Letter from Current President

To our venerable alumni,

            With the spring semester already upon us, it is with great pride that I write to you in our inaugural alumni email newsletter. Hopefully this will be the first of many to come. On behalf of all the Brothers in the chapter, I would like to thank you for your continued support, which has long been essential to the success of our fraternity. As incoming president, I am very excited about the next year, and look forward to all of the goals we will accomplish. In addition to increasing the number of Brothers we have, our ambitions include increased philanthropy participation, improved scholarship, and enhanced alumni relations. We are all very optimistic about the spring semester and the new men that will be pledging, and we invite all of you to come visit us whenever you have a chance. In this newsletter you will find plans for our big Founder’s Day event set for April, and we invite you to come celebrate all that makes Phi Kappa Psi such an integral part of each and every one of us. It is only through your encouragement and active involvement that we will continue to flourish. It is my honor to represent the 1,800 plus men who have come before me in writing to you. I look forward to seeing you in April, and the many Founder's Days to come.

Live Ever,

Eric Schonberg...
President of the Penn Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Psi

Letter from the Past President
During my term as a president, I have seen improvements in many aspects of the brotherhood. Now more than ever it seems that the brothers are dedicated to the improvement of our chapter. I am excited to see what our new top four officers will be able to accomplish, as they are all very inspired and dedicated. I am also looking forward to being able to lend support to areas that need improvement, such as our scholastic program, alumni relations and our involvement with our Housing Corporation. I cannot express how proud I am to have served for the longest tenured chapter in the nation. Here is to 153 more years.

Live Ever, Die Never,

Eric Neuenschwander…

Other News

Homecoming
This year’s homecoming showed great promise for the years to come.  Instead of hosting the usual BBQ, a formal dinner was served to the alumni, followed by an enriching period of discussion and conversation.  The turnout was fantastic; alumni of all ages came to enjoy the brotherhood they learned about years ago.  The brothers of Pennsylvania Beta would like to formally thank all the alumni who made the trip to Allegheny for alumni weekend.  To improve upon our Homecoming Dinner, we would like to give alumni more notice and a more formal invitation to our Founders’ Day celebration.

Founder's Day 
We invite all alumni to celebrate Founder’s Day with us by attending a formal event in the Tippie Alumni Center on April 12, 2008. The gathering begins at at 4:00 p.m. with an appetizer hour followed by a catered dinner at 5:00 p.m. Please inform us by March 30, 2008 if you would like to attend by emailing schonbe@allegheny.edu or calling Eric Schonberg at
(973) 713-5473.

Awards
Last summer, four current brothers attended the Woodrow Wilson Leadership School (WWLS) at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee.  At the conference, Pennsylvania Beta was honored with three awards, the plaque of accreditation, the Dr. Thomas D. Myers Scholarship Award, and the plaque for scholastic improvement.  These are the first awards that Penn Beta has won at WWLS since the late 1990’s.  
If you briefly scan through your latest copy of The Shield, you will observe that very few chapters have been accredited.  Penn Beta completed 8 out of 11 categories for accreditation.  While this is satisfactory, it is not our best, and we will strive to complete all 11 by the accreditation review in 2008.  If you would like to learn more about the accreditation process please visit the “news” section of our website, http://www.pennbeta.com/news.htm.
The Dr. Thomas D. Meyers Scholarship Award was presented to Penn Beta after the brothers earned a 3.01 GPA in the 2006 fall semester.  This was the largest improvement between two semesters for any organization in Allegheny’s recorded history.  The excellent increase in GPA led to the final award, the plaque for scholastic improvement, where Penn Beta was recognized for our hard work and dedication.

Election results & IFC
Toward the end of the fall 2007 semester we elected our new top four positions.  The honors go to President Eric Schonberg ‘06, Vice President Justin Weimer ‘07, Treasurer Toufik Madhun ‘06 and Corresponding Secretary Trevor Filipiak ‘07.
Moreover, we had two brothers run for IFC executive positions.  Brothers Toufik Madhun and Philip Talarico ’07 were honored with President and Public Relations respectively.  Lastly, this past fall, we had the pleasure of inducting our newest member Timothy Wetsell into our beloved fraternity.

Community Service
Click here to see more pictures and a description of our most recent community service trip!

GatorLocator
You may recall reading in the Magazine or College emails about GatorLocator, Allegheny’s password protected online database for alumni. The GatorLocator website can be found at www.gatorlocator.org and we encourage you to register.  This will allow all the brothers in the fraternity to maintain communication with the alumni.  Moreover, we are taking an active role in integrating our alumni into the current chapter and would appreciate the help.

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