Sunday 8/2/2015

Dear Fellow Alumni and Friends of Sigma Phi Epsilon,

It is a pleasure and a privilege to serve as the President of the Alumni & Volunteer Corporation for the New York Chi chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon. I follow in a line of exemplary leadership and only hope to exceed their accomplishments and help pave the way for the future of our organization. While we have made leaps and bounds in our progress as an organization, there are several areas that have been addressed as deficient when talking with other alumni and the undergraduate brothers. Below, I have identified the areas I wish to tackle during my time as president and with the help of the executive board for the AVC, the undergraduate chapter, and all active volunteers and alumni.

In an effort to help streamline communication from the AVC to all Brothers, we have established two separate emails that will be kept universally for the AVC and are to be used as a central means of communication amongst all members, volunteers, and friends of New York Chi. For financial purposes, sigepnyxfoundation@gmail.com has been established as a central email for fundraising and donations. Currently, the Treasurer of the AVC, Matt Fox, has been readily using this email and contacting brothers about the ‘100 Brother Challenge.’ For communication from the AVC to all alumni, volunteers, and friends, we have established a separate email; sigep.nyx.avc@gmail.com that can be used to contact the AVC President or any of the Executive Board members. I encourage everyone to reach out to either email addresses to get an update or become active within the organization.

Discussing communication, it has lacked over recent years with releasing newsletters and upkeep of the website and we are finding it more difficult with the over 200 current alumni and the continuous addition of new alumni. It will be my goal to ensure that regular communication with all members through multiple means. We will be using the universal email addresses described above, newsletters and flyers, our website (www.sigepnyx.org), and eventually transitioning to 3rd party communications to ensure professional and timely communications. These aspects of communication will help fuel additional involvement and further promote our organization across all members and volunteers. While this goal of communication is attainable, to aid in the continual communication, I am challenging every alumni and volunteer to submit stories to share with everyone in the New York Chi family.

Talking about new members to the alumni association, as of May 2015, we added 12 new members into our alumni ranks and I wish to extend an invitation for them to stay active within the organization. The newest members are: Nathan Gonser, Matt Bankaitis, Pablo Colon, Kerly Urbano, Jonathan Dobbs, Mitchell Spink, Nick Pietricola, Beau Johnson, Taylor Friant, James Papia, Richard Canull, and James Claremont. To the new members and to all members of the alumni association, I encourage everyone to reach out to the AVC Executive Board, the Undergraduate President or our Chapter Counselor Kate Mikel to reconnect or volunteer their time and services with the organization. Additionally, if anyone has parents or other volunteers that would like to aid in the organization they can gladly reach any member of the AVC or contact them through the provided emails above.

As a final note, I would like to thank all members of the executive board of the AVC and Kate Mikel for their dedication to the organization. Their support and involvement has kept the chapter progressing forward and aiding in the preservation of the undergraduate chapter at Clarkson University. Lastly, as a token of their commitment and involvement, I would like to thank Jon Banz, Matt Fox and the committee for fundraising, as their work on the ‘100 Brother Challenge’ has help maintain a steady stream of donations that aid in the operations of the chapter and the AVC. I welcome all feedback and encourage everyone to contact me or the AVC executive board via sigep.nyx.avc@gmail.com.

Fraternally,

Ken Rushing

New York Chi AVC President

Sigma Phi Epsilon NYX