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October 17, 2004

Fall Rush 2004

Expectations. Everybody's got them. Nobody is without a dream, and without a basic core set of beliefs on what their fraternity should be. And our chapter is no different. About two thirds of our active membership made it to Conclave this year, and our chapter had the biggest turnout out of all the chapters involved this year. It made us feel great being the newest chartered chapter in the fraternity. Our hopes were set high with visions for the big fall rush, and everybody was set in making it the best year of AKL. What with only one new rush and a returning pledge(Joe Demay and Adam Janot, respectively), our previous spring rush was nothing worth noting. This was going to be the best year yet. And what did we get?

Unfortunately, I'm more of a visionary than a realist. I like to think of things in terms of growth and development instead of what the present situation can allow us to do. Jeremy Slivinski, the Executive Director of AKL, told us we had to rush a minimum of eight guys to stay above the growth curve and not fall under.

The semester started great. We implemented a wish list, and we put up names of all our friends who we'd like to see as potential members. The names came in, and so we planned out the first few weeks to cater to the new freshmen: night football, barbeques at the park with volleyball and frisbee, etc. For our first intramural flag football game, we had a turnout of 14 guys, 7 of which were active members. Our opposition, the Kappa Sigmas, showed up with five guys. They looked at us and made a few low whistles, I think. They asked us if all those guys were our pledges, to which we smugly replied: maybe. And the truth was, we WERE interested in all those guys, but the problem was our retention of that interest. In my personal opinion, we just didn't have enough cool events planned to keep the interest going. Interest waned, and led to intellectual atrophy.

First, we managed to keep the interest of Brody Aston, who we had met earlier at the DBN cocktail party. He was (and is) a solid member, exhibiting almost all the traits we look for in new members. Plus, he's great to hang out with, and an all-around great guy. He was probably more crucial in our recruitment efforts than most of our guys combined. There's nothing like one pledge rushing another.

We then managed to secure the interest of Jasen Braun's younger brother, Jody. He's a great kid too, and although not overly loud and seeking attention, he's a good guy to be friends with.

Next, we had Jared Cooke's new roommate to sign: Ryan Jones. He's also fun to hang around with, and is even old enough to go to the bars and have a good time with our older members. Now we have those two members living in the same house, as well as Blaise, Jeremy, and I living in an apartment, too.

That same meeting, we asked Garrett Yocum to sign the pledge card after only knowing him for a couple of days, and he respectfully declined to discuss it over with his parents and review his financial commitments. When he said no, he sat there and blinked, and cut the uneasy silence by interjecting, "What? You're not going to clap for me or anything?" He came back a few days later and signed the card and became the fourth official pledge.

Finally, Jeff Gunn capped off our list of recruits this semester. He had hung out all semester long, and was a great guy to be around, with a few potential friends looking to join if he did. He was definitely an asset by himself, though, and we'll be seeing good things from him in the near future.

Five guys was not what we had hoped for. But most of the members seemed happy with the effort. Being the future-seeking visionary that I am, I was expecting a huge rush class of 15 or more strong guys this semester. Most wanted ten. National wanted eight. And yet we got five. Does that speak about our combined effort this semester? Maybe. Does that speak about our recruitment chairman also? Maybe. But we all know that it could have been better, and it could have been far worse. As we look forward to next semester, we have the opportunity to have as many as 9 guys join us, just from the fact that some couldn't do it this semester due to various reasons (time commitments, financial obligations, etc). Adam Janot might make it back from a broken foot in the Marines, a transfer student named John that seems to hang out more than all the other guys combined, and Jacoby, who had gone as far as contacting NHQ (National Headquarters) to get in contact with us. Sadly, all his classes (and his residence) are in Nampa, so next semester we'll (hopefully) be seeing him move into town and joining up. A few others, like JP and his friend Aaron, will be back to school in full swing come the spring semester.

We're excited for what he have in store, and now the only thing left to do is execute that which we've sought so hard to accomplish thus far.

The pledges are in week three of KAI, and will be treated to the Formal Pledging ceremony on Tuesday. After that, we're headed to Moscow, Idaho for a newly-scheduled Western Leadership Conference that National is putting on for us, Alpha Phi (U of I), and the Washington State boys (Eta chapter), both of which are highly respected chapters within our national fraternity.

So far, we have planned, organized, and done different activities and parties (per se) exclusively with the DBNs, who are our sister sorority. They are very similar to us in the way they run things, which makes planning with them much easier. Alpha Chi Omegas require planning as much as four months in advance for anything to ever happen. And the Alpha Zi Deltas are in a world of their own, somewhat. Not a derogatory at all, it's just that they operate differently than the other Greek chapters on campus. To their credit, though, they are the nicest, most sincere and happy bunch of girls ever to grace greek letters. And we mean that in the most honest sense, too.

Our midterms happen this week, which means we're at the halfway mark. We're hoping for more These Hands Don't Hurt involvment, including bringing in special speakers Phares Book and Kahli McCray. I'm also involved with the Women's Center Coordinator Melissa Wintrow, and we'll be planning some major events soon. We recently raised somewhere around $400 for the benefit of their Sexual Assault Response Line, which is an excellent resource for everybody on campus. Let's see what we can accomplish together the rest of this semesmter. After all, we're Men of Character, Committed to Making a Difference.

Posted by spunkinator at 09:02 PM