L I F E STY L E & E D U C AT IO N
reviewing today’s hottest trends in technology & communications
NEED A LYFT? You may have heard of Lyft, the American transportation network company that uses mobile devices for peer-to-peer ridesharing. What you may not have heard is that the co-founder and President of Lyft is a brother of Sigma Pi, John Zimmer (Cornell ’06). John originally founded Zimride in 2007 alongside Logan Green as a way to coordinate carpools on college campuses. The two went on to establish Lyft in the summer of 2012. The premise of Lyft is simple: Periscope, which is owned by Twitter, is taking the social media world by storm. In the first few months of its inception, Periscope has gained two million users and will soon be competing for time alongside your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat accounts. The aforementioned social media applications all provide a window into our daily lives. While these apps can show blasts from the recent past, none of them give quite an up-to-the-second view like Periscope can. Periscope is a “live video streaming platform”, which basically means you can transmit a live broadcast from your device on the platform. Similar to Facetime or Skype, Periscope uses live video, but instead of just talking to one person, your Periscope and Twitter followers can easily see exactly what you are broadcasting, as well as comment and “like” your broadcast. Follow Sigma Pi Fraternity on Periscope @sigmapi1897
by Paul Wydra (UMSL ’01), contributing writer
56.8 million people.
That is how many will play fantasy football this year in the United States & Canada. If you are reading this, most likely you are one of those 56.8 million. So how do we take advantage of that when it comes to fundraising for Sigma Pi? Sigma Pi fantasy football leagues are an easy and fun way to keep your actives & alumni involved AND give back to their chapter or colony.
Photo courtesy of James D. Smith
6 + SUMMER 2015
I started one at Theta-Omega Chapter (Middle Tennessee) a few years ago to fund a scholarship in honor of one of our Founding Fathers who passed away unexpectedly. We wanted to honor his legacy through a scholarship in his name to be awarded to a new member who has the highest GPA in his pledge class. The only problem was that we have a young alumni base still finding their way financially in their post-college lives.
1. Request a ride - With just one tap, get matched with a friendly, background-checked driver. 2. Get picked up - Track your driver’s arrival time in the app. You’ll see their photo so you know who you’re riding with. 3. Get there fast - When the ride ends, just pay with your phone. Done! Lyft currently operates in more than 60 cities in the U.S. with more than 10 million shared rides taken to date, and is valued at more than $2.5 billion. For more information, visit lyft.com If you’re using Lyft for the first time, use promo code “sigmapi” in the payments tab
I started a 16-team league and charged $50 per person, with everyone in agreement that $25 of that goes to the scholarship fund. After the season, we had $400 for the fund, while the other $400 went to division winners and the overall winner of the league. We awarded a very deserving new member who got a 4.0 GPA with the scholarship and paid for his initiation into Sigma Pi. With money left over, we purchased a plaque for the house to honor the brothers who are awarded the scholarship. Of course you can do financially whatever you see fit, maybe two leagues? Maybe $100 per person? The options are endless, and the best part is that this keeps alumni engaged with each other through the league. ESPN and Yahoo offer free fantasy football sites, as do many other online outlets. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me – paulwydra@yahoo.com. Raising money is hard but this is an opportunity that everyone can buy into - literally!