Alumni Weekend

Dinner Payments ($40) can be made through amazon using the link below.

January Newsletter

The Latest Newsletter From Your Worthy Tribune, Devon Long '12 

Message from the Tribune

Brothers,

I hope this message finds you well. I will be serving as your Tribune for this upcoming semester, and want to take a moment to introduce myself. I am currently a senior and joined Sigma Chi my freshman spring as a member of the Alpha Pi pledge class. Since then, I have had the privilege of serving as Historian and Pro-Consul, and this fraternity has become a vital part of my college experience.

Attached is the September 2011 newsletter, and I hope you have the chance to read through it to get a sense of what the undergraduate chapter is up to. For brothers in the Boston area, we will be hosting a few alumni/undergrad events at the house this semester. For brothers elsewhere, I hope you can make it out to HY (at Yale this year). Our 20th anniversary last year was epic, and I assure you turning 21 will be no less a cause for celebration.

Please feel free to reach out to me for anything, and I hope to get to know as many of you as possible this upcoming year.

-Brother Long

A Note from the Chapter Advisor

Dear Brothers,

For the last two years, I've had the great pleasure and honor of serving as the Chapter Advisor of the Kappa Eta Chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.  I wanted to take a brief minute to update you about some substantial progress that's been made over the past few years, and to give you an update on the chapter house.

Over the past two years, the chapter has successfully dealt with a number of problems that threatened to weaken the chapter.  A few years ago, dues collection fell to an unsustainable level, which led to the creation of a substantial debt owed to the international fraternity.  In order to retire this debt, the chapter raised dues to $695 for the first two years of active membership, and $595 thereafter, and I am happy to report that it has achieved a better than 90% dues collection rate each semester over the past two years, paying off that debt.  

In recent months, the undergraduate chapter has worked with the House Corporation to make serious improvements to the house.  The most notable improvement is, of course, the finished basement, photos of which are attached.  Thanks are due to the many generous alumni who have donated to the house improvement effort.  In addition, the undergraduate chapter has undertaken its own fundraising drive, with over 70% of current undergraduates having made pledges or contributions.  A number of these contributions have already been made, and some of them have been very substantial.  I'd like to recognize four undergraduate brothers in particular who have contributed more than $1,000 each, making them new members of the Norman Shield Society.

Kyle Martin

Nick Moore

Brian Plancher

Tony Wang

As these brothers contributed out of their summer earnings and signing bonuses, and these contributions represent a significant sacrifice on their part.  By contributing significant funds as well as individual labor in maintaining the house, the undergraduate chapter hopes to express its gratitude for the alumni contributions, as well as its commitment to continuous improvement of the house.

Despite the recent improvements, much work remains to be done.  Among other projects, we need to complete capital improvements on the house, pay down the mortgage, and develop better alumni networking programs for the future. I hope that if you have not done so already, you'll contribute to our ongoing fundraising drive by making a contribution online. In addition, because we have not yet exhausted the matching funds pledged by our very generous alums, any contribution you make will be doubled.

Brothers, thank you for your time and for your generous contributions.  Please let me know if you have any questions, and if your travels take you through Cambridge, please contact me so that I can arrange a tour of the house so that you can see that your contributions are being well-spent.

IH/C,
Dan Craig
Psi, '04

PS: The chapter has just concluded a very successful recruitment process, extending 18 bids to new potential brothers.  The success of this semester's recruitment was covered by the Harvard Crimson.  You can read the articles here: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/2/14/fraternities-sororities-sigma-rush/ and here:http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/2/11/rush-men-number-frats/.

A Letter from the Consul and a Recap of Harvard Yale Weekend

Dear Alumni,

  In case we did not meet during the Harvard-Yale celebrations, my name is Tony Huang, the Consul of Kappa Eta Sigma Chi for the upcoming year. I want to personally reach out to you and let you know that we, the undergraduate members of Kappa Eta, were absolutely thrilled to share Harvard-Yale Weekend this year with so many Alumni from all over the world! We hope you thoroughly enjoyed the events of the KH 20th Anniversary Celebration, and have fully recovered from the debauchery as well.

  To refresh your memories, we started off on Friday night with a successful banquet with over a hundred brothers in attendance. On Game day, we held what was clearly the best tailgate in KH history and likely in Harvard history as well, topped off with a rocking performance from Mini KISS. At night, we hosted a party with over 350 people until 4:30 in the morning. In total, we consumed around 150 bottles of champagne, 700 cans of beer, 15 gallons of punch, and about 100 cans of Red Bull. This was truly a weekend that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

  Before we started planning for this year’s 20th Anniversary, the undergraduates were asked to complete many tasks, most importantly getting the House ready for the weekend and the alumni. The actives set out to completely renovate 1124 Mass Ave, a huge undertaking for a group of students. We spent countless hours painting every single interior wall, making cosmetic repairs, mounting curtains, making multiple Home Depot trips, and dealing with contractors who patched up the old walls, painted the exterior of the house, repaired the gutters, carpeted the stairs and hallways, installed new baseboard heaters, performed numerous carpentry projects throughout the House, and provided us with estimates for future projects including renovating the basement. In the end, we made 1124 Mass Ave the finest it’s ever been since we purchased the property.

  However, our work is not yet done. I hope you can take a few minutes out of your busy day to visit www.harvardsigmachi.com/alumni to donate to our chapter and help the undergraduates raise enough funds to proceed with basement renovation plans. As we gear ourselves toward spring rush, we hope we can muster the capital to replace the hot water heater and boiler ($15,000) and renovate the basement ($27,000) under the supervision and personal attention of Eta Sigma Chi founder, Rich Antonino. I want you to know that we are all ready to complete the basement, and the only factor preventing the projects from moving forward is a lack of funds. We hope that you, the alumnus of this Chapter, will give back and directly contribute to completing the basement, which will double the amount of social space we have. Hopefully, when you come back for The Game next time, we’ll have a new and fully functional bar, pong room, and dance floor to help us welcome the return of our illustrious alumni from all over the globe.

  Lastly, I'd just like to say a huge thanks to the worthy alumni who have provided $50,000 in matching funds, to Niki Parekh and Justin Saif for contributing so much to the capital campaign, and to Dan Craig for being a wonderful Chapter Advisor in the past year. The undergraduates truly appreciate all the time and effort Niki, Justin, Dan, and the other members of the House Corp, Andrew Stoll, Mike Sperling, Greg Geronemus, and JP Jacquet, have been committing to make improvements to our Chapter and the House. Also, I’d like to thank the Class Marshals who voluntarily stepped forward to help us in the fundraising process. The undergraduates really had a fantastic time with the alumni during HY weekend, and felt a stronger sense of brotherhood through them that will reverberate throughout next semester and years to come. I also hope you had a great time meeting the undergraduates and now know that the fraternity is in good hands. As Consul, I will do everything in my power to make sure that the alumni and actives continue to work together to make Kappa Eta Sigma Chi a better place for actives and alumni each and every day.

IH & C,

Tony Huang

Consul

Alpha Omicron