Paragon
November 2022
This
Annual Report: Officers and Membership
Upcoming Events
Friday, November 18, 2022 – Initiation
A Message from the Alumni Board President
Brothers,
The leaves have changed colors and fallen, the air has turned colder, and winter seems to get a bit closer every single day. And yet, our alumni association has continued to gain momentum in our mission to assist the active chapter and build a sustainable alumni association.
Our housing committee has been working very hard over the past month to complete repairs requested by our property insurance carrier. At the October work weekend we were able finish those repairs, as well as other repairs to the chapter house.
I am also pleased to report that the chapter has a large class of potential new members making their way through the associate member education program.
As we reflect back on this successful year, we will soon begin making plans for 2023. How many work weekends will we have? What other events will we hold? These questions will be answered by how many resources we have, both financial and human. Help us grow by attending an event or giving what you can to help support our future work.
Yours in the Bonds,
Nicholas DeCenzo
President, Ohio Alpha Beta Alumni Association
Initiation
The Long Walk will conclude with Initiation at Harkness Chapel on November 18th, 2022. There is no need to register or RSVP, but if you are planning to attend, we ask that you are seated in Harkness Chapel by 9pm. Please come join us for this important event! As usual, there will also be an informal gathering at the house after the ritual.
As is traditional, our 8 associate members know about the Long Walk but believe Initiation will be on a later date. Please maintain the surprise if you see them.
Our 2022 fiscal year, running from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022, was the beginning of a new journey for our previously dormant alumni association. After being contacted by members of the active chapter needing assistance, we started holding biweekly meetings to plan our future activities and assist the actives. Those meetings started small but grew quickly. Enough brothers got involved that it allowed us to hold a Homecoming cookout in October 2021. That event attracted more alumni brothers to assist us, and served as the launch pad for the four highly successful alumni work weekends we have held since then and the corresponding social events.
I need to thank many people, as I am only one person and could not accomplish a fraction of what has been done on my own. My first thank you goes to our Treasurer, Christian Carson. Christian was the first one on our biweekly calls, and has worked tirelessly to pay our bills, and put his expertise as a landlord and lawyer to work to assist us in our mission. Christian, thank you.
Next, I must thank Patrick Glynn. Pat has taken on the challenge of leading our housing committee from Phoenix, AZ, traveling to Cleveland for each of our work weekends. There are hours spent preparing for each one of these work weekends, as well as coordination with many vendors. Pat, thanks for taking on this work.
As Secretary, Nathan Kossover keeps us moving the ball down the field, even as we deal with our lives and careers. Ken Nagano leads our social committee, planning the social component of our work weekends and liaising with the active chapter regarding rush. Davey Rowan leads our communication committee, producing these newsletters and maintaining and improving our website. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Our 2023 fiscal year began on July 1, 2022, and we hope to continue the work started in FY2022. We are reaching the point where past surpluses have been depleted, and we will need to ask our alumni brothers to contribute to help us continue our work. There will be more on this in a future Paragon.
While we have a great core group of alumni brothers advancing this work, I hope more of you will choose to become involved. The Alumni Association Board of Directors currently meets every other Tuesday at 6 PM, and we have a number of committees who meet at other times. Many hands make for light work, and we have much work to do. Please email me at president@oabphikaps.org if you’re interested.
I’m looking forward to another successful year, and I hope you’ll join us.
The 2021-2022 year marks the first year in several years that the Alumni Association and Housing Corporation has actively invested in the active chapter house. We are excited to present tangible progress as well as hopeful that we can continue this momentum into the coming years with growing sources of income to satisfy our maintenance obligations.
In my report below, I will summarize the state of the sources and uses of funding with respect to the Alumni Association and the Housing Corporation on a consolidated basis.
Sources:
The bulk of our funding this year was sourced from a prior surplus balance as well as $9,675 in gross income from the rental of the Treehouse apartment over the garage. We anticipate that Treehouse income will grow to $10,000 per year thanks to a new lease executed in September of 2022.
Uses:
We spent a total of $12,705.25 on house improvement this year.
The bulk of these expenses were attributable to work weekends organized by the Alumni Association for a total investment of $4,486.51. This included line items of $865.25 for dumpster rental, $506.10 for fencing, and $2,690.16 in total miscellaneous supplies purchases.
We have also hired some contractors to complete projects that were outside the capabilities of our volunteer alumni, including $2,575.49 in tree trimming and landscape cleanout, as well as $490.28 in plumbing repairs including sewer cleanout.
In addition, the Alumni Association aided the active chapter with several items of deferred maintenance. Most notably we invested $3,653.17 in upgrading and testing the fire alarm system to comply with the university’s requirements. We also made an agreement to split the cost of repairing the chapter oven and refrigerator for $1347.40.
In conclusion, nearly all of our expenditures for the 2021-2022 year were devoted to house maintenance and improvement, and less than $500 represents recurring fixed expenses.
Special thanks to the following donors for 2021-2022:
Eli Jones
Dave Rowan
Ken Nagano
Eugene Choi
John Dutton
Robert Stalder
David Sutula
Eric Malkin
Aaron Mann
Christian Carson
David Hill
Nicholas DeCenzo
Brandon Palmer
Anonymous Brother
Conclusion:
We have set up a lean foundation for a robust support mechanism for the active chapter. Moving forward, we must focus on additional fundraising efforts to continue our momentum and raise the funds necessary to take care of the deferred maintenance on the house.
Annual Report: Officers and Membership - Nathan Kossover, Secretary
At the start of the 2021-2022 we had two official board members.
Nicholas DeCenzo - President
Christian Carson - Treasurer
On April 26, 2022, four new members were elected to the board.
Patrick Glynn - House Improvement Chair
Dave Rowan - Member-at-Large
Kenichi Nagano - Member-at-Large
Nathan Kossover - Secretary
On October 25, 2022, two new members were elected to the board.
Aaron Mann - Coaching Chair
Maynard Isabel - Member-at-Large
As of June 30, 2022, we have at least one piece of contact information for 469 actives and alumni of the Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta.
Three Paragon electronic newsletters were sent out in in April, June and August 2022, as well as assorted event reminders. We also have a presence on Facebook and on the internet at ohioalphabeta.org.