New school year

Greetings - I'm the undergraduate tribune, Long Ouyang '10, here with another update. School has started - a new horde of glassy-eyed freshmen now roam the yard, classes have really started, we've thrown several banging parties, and rush is in full swing.

Summer work and travels

Kappa Eta Sigs travel widely and this summer was no different for the actives. As usual there was strong representation in New York and Cambridge. Those going abroad visited countries as diverse as France, Spain, Costa Rica, Italy, India, Thailand, Cameroon, Japan, and more. Two brothers chronicled their travels online - see the Southeast Asian travels of Ben Massenburg '11 at Massenblog and the far-ranging adventures of Tom Wang '11 at Tom's World Adventure.

House improvements

We've repainted a wall in the main room on the first floor and purchased new smoke alarms.

Social changes

Yours truly is now also the social chair. I've been making moves to greatly improve our parties, the most important of which has been hiring a doorman to keep the house safe and comfortable during events.

Elections and appointments

Harvard-Yale chair: Chris Kinner '10

Kustos: Chris Kinner '10

House Chair: Mitch Denti '10

Social Brother: Tony Huang '12

Social Parties: Soren Rosier '10

Rush

Under the able leadership of Alec Boardman '11, the fall rush has been the strongest the chapter has seen in a few years. Over 60 of Harvard's finest and best-dressed freshmen came out for the introductory event on September 10, and the line for the rush party stretched down to Arrow Street. We have three more events to go - the date event on Saturday, a park outing the day after, and the final dinner on Tuesday night.

Alumni announcements

Dan Craig '04, who is now starting his second year at HLS, is our new alumni advisor. We are also being advised by Matt Brunnette Minnesota '09, a recent transplant to the Boston area.

Also, if you didn't hear the news, be sure to congratulate Davin Chew '01, who got married to his wife Gloria in July!

Website upgrade

I've been busy the past couple of weeks upgrading our website. The improvements are:

• Blog. The chapter will be supplementing (and possibly replacing) the newsletter with updates on this blog.
• More update-to-date information. The site will be updated more frequently because it's now be easier to maintain it. This is thanks to the new service that we're using called Squarespace, which our own Davin Chew '01 works for - thanks for the recommendation Davin!
• A new email system. We've moved to Google Apps to manage email addresses and lists. Chapter officers and the House Corp president now have static email addresses which forward to the current officers. This mean you can always reach the Consul, regardless of who it is, at consul@harvardsigmachi.com, the Pro Consul at proconsul@harvardsigmachi.com, and so on. See the chapter page for a list of all officer email addresses; the House Corp president can be reached at housecorp@harvardsigmachi.com.
• Secure members area. Study guides, photos, chapter, and meeting minutes are now available behind a password-protected members area (the "Login" link at the upper right corner). You can contact me to get the alumni login information.
• A new look and feel. This looks better than the old site and now works with most modern browsers.

Some projects still in progress are:

• Lore archive. A private wiki where the Historian can record our lore.
• Brother database. A database of every Kappa Eta Sig that allows you to search by name, pledge class, year, hometown, and concentration.
• Capital campaign page. A more comprehensive capital campaign page that details current donation totals, class participation rates, and status of ongoing house repairs.

 In Hoc Signo Vinces