State of the Colony
Dear Brothers:
When I was initiated into the Acacia Fraternity colony in spring of 2010, approximately one year ago the membership was at seven active members. Washington State Acacia was practically an unknown entity on campus, and at the same time, we were almost unable to fill our house that holds only six people. We were getting by, but at a slow pace.
Now one year later with the guidance and strong leadership of fantastic Acacians we are in a position to have 26 members by the end of the spring 2011 semester, an increase of more than 300% of our membership at the beginning of the semester last year. WSU Acacia is one of the up and coming fraternities on campus and is fueled by the passion for human service that a majority of members have come to find is their ultimate deciding factor for joining Acacia. Acacia is incredibly recognizable on campus, especially with two of our members working for the Center for Civic Engagement on campus.
We are moving also moving into a new house next semester with 12 rooms. Once we are able to make this our permanent home, could easily fit 16 members comfortably. WSU Acacia is growing rapidly with members that are living up to the legacy of Acacia that has been passed to them and the momentum does not seem to have any signs of stopping.
We look forward to seeing you in Pullman. Feel free to stop by and see the great things that are happening at Acacia!
Fraternally,
Christopher Williams #847
Venerable Dean
Philanthropy on the Rise
This past December, Acacia sponsored our annual Acacia Claus Holiday Toy Drive event, and it was a big hit. We had many guys come out and volunteer to stand out in the cold and accept donations for the children’s hospital. We raised over $4000 in toys that were donated to the hospital. It was incredibly successful and we all had a really good time. Also, for this past semester, we were one of two fraternities that achieved having 80% of their members meet the minimum IFC philanthropy requirement of 8 hours. We had 100% of our guys obtain our individual chapter’s 12 hour minimum community service requirements, which is 150% of the 8 hours that WSU IFC requires. In the upcoming months, we have a couple different philanthropies scheduled which include a food drive, helping out with a family fair, and our second annual 5k Fun Run. One of the main programs of our pledge education process is a community service project that the pledge class puts on and we have the highest expectations for our current 9 person pledge class to have a successful project.
Andrew Kim
Philanthropy Chairman
Recruitment & New Member Update
Rush Chair:
In the spring of 2010, we recruited five new members, followed with eight in the fall. Coming into the spring semester of 2011, I had high expectations for rush. Our goal was ten and we almost reached that with our nine new pledges. We could have easily reached our goal of ten just by body pledging, but as it is now, we have nine good and dedicated new members. Our success was due to scheduling event after event, giving our current members more of an opportunity to bring potential new members to meet the brothers. We hosted poker nights, going to the hookah bar, theaters, YouTube night, and various other activities. These nine men will compose the spring pledge class and with their help, we are continuing to recruit men to be initiated in the coming fall.
Senior Dean/Pledge Ed:
We have completed 2 weeks of pledge education starting with making goals for the semester and general Acacia information and continuing into the rest of the information. This semester we are working on integrating Cornerstones into our pledge education. We have already begun to learn songs such as “The Toast” and “We’re the Men from Acacia”. This past Presidents Day weekend, we had our pledge retreat in Spokane, including some fun brotherhood events; lunch at Neato Burrito, paintball, dinner at Red Robin, and spending the night at a hotel. It was a tight fit with all nine pledges and seven of the active members cozying up in two rooms! The next morning started with breakfast at Carl’s Jr. and then a trip home. What was one of the best moments of the weekend? Having the chance to shoot each other with paintballs!
We performed two installments of pledge ceremonies this semester in which the night before we hosted brotherhoods. The first time we executed the “Bond.” Each guy was given a candle and a lit candle was placed in the middle of a dark room. Each member got to take the lit candle to a member he wished to share why he appreciated he was in the fraternity. The member talking then would light the candle of whom he talked about and he, in turn, would choose the next member and so on. At the end, each member had a chance to speak about someone and be spoken about, as once your candle was lit, a member could not choose you again. The night before the second pledge ceremony, we did a brotherhood where each person in the circle was given the chance to explain why he joined Acacia – a simple, yet incredibly profound event.
We are looking to have a chapter retreat the first weekend of April and Initiation is scheduled for April 15-17. We look forward to another good alumni turnout! It always enhances the experience and makes it more meaningful for everyone.
Nick Montanari #837
Senior Dean
Socially Speaking!
The Washington State University colony of Acacia has become very active in the Greek community in the past semester. The colony has had its first exchange since its re-colonization, and has also secured Homecoming pairs for the next fall semester. For Homecoming 2011 , we will be partnering with the ladies of Alpha Delta Pi, and the fraternities of Farmhouse, and Sigma Pi. Homecoming is scheduled for October 15, 2011. Mark your calendars now!
The colony is also very excited for the upcoming Greek Week, we are partnered with Alpha Gamma Delta and Delta Upsilon. The brothers have been very busy in preparation for the upcoming events.
Maintaining a balance between Human Service, school work, and social life is the key to a happy and healthy college student!
Jeff McCrea #854
Social Chairman
Brother Spotlight
Brother Cameron Bullock #858, is one of the newest members of Acacia Fraternity at Washington State University as well as our current Scholarship Chairman. Brother Bullock transferred to Washington State University from Pierce College with a 3.8 GPA on a 4.0 Scale. With his outstanding SAT scores Brother Bullock has full-ride scholarship through Pierce College and WSU as an excellent math major student.
Cameron Bullock has dedicated a great amount of time and energy into community service since becoming an Acacian. During our Acacia Claus in fall 2010, Brother Bullock dedicated his time by tabling for our toy drive everyday throughout the entire week.
As our Scholarship Chairman, he has been reserving times and spaces for study tables about 12 to 15 hours a month for the rest of the brothers to study. He has been providing academic advice, tutoring opportunities and peer tutors to serve the best of our academic interest.
Matt Wu
Brotherhood Chairman
No comments:
Post a Comment