Brothers,

Please read below to hopefully answer some more question you may have regarding the state of the chapter, chapter house, and the steps required to recolonize. If you have any further questions you can join us at our upcoming alumni events, where you can talk to members of the board and catch up with brothers you may have gotten out of touch with. See below for more info.

SPE/IIT Relations

As many of you might have known the Alumni Board and IIT have been in and out of the courtroom trying to settle disputes over our contract. Last year the Alumni Board and IIT came to an agreement and settled our dispute. We will continue to operate without any changes to the contract. Our agreement opened up the door for us to start the process of recolonization to bring back our chapter. Although the agreement does stipulate a timeframe and number of members we need to have in that timeframe both the alumni board and SigEp HQ (Nationals) are confident these can be met.

Steps to Recolonizing IL Beta

The following are steps required to recolonize our chapter. There will be a professional team from SigEp HQ full-time on IIT campus starting this Fall to get the wheels in motion. Then starting Spring 2018 semester the new SigEp colony will be formed. After 1-2 years the colony should have met all the requirements and will be officially rechartered.

• Ensure the alumni board is functioning and registered with the State - Complete

• Recruit volunteers to be on mentoring board where each volunteer will be matched with 1-on-1 with a chapter leader.

• Raise money to pay for our share in recolonization ($15k). This is due by the end of the Spring 2018 semester.

• Raise money to fund major scholarships.

• Host a balanced man scholarship banquet and award scholarships before the chapter is recolonized.

• Host  rechartering banquet (to be paid by the alumni board) when the chapter is ready to be recolonized.

Support/Donations Required for Recolonization

A major part of the upcoming progress is the involvement of our Alumni base.  Your support will be needed both financially and physically.  The immediate need is to fundraise for the $15,000 recolonization fee.  This fee is less than 50% of the actual costs that SigEp Headquarters will incur to recolonize the Chapter.  The recolonization process involves dedicated full time employees living in the chapter house, coordinating with Alumni Board, and working with the university.  Tax deductible donations can be provided via the following link and by selecting the “IL Beta Direct Fund” (not the scholarship fund):
http://sigep.org/chapterscholarships

Any and all donations are greatly appreciated as we move forward with this long overdue endeavor to recolonize.

In addition to donations, you’ll read within the newsletter that we will be having a cleanup and repair weekend.  There will be many opportunities like this that will allow all brothers to participate and help us keep costs down as we are moving forward with understanding what renovations will be required.  Thank you in advance for assisting with all means you are able.  The Alumni Board is excited we have turned a corner and we will soon be mentoring our younger brothers in short time.  

Finally, we are gathering names for volunteers to be direct one-on-one mentors to our new undergrads as well as fill committees to help Alumni Board operations. If you are interested or know somebody that might be interested please click on the link below:

Physical Status of the House

The fraternity house has been uninhabited since 2013 and I.I.T. has been maintaining the property since the members were removed from the house.  The fraternity house is generally in good shape but since nobody has been maintaining the house on a daily basis there needs to be some maintenance completed prior to anyone being able to use the fraternity.  A sprinkler system has been added to the fraternity and overall the installation is properly installed.  I.I.T. has also installed a fire pump system for the entire quad in the northwest corner of our basement as well a monitoring system in our foyer.  Some of our goals for the upcoming year that we will need help with are:

• General cleaning of the entire house

• Removal of dining room ceiling / install new ceiling

• Repair heater covers on first floor

• Remove / Replace vertical blinds

• Assessment of the fraternity’s infrastructure

Upcoming Events/Activities

Friday April 28, 2017 - 7:00pm - 10:00pm

SigEp Illinois Beta Meetup - Suburbs

Rockwood Tap

3131 Finley Road

Downers Grove, IL 60515

www.rockwoodtaphouse.com

Saturday May 6, 2017 - 2:00pm - 5:00pm

SigEp Illinois Beta Meetup - Chicago

Emporium Arcade - Wicker Park

1366 N Milwaukee Ave.

Chicago, IL

www.emporiumchicago.com/

June 10-11, Time TBD

Chapter House CleanUp Days

(Talk to one of the board members during the alumni meetup events for more info)

Brothers,

After five years of our chapter being dormant we are happy to announce we will be starting the process to recolonize our chapter starting Spring 2018.

We have been working closely with SigEp nationals and have their full support and resources to make this process a success.

With that said we need your help with things like organizing alumni events, rehabbing the chapter house, raising funds, mentoring, etc. Unfortunately, our alumni communications need to be rebuilt so we can effectively keep all our brothers informed.

Please register (at right) to get your current name and email address onto the mailing list to help rebuild the alumni database and be the first to stay up to date with the latest news. Also, please spread the word to all our chapter brothers.

(Your information will not be shared or visible to the public.)