2000-2005 Alpha Beta Chapter History

The following history is a portion of the history for Alpha Beta

2000

Fall 2000 semester saw its share highs and lows. The semester began with a brotherhood retreat to bond new and older brothers together and to rejuvenate the fire. Despite these attempts to improve brotherhood energy, attendance to meetings and events had fallen brotherhood morale had reached a new low. Nevertheless, the chapter was able to institute bylaw changes regarding probation and defining the positions of Brother at Large and Webmaster. AB’s spirit soon improved. At National Convention, Alpha Beta was honored with three national awards: Charles W. Chance Alumni Award, C. H. McClure Single Service Award, and Jeffrey L. Johnson Fellowship Award. This semester also saw stronger bonds with the National Office and Staff.

The Spring 2001 semester represented a paradigm shift for Alpha Beta. Brothers worked hard to further incorporate inactive brothers and those on probation but decided that brothers who do not pay dues are a burden and so expelled numerous people. This semester, the chapter also decided to take the Alpha Delta initiate class of 25 people (24 became brothers) in order to make up for the one-third of the brotherhood that would be graduating. The inner-chapter relations committee was implemented for the first time this semester to pull brothers back in. The tradition of the annual volleyball tournament was continued with success. Other notable events included a trip to the National Zoo, a book club, KEEN (an organization for disabled children) and Best Buddies. Alpha Beta presented the Richard V. Durand award to four graduating seniors this semester – Heather Allen, Ron Eidelman, Dan Becker and Pat Hooper.

2002

Spring 2002 began with an officer/chair retreat in Ocean City, Md. where the brother at large and president worked to create bonding activities to foster brotherhood. Alpha Beta reached a large obstacle this semester facing negative attitudes from brothers and addressed this with an optional open forum to discuss concerns. Almost half of the brotherhood attended. Organized by the brother at large, this forum helped to resolve a lot of the underlying issues, including old brothers v. new brothers, and really got Alpha Beta back on our feet. We also had to re-vote on our initiate class and postpone initiation because of an incorrect reading of the national constitution but after discussion with national council, this problem was successfully solved. The chapter awarded the Chapter Service Key to Melissa Allingham. This semester also re-energized our annual volleyball tournament, organized great scholarship events such as trips to the Krispy Kreme Factory, pulled off service events such as working at a foodbank and wildlife program.

Fall 2002 began as a challenging semester for Alpha Beta as three leadership position holders resigned. However, the chapter pulled together quickly to fill the vacancies and focus on positive aspects of the chapter, such as the obtainment of our composite that was overdue by a year because of difficulty with the company. Alpha Beta was also fortunate to win two purple and gold awards at National Convention – Outstanding Initiation Program and Outstanding Spirit Award. This semester we welcomed a new faculty advisor who was not a PSP alumni, we held an officer / chair planning meeting and a brotherhood retreat at Camp Pecometh on Maryland’s Easten Shore. Highly successful events included an Alumni tailgate for homecoming, six flags fundraising that made over $1000, jazz concerts and a trip to the Baltimore Aquarium, work at a food bank and a walk for the homeless. This semester we also held a risk management ad-hoc committee to begin work on an Alpha Beta policy and we began planning for Volleyball and our 15th Founder’s Day Celebration. Also this semester the subrosa fund was established by Alyssa Watzman, based on an anonymous donation by a brother. The Spring 2003 semester began with a very successful brotherhood retreat held in Ocean City, Md. We also held a separate officer / chair retreat to bring brothers back together after the winter break and plan for a successful semester. In February 2003, we held an amazing founder’s day celebration and welcomed back over 40 alumni and over 50 brothers for a formal, pre-pinning appreciation potluck and pinning. This event was a huge success and truly helped to mend past alumni relations problems. Volleyball was also hugely successful this semester, pulling in almost 350 inter-chapter brothers despite the cold weather. Two ad-hoc committees were put together this semester – one for risk management that resulted in the passing of a risk management policy, and the other to plan for a regional conference that ultimately was taken over by Alpha Tau at Howard University. After this semester, the chapter was worn out and definitely needed a break but had participated in highly successful events, had a very involved inter-chapter semester and accomplished our goals.

2003

The Fall 2003 semester represented a shift for the chapter which began to take business and involvement more seriously. Since we began the semester in such a great financial position, President Alyssa Watzman began a discussion of a scholarship and after working with an ad-hoc committee, created a charter that was voted on and passed, establishing the Razzano Tripod Scholarship, named after our two notable alumni Christy and Katy. An amendment was also proposed by Alyssa to create an official Alumni Advisor position for the chapter and thus the chapter elected our first three alumni advisors – Kristin O’Planick, Christine McCary and Renee Wood. Brotherhood involvement and attendance was incredible this fall as brothers participated in the DC AIDS Walk and raised over $1,200.00, planted trees as part of Tree-mendous Maryland, competed in a scavenger hunt in Washington and took a tour of Annapolis and the Naval Academy. Through events at The Patriot Center and work with Joe Corbi’s, the chapter raised over $1,500. The chapter also tried some new social events including a day trip to Philadelphia, and had a very successful semi-formal with dinner beforehand and dancing and awards. The chapter experimented with a point system to award high brotherhood attendance, dealt with risk management issues resulting in an ad-hoc committee to review our policy, implemented the practice of approving the minutes at meeting to make things more formal, started an Alumni Appreciation Day for those more active alumni and traveled to Beta Pi, Alpha Rho, Alpha Eta and National Convention. In fall 2003, the chapter maintained its strength and character while improving and changing.