Things to Remember

In planning and implementing a social function, there are several methods each social chairman can do to help him or herself have an event run smoothly. Since a social chairman has several responsibilities to do, Down To Frat offers a few tips that will enable the social chairman to keep his or her cool. Here are some of DTF’s tips:

Prepare Early

Once a social chairman assumes his or her position, he or she needs to prepare the fraternity or sorority’s social calendar. Every social chairman needs to be mindful of the “big events” such as barndance, semi-formal, and formal because these social functions take a lot more time to plan and implement. For example, once a social chairman assumes his or her post for the fall semester, he or she needs to start contacting each sorority’s social chairman. He or she can easily set up and confirm all of the exchanges in one night. The social chairman can use a calendar to mark off the dates what sorority the fraternity will be having an exchange with.

In regards to “big events,” the social chairman needs to plan those ahead of time, most preferably over the summer if he or she is responsible for the fall semester or during winter break if it is for the spring semester. In the case of barndance, he or she needs to contact the bus companies and the barn locations two or three months before the planned date. It takes weeks to look for the right bus companies to transport everyone to the barn. It even takes longer to sign a contract with a barn because paper work is done over mail.

Create a Checklist

To make life easier for the social chairman, it is necessary to have a checklist. There are way too many things to remember such as dates and other important details. With a checklist, the social chairman will be able to accomplish all of the necessary tasks to have a successful social function.

Without a checklist, there is a strong possibility that important details would be left out. For example, when I was the social chairman in my fraternity and while I was planning barndance, I forgot to bring cups for everyone to use. This should have been something obvious and it was unreasonable to believe that I forgot to purchase cups. However, since I was dealing with the stress of having an unreliable bus company, I managed to forget to bring the cups.

Consistent Communication among Participating Parties

In creating a social calendar, the person in charge needs to have constant communication with other sororities’ social chairman. This is very important because sometimes a schedule conflict will occur because of other more important responsibilities need to be done during the set date. With consistent communication, a social chairman can receive such message and can reschedule.

Without consistent communication, a social chairman is taking the risk of having an unsuccessful party. This will only lead to more frustration and further grief from the rest of the fraternity’s brothers or sororities’ sisters. In addition, an unsuccessful social function will only tarnish the social chairman’s reputation as a reliable officer in the fraternity or sorority.

If you have other suggestions not currently listed here, please don’t hesitate to email Down To Frat at downtofrat@gmail.com.

Preferred Item of the Month

The product of the month is the Sony Playstation 3. For fraternity boys and sorority girls, a Sony Playstation 3, or otherwise called PS3, is a smart investment because it has several, different uses. Currently, the PS3 cost roughly around $399. Since it has been released for over a year now, anyone can find a PS3 in a Best Buy or Circuit City retail outlet for purchase.

First and foremost, Down To Frat will not focus on the product specifications of the Sony PS3. If you are interested in this kind of information, please visit the official Sony Playstation 3 website.

The PS3 serves several uses. First and foremost, the PS3 acts as a Blu-Ray player. Similar to what the DVD did to the VHS, Blu-Ray will soon replace DVD. It is in everyone’s best interest to invest in a Blu-Ray player because its visual quality is noticeably better than DVD especially on a high definition television. Plus, the PS3 can play both DVD and Blu-Ray. Even though a sorority girl has invested in creating the biggest DVD collection, she can still play them on a PS3. Since the PS3 is currently one of the cheapest Blu-Ray players in the market, a fraternity boy can easily take advantage of this and watch high definition movies with a date in his living room.

Second, the PS3 has a bigger hard drive capacity than any other home gaming console such as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii. With this hard drive, fraternity boys and sorority girls can store their movies, music, and games in the PS3. In fact, anyone can purchase an additional hard drive in the case that they have used up all of the PS3’s memory or if they wish to travel with it. Basically, the PS3 can act as a music player during the weekend and a movie player during slower nights of the week. Since there is so little space in the fraternity or sorority house because everyone more than likely has a roommate or two, the PS3 allows everyone to use it for different purposes.

Third, the PS3 is easily the superior gaming console for the Greek community. Nintendo’s Wii might more suitable for parties because its games are more intended for play with numerous people but no college student plays videogames during a social function. Obviously there are exceptions to this observation but it is unlikely that videogames are the primary reason for people to attend a social function. Unlike Nintendo’s Wii, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is intended for more serious gamers. Its games are more focused on single player games. However, the Xbox 360 has had history of breakdowns. It is not wise for someone to invest a lot of money in a gaming console that will only breakdown after a year of use. Unlike Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony Playstation 3 is manufactured with superior products that allow it to have “lasting power.” In regards to videogames, the PS3 have a great quality of games that anyone can get into. PS3 owners can also download games over the Internet. Majority of these games are either “old school” such as Megaman or puzzle games.

Sony Playstation 3 is a smart investment for any fraternity brother or sorority sister for various reasons. If you prefer to save space in your fraternity or sorority room and have the tool to play Blu-Ray movies, then the PS3 is the way to go.

Poll of the Month

Every month, DTF will have an editorial that has an indirect relation to the Greek community. This month, DTF officially announces that the Chicago White Sox is the official baseball team of the site.

In the Greek community, most of the members in fraternities or sororities have a favorite baseball team. In Illinois State University, most of the frat brothers and sorority sisters favor teams such as the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers, and the Chicago White Sox. Out of all these teams, DTF prefers the Chicago White Sox for several reasons.

First, Down To Frat was created in the state of Illinois. Even though the Chicago Cubs might have been a more popular choice, DTF favors the Chicago White Sox. It is difficult to root for the Chicago Cubs because the majority of the people in Illinois are Cubs fans. A lot of these fans can be considered as a “bandwagon” fan because their friends and family are Cubs fans. This is not a legitimate reason to root for the Cubs. However, in the case of DTF, we choose to root for the Chicago White Sox because we love being the “underdogs.” It is more satisfying to root for the “second baseball team in Chicago”, especially if they have proven that they are resilient and do not care if “experts” have ruled that they are not competitive. It was even better when the Chicago White Sox won the World Series in 2005 because majority of the Cubs fans arrogantly predicted that the White Sox are group of failures. However, DTF is not a fan of the Chicago White Sox due to this reason.

The Chicago White Sox are a better team for several reasons. First, Ozzie Guillen is easily the most interesting and knowledgeable baseball manager compared to Lou Piniella. In comparison to the Cubs’ roster, the White Sox have less talent with their batters and pitchers. Nonetheless, the Chicago White Sox have found ways to be a success. This success can be attributed to Ozzie Guillen. He has found a way to push his players to do better. Even though Ozzie Guillen might use questionable or unorthodox methods, he knows how to communicate and motivate his team. In addition, the Chicago White Sox general manager, Ken Williams, have a lot of faith and trust in Ozzie Guillen that he allows these methods to happen.

Second, Paul Konerko and Jim Thome are players that each “normal” person can relate to. Even though they make millions annually, both of these players show a lot of heart when they play. They never give out the impression that they are better than anybody else because they play professional baseball. In fact, they both show a tremendous amount of humility. Any baseball fan can see this humility, especially when Paul Konerko and Jim Thome talk to the media. They never forget to acknowledge that all of their success is because of their teammates and they are only trying to help the team win.

Lastly, Alfonso Soriano of the Chicago Cubs is one of the most ungrateful players that ever played in Major League Baseball. If anyone has forgotten, when Alfonso Soriano played for the Washington Nationals, he threatened to not play because the management team proposed to move him to play left field from his position of second base. He made such a big deal of this move even though, everyone knew that he plays poor defense as a second baseman. In addition, he did not want to move to left field because he felt that it would hurt his value, especially since he was going into free agency. He only stopped whining after receiving a huge contract from the Chicago Cubs and then he portrayed in the media that he is only moving for the good of the team.

Award of the Month

For this month, DTF is recognizing Michael Joseph Wiseman for his efforts in providing a total of 150 hours of community service in the past year. He has contributed his time and effort into fund raising and community-building events such as Habitats for Humanity, Children’s Miracle Network, American Red Cross, and Relay for Life. Due to his efforts, DTF caught up with him to get some insight on why he focuses his time on community service. DTF interviewed Michael on October 1, 2008.

What motivated you to contribute 150 hours of community service?

I felt the need to give back to the community because society has given me so much. I have been blessed enough by having a family that is there for me when I need them. I am also lucky that I have enough resources to attend college. I also want to help out those less fortunate than me.

What life experience has given you this kind of motivation?

I believe strongly in my religion. I have been a Catholic all my life. In this religion, it is important to help others in need. I was also raised to believe that it is my responsibility, if I can, to help out other people who are in dire need of help.

My dad has always told me that helping others is one of my main responsibilities. He always wanted to install in me a sense of generosity. My mom always said that it is good to be thankful for what I have been getting.

When I was a child, I saw my parents contribute their time and effort to the needy. In fact, I have seen them volunteer their time in our church’s soup kitchen. In it, they cook and provide homeless people with food. This helps reinforce the lessons they have been trying to teach me relating to community service.

Do you plan to continue on contributing your time to community service?

I do because it has become of a habit for me. I have gotten used to volunteering my time for a good cause. I just don’t feel right if I become selfish of my time. I believe that in the end, God will recognize that I have done what I can to help others.

Besides community service, what else do you do on your free time?

Since I’m in college, I try to focus on achieving high grades in my classes. I am currently majoring business information systems and finance. As you can tell, I have a lot to deal with in regards to my schooling. In addition, I also play rugby for the rugby club at Illinois State University. I play as a “winger.” A winger’s main responsibility is to catch the ball and run as fast as possible to the end zone. Besides school and rugby, I also like to work out. I work out at Gold’s gym. I try to work out 6 times a week.

Do you have a girlfriend?

Yes. Sorry, girls, I’m taken. My girlfriend’s name is Betty. We have been dating for two years.

If you know anyone who deserves to be recognized in their efforts to better his or her community and environment, please let us know at downtofrat@gmail.com.

Event of the Month

Sigma Chi’s Derby Days, the fraternity’s primary philanthropy, is the event of the month. In essence, Derby Days is a weeklong philanthropy where sororities compete against each other. In other words, Derby Days can be described as a “sorority Olympics.” The winner of Derby Days is given the chance to share the privilege of having their name included in the check that will be donated to Children’s Miracle Network. Since Derby Days is a philanthropy event, Sigma Chi’s primary goal is to raise money to donate to the Children’s Miracle Network. In 2008, the fraternity’s goal is to raise more than $7,000. There are several methods Sigma Chi uses to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network. Here are some of the methods and their descriptions:

Coin Change

Each participating sorority can donate their change to the coin drive. The coin drive is usually located in the university’s quad area or in the Sigma Chi fraternity house. Each sorority is given a container where they can donate their change. In this event, Sigma Chi aims to raise money by placing points on the type of change each sorority donates. Usually, a penny, dime or nickel is given a 1-point value. However, a quarter is given a negative 5 points value. For example, if Gamma Phi Beta dropped 20 pennies into their container, then they receive 20 points. However, if Zeta Tau Alpha dropped in 4 quarters into the Gamma Phi Beta’s container, then Gamma Phi Beta receives negative 20 points.

Raffle Ticket Sales

Sigma Chi offers the participating sororities the opportunity to gain points by purchasing raffle tickets. Each raffle tickets cost roughly around $1 each. In addition, each raffle ticket is usually worth 1 point. There is a limit to the number of raffle tickets that can be sold to avoid having a sorority buy their way to victory in Derby Days. At the end of Derby Days, a random raffle ticket is drawn to determine who wins the designated prize.

Shirt Sales

In addition to the raffle ticket sales, each sorority can earn more points by purchasing the Derby Days shirts. Each shirt purchases is worth points. The more shirts a sorority purchases, the better chance that certain organization can win Derby Days.

In addition to these fund raising events, there are several fun activities in Derby Days. Here are some of these events:

Competition Wednesday

On Wednesday of Derby Days, there are three main activities that each sorority can compete in to gain more points. The first event is tug-of-war. Each sorority is required to have a maximum of eight girls to participate in this event. In addition, each sorority is only allowed to have two of their Sigma Chi coaches to help them. This event is tournament, one-game elimination basis. The winner of this event receives 100 points.

The second event is the pie-eating contest. Each participating sorority needs one of their girls to partake in this activity. The first girl to completely eat the whole pie wins the contest. The winning sorority receives 100 points.

The last event is the obstacle course. Sigma Chi rents out an inflatable obstacle course for this event. Each sorority is divided up into even numbers. Similar to the tug-of-war competition, the obstacle course is on a tournament, one-game elimination basis.

Exchange Ideas

In the Greek community, each fraternity and sorority participates in an event called “exchanges.” An exchange is basically a social event between one fraternity and one sorority. In these events, there is a basic theme. These themes can range from something boring such as an 80s exchange to something more creative such as a Tie exchange. Here in DTF, we understand that it can be difficult to think of a creative yet fun exchange where both fraternity and sorority can interact with each other smoothly. In order to help out those people responsible in setting up these exchanges, DTF will provide some exchange themes ideas.

Tie Exchange

A “Tie Exchange” is one of the more formal exchange ideas. The dress code for each fraternity and sorority is more formal than normal. For the fraternity, each man needs to be in business casual clothes. For the sorority, each girls needs to be dressed up like they would if they are going to a semi-formal or formal dance. Each fraternity members need to provide a tie to their social chairman. All of the ties collected will be placed on a location where each sorority girl can grab a tie. The ties can all be placed on a table by the entrance door so each sorority girl has easy access to it or each tie can be hung on a wall and the sorority girls can just grab it as they pass.

The goal of the “Tie Exchange” is to have each sorority girl find the owner of the tie they grabbed from the front door or the wall. This allows everyone to freely meet and interact with each other. Once a sorority girl finds the owner of the tie then it is the fraternity boy’s responsibility to take care of the girl’s needs.

DTF recommends this type of exchange if a fraternity and sorority are generally unfamiliar with each other. This allows interaction among the two student organizations in a fun and interesting atmosphere.

Nuts and Bolts Exchange

Unlike the “Tie Exchange,” the “Nuts and Bolts” exchange is more casual. In fact, this type of exchange encourages the fraternity and sorority to dress up as construction workers. Depending on the creativity level of the fraternity boy or sorority girl, they can either way white shirts with carpenter pants or a warning vest with denim shorts.

In a “Nuts and Bolts” exchange, the social chairman needs to acquire enough nuts to give out to all of the sorority girls and enough bolts to give out to the fraternity boys. However, there can only be one combination of nuts and bolts that fit. Once the winning combination of nuts and bolts is found, the fraternity boy and sorority girl who uncovered the right combination wins a prize. The prize can be anything, depending on what the social chairman chooses.

Similar to the “Tie Exchange,” this type of exchange allows the fraternity and sorority to meet each other in a fun environment. Since it will take awhile before the winning combination is found, this will give everyone enough time to meet and introduce himself or herself to everyone in the exchange.

Sigma Chi

To review Sigma Chi, DTF will interview a valuable member of their fraternity. DTF chose to interview Daniel John Lamplot, an Intra-Fraternity Council Representative of Sigma Chi fraternity. Dan joined Sigma Chi in fall semester of 2007. DTF interviewed John regarding Sigma Chi on October 1, 2008.

What is Sigma Chi?

Sigma Chi has a rich tradition pertaining to the growth and development of its members.

Why would someone choose to be a member of Sigma Chi over other fraternities?

Sigma Chi offers a wide variety of opportunities to participate in both social and philanthropic events. These social events range from barndance, semi-formal, and formal. In regards to the philanthropic events, it ranges from Derby Days and Habitats for Humanity. In addition Sigma Chi has the best brotherhood at Illinois State University. Unlike other fraternities, we focus on brotherhood development from the pledgeship to the active level. During pledgeship, it is mandatory for each potential member to interview each active in the fraternity. With this, it allows the potential members to expand on their friendship throughout the whole fraternity.

What are some of Sigma Chi’s philanthropies?

The main philanthropy of Sigma Chi is called Derby Days. It is a weeklong event, which raises money for the Children’s Miracle Network. Our current goal this year is to raise close to $7,000 for the organization. In essence, Derby Days is a competition among sororities on campus. These events range from athletic activities such as the volleyball tournament, tug-of-war, obstacle course, eating content to fund raising events such as the coin change, t-shirt sales, and raffle ticket sales. In addition, Derby Days offers the members of the Sigma Chi fraternity and women from all the participating sororities to donate blood for the American Red Cross.

Besides Derby Days, Sigma Chi annually participates in Chi Omega’s March Madness, which raises money for the Make-A-Wish foundation. We also participate in Gamma Phi Beta’s Camp Week and Zeta Tau Alpha’s Foxy Lady. All of these events are fun for the members in the Greek community while raising money for worthy charities.

What are some of Sigma Chi’s social events?

There are several events in Sigma Chi’s social calendar. In the beginning of the year, we have an event called “Bid Night.” Bid Night is when two fraternities and two sororities join together to travel to a club in Champaign, IL. The focus of this event is to have all of the new members from each fraternity and sorority to socially meet each other and create relationships.

Besides Bid Night, Sigma Chi offers barndance in which all the members of the fraternity and their prospective dates travel to a barn somewhere in the Champaign, IL area. Everyone takes buses to the barn location. The theme of the event is to have everyone dress up in barn attire while engaging in activities such as dancing, hayrides, and hanging out around a campfire.

Have you had a pleasurable experience in Sigma Chi, thus far?

Yes, I have. Sigma Chi has been a great opportunity for me to meet new and interesting people. In addition, I have learned several lessons that will only help me grow as an individual. In pledgeship, I learned how to efficiently manage my time to meet all of my responsibilities. In addition, I learned the importance of meeting all of my obligations because the success of the fraternity hinges on everyone meeting their duties.