School has resumed.  The summer was quite productive for our chapter.  At Fiji Academy at Ohio State, we received the following awards: 1st in the Owen Cup, 3rd in the Brightman, and honorable mention in the Cheney Cup (puts us in top 9 of 136 chapters!!).  Everyone who went to Academy returned with great expectations and memories of a fabulous time; especially Lenny Muhlenkamp who turned 21 while he was there.

The number of people living in the house is down.  Only 25 brothers facilitate the house causing much emphasis on rush this year.  Most brothers are glad to be back.  

 

Tuesday night we had pizza in the works for perspective rushees as rush officially opened.  Things went very well with everyone getting there fill of pizza.  Open house for informals was held this weekend for rushees also.  Many tours were given and good impressions about our chapter were relayed to all the rushees.  

Our first party of the year was held this past weekend.  It turned out ok but more cooperation and preparation needs to be done if we expect to have any good parties this year.  

 

Rush continued this week.  Saturday a picnic was held at the house.   Dinner was served and volleyball and football were played.  Also a DJ for WZZQ stopped by and handed out free CD's and tapes.

 

The first formal meeting of the year was held Monday night.  Dinner was served to the chapter at 6:00 with the meeting starting at 7:00.   Everything went smoothly.  

Highway clean-up was held Saturday.  The job took longer than usual because attendance was low.  Everyone who went congregated at the house afterwards for a cook-out.  

This weekend first formals was held.  We had the second largest attendance of Rose Fraternities ( behind Triangle).  The formals went very well.  Sully had everything well organized.  Over 40 rushees were put on P list which was excellent.  Hopefully our rush efforts will continue!

 

Rush was closed this week due to Homecoming.  Friday of Homecoming a regular party was held.  Then, Saturday a picnic was held at the football field.  The climate was chilly but many stayed to watch the game (We lost to Depauw).  A casino night was then held that night at the house.  Many graduates stayed around to participate.  

 

This week was a short one.  Fall break was Thursday and Friday, but rush reopened.  

 

On Tuesday of this week, Pizza and Bowling were held.  Attendance was great.  Everyone that went had an awesome time.  Rushees were picked up at the dorms to go eat pizza; from there everyone went to the bowling alley to try their skill.  It was a great way to end the week.  

 

This had been a very busy weekend for our chapter.  Friday, we held South Sea Island.  The party went fairly well.  We are having trouble with unwelcome guests getting into the party.   Everyone is expecting door watchers to be more alert.  

Saturday morning we had the quarterly house clean-up.  Attendance was great.  The house looked very nice when it was over.  Saturday night was the ice-hockey game at Indy.  All rushees were picked up and escorted to the game.  To our disappointment, Peluso wasn't playing.  We stopped off at our usual truck-stop on the way back for a late night supper.  This is one of our best rush functions.   Many rushees had a great time and were able to see what FIJI is really about.  

 

This is the last week for open rush, so we've pulled out all of the stops.  Tuesday night, Sully, the rush chairman, rented the Mini Golf course from 8-10 pm.  Everyone came out for a round of golf.  Wednesday night, he rented the Go Cart rink; this was a huge success.   Everyone had a blast; some brothers even got kicked out due to their antics.  Thursday night, we had movie night at the house; attendance was low due to the many tests that freshmen and upperclassmen had.   Saturday night, many of the actives took pledges out for movies and pizza.  Attendance was good.  At 12 midnight rush closed and all perspective pledges had to go home.

This weekend was Second Formals.  Friday night was the first session of Second Formals.  Everything went fairly smooth.  Following Second Formals, we had Purple Carpet for the pledges.  This was the first time we ever had a Purple Carpet for spring pledges.  The pledges were impressed as well as encouraged with the event.  Sunday was the second session; all went well.  

 

Bid Tuesday was Tuesday night.  We took 25 pledges.  At 5 pm we gathered the pledges at the Worx for a small get-together, then everyone headed back to the house for dinner.  Concluding supper, everyone changed for the water fight.  All of the pledges had a great time, it was the first time they were able to party with us.

Friday night we held the pledge party.  Attendance was low due to sudden cold weather and due to many sorority hay-rides that night.  

Saturday night, we had our first hay ride in 2 years.  The night was very cold but the hay-ride went great.  Everyone huddled around the fire telling stories, except for when they braved the cold to go on a hay ride.  

 

The quarter is finally winding down.  Many have a lot of tests next week so the house is very quiet.  Everyone is looking forward to getting this quarter over; but everyone is worried about the chapter's grades, many individuals feel that probation will be inevitable this quarter.  

 

The house is very quiet this weekend.  Twenty-four hour quiet hours took effect Friday night so everyone could start studying for finals.  

Last Monday was the first game for our basketball team.  It was only exhibition but many from our chapter showed up to back our team, which has 3 starting FIJI's: Scott Beach, Troy Dewar, and Paul Hedinger.  A second exhibition game was held Thursday night.  Our team came out victories in both games.  

 

Finals have concluded and almost everyone has left for home.  Surprisingly, this year Rowdy Half Hour was a disappointment.  Most of the time at 11pm, the house was quiet and few were willing to break lose and blow-off for a while.  

 

After a week of classes everyone was ready to relax and enjoy the weekend.   Friday night we had a party and it went over very smoothly with many girls showing up even though they have finals coming up this next week.  

At our last meeting nominations were taken for the next cabinet.   This Monday a new cabinet will be elected.  Good luck to all of the individual candidates is in order.  

Saturday we had our annual retreat in Merom, Indiana.  Everyone who was able to attend had a great time.  The football game ended as usual with the actives beating the pledges and luckily this year their were no major injuries.  Story time was awesome this year, some of the best childhood stories were reminisced, and Kelby topped off the night with another one of his childhood memories.  Many concluded the night with card games, while others went out on a limb to play roller skate soccer in the gym.

We also were happy to activate 2 pledges since break, Chad Hurm and Aaron Bultman.  Chad our "long lived pledge" finally was able to be initiated in his senior year at Rose-Hulman and Aaron was finally able to take his seat with the rest of his sophomore class.

Also, this week we were able to take another pledge.  David Madsen accepted a bid to Phi Gamma Delta and he too was formally pledged at retreat.

Overall, it has been a busy weekend for all of the brothers and pledges.  Everyone is busy today trying to recover and get their studies done.  

 

The chapter's officers for 1992 were elected at tonight's meeting.   The new officers are as follows: 

 

The new cabinet, except Mike Lawrence, took their retreat to headquarters.  Four other juniors made the trip as well.  There was much to learn and to be discussed by the new cabinet.  We, the cabinet, believe the weekend was very productive.  

 

Tonight's meeting was installation of the new officers.  A chapter meal was held before the meeting.

A Christmas Party for the members of Happiness Bag was held tonight.  Dinner was marinated ham with all the trimmings, with a party following.  At the party, songs were sang, games were played, and gifts were given out by Santa (brother Francois).  Afterwards all the brothers gathered for our annual gag gift exchange.  As usual, there were many laughs and interesting stories told. 

 

Break has begun.  There are very few people left in the house, how ever, the basketball team will be back right after Christmas to play in St. Louis.  

 

Classes resume tomorrow, everybody seems to have homework left over from break.  It doesn't help knowing that the next break isn't for eight long weeks.  

 

The first meeting of 1992 was held.  Among other things, the hunt for committee chairmen has started.  

 

The new cabinet went around campus today introducing themselves to professors and administrators.  On their route was Dr. Rob Bunch, Tom Miller, Pete Gustafson, and Dr. Frank Guthrie.

 

The Field Secretary, Rob Wolfe, arrived today.  He will be spending the next few days with us evaluating our chapter and giving helpful advice to cabinet members, possible committee chairmen, and anyone else who requests it.  

 

The Inter-Fraternity Council met tonight to hold it's officer elections for 1992.  Brother Kelby Ridenour was elected the new IFC president.  Hopefully Kelby can turn the IFC around and make it a respectable council again.  

 

Tonight was the annual FIJI ski trip.  About thirty brothers set out at about 9:00 pm for a midnight ski at Paoli Peaks in southern Indiana.  Everyone had an excellent time, especially Lenny Muhlenkamp who was able to wipe out three people with one hit and break a man's leg.  The only FIJI casualty was Aaron Bultman who dislocated his collar bone trying to be a little to fancy on one of his jumps.

 

Tonight was our first party of 1992.  People have really begun to get frustrated with the poor turnouts out our parties.  This party, however, went pretty well.  It was a cold evening, but quite a few ladies attended and all the brothers seemed to enjoy themselves.  This party gave us all hope that our next one can be even better.  

 

Six brothers made a road trip to Depauw with the Sigma Nu's to support our basketball team.  Although we were very rowdy and excited, our team still lost by eleven.  

About twenty brothers, mostly Junior M.E.'s, went to Paris, Illinois tonight to help Chad Powers celebrate his twenty-first birthday in style.  This morning was our Winter quarter work session.  The pledges had a good turnout while the actives were missing quite a few.  The house does look extremely good, however, and will hopefully stay that way through Spring Rush.  

 

Tonight was the second annual R.W.B. Super Bowl Kickoff.  All the brothers and one of our spring rushees gathered to watch the super bowl.  To add to the enjoyment our activities committee bought fried mushrooms, onion rings, and spicy hot wings for refreshment.  Although the game was a blowout by the Redskins, everyone had a good time.

 

The annual State Day, hosted by the Beta Graduates, was held this morning.  Four of our officers, twenty pledges, and two other brothers attended.  Once again we returned home without the Beta Cup, but hopes are high that we will take it next year.  

 

The meeting tonight went extremely well, for the first time in many weeks we had excellent attendance.  Thanks to the good turn out, their were finally enough people to give a vote of pledgeship to Todd Holthaus.  

 

Our I.M. bowling team finished off their season by winning their league today.  They will compete in the championship match in two weeks.  

 

The pledges held their first formal meeting of the year tonight.  All went extremely well, the pledges took their ritual very serious and did a good job with their first R & C.  

 

Today is Mom's Day and many of the brothers are bringing their parents by to see the house.  The house looks really good thanks to all the brothers doing good house jobs.  We really hope everyone's parents are impressed.  

 

The Executive Council (all cabinet officers and committee chairmen) met today to set a calendar for the third quarter and discuss any problems facing the fraternity.  The meeting was very productive so we look to have another during third quarter.  

 

The Alpha Omicron Pi Sorority hosted a Bowl-a-Thon to raise money for a local charity.  We had a team of four brothers participate in the activity.  

 

Our Spring Rush officially began today with an open house for those freshmen who were interested.  Two freshmen seemed to be really excited about finding out more about Fiji.  

Tonight, Dan McVey and Mark Henke were initiated.  The entire chapter is glad to have them aboard after an extremely long spring pledgeship.  

 

Our Basketball team played Depauw tonight, and as usual there were many Fijis there to back our team.

 

The Fiji bowling team defeated the Lambda Chi team tonight to win the I.M. Bowling Championship.  Although the trophy isn't pretty to look at, we'll display it in our trophy case with pride. 

The Junior M.E.'s hosted a B.Y.O.S. (Bring Your Own Steak) party at Shady Rest tonight.  The steaks grilled on the barbecue were excellent, so plans are being made for more B.Y.O.S. parties in the future.  

 

Finals begin today.  Everyone is concentrating on their studying, except during Rowdy Half-Hour at 11:00 pm when everyone lets off some steam.  

 

Spring Break begins today.  Many of the brothers are taking off for Florida in a few days, while the rest of us are just glad to get the hell out of here for a week.  

 

Classes resume today, and as always, everyone wishes their break would have been longer.  

 

Brotherhood weekend began today, hoping to bring a better understanding to our pledges and actives, what Fiji is really all about.   The weekend went very well and the pledges are more excited than every about being a part of Fiji.  

 

Part of brotherhood weekend was getting everyone together to do one of our Highway Clean-ups.  There was an extremely good turn out even though the temperatures were in the low forties.  

 

Our annual Norris Pig Dinner was held tonight.  Although only six graduates were in attendance, the brothers had a nice evening and especially enjoyed the story of Rho Phi's founding given by Don Mighell and Frank Guthrie.  For the second year, the five value awards were given with Jeff Geesaman presenting the awards to the following recipients: Excellence - Jeff Hansen, Knowledge - Lenny Muhlenkamp, Friendship - Chad Powers, Service - Kelby Ridenour, Morality - Troy Dewar.  The "Not For College Days Alone" award was presented by Steve Dunn to Greg White ME '90.   The Scholarship awards, presented by Mitch Deckard, were: Highest GPA (Active) - Lenny Muhlenkamp, Highest GPA (Pledge) - Jim Labbe, Most improved GPA - Aaron Bultman.  

The House Corp. held their annual meeting today.  They approved buying the chapter new bunk beds and dressers, new chairs, a new living room rug, and some painting on the outside of the house.

 

The chapter invited officer Herb Jones to come discuss drinking and driving for our annual alcohol awareness program.

 

The Junior M.E.'s hosted another B.Y.O.S. party tonight at Shady Rest.  The turnout was great and once again the steaks were excellent.  There are plans in the making for one more gathering before the end of the year.  

 

Purple Garter was this weekend at the French Lick Resort in French Lick, IN.  The resort was very nice with many activities to keep us entertained during the day.  There was horseback riding, tennis, swimming, golf, or just walking around the resort to keep us busy.  Everyone had a wonderful time, we hope we can hold Purple Garter there again sometime.  

 

Today was the spring quarter work session.  The chapter spent the day cleaning the house and doing work to prepare the yard for spring.   After the work session, everyone stayed around to help set up for Fiji Isle which was that night.  The party went great, probably the best of the year.  

 

The executive council met tonight to discuss the budget for the 1992-93 school year.  Due to more members and the house being filled to capacity, there should be plenty of money next year which made budgeting easier.  

 

Seniors had the E.I.T. exam today.  Walk-out was that evening at the Ohio State Fiji's.  Mostly Pledges went being it was 6 hour drive, and they seemed to enjoy seeing what it was like to be on a larger campus for once.  

 

The Blood Drive sponsored by IFC was held today.  Several brothers took time out of their busy schedule to donate.  

 

Most of the brothers went home this weekend to celebrate Easter with their families and get away from school for a weekend.  

 

Our third Highway Clean-up of the year was held today.  Afterwards the brothers gathered at the home of Eric and Dan Berzsenyi to have a cook-out and play home-run derby.  

 

Campus clean-up was held this morning.  About 20 brothers, those who hadn't gone to little 500, helped mulch several areas around the campus.  

 

Tonight was initiation for our fall pledge class.  Everyone is excited to have 23 newly initiated brothers.  We hope they perform as well as actives as they did during their pledgeship.  

 

Today is Parent's Day.  We've spent the week getting the house looking good to impress the parents, and we hope they enjoy their prime rib at the parent's dinner this evening.  

 

Greek Games was held today.  As usual, we had a great time getting together with the other fraternities for sporting contests.  

 

The annual Road Rallye, hosted by the new initiates, took place today.  It was an awesome and close race this year, with a picnic following in Deming Park.  

 

The annual Rho Phi Open golf tournament was held today.  It's always great to have graduates and undergraduates get together for this golf outing.  The Rho Phi Trophy went to the team of Rick Briars, Kelby Ridenour, Kolby Rizor, and Bill Meyers.  

 

Our Senior valedictory was held tonight.  The chapter will definitely feel the loss of the seniors next year, they were an outstanding class.  We hope that the new initiates and the rest of the chapter will be able to pick up the slack and continue our chapter's success.