Fall 2009 Post Rush Report from the Chapter

From new chapter president, Dustin Pesch…

“Brothers,

Last week from September 14^th to September 18^th Chico State IFC held rush for Fall 2009. After several weeks of planning and preparation the semesters Recruitment Chair, Bret DeAlva managed to put on a very successful rush. With the help of this year’s exec board and new incentive systems both positive and negative, brother turn out was the best it has been in a few semesters.

When the week finally concluded the brothers of Eta Omega chose to extend 15 bids. All but one was accepted.  Four more guys were unable to pledge according to Chico State IFC because they were “unregistered” in an online system made to verify GPA requirement. Despite being eligible and registered the system showed the four guys as unregistered with IFC. Last Spring we came across the same problem and IFC let it slide, but for some reason this semester they refused to compromise.

As of right now Eta Omega’s newest pledge class, Beta Lambda, has nine members. One guy dropped last night due to financial reasons, but said he will be out next semester. For the brothers who are not aware after the Matt Carrington hazing incident in 2005, Chico IFC does not allow freshmen to pledge in the fall. This means that fall pledge classes normally number from five to ten guys on average. However we are expecting around twenty to thirty pledges next semester, which would bring the number of new members for the 2009/2010 school year above thirty-five guys, and the total chapter size to about 90 active members. The chapter is very optimistic and excited for our newest pledge class. We are positive that we have obtained the most elite group of men that were looking to join the Greek system.

Dustin Pesch
President
Theta Chi, Eta Omega Chapter”

Recap of 2008-2009 School Year From the New Chapter Exec

Dear Alumni of Eta Omega and Theta Chi Brothers,

This past year, and especially the Spring semester, have been outstanding times for Eta Omega. Over the course of the year Theta Chi placed first in the campus-wide Greek Week philanthropy/competition, raised hundreds of dollars for hurricane victims, won the football championship, and most importantly increased chapter membership by 29 initiates! In the Fall semester alone we recruited 19 new men, setting us up to retain the ‘top house’ position on campus for the ‘09-’10 academic year. In addition to these achievements Eta Omega has worked to become debt-free, paying off all amounts owed to the National Fraternity, and is working toward obtaining a new loan for a major house re-model.

A new executive board has been elected as well, consisting of Dustin Pesch as President, Joey Combs and Andrew Chalmers as Internal and External Vice Presidents, respectively, Ex-President Adam Shea as Treasurer, and Blayne Davis as Secretary. The new Executive Board and the chapter are committed to improving brotherhood and participation, and taking any necessary steps to obtain a loan to continue to improve our standing in the eyes of potential new members, the campus community, and the National Fraternity.

This upcoming year will boast as many if not more achievements as last year, and will be exciting for everyone involved – both active and alumni.

Cheers,

Andrew Chalmers
External Vice President
Theta Chi, Eta Omega Chapter

Chico Greek Week 2008: Theta Chi Talent Show

Spring 2009 Rush Shirt – The Year of the OX

The undergrads play on the Chinese New Year (“Year of the OX”) theme for their rush shirts.

Click the image to view it full size…

Chico Updates from the Alum VP

Eta Omega Chapter President, Adam Shea and Andrew Chalmers attend the 15th Annual B. Nelson Deranian Presidents Conference (DPC) for chapter, colony, and interest group leaders will in Indianapolis. Their flights apparently sucked but they had a good time anyway (even though they couldn’t find any Alpha Phi’s to party with).

When it was all said and done, they both learned many new best practices that help create and maintain successful chapters across the nation. Andrew later said, “I was fortunate enough to see Jereme Grinsdale at the goodbye dinner … he is excited to see what we have in store and he touched on what the chapter also needs to be on track for to be considered for the loan… GRADES.  Last semester we were above our required average for the school and our pledge class had the highest GPA among the other fraternities.” Keep those grades in check gentleman!

The Chico State campus has had some recent news as well:

• Chico will honor Charles Darwin’s 200^th birthday by organizing a series of events, film showings, lectures, and nature hikes.
• For the second year in a row, CSU, Chico is the top collegiate fund-raiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., with a total of $183,561 raised during 2007-2008, with records for the number of volunteers, 2,021-and the number of letters sent out requesting support, more than 37,000.
• Chico State’s Career Center, Best in the West! A 2007 survey of recruiters rated 70 percent of Chico State students Outstanding or Above Average compared to students at other universities. Over 83 percent rated our Career Center operations as either Outstanding or Above Average.
• Forbes Magazine ranked CSU, Chico 24th in the nation among all public universities for the median salaries of its graduates, based on a 2008 study by PayScale.com, which looked at the earnings of college graduates with 10-20 years of work experience.
• New student Rec and exercise center to open Spring 2009.

So do kids still go to the flumes, or tube down the river, or sneak into Dime Bag Willie’s house…?

Willie Shoffner
Alumni Board / Vice President

January 2009 Alumni Newsletter

You should have received a copy of this e-mail newsletter on 1/30/2009. If not it means we don’t have your current e-mail address – so send it to us and get on the mailing list for future newsletters.

Eta Omega Alumni Update – Jan 2009

We’re Going Big 

Here it is – your annual e-newsletter, with updates from all the key players in the Eta Omega Alumni Board, the Active Exec, and “members at large.” Catch up on 2008, then tune in and chip in for a huge 2009.
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