Spring 1976 Omegaphone
Highlights of the Fall Meeting
Shortly after the football game with Kentucky, the Annual Fall Business Meeting was held at the Chapter House.
The Alumni Corporation and Board of Directors met jointly with 6 officers and directors plus 9 additional Alumni and 14 active members present. The Corporation Treasurer, Brother Al Frey, reported: (1) the Alumni Dues received were the best ever for the year 1974-75, amounting to $1000, (2) the amount in rent received from the Active Chapter did not cover operational costs as only $7100 was received and expenses were $8500. To meet this deficit it was necessary to draw from a savings account which depleted a fund being accumulated to rewire the house and repair the club room ceiling.
There are two outstanding mortgages: (1) an original $22,000 loan by the National Fraternity which has been reduced to $5,600, (2) a $20,000 loan from Peoples National Bank that has been reduced to $10,500. The annual cost (interest and amortization) is over $4,200 per year. Other fixed costs are $1,200 for insurance and almost $1,500 for taxes annually.
The financial advisor to the Active Chapter, Brother Ed. Keller, reported with 40 men presently living in the house and with some losses due to graduation at the end of various terms throughout the year, he expected there would be an average of 36 live-in members during the year which is the break-even point. The Active Chapter expects to pay full rent for the 1975-76 year. Brother Keller advised that because of the high cost of food and its preparation over Alumni Weekend it was a burden on the Active Chapter to support the full cost. It was unanimously agreed that Alumni and their guests should pay $5.00 each for dinner.
The active President for the fall term, Brother Dave Douglas, reported the atti-tude of the actives was excellent and the rushing prospects for fraternities had im-proved on campus - thus a full house at the present. Only one of ten pledges dropped out. He advised the actives would remove the plaster ceiling in one of the club rooms and replace it with plaster board if the Corporation would pay for the materi-als. This it was agreed to do. He also will arrange to have a contractor furnish an estimate to rewire the house.
Brother "Abe" Doan was thanked for his arranging with the postal authorities to use bulk mailing which will save the Alumni Corporation considerable expense. The first attempt was not the most successful because of late mailing due to late ship-ment of mailing labels by a Boston firm.
The following officers for the Corporation and Board of Directors were elected
to serve for the next two years: President: Toby Froelich '70 Directors: Fred Grun '47 V. Pres.: Jim Stalder '62 Bob Holland '70 Secretary: Bob Patterson '30 Rod Dare '72 Treasurer: Al Frey '33 (appointed).
Brother Froelich assumed the chair and stressed the need to build a cash reserve to care for future maintenance and replacement of items such as furniture plus un-foreseen problems. It is imperative that the house be kept full so that the annual rental is paid and an all-out effort should be made to increase the number of dues-paying alumni. After some discussion to increase the dues it was decided to keep them at $10.00.
Active Chapter President's Message
Just a few notes to let you know how things are going with the actives. Rush has been showing a lot of improvement during the last half of winter term. The actives finally seem to be realizing the tremendous importance of filling the house again next fall. Accomplishing this goal will take a lot of hard work since a fall pledge class of about 15 or 16 men will be needed, but 1 feel that we can do it.
The first floor has undergone a bit of reorganization due to the untimely death of the house television. The piano room has been converted into a billiard room thanks to the pool table donated by parents of Br. Tony Bernardo '77. A card table and a new dartboard have been moved into the game room after the floor and the baseboards were refinished. The new setup seems to be far more effective for rush than was the old one, so maybe the breakdown of the television was a blessing in disguise.
If you did not return to Penn State last homecoming, you missed quite a sight. Out on the front lawn was an eleven foot tall Nittany Lion about to dismember a three foot tall Kentucky "little fella". The facade took the effort of the whole house. Special thanks are in order to Br. Dave Sipp '77 who did most on the design work. Dave has also been appointed Public Relations Chairman for Spring Week.
Our fall term intramural teams placed 13th out of the 48 fraternities on campus. Our winter teams showed a marked improvement over last year, which gives us a good chance of making the top ten for the year. Br. Paul Diamond, our athletic chairman, deserves a lot of credit for his organization and pride he put into his office.
We made a good showing in Greek Week this February. The dart team returned as cham-pions and we had semi-finalists in five of the other activities. The pinochle tourna-ment was held here and several people expressed compliments on the way the house looked. Greek Week was concluded with a Dance Marathon for Muscular Dystrophy. Theta Chi and Alpha Chi Omega sorority sponsored Br. Scott Ambler and his girlfriend, Lynne Schuette. She is the daughter of Br. George Schuette '51. Unfortunately Lynne had been suffering from the flu a day before and, was forced to quit late Friday night. We were ahead in money collected.
Elections were held at the end of Winter term and our new officers re:
President - Gerald J. Kistler '77
Vice President - Robert B. Mooney, Jr. '78
Secretary - Charles Englehardt '78
Rush Chairman - Kenneth Oeschger '77
Pledge Marshall - Paul Diamond '78
Hist. Librarian - Drew Tomlinson '79
Social Chairman - Brian Fluehr '77 and Paul Cunningham '77
Little Sister Chairman - David Sipp '77
Athletic Chairman - Anthony Bernardo, Jr. '77
Chaplain - Edward Turko '78
Founder's Day is being held this year on April 10th, the 120th Anniversary of Theta Chi! The actives hope that we have a good turnout this year.
Fraternally yours,
Br. Robert B. Mooney, Jr. '78
Letter to Alumni from Undergraduates about Emergency Fund Drive
March 10, 1976
Dear Brothers,
As you know by nova 'the chapter is, about-to undergo some 'major repairs. We are in need-of a new boiler and our electrical wiring needs to be renewed. In order to finance this we will have to take out a loan of up to $20,000. This is a large sum and it will take a long time to payoff. I realize that in these times of high expenses and constant apeals for contributions, you are probably saying, "not again;":. We, the actives, are doing our best to keep our membership up however, it is hard to survive without heat or without a house if it burns-down due to faulty wiring. I would like to remind you that we all are Theta Chi's for life. Although the national fraternity should always survive, it would not be the same without Omega, a place to go for Homecoming, football weekends, Founder's Day, and to visit whenever the spirit moves us. In view of all this, it will help assure Omega's survival if each one of you would send us a contribution of any size. Every little bit helps and we need help. For those of you in Pennsylvania, we have gotten access to a Watts line for Pennsylvania. We will be contacting you by phone sometime between April 1st and April 14th if we do not here from you. This way we can answer any questions you may have about the repairs or anything else you may want to know. I hope that you will sit back and remember your great times at Penn State and how different it would be if Omega of Theta Chi had not been there. I myself, do not want to think about it, and I thank God that Omega is here for me to enjoy and I hope it is here for me to come back to and think about when I am in your place. Omega is just too great for it to die. We have an Omega as Executive Director, an Omega as National Secretary, and our most illustrious brother, George W. Chapman, wrote the Theta Chi Manual, was a National President, and did many things to perpetuate Omega and Theta Chi. We ask you to help us continue the life of Omega in order to keep it as great as it is now and has been in the past. Write, come and see us, or wait for our phone calls. We will be calling each brother in Pennsylvania (we can
not call out of state on the Watts line) during the evening from April 1st through April 14th. Hope, to here from you soon. See you on Founder's Day, April l0th, or sooner if you can,
Fraternally yours,
Gerald J. Kistler
President
Omega Chapter, Theta Chi
Alumni Corporation President's Message
Theta Chi's annual Founder's Day date has been moved up to April 10th, in order to adjust to Penn State's changing term schedule, and to make it possible for returning alumni to obtain rooms in State College. We need a big turnout of interested alumni to help the directors make the decisions which must be made immediately concerning the Chapter House!
For those of you who haven't been in touch lately, we are experiencing some major problems with the wiring, and the boiler and the hot water systems are in need of immediate replacement. This is no longer something which we can put off but something which we must do before next fall. Actually we are down to the point of deciding how to finance these projects; the decision to do them has already been made by the failure of these systems to operate satisfactorily.
I am looking to you, the alumni, to help Omega in some way. We need many things ... but the biggest need is a larger group of interested, active alumni. Fortunately we have a small group of people who seem to be at every meeting, and who do the work that should be spread around among many more people. But, we need more help. We need contributions and people who are interested in helping in any way possible. Let's build up an active, interested group of alumni for Omega.
I'm looking forward to seeing you at the house on April 10th, for dinner and an in-teresting meeting. And please don't forget to send a check if you haven't paid your '75-'76 local dues!
Fraternally,
Toby M. Froelich
Alumni News
Jerry Habegger '69 received his Master of Accounting degree from Virginia Poly-technic Institute and State University in August 1975. He is presently an instructor of Business Administration at Alfred University, Alfred, N.Y.
Blair E. Henderson '28 lives at 3807 Prosperity Avenue, Fairfax, Va. 22030 and re-tired from the U.S. Army in January 1963. Blair then served ten years as an administrator in Academic Affairs at Edinboro State College from which he retired on June 30, 1975.
George (Jay) E. Hoffman, Jr. '75 is Junior Auditor for Riddle Memorial Hospital, U.S. Route 1, Media, Pa. 19063. George lives in Media, Pa.
S. Thomas Hornyak '72 lives in Pittsburgh, Pa. 15235. Tom was recently admitted into membership of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants after successfully passing the November 1974 examination. On September 1, 1975, Tom's wife Carol presented him with a son, Adam Nicholas.
Thomas Iezzi '45 lives in Bristol, Pa. 19007, and is manager of the Environmental Control Department-Bristol Plant Chemical and Plastics Division of the Rohm and Haas Co., His daughter, Drina, is a freshman at Smith College.
Guy W. Knight '30, a member of the Philadelphia Bar, is a retired Vice President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. and Senior Vice President of the Penn. Central Transportation Co.
Thomas E. Morton '63 is Manager-Facilities Engineering for the Babcock and Wilcox Company's Nuclear Materials Division located at Apollo, Pa. Tom's lives in Murrysville, Pa.
Edward W. Oermann '22, whose name was incorrectly spelled in a previous newsletter, lives in Conshohoken, Pa. 19428. Ed advises that Robert Ockford '22 is retired and lives in Hillsboro Beach, Fla.
Edwin A. Rhoads '58, President of Rhoads Mills Inc., and lives in Selinsgrove.
Pat Sweigart '31 lives in Mount Joy, Pa. Pat retired in January 1973 as Personnel Manager of the R/M Friction Materials Company, Manheim, Pa. which is a division of Raybestos Manhattan Inc. He presently is Secretary of the Mount Joy Boro Water and Sewer Authority.
Guy L. Walters '46, a Funeral Director in Tarentum, Pa.
George L. Walz Jr. '54 is Division Manager for Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. and lives in Washington, PA.
William R. Weaver '70 lives at in Pittsburgh, Pa. Bill is a Special Education Teacher at Eastern State School and Hospital, Trevose, Pa.
Thank you to all those brothers that shared their news.
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