Crop Walk, October 18th, 2009

Check out these photos from our phenomenal turn-out at Crop Walk on 10/18!

"Greetings from Bill Lindahl"

Look below for pictures from Phi's Spaghetti Warehouse dinner with alum and BL family head Bill Lindahl!

Get Inspired, So You Can Get Filming!

Here are fun videos to help you get ready for the Phi Philm Phestival!

Take over Best Buy!

Make your own music video!

Make Katie Budd really happy and reenact this!

Show us your best dance moves!

Read us your favorite book!

Tell us about the one you love!

Dont want to show your face? Share your voice!

I can't wait to hear your ideas and see the outcomes! Talk to you soon!

Some Video Fun For You All

At the first pledge class, the pledges were introduced to the E-board in a fun and unique way, care of hard work by Dave Enden, Alex Bishop, and Melissa Haacker. It's hysterical- do take the time to watch each part when you can. I'd tell you my favorite, but every e-board member part has its perks. I especially love Meredith's ninja costume, Chris Ostrom's reckless driving, and Royce Russell's cameo.

Enjoy!

Part 1: Containing E-Board Members Katherine Pease, Bev Caspersen, Oliver Bojanic

Part 2: Containing E-Board Members Meredith Nackley, Dave Enden, Ben Vescera, Chris Ostrom

Part 3: Containing E-Board Members Lucas Taccardi, Matt Luciano, Tia Germek, Hannah Dean-Wood

Part 4: Containing E-Board Members Francesca Merwin, Katie Budd, Janae DeRusso, and Melissa Haacker.

Until next time...

~Janae

Welcome, Pledges!

Friday night, we had an incredible Inductions ceremony. With over 100 pledges, around 80 of which made it to the official ceremony (there would be two make-up ceremonies later), it was a bit complex lining up bigs around Grant Auditorium in order for them to collect their littles, especially with most bigs taking twins. Spreee and Peri were on hand to watch the ceremonies unfold. Peri even whipped out her camera to catch the "E-Board Wave" on camera when we were keeping ourselves occupied onstage in our SU grad robes.

Watching the line of pledges be led blindfolded into the auditorium was too fun! There were so many of them that after bandanas ran out, ties and even winter scarves were enlisted in the process. The ceremony went off without a hitch- none of the on-stage readers broke into giggles if and when the opportunity presented itself, and the bigs and littles had fun meeting each other for the first time. Alumni, let me tell you... this is a good looking pledge class! The girlies are cuties! And the boys- well we like any boys that increase the male population of Phi Chapter. But seriously, the pledges have already proven to be a great group of young adults ready to serve and to have fun.

With a sheet of cake left over (incredible, huh?) and the remains of pre-induction family dinners filling some brothers' fridges, the night ended with both brothers and pledges in a joyous mood.

Saturday, a fellowship trip to Ithaca's Applefest was a great time. Caramel apples, apple crisp, apple cider... just the food alone made this weekend a great one. After a day looking at arts & crafts venders, jewelry, a visit to the used bookstore and brotherly bonding time, the 18 or so of us ended up at Cortland's A&W for, you guessed it, more food!

I'm pleased to tell you I've heard from many brothers that they have already been able to spend time getting to know their littles- I was extremely excited to get my big, all four of my littles, my APO sis and my APO niece (yes, that is Katie!) all out to Chili's Monday afternoon for some family line bonding, with all profits from our meal being donated directly to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Monday's chapter was Western themed- thank you alumni for answering why you joined APO! Next week, we want to know what YOU are doing at 5p.m. on Sundays while we are in chapter.

Last night, Melissa held her first pledge class and it went perfectly. With another dozen pledges inducted just prior to the class, Nifkin was full of new faces clutching neatly decorated pledgebooks. After the pledge class theme's big reveal- Michael Jackson inspired "Phi In The Mirror"- Dave E and Alex B (last names excluded so they can't be Googled and traced back to a blog) treated the pledge class to a truly hysterical video introducing the pledges to this semester's executive board. As soon as I can share it with you, I will!

I hope this finds you all having a lovely week and hope you have been successful in avoiding the rain.

Check This Out!

What a Rush!

Good afternoon! There's a lot to catch up on but I'm in class so I'll keep this short... :)

We had a fantastic rush! I attended all four meetings, and it was incredible to see the new faces each night. Frankie and Melissa did an incredible job conducting the rush meetings, resulting in 102 SU and SUNY-ESF students signing up to be pledges!

Here is an example of part of the bid each pledge received at their door a few days ago (photo is Newly Inducted Brother Ben Tepfer, Spring 2009):

Inductions are Friday September 25th. Brothers are arriving at 7p.m.- we'd love to see any alumni we can there!

Exercise your brain! Here's the ice breaker from Monday's chapter:

Brothers broke up into teams to answer these questions.

When and where are inductions?

When are sectionals?

How many bones are there in the human body?

What tv series won the Emmy for Best Drama?

What is the only country that bans the selling of Coca-Cola?

Lastly, on Monday Sept. 28th, 100% of the profits made at any Chili's restaurant will be donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, so go grab a bite to eat! There is a Chili's on Erie Blvd... lunch date, anyone?

More to come- look for a weekend wrap-up all about Inductions, Applefest, and Monday night's first pledge class!

Fall Came Fast!

It's cold, cloudy, and sometimes rainy here in Syracuse, but that hasn't stopped us from being excited for the Fall '09 semester. The past two weeks have been busy for all of us- inductions are less than two weeks away already! Melissa and Frankie have been working hard and have been doing a beautiful job. Look at their "Phibook" Rush posters!

We had our first official chapter today. It was wonderful to see all our brothers after a fun Juice Jam day on South Campus! Katherine did a wonderful job in charge of the meeting, brothers came back from being inactive, and a fun ice breaker reintroduced us to brothers we'd lost contact with in the past few months. Can you solve this riddle? Only a few brothers got it today.

"What bakes in the sun, breaks in your hand, gets tread on by feet, and tastes good in your mouth?"

I was pleased I could show off 6 alumni brothers' favorite Summer 2009 photos! Katie and I determined we definitely miss Kate's "leffttt, righttt" during the toast song, among other things that graduated with our most recent alumni, but we are very excited for what is to come.

And, as like last semester, the Kimmel Kampaign after chapter was a fun way to catch up with friends, Burger King, Haagen Daz, giggles and all.

Rush meetings are all this week, with inductions on Friday, September 25th! Stay tuned for the next "chapter"!