FINAL MINUTES

SIGMA PHI DELTA FRATERNITY

SUPREME COUNCIL MEETING

November, 18, 2001, 6:00 PM PDT

 

CALL TO ORDER: The on line meeting of Sigma Phi Delta Fraternity Supreme Council was called to order on November 18, 2001 at 6:04 PM PDT

 

ROLL CALL:

Supreme Council Members:

·        Grand President Paul Lindner

·        Grand Vice President Keith Hileman

·        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:

·        Treasurer and Information Systems manager Ed Hurst

·        Communications Director-elect Alix Minden

·        Vancouver Alumni Secretary, Ed Gin

·        Western Province Councillor-designate, Darren Farnworth

 

A quorum was present to allow the conduct of business.

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

Minutes of Supreme Council Meetings of Minutes of the October 23 Supreme Council meeting were approved in accordance with the Fraternity’s review and approval policy.  They were posted to the web on November 8.

 

OFFICER REPORTS: Officers report the following:

 

Grand President: Reported the following:

1.    Expense Reports – SC members, are to send their expense reports directly to the Treasurer Ed Hurst for any items in budget and under $1,000.  If they are sent to GP, they only end up being delayed.

2.    Alpha Visit – Will be on Monday November 19th at 8:00 PM.

3.    Transfer of Office-Will be meeting with GP-elect Troy next month to transfer the GP files.

4.     

Grand Vice President: Chi Paraphernalia will be picked up the week of 25 November.

 

Executive Director: Reported the following:

1.    Established Quarterly Newsletter.

2.    Sent November Birthday cards (327).

3.    Sent Letter to the editor of Oneonta State Univ. (NY) student paper demanding ladies using SPD letters cease and desist.

4.    In response to a question from CPC Stelzner, Featheringham stated that the presentations from the 34th General Convention not yet posted to the web would be posted as soon as the authors submitted them.

 

Treasurer: Reported the following:

1.    October Financial Statement was posted to the Web site on 1 November.

2.    Eta and Phi have paid their dues; only Alpha and Theta remain delinquent. (WPC Oldknow stated that Theta’s check is in the mail.  GP Lindner stated he’d discuss the dues situation with Alpha during his visit there on 11/19.)

 

Communications Director: Reported the following by e-mail:

1.    Changes to the final Castle proofs need to be submitted by 11/21. 

2.    The printer will run them right after the Thanksgiving (US) holiday. 

3.    GP Lindner stated that mailing schedule would be coordinated later, given that the Fundraising Appeal was being mailed at the same time as the Castle. (Editor’s Note: Lindner and Featheringham met on 11/19 and decided the Castle should be mailed ASAP, without regard to the mailing of the Appeal.)

4.     In response to a question by CD-elect Minden, GP Lindner stated that the next Castle is due in spring 2002.

 

Western Province Councillor: Reported that he had visited Theta on 11/17 and that the Chapter is doing well; dues are on the way (money orders), and the house is in good shape.

 

Central Province Councillor: Reported:

1.    Phi and Eta are caught up on dues.

2.    Central Province Retreat is planned and booked.

3.    Eta is in danger of losing its house. They are going down to 12 actives living in the house, and rent is going up to $7000/month which will be about $580/active per month. This does not include utilities. Needless to say they are in trouble and are working on an aggressive campaign to get their alumni to call Marquette and to work out the situation. Marquette wants to call Eta student housing, but not charge them the standard $200/person per month rent. Stelzner stated that in his opinion, it is up to Eta to actively work on their alumni and to rebuild the bridges they allowed to decay. They were in this situation last year and were saved by alumni. He stated further that he had advised Eta not to count on that. They are sending out a newsletter fully explaining the situation. Their plan is two-pronged: they will attempt to raise additional funds to try to raise funds, and more importantly ask alumni to write to Marquette to get this situation resolved.

 

Eastern Province Councillor: No Report.  GVP Hileman stated that EPC Votaw had made a visit to Kappa.

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS: Committee Chairmen report on the following:

 

Expansion: (Hileman).

1.    VCU Colony had decent success with an information session about two weeks ago for freshmen students at an Engineering open house. Sent out e-mail earlier today for update to see if anyone is ready to pledge.

2.    BUET is coming along nicely.  They have all their forms completed, but are curious if they must mail them in separately or all at one time with Petition. Informed them to be sent in all at same time with Petition.

3.    IPFW Meeting was postponed. Trying to reschedule, but haven’t found available time for both parties.

4.    MSU sent out message to Brother Josh Dyer to see if he can take lead on this, given that Hileman’s current schedule is very restricted. (Editor’s Note: Brother Dyer agreed to help, after the New Year.)

5.    MSOE is going good.  Eta chapter is on top of things there. Received e-mail from Epsilon Brother expressing the wish for his friend at MSOE to become involved with SPD effort to colonize there.

6.    Wash U and St. Louis U, first contact e-mail sent out today.

7.    UC Berkeley.  CD-elect Minden stated he is in a “Catch 22” situation. He cannot set up a booth to rush students unless he is sponsored by a student group or is one. He sent an e-mail to Brother Adam Lynch to see if Adam’s friends there could help our situation. WPC Oldknow stated he’d be sending information to Minden regarding a recent Berkeley grad known to a Theta active.  Oldknow suggested this person might be able to put us in contact with some current students who would sponsor the booth. Also, Minden reported he is struggling in his efforts to reactivate a SF Bay Alumni group.

 

Chapter Health: (Troy) GP Lindner reported he met with GP-elect Troy on 11/15 and Troy is just waiting to complete the form used to fill out the evaluation.  WPC Oldknow stated he used the draft form at Theta on 11/18; it went over pretty well and caused a lot of constructive discussion.

 

Publications: (Troy) No report on Pledge Manual update or Manual of Procedures update. GP Lindner stated that ED F’ham completed compiling the history from 1997 and sent it to Troy for incorporation in the Pledge Manual.

Leadership: (Lindner) will coordinate next meeting with Troy and send out invitation.

 

Fund Raising. (Featheringham) Final copy of Appeal letter was sent to SC members.  Omega will do the envelope stuffing and sorting. Target is to mail on 11/30.  ISM Hurst stated he’d print the labels and send them to F’ham in time to meet that schedule.

 

Engineers United. (Lindner), Someone is needed to run with this project; need to move it to the next stage.

 Will coordinate this with ED F’ham.

 

Merchandise. (Lindner) On-line Store status: waiting for new samples from the vendor. Will pass this project on to Exec Dir. soon.

 

Convention. (Featheringham) 35th Convention dates? Still trying to contact Event Planning office at University of Illinois.

 

ISM Search: (Hurst) ISM candidates/interviews? Brothers Dave Beleznay and Justin Kruger responded and have been "interviewed."  GP Lindner said, “Give me your recommendation and I will appoint him and ask the SC to approve it.”

 

Province Retreats (Votow)

·        Central Province – Ready to go; web site is http://retreat.wizzbert.com

·        Western Province – Vancouver retreat scheduled for weekend of Jan 19 at Evans Lake Forest Education Center outside Vancouver; however, it is over budget by approximately $200 US.

·        Western Province – Alpha Retreat – Alpha’s retreat will Feb 16th near LA. GP Lindner is helping find the right place, perhaps a Boy Scout camp. Members from each chapter are invited to join the other chapter's retreat

·        Eastern Province – Looking at Pennsylvania.  EPC checking to see if they allocated more money in the budget for the retreat using increased province dues.

 

OLD BUSINESS: The following Old Business was addressed:

 

Budget Rental Car Accident Status.  GVP Hileman provided this detailed report on this matter:

1.    Lawyer found out that MasterCard began covering SUV's on Feb 1, 2001.  Accident happened Jan 19, 2001.

2.    Case is under review currently by the head of the "Special Conditions Group" at MasterCard.  Lawyer is hoping that the date of Feb. 1 can be pushed back a few days to cover the incident.

3.    Case was sent to Collections by Budget to get the money for the vehicle. Lawyer has contacted the collection agency and informed them that the collection is a "disputed claim".

4.    If MasterCard deal doesn't pan out, will try the "breach of contract" avenue with Budget to see if that gets anywhere.  It doesn't look good if it gets to this point.

5.    If all goes very bad, lawyer believes he can get a $0.50 on the dollar deal with Budget to get things resolved.  Don't want to go that route if at all possible.

6.    Have not yet approached the use of SPD in the case, because of dealings with MasterCard.  If it comes to the point where it might be a "last straw" item, then will go with it at that time.

Responding to GP Lindner’s statement to let SPD know when it needs to start writing letters to Master Card and Budget Rent a Car so that they start to feel pain too, GVP Hileman stated that he has a complete listing of the people his lawyer has contacted, with addresses and phone numbers.

 

2001-2002 Internships and Scholarships  (No Action)

 

Forum to discuss the “Virtuous Manhood” Proposed Amendment to the Object and Constitution. – Grand President will send out an e-mail to all members with the forum information. It will be a moderated Bulletin board, not a live chat.  The SC will answer questions posed.  Messages not keeping with the Code of Ethics (i.e., personal or profane attacks) will be sent back to the author to be reworded. The Board will open up just after Thanksgiving (USA).  WPC Oldknow and CPC Stelzner agreed to research the appropriate electronic forum.

 

BUET Alumni Advisor. Grand President needs to talk off line to GVP Hileman before finalizing the appointment of Brother Don Nash.

 

Penthouse Cartoon. Executive Director Featheringham was tasked to research the cartoon that appeared in a magazine depicting SPD and to write a letter to the editor, or other appropriate message. Draft letter was submitted to SC for comment.  After reviewing the material, the SC decided not to send a letter, as the choice of our letters was probably a random choice.

 

Action Item Recapitulation from 10/23/01 SC Meeting  (√=completed item. Italic=carryover from last month)

·        Featheringham:

·        Provide 35th GC planning data to Hurst for Web Posting.

·        ÖProvide SC Progress Report on Fundraising

·        ÖSend 50 Rush Brochures to Brother Minden

·        Hileman:

·        √Report of 10/30 visit to IPFW. Meeting postponed.

·        Hurst:

·        Seek availability of .net for sigmaphidelta domain.

·        Contact Brother Carlo Mejia (Alpha Alum and owner of sigmaphidelta.com) to make sure nothing "bad" happens to it.

·        Lindner:

·        √Finalize dates for Alpha and Phi visits.

·        Convene Women in Engineering Committee meeting

·        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

 

·        Wagner:

·        √Submit final Castle page layouts for approval

 

NEW BUSINESS:

 

National Officer Address/Phone Listing – ED Featheringham was directed to compile a complete listing of all National officer phone numbers (work and home) plus street address (not just P.O. Box).  Right now several members do not have this information available from the web site, and it is frustrating not having this information readily available.

 

New Pledge Web Page. In lieu of providing pledges with paper copies of the Constitution, Manual of Procedures, etc. ISM was directed to set up an area on the web where Pledges could access this information.  The Fraternity will continue to collect the $10 Pledge Fee.

 

Western Province Retreat Budget. WPC Oldknow stated Alumni and AOE will be expected to pay their own way.  He then moved to increase the budget by $200 (US).  Featheringham seconded, and the motion passed.

 

 NEXT MEETING: 

The next SC meeting will be on Sunday December 16th at 6:00 PM PDT

ADJOURNMENT:

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 7:40 PST.

 

 

 

ACTION RECAPITULATION:

 

Featheringham:

·        Provide 35th GC planning data to Hurst for Web Posting.

·        Develop National Officer Contact List

 

Hileman:

·        Reschedule IPFW meeting.

·        Pick up Chi paraphernalia.

·        Keep SC informed of Budget Rental Car accident claim status.

 

Hurst:

·        Seek availability of .net for sigmaphidelta domain.

·        Contact Brother Carlo Mejia (Alpha Alum and owner of sigmaphidelta.com) to make sure nothing "bad" happens to it.

 

Lindner:

·        Convene Women in Engineering Committee meeting

·        Discuss Brother Nash pending appointment as BUET Alumni Advisor with Hileman and finalize selection.

·        Meet with Troy to transfer GP files.

·        Discuss dues situation with Alpha during 11/19 visit.

·        Pass Merchandise project to ED.

·        Coordinate Leadership Committee meeting with Troy and send out invitations.

 

Minden:

·        Send in Form 17 for Reimbursement of special RITUAL paper order and send paper to ED Featheringham.  (Waiting for paper to be delivered from Kappa.)

 

 

Oldknow:

·        Research on-line forum for “Virtuous Manhood” discussion with Chapters.

 

Stelzner:

·        Research on-line forum for “Virtuous Manhood” discussion with Chapters.

 

Troy:

·        Complete Pledge Manual Updates.

·        Complete Manual of Procedure Updates and post to web.

 

Votaw:

·        No actions

 

Wagner:

·        Mail Castles.

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