Iota Alumni Weekend 2019 Dedicated to Brother Gerald Sylvester

The Iota Alumni Association received word of the passing last week of Brother and retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Gerald W. Sylvester, recently of Montgomery, Texas.

Brother Sylvester was initiated in 1957. He was the big brother of Jeff Allen. His son, Jim, also became a Kappa Sigma at Texas State University (formerly Southwest Texas State), initiated in the Spring of 1983.

Brother Sylvester was among a distinguished group of alumni who received Fifty Year pins during the Iota 125th Anniversary celebration in 2011.

In recognition of his lifeline dedication and support of the Iota Chapter, the Alumni Association will dedicate our gathering this year to Brother Gerald Sylvester.

Alumni Weekend 2019 is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, April 5th and 6th.

We received word from Gerald’s family that services will take place on April 6th. As we get further details, we’ll add them to this post.

It’s not ALL work…

There’s quite a group gathering (and a fun one too) for the upcoming workday at the House.

Come join for all or part of the day. Here’s the schedule for Saturday, August 5th:

– 7:00a.m. Breakfast at Monument Cafe
– 8:00a.m. Workday start
– 10:30a.m. Dedicate and bury time capsule from the 125th / group photo
– 1:00p.m. Lunch at House (sandwiches)
– 5:30p.m. Dinner at House (hamburgers)
– 6:00p.m. Wiffle ball game in the yard
– 7:00pm. Jam session

Note: a list of goals for the day and helpful tools to bring will follow this post soon.

AEKDB

Update: 125th Weekend Packages & Costs

Brothers,

I hope this letter finds you well on this October 12, 2011, the 125th birthday of The Iota Chapter of Kappa Sigma. We have a grand celebration planned for the weekend of November 4-6.

We are getting concerns and complaints that Iota’s Celebration is too expensive.

We are adding two categories to the registration to make it more affordable. There is no memorabilia included in either one. The alumni “Basic” is $85. The guest “Basic” is $75.

The new registration form has these additions. If you have already registered and have sent in your package and would like to change, let us know and we can do that.

Memorabilia will be for sale at the event on a first come first serve basis.

Our celebration is 3 weeks away. Southwestern will order food for the banquet depending on the numbers we give them. We will order our refreshments on the same numbers so help us out and don’t delay.

I hope this letter will help clarify any doubts and lead to a successful gathering of the brothers and their friends on November 4-6. Events like these come once every 25 years so call your worthless pledge brothers and make sure they will be there. Iota Chapter has a totally remodeled house just waiting for a celebration! Let’s give it one that will be remembered for years to come!

Happy Birthday Iota!

AEKDB

Erik Harpst

Join Masters of Destruction Part 2, June 4-5

RSPV via Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=169201776472278

What: Masters of Destruction (MOD) Weekend Part 2

Where: The House

When: Weekend of June 4th; sun-up to sun-down

Who: All actives and alumni are invited and encouraged to join the effort – that means you! Norwood Williams and Joe Abel are leading the effort.

How: Skills, sweat, tools, teamwork, and lots of fun along the way.

Why: The remaining tear work to be done includes: the head (another layer of sheetrock and flooring need to be removed), flooring in the kitchen needs to be removed, the carpet and possibly the subfloor in the old house mothers room needs to be removed,and a new deck put down. We need to do general ground works, etc.

Read Joe Abel’s report of MOD Part 1 here.

So please if you can come, come!

Joe Abel’s Update and Next Steps on House Renovation

Brothers,

We have started work on the Chapter house that was built in 1961.

Last weekend on May 21st we tore out the head (major leaks, and plumbing problems}; we also tore out the tile and some of the cabinets from the kitchen. We cleaned the grounds, chunked old couches, tore up sheetrock, old walls, and discovered more problems but none of them are structural. The old house is solid! Unbelievable!

We have a written contract with a contractor, reputable and on the spot. We’re redoing the head, the kitchen, replacing the North and South double doors, repairing all exterior doors upstairs and downstairs, fixing or replacing all the upstairs interior doors. We are putting new tile down with new sub flooring in the head and the kitchen. Repairing the fire suppressant system, and re-finishing the parquet floors.

We are having another work weekend on the 4th of June, all alumni and current Sigs are invited to come and help. The things we need to do is more work in the head (another layer of sheetrock and flooring need to be removed), flooring in the kitchen needs to be removed, the carpet and possibly the subfloor in the old house mothers room needs to be removed, and a new deck put down. We need to do general ground works, etc.
So please if you can come, come.

[For questions] Contact Norwood Williams, he is the project manager for the remodel for the alumnus and the contractor Joe Gilbreth. I think we have an opportunity to get the young guys involved and maybe get some of their input and help during the project. We want to get this thing done by August 1st to have it ready for the fall semester and the 125th. We will have a painting weekend to do sometime in July when the contractor finishes the major work.

AEKDB

Joe Abel

A call to all the brothers of Iota to pony up for the remodel of our old House

From Brother Joe Abel:

This is a call to all the brothers of Iota to pony up for the remodel of our old House.

We are going to redo the Head, Kitchen, replace the Main Doors south and North, repair all the other exterior doors, replace some of the room doors upstairs, do some electrical work etc. We will have to rent a rolloff dumpster for the tear out on May 21st and have it there for the remainder of the job. We are going to have to bubble wrap the composites and store them in a climate controlled storage until we are done. Plus we will have to have a painting weekend sometime this summer to put the finishing touches on the house. We have a good contractor for the job and Norwood and I will supervise the activity, so we should not have any thing get past us.

We estimate the cost to be $ 75,000.00. This should cover the whole job. Believe it or not there is actually some stuff that has held up since the work in 2007. I have thrown is $2500 to get us started, so everybody who can afford to give something please do so.

Alan Haworth is the EC member responsible for fundraising for the House Corporation.

AEKDB
Joe Abel

Editor’s note: Use the Donate button on Iotachapter.org to make a credit card donation, or mail a donation via check to Alan Haworth, 9135 Drumcliffe Ln., Dallas, TX 75231

Stage 1 of House Renovation: Demolition Weekend, May 21st

Iota Alumni News interviewed Brother Erik Harpst by email:

What’s the tear down all about?

“We will completely remodel the kitchen and upstairs bathroom among other things. We need all the hands that we can possibly get. All composites and historical items will be removed from the house and put in climate controlled storage. This will be the first of many work weekends until August. We have a contractor to handle the big stuff.”

When will it begin?

“We will begin tear out on Saturday May 21.”

Why are we doing it?

“Our old house is a half of a century old. It needs to be in the shape worthy of a chapter that is one of the oldest in the Kappa Sigma Fraternity, and ready for a couple hundred brothers and their friends to attend a historical celebration.”

Who’s in charge?

“Joe Abel is the Committee Chair of remodeling and will supervise the effort.”

Where should we stay?

“Suggested hotels in Georgetown are Country Inn and Suites and Comfort Suites.”