The Black and Gold Fall 2014 Edition Important Dates Fall 2014 I-Week November 9th Fall 2014 Initiation November 15th Formal December 6th Welcome brothers to the fall 2014 edition of the Black and Gold. I know it has been a long time since you have had this presented before you and communication with the active chapter has not been what it should be. I would like to extend a hand to any Alumni who wish to have communication in our on-goings to feel free to contact me, so that I can give you personal updates on the active chapter to your hearts content. The past few years have been a time of great renewal and building for Acacia and the SCSU Chapter is stronger than ever. Our academics are improving and our philanthropies are as fantastic as ever. One major area of focus for us has been on creating a more effective structure to accommodate our rapid expansion in the last year and we have endeavored to make sure to balance our professional side while still enjoying the fun of the active brotherhood. Our recruitment is better than it has even been thanks to our two recruitment chairs Ian Riddle and Ben Burzlaff- Meyer and the future looks bright. Herein you will find reports from various Chairmen and Deans on the condition of the active chapter. Fraternally, Zachary Jacobs #341 341@acacia-scsu.org, (612)743-1999 1
From the Desk of the Venerable Dean Dear Brothers, Acacia Fraternity St. Cloud Chapter is doing a lot of great things right now A combination of very active recruitment, renewed accountability, and the best brotherhood in the world has created a very strong fraternity, and we hope to continue this as the graduation of several of our members approaches in the Spring. Libero purus sodales mauris, eu vehicula lectus velit nec velit. Taylor Block This semester we currently have 9 pledges, with several more hopefuls still waiting for bids. Ian and Ben (along with the rest of the chapter) have once again done a great job of finding quality men that want to participate in our organization. Along with these new members comes greater responsibility; we have recently made several new rules regarding paying on time, event attendance, and grades. These will hopefully help fix the few things we still have to work on, and a promising pledge class leads this charge. It s also important to mention our philanthropic efforts; we now have required service hours that help us live up to our Human Service motto. The Al Grewe memorial highway cleanup, Breast Cancer walk, and even a fundraising philanthropy for our brother Linkcoln s father (who has cancer) were all successfully completed so far this semester. We thank you for your continued support, and please remember our roster and events are updated weekly on our website: Acacia-scsu.org Thank you, Taylor Block #327 blta1001@stcloudstate.edu (612) 709-2309 2
Ben Peaches Burzlaff-Meyer Fall 2014 Rush Report This 2014 Fall recruitment semester has gone very well for us. We still have the goal of a 40 man chapter and achieving it is right around the corner. As of right now we have 9 pledges and have more on the way. The current pledges have just started pledge class and they are looking forward to the hard work ahead. We are very proud of our brotherhood because everyone is recruiting really well and making connections so we can have another healthy Spring Pledge Class. We have the current list of pledges on the acacia-scsu.org website if you would like to see what is to come for the future of Acacia at Saint Cloud State Fraternally, Ben Peaches Burzlaff-Meyer benbmeyer@hotmail.com (320) 290-7741 Ian Riddle Ian Riddle riaa1201@stcloudstate.edu (904)629-9937 Message from the Executive Dean The Acacia cornerstones program is in full swing; our fall pledges and select actives are a part of the program. Acacia Cornerstones is our membership development program which we incorporate through the international fraternity while making it inclusive to our Saint Cloud member s needs. We use a system in which the individuals values are assessed and personal goals are set to be accomplished. Cornerstone s objective is to then help support the actives and pledges through their attainment of those goals in order to enrich their skills and effectively assist their endeavors. Our SCSU specific goals are for the pledges to accomplish all of James Harstad 3
their goals and likewise work with the school s career services department to get actives involved in their major using participation in the community, school, and internship programs. Another important function of the Executive Dean is to facilitate the myriad of committees the chapter uses. My position was active in ensuring our recruitment, financial, social, house, and academic committees were given the support and guidance necessary to accomplish our specific goals. In this area I believe all committees were successfully affected and the positive improvements should be recognizable throughout the semester. In the spring we are planning on hosting another ACACIA SPEAKS session where our illustrious alumni present to the active chapter and student guests on a business professional topic. Last Spring we had three great alumni give speeches on personal finance (Luke Lamprecht), networking in the professional field (Ryan Dawald), and how to develop your career into the path you are most effective in (Brian Thompson). We are actively searching for additional alumni to instill their wisdom to the chapter for this spring semester. If you are interested I would love to hear from you. As always we at the SCSU Chapter so deeply appreciate the support our alumni grant us. -James Harstad #319 319@acacia-scsu.org (612-220-3673) Philanthropy Report The Acacia mo+o is Human Service and in the past year we have lived up to this mo+o quite well. Star=ng the year off we volunteered for The Polar Bear Plunge for The Special Olympics of Minnesota. We had mul=ple ac=ve brothers par=cipate in the plunge itself and we also helped coordinate the event with registering people, being the mascot, and being of service around the event. Mike Sather We took part in tradi=on when we joined the efforts to eradicate cancer with the Relay for Life event. We had over 25 ac=ve brothers join in on the event and rose over $300 for The American Cancer Society. 4
This fall we have done our yearly duty of cleaning our sec=on of Adopt- A- Highway. We picked up mul=ple bags of li+er, finding some pre+y interes=ng stuff, and had a blast doing it. We had a benefit pancake dinner for one of our brothers in need. Linkcoln Brouwer s father is ba+ling cancer, so we decided to raise funds to help his family with their finances. We rose over $700 for his family, hoping to make a difference in their lives. We are gevng involved with a few events this fall including: The Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, Trick- or- Canning, and Toys- for- Tots. We hope that we can be as successful in these events as we have been throughout this year. So here s to making a difference and gevng involved in the community in which we may reside So live brothers. Fraternally, Mike Sather #330 sami0901@stcloudstate.edu, (651) 399-0848 5 Fall 2014 Highway Clean Up
Current Chapter Roll #314 Matthew Kruse-Maher #315 Keaton Reed #316 Eric Zager #317 Eric Stroman #319 James Harstad #320 Ian High #326 Jake Klasons Current Chapter Positions #327 Taylor Block Venerable Dean- Taylor Block #328 Alex McKenzie Senior Dean- Eric Zager #329 Nick Arenburg Executive Dean- James Harstad #330 Mike Sather #331 Derek Rowland #332 Nick Erkens #334 Travis Hall #336 Ben Burzlaff-Meyer Junior Dean- Dylan Tafuri Rush Chairs- Ben Burzlaff-Meyer & Ian Riddle Treasurer- Alex McKenzie Secretary- Keaton Reed #337 Ian Riddle Fundraising- Lincoln Brouwer #338 Aaron Krzak House Manager- Alex McKenzie #339 Justin Brown Public Relations- Eric Stroman #340 Shawn Kamphuis #341 Zachary Jacobs #342 Ted Bechtold #343 Dylan Tafuri Alumni Relations- Zachary Jacobs Ritual Exemplification- Derek Rowland Scholarship Chair- Justin Brown #344 Bryce Johnson #345 Nabil Mohamed #346 Daniel Squires #347 Austin Nuttall #348 Alex Nipp #349 Linkcoln Brouwer 6
Saint Cloud State Chapter House 398 3rd Ave South St. Cloud, MN 56301 7