Chicago, Illinois Ambassador East Hotel

06/26/2009 - 06/28/2009

The Midwest Region Chapters of DKE (to include Phi Epsilon, Delta Psi, Delta Delta, Sigma Kappa, Omicron, Kappa, Lambda, Beta Chi, and Phi Rho) met for a gathering of brothers to unite and share ideas, tell stories, and strengthen the bonds with brothers from other chapters.

Summary

The First Bi-Annual Midwest Conference was hosted in Chicago, IL from Friday, June 26th to Sunday June 28th 2009. The Ambassador East Hotel was the central location where Dekes stayed and meetings were held.

On Friday, the men checked-in to their hotels, and began the introductions. Dinner was held at Giordano’s pizzeria on Belmont Ave. The men shared food, drinks and stories as they learned each other’s names and backgrounds. Stuffed with Chicago stuffed pizza, the men left the restaurant quite leisurely.

After hopping on the Red Line, and taking a short walk back to the hotel, the stories continued. Beam Team was introduced by the men of Michigan (Omicron/Sigma Kappa), and many other cheers and songs were taught, each representing their individual chapter. Having all of the Brothers hanging out was important to make them feel comfortable in expressing their opinions and ideas at the meeting the next morning.

The meeting began around 9:30 am, after waiting for several stragglers and late-comers to arrive. We started with a quick introduction by Doug Lanpher, newly appointed Midwest Region director.

We jumped into what the expectations of the members were of DKE International. This list is included on the Midwest Conference notes, but includes providing more useful chapter resources and interaction. We then went in to what is expected of the members/chapters.

The next focus was the ABC’s of Chapter Relations: with alumni, between chapters, community and DKE. We discussed ways in which Chapters could build stronger relations with their alumni, how the Midwest Chapters can interact with one another more often, and talked about various ways to become more involved in the community. We discussed creating a Midwest Region philanthropy, and decided to narrow our focus to helping Veterans, in some to-be-determined capacity. We are planning to touch base with the Student Veterans Association to hash out more ideas.

Next, we went through and listed Traditions that each Chapter has every year. We broke them down into Good, OK, and Not Ideal traditions, in hopes of making them realize that just because something is done year after year, does not mean it is necessarily in the spirit of DKE. They were challenged to think up and start a new tradition at each Chapter, one that was pertinent to DKE and DKE’s history.

This was followed by members setting goals for their Chapter. Each chapter had to pick an area that they would like to focus on, and by the end of 2010, have accomplished or begun to accomplish that goal.

We discussed Recruitment/Rush tactics that work, and reviewed the Risk Management policy. Following this, we started wrapping up the meeting. The Brothers voted on plans for the next Midwest Conference in 2011. It was decided that it would be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, hosted by the Phi Epsilon Chapter.

The guys also decided that they would make it a point that all the chapters would send some members to one selected chapter each semester.

The schedule is as follows:

Fall 2009 – Omicron
Spring 2010 – Kappa
Fall 2010 – Phi Rho
Spring 2011 – Lambda

We also threw out ideas for Chapters that would like to be re-chartered/expanded in the near future.

Chris Caswell, winner of the Rusty Barkerding Scholarship and Poetry Award, read his poem aloud. All those in attendance then signed the large notepad used to write down all the ideas. And the meeting was adjourned.

Following the meeting, everyone headed out to Grant Park for the Taste of Chicago, and we listened to The Counting Crows at the Petrillo Music Shell for a little bit.

When the sun went down, we headed back to the hotel, cleaned up and got ready for a night on the town. In true DKE fashion, we kept it classy early in the night, hanging out at an upscale restaurant/bar, and followed it with dancing and letting loose in Wrigleyville – an appropriate last stop for the Conference.

Needless to say, all had a great time, and Chris Caswell was given one final award – Deke of the Week – on Sunday morning, before we all left. He was awarded for his involvement in the discussions at the Conference as a gentleman and a scholar, and for being such a jolly good fellow the prior evening.

-William Hossain
Chapter Consultant
Omicron 2008

Winners of the Rusty Barkerding Mid-West Conference Scholarship Awards

Christopher Caswell, Phi Rho - Essay
Michael McCloskey, Omicron - Essay

***

Winner of the Mid-West Conference Poetry Scholarship

Christopher Caswell, Phi Rho - Poem

Scholarship Essay By Christopher Caswell

For the past few semesters, the Phi Rho chapter has been growing consistently. Such a surge in membership has caused us to outgrow the current property in which we reside, an eight-bedroom boarding house. I recognized early on in my time as a Phi Rho brother that finding a new property would be essential to our future success as a chapter. Eager to dive in and get started on this task, in my first semester as an active, I set up meetings with the Dean of Greek Life and several landlords in State College. Initially the outlook looked good and I was very confident that we were going to be moving into a new house the following year. Unfortunately, in the end, nothing was available.

Through my time working on this problem, a senior brother named Grant was very skeptical of my efforts and often jeered me for trying to find a new house. Instead of building me up and supporting me, he belittled me and acted as though I knew nothing about leasing a property. I was really confused – why wouldn’t Grant want to help? I’d considered Grant – a well-respected leader in a very important role on campus – to be a role model.

Eventually though, through some thinking and talking with other older brothers, I came to understand why Grant acted the way he did. See, as a young member, Grant single-handedly found and secured a lease for the boarding house in which we were living at the time – we’d only been there two years when I was initiated. He was proud of this accomplishment, and rightfully so – even that small house was an improvement over the duplex in which the chapter was living before. However, when it came to looking to the future and seeing the big picture, Grant was blinded by this pride. His ego led him to be defensive of his accomplishment, and he did not want a younger member like me to “one-up” him in finding a new house, even if it meant better things for the chapter in the long run.

Fast-forward to a year later – I was a junior and in my second semester of being chapter president. Finding a new house was still one of the items on my ever-growing to-do list, but it was getting pushed to the back-burner. And after my experience in the year prior, I had adopted a defeatist attitude when it came to securing a new property.  A few young members were very driven to accomplish this goal and were taking the same steps that I had – setting up meetings with the Dean, talking to landlords, and so on.

My initial reaction was to get defensive and be unsupportive of these younger members’ efforts. I wanted finding a new house to be MY great accomplishment for Deke. I wanted to go down in history as the sole savior of the chapter. I was angry and frustrated – why were these new brothers stepping on my toes? After all, I was the president, not any of them.

I maintained this mentality for about two days – and then it hit me – I was acting exactly as Grant had. I was being a poor leader. While I certainly wanted a new house just as badly as either of them, I was too self-concerned and focused on making the accomplishment my own. I should have been building them up and supporting their efforts, not breaking them down just because I wanted the glory for myself. Recognizing the foolishness of my actions, I apologized to the brothers, and offered my help in the task.

The younger brothers had a lead – the Dean informed them that a real fraternity house had become available for lease. Nothing was for certain – there were several other organizations such as ours seeking new housing. We teamed up and got letters of support from the Dean and the president of our alumni association. In the end, through much negotiation – dealing with International, the landlord, attorneys, and the University, our chapter will be moving into a new house next year. Finally, we have a real fraternity house where twenty-some brothers will be able to live for years to come – truly a great success that will move our organization forward and allow Deke to become a prominent fraternity in Happy Valley.

I learned so much about leadership through this experience – lessons that could not have been learned in any classroom – instead, things that I could have only gained through my experience in leading Deke. Being in Deke and learning to work with others has shaped me as a leader and largely prepared me for the future. I learned to delegate and support others – no more will I let my pride get in the way of doing things for the greater good, even if it means that I won’t be in the limelight. I also learned that just as you can learn from the positive things your role models do, you can also learn from their mistakes. Even though Grant has since graduated and begun law school, I still talk to him frequently – I’ve let go of the fact that he let his pride get in the way of getting things done, and though he hasn’t freely admitted it, I think it was a learning experience for the both of us.

Scholarship Essay By Michael McCloskey

During my pledge term, I was struggling with classes and a number of brothers were very supportive. Two brothers in particular were extremely supportive: Carlos Moncada, my pledge trainer, and Braden Carroll.  Both had experienced the difficulties of taking Engineering classes at the University of Michigan, and were able to assist me in maintaining an optimistic mindset as I completed my freshman year and initiated into the bonds of Delta Kappa Epsilon.

At the time, I was taking 17 credits as a first semester freshman, which is not advised at most Universities, particularly Michigan.  I had failed several tests and left many assignments incomplete. Things looked grim for my future in Ann Arbor, both at the University and at the Omicron chapter of DKE.

I sought the advice of Carlos and he helped me get my semester back on track.  I felt as though I had been spreading myself too thin. Consequently, my performance as a part of my pledge class suffered, in addition to my studies.  Carlos allowed me to take two weeks off pledge
related activities as a test period to bring my grades back up.  He held true to his word, from the first day of pledge term, that academics come first. I am still grateful to this day that I made it through my freshman year without failing a class.

Braden was one of the older actives in the brotherhood at the time and had struggled with a similar situation as a freshman.  I was considering dropping the whole pledge process, but he was ultimately the one who convinced me to keep at it. He went out of his way to find me resources to aid me in my academic endeavors.  Remarkably, I brought myself from what could have been a semester of all D's and F's to a 2.5 GPA, which was an improvement of more than a full point in less than a month.

I am forever grateful to Carlos and Braden for convincing me to stick with it, and now I never regret my choice to join DKE.  In addition to Carlos and Braden, Alex Yu was my orientation leader and he was very welcoming to me when I was considering rushing a fraternity.  He didn’t force me towards DKE, but I owe him for even extending an invitation.  Without the guidance of Carlos, Braden and Alex, I would not be a DKE of Omicron today.  I have since held 3 positions for the Omicron chapter of DKE, highlighted by my experience as pledge trainer in the Winter semester of 2008. As pledge trainer, I was able to guide 14 individuals to initiation to the halls of DKE.  I remain very close with each one of those men and my only hope is that I may give more back to a brotherhood which has given me so much during my college career.

In The Bonds,

Brother Michael Anthony McCloskey

What Brothers Are For

By Christopher Caswell
 
To celebrate your victories
And share in your triumph, your glory
“High five!”
That’s what brothers are for
 
To pick you up when you’re feeling down
And no one else is around
“Stay strong!”
That’s what brothers are for
 
When she leaves you – you’re feeling lame
And you’re getting back in the game
“Wingman!”
That’s what brothers are for
 
To let you know when you’ve done wrong
And you’re headed down a crooked path
“Do the right thing, don’t let me down!”
That’s what brothers are for
 
To push you far, move you along
Seeing the future in sight
“Keep dreaming big!”
That’s what brothers are for
 
To share in a laugh, a funny joke
Sometimes it lasts all night
“That’s what she said!”
That’s what brothers are for
 
To stand beside you in a fight
Loyal to you, wrong or right
“I got your back!”
That’s what brothers are for
 
To be there for your college days
And for the rest of your life
“Friends from the heart forever!”
That’s what brothers are for