FINAL
SIGMA PHI DELTA FRATERNITY
SUPREME COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
October 23, 2001, 6:00 PM PDT
CALL TO ORDER: The on line meeting of Sigma Phi Delta Fraternity Supreme Council was
called to order on October 23, 2001 at 6:00 PM PDT
ROLL CALL:
Supreme Council Members:
·
Grand President Paul
Lindner
·
Grand Vice President
Keith Hileman (Absent)
·
Executive Director
Bob Featheringham
·
Communications
Director Burt Wagner (Absent)
·
Eastern Province
Councillor Mike Votaw (Absent)
·
Western Province
Councillor Kevin Oldknow
·
Central Province
Councillor, Mike Stelzner
Non Supreme Council
Members attending included:
·
Treasurer and
Information Systems manager, Ed Hurst
·
Grand President-elect
Derek Troy
·
Communications
Director-elect Alix Minden
·
Vancouver Alumni
Secretary, Ed Gin
·
Vancouver Alumni,
Darren Farnworth
·
Kappa
chapter active, David Pruss
A quorum was present to
allow the conduct of business
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Minutes of Supreme Council
Meetings of Minutes of the September 25 Supreme Council meeting were approved
in accordance with the Fraternity’s review and approval policy. They were posted to the web earlier.
OFFICER REPORTS: Officers reported the following:
·
Grand President Lindner
reported that he had met with CD-elect Minden on
Saturday 10/20. They discussed the
content of future editions of the Castle. (See Brother Minden’s 10/24 Report below.)
·
Grand Vice
President (Brother Hileman’s
report was submitted on 10/19 via e-mail.
See Below)
·
Executive Director Featheringham reported that due to his recent
absence, he was backlogged with administrative
actions, but will work them off this week.
·
Treasurer Hurst
reported he received Fall 2001 dues from the following Chapters: Delta, Omega,
Epsilon, Psi, and Kappa. The following will be delinquent on 1
November, he reported: Alpha (3 terms), Eta, Theta,
and Phi (Chi is now inactive). He
further reported that Aug and Sep balance sheets were posted online on Oct 1,
and October’s will be posted after Nov 1. Western and Central province Councillors took actions to contact
Active Chapters to try to get their dues paid by 1 Nov.
·
Communications
Director: GP Lindner reported he
had contacted CD Wagner regarding status of the Castle, as it is currently five weeks behind schedule. He stated Brother Wagner sent an e-mail report
promising a proof copy via e-mail by close of business 10/23.
·
Province
Councillors:
·
WPC Oldknow reported Theta had
their first party of the year on Friday, with no neighbourly complaints, and he
is planning an official visit to Theta on Nov 3rd
·
EPC Votaw: No Report.
·
CPC Stelzner reported (1) He will be visiting Eta the weekend of Nov. 3
for their official visit and a large number of Deltas will also be there. (2)
He purchased tickets for trips in Feb. 2002 to Phi and Epsilon using his
company's airline agent to save money, an additional 25%. (3) He has begun
planning the Central Province Retreat, and a great of information is on his
website http://retreat.wizzbert.com. It is planned for January 18-20, in
Eau Claire, WI, and all Chapters are on board, he reported. He has a
preliminary schedule and found a hotel, but needs a firm budget from National.
(4) As an experiment, he’d instituted monthly Central Province
Instant Messenger chats that allow for informal communications with the
chapters, and will update the council whether it is successful or not.
COMMITTEE REPORTS: Committee Chairmen made the following reports:
·
Expansion: See Brother Hileman’s 10/19 e-mail report below.
·
Chapter Health: GP-elect Troy reported the final draft of the
Chapter Health questionnaire had been sent to the SC for final review. There ensued discussion as to how frequently
it should be administered. Some thought
at least once a semester; others thought it should be administered concurrent
with official visits.
·
Publications: Pledge Manual update. Manual of Procedures
update. (See Old Business below.)
·
Leadership: No report.
See Old Business for discussion of plans to conduct the proposed
Constitutional amendment vote re: “Virtuous Manhood.”
·
Fund Raising. Draft plan reviewed by committee. Budgetary estimate of cost for $5000 was
approved; 2001 goal is $20,000.
Progress report will be e-mailed to SC.
(Featheringham)
·
Engineers United. GP Lindner reported that this committee will meet in the next two weeks and will give an update at
the next SC meeting. GVP Hileman sent
an e-mail report on 10/23 that the Zeta Phi Sigma sorority at Virginia
Commonwealth has 14 members and will be pledging eight women this semester.
·
Merchandise. On-line Store status – Reviewing potential
merchandise with the vendor. (Lindner)
·
Convention. Minutes of 34th GC sent to ISM for
posting to web. (Featheringham)
·
ISM Search: ISM Hurst reported he has had no replies from any
of the candidates for the position. He
sent out e-mails to six or seven interested Brothers on 11 October with a
suspense date of 1 November. GP Lindner requested
Hurst send follow up e-mails to each candidate.
OLD BUSINESS: The following Old Business was addressed:
·
Budget Rental Car
Status. (No Report)
·
2001-2002
Internships and Scholarships (No
Report)
·
Forum
to discuss the “Virtuous
Manhood” Proposed Amendment to the Object and
Constitution. GP Lindner reported he is planning to send
out an announcement about this either with the Castle or in a separate Star
or letter. The announcement will explain the change, similar to the e-mail that
was sent earlier. It will explain how voting on the subject occurs and describe
to members a mechanism to give feed back. Discussions will take place the week
after Thanksgiving (US). After some
discussion the consensus was that this should be a Star mailing despite the
fact that both Star and Castle would be mailed at the same time
frame and thus accruing no benefit to updating the database of addresses.
·
Action Item
Recapitulation from 9/25/01 SC Meeting (√=completed item. Italic=carryover from last month)
·
ALL:
·
√Come
up with BUET Alumni Advisor nominees by October 2. GP Lindner reported Don Nash (Theta Alumni) is willing to do the Job, and he
owes Brother Nash an e-mail; however, he wanted to confirm some things with GVP
Hileman before sending it to him. GP
Lindner will talk to GVP Hileman off line and subsequently get with Brother
Nash.
·
Featheringham:
·
Provide 35th GC planning data to Hurst
for Web Posting.
·
√Alert
Delta Chapter to select dates for SC approval. Brother Santarinala
sent Featheringham a University of Illinois web site for conference
planning. Brother Featheringham will
contact the Illinois University Conference Planning Center to seek help.
·
Hileman:
·
Keep SC informed of Budget Rental situation.
·
√Follow up
Lambda reactivation at Indiana Tech and IPFW. (See Hileman 10/19 e-mail below)
·
Hurst:
·
Seek availability of
.biz, .net, .com, and .tv for sigmaphidelta domain. GP Lindner directed that .net and .com are all we need; there is
no need for .ca. ISM Hurst reported
sigmaphidelta.com was registered by Carlo Mejia, an Alpha brother. GP Lindner
directed Hurst to contact Brother Mejia to make sure nothing "bad"
happens to it.
·
√Post August
and September Treasurer’s Report by 9 October.
·
√Prioritize
September interviews with ISM candidates. (Hurst e-mailed candidates sent
10/11. See above)
·
Lindner:
·
Finalize dates for
Alpha and Phi visits.
·
√Contact
Brother Messerschmidt re: Fundraising Committee membership. (Overcome by events)
·
√Send Hurst ISM
candidates.
·
√Forward ED
Employment Agreement to Brother Dyer.
· Minden:
· √Meet with Berkeley Engineering Joint Council on October 2. (See Minden e-mails of 10/03 and 10/24 below) Brother Minden reported he will try a different approach by setting up booth at Berkeley and passing out Rush brochures. (ED Featheringham will send him 50 copies.)
· Send in Form 17 for Reimbursement of special paper order and send paper to ED Featheringham
· Troy:
· √Complete Chapter Health updates 2 October.
· Complete Pledge Manual updates 9 October. Working with ED Featheringham and GP Lindner to compile history paragraphs for 1997 forward. Will complete in early November.
· Complete MOP updates 6 November. Only minor updates remain before MOP can be posted to Web; Brother Troy is working with Brother Vandenhouten at Eta to complete the work.
·
Votaw:
· Make Kappa visit.
· Head committees to put together format and date for Province Retreats. GP Lindner reported he had sent out the goals for the retreats and tasked Brother Votaw to please discuss Province retreat dates and locations with the other Province Councillors. The goal is to have the retreat dates set up by Oct SC meeting. (EPC Votaw was absent and gave no report. GP Lindner stated there would be a special subcommittee meeting of the three Province Councillors and him to discuss planning for the Province Conventions/Retreats on 10/25.)
· Wagner:
· Transmit Castle text proofs for review by 1 October. (Brother Wagner was absent, but he submitted an e-mail report that his production had been delayed and that the Castle proofs would be available for review on 10/23.)
·
NEW BUSINESS:
·
WPC Oldknow
Resignation: GP Lindner announced that he has
reluctantly accepted WPC Kevin Oldknow’s gracious letter of resignation,
effective Jan 1, 2002. (See Oldknow’s
letter below) GP Lindner praised Kevin for great job well done as WPC and
stated that the entire Fraternity hates to see him go.
·
Brother Farnworth
Appointment as WPC: GP Lindner stated that WPC Oldknow did
not leave the Fraternity hanging; he recruited Brother Darren Farnsworth to
take over as WPC. Brother Farnsworth, who attended the meeting, sent GP Lindner
a letter offering his skills to the fraternity and provided a little personal
background and his plans for the position.
GP Lindner moved and WPC Oldknow seconded a motion to approve the
appointment of Brother Farnworth to the unexpired term of WPC Oldknow. The motion passed unanimously.
·
Cartoon. Executive Director Featheringham was tasked to
research the cartoon that appeared in a magazine depicting SPD and write a
letter to the editor, or other appropriate message.
NEXT MEETING:
The next SC meeting will be on Sunday, November 18th, 6:00PM PST
ADJOURNMENT:
There being no other business
to conduct, the meeting adjourned at 7:30 PM PDT.
ACTION ITEM RECAPITULATION:
Featheringham:
Provide SC Progress Report
on Fundraising.
Provide 35th GC planning data to Hurst
for Web Posting
Send 50 Rush Brochures to
Brother Minden
Hileman:
Keep SC informed of Budget Rental situation.
Hurst:
Register sigmaphidelta
domain .net. and contact
Brother Meiji about the use of .com.
Interview ISM
candidates and recommend to SC.
Lindner:
Convene Women in
Engineering Committee meeting.
Finalize dates for Alpha and Phi visits.
Discuss Brother Nash
pending appointment as BUET Alumni Advisor with Hileman and finalize selection.
Minden:
Send in Form 17 for Reimbursement of special paper
order and send paper to ED Featheringham.
Oldknow:
Follow up with Alpha and
Theta on dues situation.
Stelzner:
Follow up with Eta and Phi
on dues situation.
Troy:
Complete Pledge Manual Updates.
Complete Manual of Procedure Updates and post to
web.
Votaw:
Make Kappa visit
Meet with GP Lindner and other Province Councillors
on 10/25 to complete planning for Province Retreats/Conventions.
Wagner:
Publish Castle
GVP Hileman’s 10/19 Report:
Here is an update on many issues that have been left on the
sidelines for some time, and I am currently back on the ball and in the game
again.
VCU Colony
In several discussions with Patrick and Justin from VCU
recently. They have experienced many
hardships with keeping Colony members.
They submitted their forms to me at approximately the designated time we
had placed forth. BUT, they only had 9
potential charter members at that time, down from the 21 that we pinned last
April. Therefore they do not have the
required 10 to form a Chapter. They have
become somewhat discouraged from the great number of initial members dropping
out (mainly due to money constraints) but will hopefully rebound here very
shortly. I've inquired just this
morning as to their current status and hope that they have some good news to
offer. I know that there is a solid
core of 6-8 guys that really want to make this thing fly, I just hope that they
can find a few additional guys from the current freshman class.
CHI Chapter (in-active)
With much regret, I visited Chi Chapter at UC in Cincinnati, Ohio
a few short weeks ago, and spoke to a few of their members. The few that I
spoke to were basically unable or unwilling to continue their efforts in the
rush or general Fraternity requirements.
Therefore they wish to go "in-active" thus making the entire chapter
"in-active". Mainly they had
lost heart after several "unsuccessful" rushing terms, and a few
members dropping by the wayside, thus acting as a domino effect. I will be re-visiting their rental house in
the near future to collect their Charter, Fraternity Flag, ritual books, robes,
etc. and other items that they will obviously not be using any longer.
BUET Interest Group
From recent e-mails from our Group at Bangladesh University of
Engineering Technologies, they seem to be right on track with their Colony
Development. They are hoping for an early
spring Charter date, and are placing the efforts required to get there. I have received several copies of their
meeting minutes and other information that they have been accumulating. They are currently in the process of working
on their faculty advisor(s) and I owe them some SPD material so that they can
get their full recognition from the University. They've also been working on getting additional membership. I've also spoken with Goal Bokhtier (Rutgers
member that helped start BUET) and he is will (upon my request) to assist with
the installation of the group into Chapter Status. I believe it would be in our best interest that if we do make the
effort to fly over to Bangladesh, that Boktier is in attendance as well for
several reason (one of which as a thanks).
Obviously the costs will be greater than any other installation, so I've
been working on rectifying that with some possibly corporate sponsorship. Nothing in that area is final yet, but I'll
be working with Bob and Paul more on that issue.
IPFW/IIT (Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne/ Indiana Institute of
Technology (Lambda))
Sent out a message to the IPFW Dean of Students and received a
reply from them in anticipated meetings set up for next week Tuesday for the
joint campus colony/chapter. They are
very interested in an engineering group of our stature and are curious to hear
what we have to offer. I will be
accompanied by Kappa actives since they are only 45 minutes from the Ft. Wayne
campus and should require very little funding to accomplish what we need
to. I will also be in contact soon with
the Dean of Engineering at IIT that Bob and I have already met with and
received his blessing from.
MSU (Michigan State University)
I've e-mailed the Asst. Dean of Engineering at the Michigan State
University at the request and oath of assistance from Josh "Gutter"
Dyer. Received an immediate response
from him this morning, and will be trying to set up a meeting with them
possibly next Friday while on my way to
the Grand Rapids, Michigan area anyway. Josh will be my initial point of
contact and immediate support person on this effort.
MSOE (Milwaukee School of
Engineering)
Efforts have been placed forth by Brothers of our Eta Chapter to
pledge a total of 6 students from MSOE in efforts to get them better affiliated
with the Fraternity, and also to assist them with their efforts to start a
colony at MSOE. We've received some
support from the recently founded Chapter of AOE at MSOE, along with some of
their National officers. BUT the main workload, and initial work and finding of
interested students came from our ETA chapter.
Currently we've received the blessing of the administration there, and
were suppose to go infront of a student government group on Wednesday
evening. I have not found out the
results of that trial.
UC Berkeley
Alix Minden has been working this angle for us since the
start. He just recently visited the
University's Engineering Council to try to spark some interest in the student
body there. I believe every should have
received a brief copy of his report. In
review he stated that there was no male interest, but a female approached him
afterwards for information about AOE and ZPS.
Alix has provided that female with both groups information, and has also
stayed in contact with her, in hopes that she can find and lead us to some
additional male contacts. Alix has
already met with the University Administration and has received their blessings
to continue with our efforts in finding additional student support and interest.
Washington University and St. Louis University
We've had some recent support from an AOE active that wishes to
assist our two main contact people in the St. Louis area to start both of the
organizations there. I've been in
contact with her as well as our two contact people in efforts to try to get
things going in that area. I will keep
you up to date on that area.
UT (University of Toledo)
A recent graduate from Kappa Chapter, Corey Pressler, will be
attending UT in the winter/spring of this year for graduate school. Corey is a local to Angola, and knows
several students at UT that seem to be interested in attempting to start a
chapter of SPD on that campus. Theta
Tau has a current chapter there, so there would be competition, so we'll have to
investigate that further, but we'll see what form of student interest we get in
a single gender group. This is a new
interest, so not much effort has been placed here yet.
I believe that is all the
things in the works right now. If
anything crucially important comes up, I will et everyone know, if there is
anything else that anyone wishes to add or any questions of myself about this
report, please let me know. Thanks for
everyone's patience, and I hope that I can be in full swing in the very near
future to keep the expansion bus rolling.
Fraternally submitted,
Keith "Stick" Hileman
GVP of SPD
Alix Minden 10/24 Report:
Gentlemen,
Berkeley:
This weekend I spoke with Maureen Borillo, AOE VP. She met with 4 girls at
Berkeley that are interested in establishing an active chapter of
AOE there.
The story goes like this.
There is a local group called WICSE.
This group
is comprised of only women engineers and only allows 40 members to
be active
at a time. The group will
befriend the girls until their junior year.
After that point, if they are not a part of WICSE by then, the
group
basically exorcises them.
The girls are interested in disbanding WICSE and
establishing AOE. The
catch; the main problem at Berkeley is housing. The
girls want to establish common residency for the AOE members. This can
cause a number of problems, as we all know, and also because none
of the AOE
chapters have a house at the present time. AOE is in uncharted waters and
this also sounds like the main reason for establishing AOE at
Berkeley is
the housing ability. As
for men at Berkeley, Maureen and I both agree that
if there are 40 girls interested in this opportunity, they have to
know of
at least a couple of men that are as well. Housing is not going to be a
good idea for a while for the men. This, as we all know, causes too many
problems to deal with, especially when they are still learning to
conduct
good rush tactics and learn how to be a successful chapter of
Sigma Phi
Delta. As of now, there is
no male contact, therefore, I am going to try
and setup a booth at Berkeley in the near future and promote SPD
and handout
flyers. Hopefully this
will get us the response we have been looking for.
If anyone has other suggestions, I definitely welcome them.
Castle:
This past weekend, I met with Paul Lindner about the success of
the previous
Castles and what we could do to help spice up the future
Castles. A few
ideas have arose from the previous Castles that have, for one
reason or
another, been lost. The
following are a couple of ideas to add to the
Castle publications: contributor recognition, including donators,
officers,
and special efforts.
Minimizing Officer reports to Expansion, the direction
the Fraternity is going, officer directory and pictures and any
reports that
are more important than the usual articles. Recent additions to the Castle
Eternal, and a list of Lost Brothers both use to be in the Castle,
but has
been lost. These, I believe, should be added to the Castle
again. Another
addition to the Castle would be an article about an interesting
engineering
project an alum was involved in.
The article would probably be chosen first
by us, and then submitted after that. The last idea that we really had at
this point is an article that puts a random alum in the
spotlight. This
would outline all the accomplishments of a random alum.
Other ideas would be helpful.
I think we have a good source of data at this
point, but I am still looking over old Castles to get more
ideas. Let me
know if you have any.
Fraternally,
Alix Minden
Alix Minden 10/03 Report:
Gentlemen,
I made a trip to Berkeley yesterday to talk to the EJC. The meeting went
well, but no prospects right now.
On the flip side, there was
interest of
an engineering sorority. I
got her information and sent her info about AOE
and ZPS. I also forwarded
he name to Maureen Borillo, AOE VP, and let her
know the situation. This
female prospect seemed very interested, and could
probably give connect me with a few men interested in SPD. All I need is
one! If I find one
candidate, I will help to find them all!
Everything
states with one. No need
for a form 17 or whichever one that is, I didn't
spend any money but gas and a dollar for parking. Whoop di do! Anyway, I
will keep you updated as to the progress. I am hoping to get in contact
with at least one person within two weeks. If no response by then, I will
go at it from a different angle.
Fraternally,
Alix Minden
Kevin Oldknow’s 10/23 Letter of
Resignation:
Brothers,
Unfortunately I am writing to inform you that I will be resigning
from
the position of Western Province Councilor effective January 1st,
2002.
While it is with a great deal of hesitation that I am resigning my
post,
I have come to the conclusion that it is absolutely the right
thing to
do. The reason for this is
as follows: I am currently working to
complete my Ph.D., while playing an active role in the start-up of
a
company here in Vancouver.
Between these responsibilities, I am finding
that the time that I can devote to my duties as WPC has been
diminishing
and will continue to do so.
It is unfair for me to hold on to this
position when I cannot perform the duties to my own satisfaction.
At today's Supreme Council meeting, Grand President Lindner
accepted my
resignation and Darren Farnworth was appointed as interim WPC,
effective
January 1st, 2002. I have
every confidence that Darren will do a
fantastic job in the position.
I have known Darren for several years,
and have had the opportunity to work with him at the Chapter level
on
many occasions. We have
talked at length about the role of WPC, and
after witnessing his energy for the position I became further
convinced
that my stepping aside is in the best interests of the
organization.
Darren and I are looking forward to working together to transition
the
duties of the position smoothly, which will include the planning
of the
2002 WP Retreat.
It has been a sincere pleasure serving as WPC and working with all
of
you over the past year and a half. It has been a great opportunity to
make many new friends and gain a new perspective on our
organization. I
look forward to continuing to work with you over the next few
months as
I wrap up my time in the position, and staying in touch after
that.
Best Fraternal regards,
Kevin D. Oldknow
Western Province Councilor
Brother Farnworth’s Statement:
I graduated in 1998 (Mechanical) from Theta
Chapter. As an active I served terms as President, Vice President, Secretary
and briefly as Business manager. I also
held various positions in other organizations at the university, including the
Mechanical Engineering Club, Engineering Undergraduate Society and Alma Mater
Society.
After
graduation (1998) I worked for a company called Iggesund Tools as a Regional
Engineer. This job required a great
deal of travel, and I was unable to participate in activities that required
fixed time commitments. In June of last year I changed jobs and I now work for
Salton Fabrication as a Contract Engineer, supervising wood fired energy system
projects for sawmills, board plants etc.
As well as offering a more challenging career, this new job has allowed
me to spend more time at home.
I am exited about
the new format for the upcoming province retreat(s) and hope to work closely
with Kevin in the next few months to make them happen
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