Omicron House Meeting

10/12/2009

The Shant

Omicron Chapter Members

At the request of Omicron Chapter President, Tim Lewis, Omicron chapter members met with Lin Hanson,  President of the Rampant Lion Foundation, Doug Lanpher, Interim Director of Delta Kappa Epsilon, and Chapter Representative Will Hossain on Sunday, October 11th, at the Shant in Ann Arbor to review the recent sale of the Michigan chapter house, its lease back, and the rental arrangement between the Foundation and the Chapter.  Joining the meeting by conference telephone was Larry Rovira of Sigma Properties, the new owner of the house. 

The members learned the details of the sale and leaseback of the house, plans for renovation, and reviewed the estimated budget for house operations during the 2009-10 school year.  The budget revealed that there is a substantial shortfall in meeting overall house expenses for the year, due to the reduced number of men living in.  The Foundation has proposed a “parlor tax” to cover most of the shortfall, and, at the meeting, the Chapter was invited to attempted to develop alternative means of meeting the shortfall, possibly involving a fund drive seeking alumni support.  The chapter was also requested to attempt to restart the house corporation/alumni association, known as the Omicron Literary Association.  Doug and Lin both complimented the chapter on its recent successful rush, producing 21 new pledges placing it in the top 5% of Michigan fraternities.

At the conclusion of the meeting, members present expressed gratitude with the willingness of the leaders of the fraternity and foundation to meet with them, and, in turn, Lin and Doug pledged greater availability not only to Omicron, but to all chapters for open discussions of issues involving either the foundation or the International Fraternity.  Doug Lanpher has undertaken to aid the Omicron brothers is the creation of a chapter newsletter, something he has done for his chapter, Gamma, Vanderbilt, for some time.