Saturday was a very eventful day and here is a little rundown of some of the major topics discussed...
ATO house tour - David Harmon gave us a tour of the house renovation, as
well as the new annex and he
was great about answering any questions we had.
- The cost of the house renovation was $250,000 and the new annex was $150,000
- For the renovation, they used an interior designer located in Detroit (she
graduation as a Pi Phi from HC,
I have her card)
- For the annex, they used Faulk Construction, located right in Hillsdale
- ATO still plans to re-side the house and re-pave driveway, as well as put
in a BB court and VB court
- Harmon highly suggested using what he called a class "captain"
(ambassador) to peer pressure brothers into involvement, it worked well for
ATO
- Harmon talked a lot about how valuable the college was to the fundraising
process. Because the house
is owned by HC, the money was managed by them and alumni donated through them,
which made it
very efficient for ATO (this concept will most likely not apply to us)
- Harmon seemed to not have any complaints about the construction and renovation
- The annex was equipped with a furnace, big-screen TV, a couple run-down
couches, and men's and
woman's bathrooms (very important)
- Besides the items I listed above, the annex is a concrete box and not much
else
- For the renovation, Harmon himself and a couple other alumni gutted the
entire inside on the house.
He said anything that could be pulled off and picked up was throw in the dumpster.
- The entire project was completed in four months! ATO was able to finance
easily through the college and construction was underway.
- In my opinion, the project's biggest asset was Harmon being able to oversee
the fundraising and
renovation from start to finish. He kept his nose in every stage of the process.
I am sure there is much more that was discussed, but I did not document
everything. I would appreciate it if any other alumni present on Sat. would
expand on anything that was not covered or not covered enough.
After the tour, House Corporation met along with Bill Nolan:
Bill - An overview of the Founder's meeting in Elkhart a few weeks ago
- Bill expanded on some of the general ideas and opinions of the founders
pertaining to the project.
- Bill believes the founders will be up to the challenge of transforming the
Alpha Kappa house in the next
five years. He feels that the founders can have a substantial influence on
the entire project.
Brian - Treasurer's Report - The current operating budget is holding on,
but barely.
- The house is $100,000 outstanding and has just refinanced (The interest
rate is high risk and, as a
result, the % is very high. We offered ideas to try to lower the rates and
save the house a few
thousand $ in interest)
- The college has continued to fail in upholding our requests to deny registration
to delinquent brothers.
House Corp. plans to sit down with the Dean to outline a plan that will stay
standing and hold those couple
brothers accountable that do not pay on time each semester.
Jeremiah - Fundraising Committee
- The goal behind the formation of this committee is to create a body held
accountable for getting the
fund-raising project off the ground.
- The fundraising committee will consist of approx. nine members (6 alumni,
1 active, H.C. pres., and
advisor)
- The creation of this committee is in its beginning stages and is always
subject to change , but the
reason for it is clear.
- House corp. is currently looking for committed alumni to step up to this
challenge.
- Rent Troubles
- Jeremiah also touched on the possibility of raising rent to brothers in
the house to build a larger safety
net for House Corporation expenses (right now there is no such net)
********************************* Plan of Action
**********************************
Next meeting - Final weekend in January
What will be accomplished by that date - A substantial network of alumni
leadership to move the
housing project forward.
Our goal is to have established a class ambassador from a majority of the
graduating classes since 1980.
-Bill Nolan has volunteered to work with other founders in contacting all
of the original 11, as well
as perhaps stemming outward to establish ambassadors into '81,'82, and '83.
-Tim Story (Chris said you were the man for this job:) will be looking into
'93 and '94
-Chris Mink will be concentrating on '97,'96, and 95'
-Jeremiah Powers - '99 , '98, '97
-Myself - '02, '01, '00
-Jeremiah Coder will be getting in contact with Greg Brock from 1989 to hopefully
spread the word
in the classes of the late 80s.
-We will also contact Tom Kavanaugh for help with the early 90s.
-In addition, Jeremiah and I will be posting a list of the top 3 officers
from each class on the website to use a guide for contacting class leaders.
Well, I can't think of much more right now and I have nothing left in my
notebook. Please reply back with any input you may have.
A big thanks to Bill Nolan for his help!!
Please keep in touch via the website (www.hillsdalesigmachi.com) . Please
contact Jeremiah and I with any questions 574-247-0245
In hoc,
Brent
