t forget to check out discount carriers like JetBlue and Southwest when booking. While most times they are not included in the comparisons you’ll find on Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity, you can find some great deals on flying on these airlines, AND in the case of JetBlue, they have newer planes and some additional perks like live television that the other carriers don’t have.

HOTELS Hotels are another part of the travel experience whose price can be cut, even slashed, to allow for cheaper travel. Check out a few sites on page 48 that can be excellent opportunities for finding cheaper hotel travel, but

TIPS FROM BROTHERS Delta Sig asked brothers on the Delta Sigma Phi Circle for some of their tips on traveling cheaply and efficiently, and here is what we found out:

partner banks that you can use their ATMs for no charge (e.g. Bank of America and Deutsche Bank).

John Hooker, New Mexico State ’96

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TRAVELING INTERNATIONALLY

• Be wary of the money changers. Never EVER change your money with someone on the street or at the border, no matter how often they tell you that you can’t change your current currency in the next country.

The same should also be said for ForEx stands in the airport.

Go to a bank, or use an ATM card to take out local currency.

Ken April, Penn State ’89 • Research the public transportation and stay at a hotel outside of town and close to a main train, tram or bus station. We stayed at a nice hotel in the business center of Paris, La Defense, for $75 a night. It was 3X less expensive than in the city center and only a 10 minute direct tram ride from the major attractions If you travel frequently, look into opening an account at a bank with no foreign transaction fees. Some banks gold plate their toilet seats off the fees they collect from these transactions. Many Credit Unions and banks will allow withdrawals and purchases for little or no charge (e.g. Capital One Bank).

Also, some banks have foreign

2

TRAVELING TO VEGAS

• If you are traveling to Las Vegas, some good resources are a couple of web sites called cheapovegas.com (they are also a good link for coupons and other deals) and A2ZLV.com.

I found good deals on monorail passes by buying all day passes earlier in the summer when they were on sale. They are good for up to a year after they are issued.

Ron Willer, Central Michigan ‘85

3

BOOKING HOTELS

• Through my work, I am able to use a government/military rate for hotels and other things.

Some may not know they have access to this discount. I may get an initial hotel rate of $175, but when I “click” on government/military, the rate could be cut in half or at least $20 cheaper.

Nathan Wight, Illinois State ’97 • Two tips to bring down the accommodation prices in the future are stay at the same chain and more importantly same hotel. They all have computers and like to see

you have visited before, and because you are coming back they will be even better with customer service.

John Dandin, CSU East Bay ’93

4

TAKING THE PATH LESS TRAVELED

• Traveling for me has always been the free and easy way, camping. There are so many locations along the unbeaten path that may not be mainstream, but offer a more beautiful and enjoyable experience.

You do need to bring along all the essentials and leave the camp as clean as when you arrived, but there is nothing better than waking up with nature and hearing the sounds of a river alongside your camp, tent or travel trailer.

I typically do not pay and seek the more primitive campgrounds. There are campgrounds with reasonable rates and they offer water and the basics such as restrooms for $10 - $15 per site if you use national forest or BLM campgrounds. But traveling an even less traveled road offers even less expensive camping adventures, which typically offer more wildlife and greater unspoiled splendor.

Dane Zahner, Central Michigan ’86

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Travel & Tourism be careful – by using these sites, you will not get your valuable hotel rewards points!

1. Priceline.com – Priceline boasts that you can save up to 50% on 4-star hotel rooms in cities across the country by “Naming Your Own Price.” In my experience, I have been able to get discounts that are even better than that – sometimes as much as 60-70% off the published prices on the hotel sites themselves.

Imagine this – on my frequent business trips for the Fraternity, I have often stayed at 4-star hotels downtown in cities across the country for between $50 and $60 per night. Even with the taxes, service fees and parking costs added to that, I always pay less than I would at a Hampton Inn, and get four-star treatment. A few drawbacks are that you don’t know the hotel at which you are staying until you have already accepted the price, you have to pay up front so if your plans change you are out of luck, and you don’t accrue hotel rewards points since you are purchasing your room from an outside vendor. To avoid the latter, you can pay with a credit card tied to hotel rewards points, and get one point for every dollar you spend, which allows you to continue bringing in hotel points during your stays.

2. Hotwire.com – With its catchy, twangy commercial jingle, this site boasts “4-star hotels at 2-star prices”, a claim that is hard to fathom considering most times, you can find better prices for 4-star hotels on Priceline by naming your own price. However, one of the positive things about Hotwire is that you are able to see the general area of the hotels they are promoting for the low prices, even though they do not tell you the exact hotel on which you are bidding. If you know the city, you can likely figure out which hotel it is without them telling you,

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which is a nice addition to the low prices you receive.

Driving Cheaply/Car Rental With the gas prices out of control, are you always checking out the signs at the stations trying to find the cheapest price as you are driving and burning your gas away? How about finding good rental car deals? Where are the best places to find those, and what are some tips for the rental car experience?

See below for your answers.

FINDING CHEAP GAS 1. Gasbuddy.com – This web site has an amazingly robust database of the lowest gas prices in your county and even city – all the way down to the exact store and location of the cheapest gas. When I went to the site, I searched in my county and then my town, and found the lowest gas price is at the store at which I usually do all of my grocery shopping – lucky me! You too can find out the nearest low gas prices by heading online to this web site.

2. Autos.msn.com – On this web site, you can also find the cheapest gas prices in your area. While it didn’t show all of the stores and didn’t seem as robust as Gasbuddy, it is another option when checking out where the best place is to fill ‘er up.

RENTAL CAR TIPS 1. Take the gas option if bringing your car back empty – At most car rental agencies, they charge you at a much lower price per gallon to fill up the car upon its return, so make sure to take the gas option, and bring back the car bone dry. The drawback is if you still have gas in the tank when you return the car, you have essentially given the company free gas since you already paid for a full tank up front.

2. Make sure to bring your car back full of gas (if you don’t take the gas option) – If you don’t buy a full tank up front, and decide to fill it

up yourself before returning, be sure to bring it back full or you will be charged heftily upon your return. In most cases, rental companies charge double the cost of gas at the local station if you don’t bring it back full, so be sure to do so, or you will pay the price, literally.

3. Know your insurance policy – Check to make sure with your car insurance company that you are covered while driving rental cars. If so, you don’t need to purchase that policy for $13/day that the companies try to sell you.

RENTAL CAR RESOURCES: 1. Priceline.com – Going back to Priceline here, as you can also “Name Your Own Price” for rental cars and save a bundle – up to 30% according to their site. This works best if you are renting at an airport as opposed to it being a local rental, so keep that in mind as you think about utilizing this resource. You go in, put in your airport, put in your arrival and departure times, and place a bid. It’s that easy, and you get a response in seconds on whether your price was accepted.

Again, you pay up front and don’t get your rental car points, but you save a good chunk of change.

2. Rentalcars.com – This site provides you a list of the cost of cars at your location for at least seven of the top rental car companies that service your destination. It provides per day and total fees, and different from Priceline, allows you to not pay until you pick up the car. This option is another good one for renting a car in your destination at a cheap rate.

We hope that the ideas and resources contained in this story will be able to help you in your quest for cheaper travel on your next trip. May you have safe (and cheap) travels ahead of you!

Books By Brothers KAPU ‘AINA

LANGUAGES OF THE HEART

By Terry Fritts, Kansas State ’70 ISBN: 978-0979151439

By Keith Davis, Eureka ’05 and Kevin Davis, Eureka ’05 ISBN: 978-1604746655

TERROR RIPS AT THE SOUL OF HAWAII. Tourism grinds to a halt as a series of catastrophic attacks isolate the islands from the world.

In Russia, four suitcase nukes are missing and the Russians are blaming the United States for the theft. On the mainland, a deadly Ebola strain has begun to claim its victims. Could Aioka Matsuura, the mastermind behind the terrorist group the Red Summit, be responsible for all these acts? Jotty, Jim, Haruko, and Eddie, agents with the NCTC believe he is, and now they must stop Aioka before he stops them. All leads point to the Big Island as the center of this firestorm of terror.

Viktor, a Russian FSB agent, joins the NCTC team to find the nukes before another city is destroyed. Not everyone is happy about it. It is a chilling fast-paced race to save millions from death and destruction.

And could a tsunami really cover the entire island?

WARBIRD ACE: THE GREAT WAR EXPLOITS OF CAPT. FIELD E. KINDLEY

By Jack Ballard, Arkansas ’49 ISBN: 978-1585445541 Captain Field E. Kindley, with the famous Eddie Rickenbacker, was one of America’s foremost World War I flying aces. Like Rickenbacker’s, Kindley’s story is one of fierce dogfights, daring aerial feats, and numerous brushes with death. Yet unlike Rickenbacker’s, Kindley’s story has not been fully told until now.

Field Kindley flew with the famous “War Birds” who trained in England and gained experience with the RAF before providing leadership for the U.S. Air Service. Flying Sopwith Camels throughout his war career, Kindley was the fourth-ranking American air ace, with twelve kills in close, air-to-air combat. His exploits earned him a Distinguished Service Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster from the United States and a Distinguished Flying Cross from the British government. By the end of the war, Kindley was showing signs of flight fatigue, but he declined leave in order to assure a postwar career in the Air Service. He was called to testify before Congress about the need to maintain aerial preparedness after the war.

He died in 1920 after taking over Rickenbacker’s famous 94th Aero Squadron, and Dr. Jack Ballard has told at last the story of this little-known hero from the glory days of aerial warfare.

Sometimes our hearts speak to us in a language which we do not recognize and rarely attempt to translate. It is the ultimate foreign language of love, hurt and pain that we all come in contact with on a daily basis. Languages of the Heart is the interpretation of all feelings and emotions that life brings in fifty poems. Each poem symbolizes how the heart feels when it comes in contact with certain situations and allows you to understand the heart’s reaction. Written in love, the heart’s pen strokes delicately define our lives from beginning to end while never lifting the pen from the page. Through the situations expressed in these poems, you will be able to apprehend every situation, every dialect, spoken by your heart.

A MORE VALUED SUCCESS

By Paul Spitale, Eastern Michigan ’83 ISBN: 978-0595713899 Live your values. Make your decisions based on who you are and what you would like to be. Create a less complicated, more value-driven life. A More Valued Success fills a void in the selfhelp market with a simple five-step program to help you assess your values and do the necessary work in order to act on those principles. The program helps you define what is important in your life and what impact these values have on your everyday decision making. By placing your values at the forefront of your decisions and actions, you will have a much more enjoyable, satisfying, and fulfilling life. You will start to feel more important because what you say and do will represent who you are. People will notice and react positively because you will have become one of those people you used to admire from a distance-a person who takes actions based on their true values.

Brother Spitale is donating 20% of the proceeds from each sale of his book to four noble causes: Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation National Association for Autism Research The Rodman Ride for Kids Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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Tech Trends

THE FUTURE OF HOW WE SEE

TELEVISION If you were ever to sit around the lunch table at the Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity Headquarters, you would hear conversations that cover a myriad of topics. From politics to sports to travel to current events, the staff members at the Fraternity Headquarters delve into one or more of them every day.

One day during the Fall of 2007, a conversation started about how on February 17, 2009, all televisions would need to be able to capture digital signals, or they would be dark.

Each person around the table had a different idea of what was actually going to take place, which led the Fraternity’s Director of Finance, Carol Arenstein, to say “this would

make an excellent Carnation article.” After thinking about it for a while, it seems that Carol was right on target.

While many of us probably already have digital cable through our cable providers, for a number of us who don’t, there is a lot to learn. Basically, all cable television providers will stop broadcasting on analog airwaves and begin to ONLY broadcast on digital airwaves on February 17, 2009.

Below is more detailed information on how Delta Sigs can be prepared for this changeover.

Why is this happening?

According to FCC, the main government entity taking the lead on this changeover, the analog airwaves are being allocated for public service and advanced wireless services.

Plus, with the digital spectrum being more efficient, digital provides better television picture and sound, as well as the ability for more programming options such as multicasting, which essentially allows digital TV providers to show more than one show on a channel at once – (one digital show on channel 7-1, another digital show on 7-2, another on 7-3, etc.)

So, essentially the reason this change is happening is to allow for more efficiency and for a more robust viewing experience for television viewers. In addition, it allows additional space for public service organizations like the police and fire departments to communicate effectively.

As we all have seen with what happened on 9/11/01, efficient communication was desperately needed for our law enforcement communities.

How will this change affect those who use an antenna?

According to www.dtv.gov, the federal government’s web site dedicated to the DTV Changeover, you won’t be affected if

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you have a digital television with an internal digital tuner, or a box from your cable company. However, if you have an analog television, you will need to get a digital-to-analog converter box.

“If you have one or more televisions that receive free overthe-air television programming (with a roof-top antenna or “rabbit ears” on the TV), the type of TV you own is very important. A digital television (a TV with an internal digital tuner) will allow you to continue to watch free over-the-air programming after February 17, 2009. However, if you have an analog television, you will need a digital-to-analog converter box to continue to watch broadcast television on that set. This converter box will also enable you to see any additional multicast programming that your local stations are offering.”

How does the digital-to-analog converter box work, and is there any assistance in paying for one?

The digital-to-analog box works to convert the digital signal that will be utilized after February 19 that is captured by your antenna to analog, so the televisions that only have analog signals can view broadcast television. It will allow these people the opportunity to not have to go out and buy a new television set, but to continue watching broadcast television, as well as the multicasting that will be available, on their current televisions. You will still need your antenna hooked up to receive the signal on these televisions, however.

Manufacturers say that the digital-to-analog converter boxes will cost between $40 and $70 at electronics retailers, and the government is offering a coupon program to help those who need to purchase these boxes. Again, according to www.dtv.gov, “The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), a part of the Department of Commerce, administers this program. Every U.S. household is eligible to receive up to two coupons, worth $40 each, toward the purchase of eligible digital-toanalog converter boxes. Beginning in January of 2008, the NTIA has begun accepting applications for coupons. The coupons may only be used for eligible converter boxes sold at participating consumer electronics retailers, and the coupons must be used at the time of purchase.”

How does someone apply for the coupon to assist in purchasing a digital-to-analog converter box, and where can I purchase a converter box?

It will be easy to find a retailer who sells the digital-to-analog converter boxes, as the government will send you a list of local retailers when you send in your application for one of

the aforementioned coupons. As of July 2008, the following national retailers were selling the boxes: • Best Buy • Circuit City • Kmart • RadioShack • Sears • Target • Wal-Mart Due to the overwhelming desire and demand for the coupons, the number available is limited and applications for coupons must be received by March 31, 2009. Coupons may be requested in one of four ways: 1. Call the Coupon Program’s 24-hour hotline at 1-888-DTV-2009 (1-888-388-2009), TTY: 1-877-530-2634 (English TTY) or 1-866-495-1161 (Spanish TTY) 2. Apply online at www.dtv2009.gov 3. Mail a coupon application to PO Box 2000, Portland, OR 97208-2000 4. Fax an application to 1-877-DTV-4ME2 (1-877-388-4632) In statistics released by the TV Converter Box Coupon program, by June 30, 2008, there were already 18,876,620 coupons ordered. In June itself, there were 2.83 million requests for coupons.

The moral of the story – if you need to request a coupon for a converter box, do so soon so you aren’t shut out!

So, as we wrap up this story, we hope that you are a little more knowledgeable about the upcoming changeover to digital television. If you are using a cable provider, you’re likely fine, but you should check with them to be sure. If you’re not, it’s in your best interest to check your television to see if it has an internal digital tuner. If it doesn’t, get yourself a converter box so on February 19 when you go to watch your favorite show, you aren’t watching a blank screen instead!

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In Their Own Words

AN INTIMATE LOOK AT

THE PREAMBLE SCOTT CLARK, GRAND VALLEY STATE ’01

For some of us, it is a group of words.

For others, it is something we memorized. For a few of us, it is a way of life.

So what is it? It is the Preamble. The open creed that exemplifies the ideals of our Fraternity. It is our purpose and beliefs written in 296 words for the world to see. It is everything Delta Sigma Phi stands for. It is who we are as Fraternity men.

The Preamble has endured through two world wars, a civil rights movement, and eleven Executive Directors of Delta Sig. Yet, with such a historical past and deep meaning, how often is the Preamble talked about? When is the last time you looked at it? What do the words in the Preamble mean?

Maybe the most important question of all is how can we as Brothers live up to the ideals that the Preamble prescribes on a daily basis?

In an effort to begin the discussion of what the Preamble means, I break down the Preamble into six distinct parts. I will then provide my own insight to what I think the statements and words in each part means. My hopes are that you too will do the same and share your thoughts and sentiments with the Fraternity.

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Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity in Convention assembled declares and affirms the following principles SC – Two very important points in this simple yet deep in meaning statement. First, it shares with the world for the first time who we are, Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity. The other important aspect of this statement is that it prepares every Brother and every individual for the values and beliefs we will stand for each time we introduce ourselves as a Fraternity man.

That the belief in God is essential to our welfare SC – Delta Sigma Phi’s founding was based on Christian and Jewish beliefs.

The basic concept of our organization was simply to embrace brotherhood and congeniality without regard to religion or race. Thus far in my eyes, this one straightforward statement has caused more controversy in the Fraternity than any other. Consider this; at one point in our history having beliefs other than Christian ideals caused our Jewish members to leave because of a change in our criterion

for membership. Furthermore, this notion of only allowing those with a belief in Christianity caused our founders to not communicate for 38 years. This statement in the Preamble has also caused controversy as it relates to race and sexual orientation.

As we progress into the end of the year 2008, how are we promoting this notion that God is essential to our welfare? What does it mean to have a spiritual foundation on our organization? What does this statement mean to you?

That loyalty to the constituted authority of our nations and their subdivisions is a cardinal virtue of our Brotherhood, the pledged faith of which shall never be broken and that our Brotherhood, receiving the blessings of liberty, education, and fraternity, shall ever support, foster, and defend our universities, colleges, and school systems, founded under the dispensation of our governments and constituting the bulwarks of democracy for us, for our posterity, and for all men.

SC – To me I believe this paragraph is saying we must continue to uphold our core principles in every environment.

Whether that environment is on a college campus, in the corporate world, in the military or in Congress, we must continue to be humble in the opportunities and privileges we have received as members of Delta Sigma Phi. As Brothers, we must understand that it is a freedom to be part of an organization that supports individualism and promotes a non-authoritarian structure. We must strive to create a better world for ourselves, our Fraternity, and for all mankind. How has your chapter committed itself to defending the institution in which you preside? How have you remained loyal to this thought?

That the sanctity of the home and the sacredness of the family bond, the hearthstone of our enlightened civilization, and the chivalry of man toward woman, shall be maintained and protected by us, not only for ourselves and our posterity, but also for the good of all mankind.

SC – Family should always remain at the forefront of bringing harmony to our life. We all have our various stresses – class, work, and society in general – yet we must always remember to continue our focus on the purity of our home. We must remember that the Pearl of Great Price is not just in the realm of brotherhood, but also in respect to our families. We must remember where we have come before we can make progress forward. In doing so, we are shedding positive light on the world and remembering that we are Fraternity men holding ourselves to a higher standard. We are gentlemen and scholars. We are becoming better men and in return, building better lives for ourselves and those who will follow after us.

That a symmetrical culture, a fraternal communion among the colleges of this country, and a brotherhood of men, whose ideals and beliefs are those of modern civilization, are essential to the welfare of our college men.

SC – According to Wikipedia, to be symmetrical means to have an imprecise sense of harmonious or aesthetically-pleasing proportionality and balance; such that it reflects beauty or perfection. This should be true in our purpose as a fraternal organization. In order for us to prosper, we must find a sense of symmetry in the culture that surrounds us. A sound body, a sound mind, and a sound soul are essential.

For any imbalance will create stress and hardship. What does imbalance look like in Delta Sig? It shows its face in the form of hazing, binge drinking, stereotyping, drug use, not living the Ritual, and the closing of chapters.

Much like the Sphinx, we must be able to withstand the external forces of society without fear or anger, because within the Sphinx is the essence of Delta Sigma Phi. It’s easy to make excuses for becoming unbalanced but the Sphinx reminds us to focus on the internal strength, not external secondary excuses. How is this done? It is done by living your Ritual. Not once a semester, not once a year, but daily. If you do that, you will find complete symmetry, which will reflect beauty in all that you do.

So how are you remaining balanced?

How is your chapter living the Ritual?

Where is the imbalance in your chapter or life?

In furtherance of these aims, this Fraternity has recognized certain standards of attainment and gentlemanly conduct, expressed in the ideals symbolically represented by the three Greek letters, Delta, Sigma, and Phi; and it shall be the constant

endeavor of the Brothers who may be called to preside over and govern the Fraternity, or its component chapters, to further the precepts of the Fraternity by every reasonable means within their power, and they, and each Brother of the Fraternity shall exemplify those principles, by conduct as well as enforcement in order that the Fraternity may grow and prosper with honor to itself and that the world may ever be convinced of the sincerity of our purpose.

SC – Culture, Harmony, Friendship – the three words that bind us all together as one entity. No matter if you are a President, Treasurer, Alumnus, Foundation member, Regional Director, Grand Council member, Chapter Advisor, Executive Director, or new member of Delta Sigma Phi; you have a duty to uphold.

That duty is to build better men, to be courageous, to take a stand on an issue, to believe in the ideals set forth on December 10, 1899, and to live the Ritual. Why is this important? It is because that is what separates us from every other fraternal organization. The three Greek letters, Delta, Sigma, and Phi are special for a reason. That reason is our Ritual. Thus, if we don’t live it, we are just another social organization with no meaning or purpose. We must conduct ourselves by way of the Ritual, every man, every day. If we do that, we will become the premiere Fraternity nationwide. We will grow and prosper. We will show the world that Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity is meant to be here. What are you doing to build better men? How are you contributing to the betterment of the Fraternity? How are you living the Ritual?

YITBOS Scott Clark, Grand Valley State ’01 Epsilon Tau chapter

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In Their Own Words

ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ MIKE HART, ARIZONA STATE ’84

Alcatraz Island, or the Rock as it’s known in movies and folk lore, was closed as a federal penitentiary more than 45 years ago. But that hasn’t stopped thousands of people from trying to recreate the mythological escape attempts across San Francisco Bay. An adventure that now includes three brothers of Beta Psi. Arizona State University alums Mike Hart, Arizona State ’84, Tom Hart, Arizona State ’85, and Bob Hart, Arizona State ’85, left the desert to plunge into the icy waters on May 1, 2008 as part of a fund raising effort for drowning prevention awareness.

The event, put on by Swim Neptune of Scottsdale, AZ, was the 2nd annual crossing that brought out nearly 100 swimmers. More than half of the escape artists were under 18, which required an adult chaperone to make the swim with them. Enter the Hart boys.

The motivation for the escape attempt was provided by Tom’s son, Colin Hart, who was making his 2nd crossing. He became the second youngest child in history to make the swim in 2007, which provided his uncles with the drive necessary to make the approximately 1.5 mile trek across the bay.

The swim is notorious for two main reasons: water temperature and current. The distance isn’t that forbidding for a trio of former high school caliber swimmers, it’s the 52 degree water and the tide. The 40-something brothers started training in the latter part of 2006 to build up enough stamina to complete the trek. The toughest part was adapting to the temperature.

A process made a bit easier by taking

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part in a handful of cold water swims in January and February.

It’s Go Time A flotilla of boats rocked in the early morning swells on the day of the event.

An array of yachts, row boats, zodiacs and kayaks surrounding the group as the horn sounded and swimmers from 7 to 63 took the plunge for the start of what might be the challenge of their lives. The trip over to the island was filled with half-hearted jokes about sharks and keeping our wetsuits warm, but that quickly turned to anticipation as we neared the drop zone.

crucial. Bob Roper with the San Francisco Bay Rowing Club, who helped organize the event and many others like it, timed our start to coincide with the current, so we would reach our destination in Aquatic Park in less than 90 minutes.

The fastest swimmers would complete the distance in about a half an hour. We were not in that group. It wasn’t until we reached the half way point that I stopped to turn around and take in the moment. The Beta Psi brothers had managed to stay together in a sea of swimmers.

Golden Finish

Tom Hart, Arizona State ‘85, Mike Hart, Arizona State ’84, and Bob Hart, Arizona State ’85, stand with Tom’s son Colin, following the Alcatraz swim to raise money for drowning prevention awareness.

I never felt the water as I submerged beneath it. My wetsuit brought me swiftly to the top, reminding me that if I wasn’t successful, at least I wouldn’t drown in the process. But it was a fantastic day.

The timing for our drop on the southeast corner of Alcatraz was

The Golden Gate was glistening to the west, with Alcatraz getting smaller behind us, as concern over finishing the swim transformed into whom would get there first. The taste of salt water, petroleum and some other chemicals I couldn’t quite identify, provided a little boost to try and complete this odyssey as quickly as possible.

All I know is the swim ended far too soon. We walked ashore about 45 minutes after it began, with the satisfaction of overcoming something most people wouldn’t even dream of, while doing it for charity.

The legs were a bit rubbery, the body a tad hypothermic, but the spirit firmly in tact. Three Sons of Sphinx leaving the desert to swim across this oasis. Several other Beta Psi brothers have pledged to join the group in 2009.

Mike Hart is an anchor/reporter for ABC-TV in Bakersfield, California where he lives with his wife and two sons.

He’s currently training for a return trip to Alcatraz next year with his 10-yr old son.

Obituaries James Nasti, Illinois ’75 July 4, 2008 Jim Nasti, a 1975 initiate of Delta Sigma Phi’s Alpha Alpha Chapter at the University of Illinois, passed away on July 4 after making it to the summit of America’s highest peak – Mt. McKinley in the Denali National Park in Alaska.

Nasti had a lifelong goal of making it to the summit of the highest peak in all 50 states. Mt. McKinley was #49.

Nasti leaves a wife and three sons who reside in Naperville, Illinois. To view the local news story on his passing, go to http://video.nbc5.com/player/?id=273515.

Major Perry H. Jefferson, SMU ’51 April 3, 2008 The remains of Major Perry H. Jefferson were laid to rest with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on April 3, 2008, 39 years after he vanished during an observation flight over the jungles of south Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. Jefferson was a 37-year old major in the Colorado Air National Guard when he left for what was supposed to be a three-day mission. He went missing April 2, 1969 after he and his pilot never returned from an observation flight, and was listed as MIA until his remains were identified in 2007.

Major Jefferson’s wife, Sylvia, passed away in 1992 after being involved with other military wives who were actively petitioning the Vietnamese Communist government to increase their efforts to locate and identify MIAs.

bond eternal NAME Hubert R. Stewart Francis L. Reed Robert E. Baldwin Carl Arthur Shumaker Robert W. Nash William Jennings Bush Edward R. Estes Orville Cody Thomas James Paul Nasti Russell B. Stein Charles David Peters Robert C. Davis Duane Lynn Kosht Raymon Mark Jones John Ronald Scott William Leroy Becker Richard C. Roe Andrew Robert Morrison Michael Phillip Cauchy Victor Paul Sinclair Jeffrey H. Johnson Fred S. Bailey Mitchell J. Cagalj Harold I. Purcell Robert Coe Spackeen Clinton N. Charlson John Richard Lathrop Ken Metherell Richard Soto Kenneth Wayne Kramer William Bernie Patterson Michael Jay Metersky John C. Wellington James G. Bauman Ronald Angelo Cetrone Robert Lloyd Davies William R. Hill Herbert Allen Kelly Dennis Malwitz Harrold H. Swarm Roger Glen Wolff David Milton Sneary W. Oliver Stinchcomb Clyde King Cleveland Clyde A. Barnwell Tony Wayne Sims Clyde F. Staton Bruce Roger Martin Edward C. Beach Donald Anton Walker Larry Adomaitis John Jacob Burns Nicholas A. Erickson Joshua Douglas Hankins

CHAPTER ETA LAMBDA NU RHO TAU CHI CHI CHI ALPHA ALPHA ALPHA IOTA ALPHA LAMBDA ALPHA XI ALPHA PI ALPHA RHO ALPHA UPSILON ALPHA PHI BETA ALPHA BETA THETA BETA OMICRON BETA OMICRON BETA PI BETA TAU BETA PSI BETA OMEGA BETA OMEGA GAMMA DELTA GAMMA DELTA GAMMA EPSILON GAMMA EPSILON GAMMA THETA GAMMA KAPPA GAMMA XI GAMMA SIGMA GAMMA UPSILON GAMMA UPSILON GAMMA UPSILON GAMMA UPSILON GAMMA UPSILON GAMMA UPSILON GAMMA UPSILON GAMMA UPSILON DELTA BETA DELTA ZETA DELTA ETA DELTA OMICRON DELTA OMICRON DELTA OMICRON EPSILON ALPHA EPSILON RHO EPSILON RHO EPSILON TAU ETA BETA ETA BETA THETA OMICRON

JOIN DATE 2/3/51 10/23/48 3/22/50 2/2/64 11/2/52 2/28/60 11/25/44 5/31/34 8/25/75 11/14/54 2/8/54 2/1/64 2/2/41 2/28/54 4/15/51 10/2/49 10/29/50 10/29/54 9/22/60 12/12/48 4/29/62 1/9/49 11/20/55 10/9/49 9/6/53 5/1/49 5/1/49 10/2/65 9/28/58 2/10/57 12/1/90 9/21/80 4/10/61 5/2/54 5/2/54 12/11/55 5/2/54 5/2/55 5/2/55 4/28/56 5/14/56 3/2/69 12/12/59 12/6/59 3/5/61 12/6/59 2/13/66 3/12/71 2/12/56 3/7/71 1/5/02 4/15/89 11/15/03

DECEASED DATE 4/24/08 1/17/07 2/6/08 10/29/07 12/30/07 6/10/07 3/30/08 4/13/07 7/4/08 4/27/08 3/12/08 6/20/07 5/1/08 4/23/08 2/26/08 3/13/08 11/13/07 4/12/08 12/20/07 8/27/08 12/26/07 12/5/07 8/28/08 12/26/07 11/30/07 4/25/08 4/23/08 7/7/08 7/29/08 8/30/08 8/31/07 5/14/08 4/1/08 4/1/08 4/1/08 4/1/08 4/1/08 2/27/07 4/1/08 4/1/08 4/1/08 12/2/07 6/1/08 1/31/08 12/31/07 8/17/08 12/31/07 3/23/08 5/30/08 5/23/08 6/13/08 7/22/08 3/28/07 7/9/08

Due to incomplete information, deceased dates may not be exact.

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SAVE THE DATE! 2009 DELTA SIGMA PHI CONVENTION July 22-26, 2009 at the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark

EXPERIENCE BROTHERHOOD!

My experience as a first-time attendee at the 2007 Convention is one that I will remember forever! Not only did I have the chance to give back and begin to “pay the debt” as an intern, I also had the opportunity to learn, grow, and engage in conversations with brothers from across the nation. What better way to make connections not only with active alumni, but also brothers my age whom I will stay in contact with and use as resources forever.

DJ Robinson Millikin ’05, East Boston, Massachusetts (first time attendee in 2007)

CARNATION THE

OF DELTA SIGMA PHI 1331 N. Delaware Street Indianapolis, IN 46202

SHOULD THIS MAGAZINE BE DELIVERED TO A DIFFERENT ADDRESS? UPDATE THE ADDRESS AT WWW.DELTASIG.ORG OR CALL 317-634-1899

Being a first time pilgrim, I am thrilled to have established many new friendships with Brothers new and old alike across this country.

I’m very proud to be a Delta Sigma Phi initiate and am striving myself to do whatever I can to help attain our goal in becoming America’s # 1 Fraternity! I look forward to attending the next one in St. Louis, Missouri, and future conventions.

Hoang Dinh La Verne ’91, Ontario, California (first time attendee in 2007)

NONPROFIT ORG US POSTAGE

PAID

GREENFIELD , OH PERMIT #286