Monthly Chapter Update (July 2023)
It has been a busy summer at 130 Greek Park Circle, as we have been preparing for another great year for the Georgia Alpha chapter. We have been incredibly fortunate to have a host of parent volunteers assisting in beautification efforts to the house this summer. The house furniture has undergone a huge upgrade, with new rocking chairs installed to our porch, as well as painting and varnishing being done on our interior furniture. Our courtyard underwent a huge overhaul, as new lights have been installed over the courtyard and our grill has been sanded, cleaned, and painted, efforts that will make our fall tailgates even better. With just under a month left until the fall semester begins, the brothers of Phi Delta Theta want to thank all the parents for their hard work this summer, and we look forward to fully enjoying our improved house very soon!
Monthly Chapter Update (June 2023)
The men of Phi Delta Theta are proud to announce that our chapter has maintained the top GPA of all UGA IFC Chapters for the Spring 2023 semester. This accomplishment exemplifies our dedication to our principle of sound learning and is a testament to the work ethic, scholarship, and brotherhood of our chapter. Special thanks go to last semester’s academic chair, Cam Sutherland, for helping our chapter maintain such an accomplishment, as well as current academic chair Cannon Harman who looks to keep the ball rolling in the fall.
Strong Bonds
Executive Board Sheds Light on Undergraduate Accomplishments
President
Reed Stout #2538
What a year to be a Georgia Bulldog! As the football team pulled off a historic season—breaking our 42-year drought—and the Braves brought home their first Championship in this century, there has been a lot to celebrate in Athens. Beyond these incredible runs, campus is back alive with classes in person as we adjust to the closest thing to normal we’ve had since spring 2020. As a chapter, we’ve enjoyed being able to host events once again and come together as brothers.
We celebrated our 150th anniversary on campus with an awesome weekend, including our Golden Legion conference, a date night on Friday, and a veranda dedication on Saturday morning. I want to thank each one of you who helped make that happen, as that was something I’m sure we will remember forever.
Last semester, Phi Delt came away with the highest GPA in all of IFC, and we hope to continue that trend in this coming semester. We also came home with multiple awards from the national conference in Oxford, including the St. Louis Fraternity Education Trophy along with awards in philanthropy, chapter reporting, and academics.
I am settling into this new role of leading this fraternity as president for the next year. I hope to leverage my past experiences on the executive board to help our new officers and keep open communications with UGA, Phi Delt national, and our chapter support. This fraternity has been the backbone of my college career, and I look forward to helping continue to build our strong position socially, academically, and philanthropically.
Brotherhood Chairman
Will Gladden #2576
As the world continues to recover from the impacts of the pandemic, life as we know it is beginning to return to normal. As brotherhood chairman, I am excited to help our brothers navigate the return to open socialization and continue to develop and strengthen the common bond we all share.
While caution cannot be thrown to the wind, changing conditions and sentiments have allowed us to expand the scale and scope of our brotherhood-focused events. We have expanded beyond small-group activities to get larger numbers of brothers involved at once—while still abiding by all posted regulations and suggestions. These activities range from watching baseball games from the backyard of a brother’s house to outdoor tournaments for cornhole and basketball.
We are not totally out of the woods with the pandemic, yet I foresee a bright future for the ability of our brothers to fully enjoy each other’s company and will do my best to ensure we are able to continue bettering each other and the world around us.
Philanthropy
Connor Kastner #2552
The pandemic has changed our college experience in many ways, but we are thrilled that we’ve still been able to keep up with our philanthropy efforts. Luckily, we have been able to continue by following COVID precautions, such as wearing a mask and mainly doing work outside the home, to ensure that our adopted families are comfortable. Although we’d love to spend more face-to-face time together, we are fortunate that we have been able to find many ways to safely help our families, such as hanging Christmas lights, doing yard work, and playing kickball games. All our brothers have enjoyed being able to make an impact in any way we can.
We have also been able to continue our tradition of fundraising for ALS, keeping our chapter at the top for Ironphi. In the fall, I enjoyed meeting every member of our new pledge class, and I was thrilled at how many took our chapter’s culture of philanthropy to heart. Near the beginning of the semester, we cleaned up our local Adopt-AHighway on Fourth Street. Many of our brothers also volunteered for Camp Hope Loves Company, which provides a weekend getaway for families affected by ALS.
We are also lucky that many of our brothers are involved in other philanthropy organizations on campus, such as JR Bingel #2567, who founded Thirst Project at UGA, which helps provide clean drinking water to rural communities in Africa. He has gotten many of our brothers to join, and it has helped the culture of philanthropy we maintain in our chapter.
Recruitment Chairman
Jack Tucker #2590
Recruitment this summer was a success. Summer and formal recruitment returned to normal, which was a significant shift from the recruitment dynamic of last summer.
It used to be expected to bring potential new members (PNMs) up during the spring semester to start the recruitment process early; last spring, however, we could not do that on the usual scale. Being unable to use the house during the first month of summer, the legitimate recruitment process started in early May. This included events on weekends at brothers’ off-campus houses that were smaller events primarily for kids personally known and recommended by brothers. As the summer progressed, we started to have men come up for orientation, something I was unfamiliar with, as my recruitment process took place last year without in-person orientation. Orientations allowed us to have more events during the week and meet more PNMs. These events were at the house, off-campus houses, and a variety of venues, such as our rafting trip.
This year, the formal recruitment process was also different, consisting of a more traditional approach. We had multiple events, which allowed us to meet most of the out-of-state members of the new pledge class. Additionally, we finished our recruitment process with more events just for new members, allowing the latest members to meet and socialize with one another.
I am proud of the work of Georgia Alpha Chapter of Phi Delta Theta, who has continued its tradition of recruitment success by adding 33 successful, determined young men to our chapter. This could not have been done without the efforts of the rest of the recruitment team: Brock Thrasher, Logan Kelly, Bruno Anez, and Connor Sosica.
Phikeia Educator
Charlie Turner #2591
With the side effects of the pandemic beginning to subside, we were able to get back into the old ways of Phikeia education. We had a bigger class this year compared to our normal size and ended up initiating 33 Phikeia into the brotherhood. Overall, it was great seeing brothers interact and get to know new Phikeia in-person again as well as getting to teach them the history of Phi Delta Theta in-person rather through online modules.
Going into the next class, I am looking forward to taking over the role of Phikeia educator and continuing to teach the new Phikeia about our traditions—both our past and what the future could look like. With tradition and legacy being very important to Phikeia education, I intend to thoroughly teach our traditions and history to this new class and get them involved in our network of Phis smoothly over the course of the education period. Another two things I look forward to improving are Phikea’s participation in philanthropy around campus and getting to interview and meet each brother before they are initiated. I really look forward to a new, strong 2022 Phikeia class and am excited to watch them grow and become a part of the brotherhood.
