Program details will follow, but you can probably count on the following:

• Friday Night Poker Tournament
• Coffee & Doughnuts
• A General Active & Alumni Meeting
• Lunch on the Lawn
• Babies, Toddlers, and Kids
• Softball (link to Southwest Williamson County Regional Park)
• Your PB’s kids one year older since you saw them last year
• Dinner at your favorite spot around town
• Instrumental music and singing on the porch
• Lots of fun and fellowship
• A live band that you can dance to
• A surprise visit from someone you’ve not seen in years

You can count on a lot more too…

Mark your calendars. Make the case to your wife now. It may help to ask her to come. The kids too.

See you in April!

Brothers,

During the 2009 Alumni Weekend, the Alumni Association formed a committee tasked with assisting actives in preparing for life after college.  In support of this effort, the Iota Chapter AA will be holding a Career Day event on February 6th.  Several alumni have collaborated to plan this day of presentations and discussions addressing professional topics (see attached agenda) for the benefit of the undergraduate chapter and recent graduates.

We encourage brothers who can spare the time to join us for any or all parts of the day.  Alumni attendees can assist by participating in discussions and sharing their own experiences throughout the day. We specifically encourage alumni in the Austin area to make time for the evening networking event at Fish City in Georgetown, which will be a great chance for these guys to practice networking strategies discussed during the day.

This is the first event of this kind for the chapter and for Southwestern.  In fact, the Career Services Center will participate in the event and has graciously provided the venue and the food and beverages for the day.  If this proves successful, the CSC is considering a similar event on a larger scale for the entire university in the fall.

When we typically gather with the active chapter, we spend much of our time talking about our life in college.  This is an opportunity for us to speak to them about our lives after college and, hopefully, to help them get off to a great start. 

Please mark your calendar and RSVP to Scott Hanson (j_scott_hanson@yahoo.com) by Wednesday February 3rd.  We look forward to seeing you there.

AEKDB,

Scott

Dear Kappa Sigma Friends & Brothers,

I am proud to announce that the 2010 National Student Peace Alliance Conference will be held at Southwestern University on February 26-28. This conference will focus on evidence-based programs that are effectively reducing and preventing violence both at an international and domestic level. The conference will bring together 500 pro-active, pro-peace and solution-oriented young people from across the country to unite around a common, and practical, goal — peace.

Such a prestigious honor for our University could not have occurred without the hard work of the recently deceased Rob Atkinson, the national legislative director for SPA, and the hard work of many other active Iota members involved in Student Peace Alliance at SU. This Conference will most certainly make an impact in Texas as well as on Kappa Sigma nationally.

As we want to make this conference as effective and impactful as possible, Kappa Sigma actives are launching a fundraising campaign to support the conference with the goal of raising $1000 by the date of the conference. We are one month away.

Please consider making a contribution to help provide the proper resources and financial support students need to make this conference exceed the University’s expectations and make a difference in Student’s lives.

You can donate at: http://www.studentpeacealliance.org/give/give or mail a check payable to “Student Peace Alliance” at The Peace Alliance, PO Box 27601, Washington, District of Columbia 20038. If you are interested in sponsoring the conference or would like more information please call 325-518-5889.

Sincerely,

Martin Fergus A.E.K.D.B.

President Student Peace Alliance Southwestern Chapter

325-518-5889

fergusd@southwestern.edu

http://www.studentpeacealliance.org/conference

I am looking for a freelance web designer to talk about a new business and a contract to build a website.

I have the plan, just need a professional website.

If you are interested, please contact me any time.

AEKDB

David McClellan
dwmcclellan@hotmail.com
512-680-3282

The book is available for purchase at www.stankygroovepress.com.

From the author’s site:

Alan Haworth returns with a collection of fiction short stories – most of them set in Boston. "Hitchhiking in Boston" visits a man who has outlived his apartment on Comm Ave. and his time on this mortal coil. With the tax collector breathing down his throat, the reader follows him through a typical day hitching rides around Boston.

"Carjacked"  and "Disappearing Ink" read like old episodes of "The Twilight Zone," as if Haworth has channeled Rod Serling to come back from the grave and entertain us once again. "The Mortician," dark comedy at its best, is based on the fact that home burial is still legal in Massachusetts. A hapless, young mortuary student attempts to start his own business, and the results are hilarious.

Praise for Haworth’s memoir of driving an

18-wheeler, "The Peterbilt Journals" :

“This set of memoirs really hums like the sound of a big truck. I can’t wait to see what Haworth can do with fiction as his imagination and descriptions are excellent."

Punk Planet

“Raw. Shows the under belly of the trucking world.” Tatnuck Booksellers

“The author manages to keep the reader entertained throughout the book and provides a diverse collage of life amongst drivers, dispatchers, roadhouses, dock workers and "lot lizards". “ Anonymous Amazon comment

Have news to share with Iota Alumni. Please email jbgoodman(at)alumni(dot)southwestern(dot)org.

Saturday Nov. 7:

• Active/Alumni meeting 3pm
• Open house at Sigma 4pm
• Kappa Sigma Reception at the  Alumni Hospitality House 6pm

Notable reunion events:

• 60^th reunion for Roger Davidson’s class
• 40^th reunion for Harry Crenshaw’s class

If you’ve got a reunion year celebration or other group event to announce, post a comment to this post.

I am happy to report to you that your delegates at the 67th Grand Conclave had a great experience. I am so proud of our active brothers Lance Turri and John Burden for their enthusiastic participation in this important event. As our delegates they represented our order with honor and that distinct style that is all Iota.  John met with Michael Wilson and the new Worthy Grand Treasurer and has their assurance that Iota is in good standing. They also expressed their respect for our chapter and it’s long and important history. I left the conference with a better understanding of our national operations and a greater love for our amazing chapter.

It is with great excitement that I would like to invite all alumni officers, and any others that are interested, to our annual E.C. retreat at my home in Walburg on August 29th at 10:00 a.m.

We will be helping our young brothers with officer transitions and setting goals for the up coming year.

Thank You,

AEKDB…

Marshal Crenshaw
Alumni Advisor

You can see him online via the Jeopardy! weekly show guide.

Today’s episode already played in Dallas/Fort Worth; it is a riveting barn burner of a contest. Check your local listings and set your DVR or TiVo if there’s still time. You don’t want to miss this one.

I remember John playing VHS recordings of Jeopardy into our dorm room as a first-year. His mom recorded them for him during the summer and school year so he would not miss out. John also led our Kappa Sigma team to a College Bowl victory in 1998.

Congratulations John! You make us all proud!

Joel Stone raised a bag full of money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Lone Star Chapter and completed the MS150 ride. Well, the part that wasn’t flooded out anyway… From Joel:

As most of you already know, heavy rain and flooding canceled the Saturday leg of our ride from Houston to La Grange, but we didn’t let that dampen our spirits for long! Come Sunday, we were ready to ride from La Grange to Austin, a distance of almost 80 miles!

But for the really important part:

Thanks to your overwhelming support, I was able to exceed my fundraising goal and raise over $1400 for MS!

Very cool. Great job Joel!

Links:

Click on the link below if you would like to view some photos of the ride:
http://www.brightroom.com/estf.asp?EVENTID=47163&PWD=&BIB=2150
Click here to visit Joel’s personal page.

Our active brother Martin Fergus is running for Student Congress President. For those of us who can’t vote, we wish you the best of luck on election day, April 8, 2009!

Martin’s running on a robust platform…

• Martin will enforce transparency in Student Congress activities, policies, and resolutions. There is no reason why information about our initiatives as Student Congress should be difficult or a challenge to find. Student Congress has an obligation to represent its constituents in a clear and professional manner.
• Martin plans to develop more effective and efficient organizational practices for Student Congress. As President, Martin will move our Congress in to the 21st century of student government by using centralized information with electronic and internet tools like Wiggio, Twitter, blogging, and websites in order to create a stronger Congress that responds quickly to problems and allow the voice of the campus to be heard.
• Martin will facilitate public exposure for Southwestern’s Congress. Our student Government is a body that is supposed to work for the students. He will work to make Congress well recognized and promoted on campus so that students are energized about the issues that matter.
• Martin will revitalize partnerships between Student Congress and Student organizations. There are a lot of strong organizations around campus that make up the life and energy of Southwestern and Student Congress should be there to help work alongside these organizations. Martin will promote policies that will help give all student organizations the resources they need to fulfill the initiatives they are striving for.
• Martin will strengthen communications between representatives and the Executive Council.
• Martin will work with the administration of Southwestern University to allow for greater autonomy and freedom among the student body.
• Martin will launch strategies to help alleviate the financial burden on students in this time of economic struggle.

About Martin:
Martin hails from Abilene, Texas, and he graduated from Abilene High School in 2006. Throughout his high school career, Martin was active as an Eagle Scout, a lifeguard, he served as Captain of the AHS swim team, and he worked as a summer camp counselor at Camp Rio Vista in Hunt, Texas.

Martin is a Political Science major with a Sociology minor, and he is active at Southwestern as President of the SU Student Peace Alliance, and he also serves as the National State Organizer for SPA. Martin is a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity, and he currently serves as Philanthropic Chair. Martin has served as Senatorial district 24 democratic Chair. Martin spent his summer working as a campaign field organizer fort he Dwight Fullingim Political Campaign for Congress, and he also has experience in the legal field having worked as a Legal Assistant for a law firm in Abliene.

Martin is a Dean’s List student with a passion for serving the Southwestern community. He strives to listen to all student concerns, has strong relationships with members of the Southwestern administration, and Martin wants to be YOUR Student Congress President for the 2009-2010 school year.