New TKE HQ Building, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Grand Council of Tau Kappa Epsilon has purchased a new headquarters for the organization. Located approximately three miles away from the current facility, the new building is three-stories, 26,500-square feet, was constructed in the early 1990s and renovated in 2004.

TKE Chief Executive Officer Kevin Mayeux stated “This is an exciting new era for Tau Kappa Epsilon. The new headquarters will meet our needs for years to come, with improved office space, several conference and training rooms, space to form a working TKE heritage center to display our historical documents and archives, and put a positive public face on TKE today.  Our new headquarters will be a welcoming, professional and functional space for everyone in the TKE Nation to visit and call home.”

Click here to read the whole story!

Andrew Fritchley has created a website for coordinating block seating and tailgating for Tekes at football games:  http://tkeblock.com/.

And a group of young(ish) alumni (perhaps the same) have formed a Facebook group for tailgating: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/home.php?filter=lf.  You must log onto Facebook to see the page.

This notice is perhaps a little late for the 2009 season but may be useful for next year.

Thanks to everyone who attended the Homecoming reception and the pre-game festivities at the house. Our go-to photographer, Robert Combier, took some great photos at both events. Follow the link below to check out the pictures. Prints and hi-res downloads can be purchased directly from the site.

http://combier.smugmug.com/Events/TKE-Homecoming-2009

A video of TKE Beta-Pi’s 2009 Homecoming Mock Rock entry has been posted on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZwEeYEdoKI.

This performance took 2nd place. Although tastes in “music” definitely change, the chapter retains that skill at choreography and dance that it has had for decades.

The chapter took 1st place in the homecoming banner competition.

A TKE Beta-Pi Ticket Exchange Google Group has been created. It’s under “Alumni Affairs > Ticket Exchange”.

This group was created because initiates and alumni occasionally are looking to find or dispose of extra tickets. The alumni general lists are not intended for this use but, still, it’s needed. Therefore–a list for this specific purpose. (This is not a BS list.)

This will likely be a little slow to start because, to be useful, we have to have a lot of members. So, if you believe that you will ever be interested in this service, even if that day is not today, consider joining the list.

The 2009 TKE Beta-Pi Homecoming reception for alumni, initiates and friends will be held in the “Pacific” area of the Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta near Centennial Olympic Park.

Registration is open:  Homecoming Reception Page

Catering will be by Wolfgang-Puck and we will have access to the “Indian” viewing area.

Date: Friday, October 16
Time: 7pm - 11pm
Location: Georgia Aquarium (Oceans Ballroom)
Price: $25 per person (includes food and parking onsite near the ballroom)
Full cash bar available
All ages welcome!

The Pacific Reception Area at the Georgia Aquarium

Pride in our House and our Fraternity - Undergraduates Paint New Letters on the Balcony

Just in time for fall rush, contractors are finally leaving the property and the undergraduates are finishing the work and cleaning up.  The last six weeks have been a time of many changes at 159 5th Street.

Basic infrastructure items that had worn out have been replaced or repaired including plumbing, fixtures, sheetrock and HVAC units.

The treads in the old stairwells have been repaired after 37 years of continuous (ab)use.  The social quarters has been repainted inside and pressure washed outside.  The conference room is stunning.

The changes to the kitchen are transformational and will be described later.  Suffice it to say for now that Reagan has been heading that up and he thinks that everyone should eat good meals and know how to cook them themselves.

The good-hearted attempt but not well-measured letters that adorned the balcony that overlooks the volleyball court have been redesigned and replaced by the undergrads themselves…and it looks sharp.

Work Week 2009 - Yeah Baby!

Why all this when we intend a major renovation soon?

Because TKE at Georgia Tech is fundamentally a residential experience and we must provide a high-quality facility at all times if we expect undergraduates and alumni to support that.  To maintain our facilities, the BOT has taken on many responsibilities that rested with the undergraduates.  However, we are formalizing the responsibilities that remain with them in a program called “Two-a-Week” that will be rolled out early in the fall.

It has been said, “If you can’t change the people, change the people.”  Well, we’ve done some of both and that will probably continue until both undergraduate and alumni organizations are ready for the Big Project.  It is plain to see, however, that we have already come a long way.

TKE Beta-Pi Undergraduates Celebrate at The House of Blues in New Orleans during Conclave 2009

The Chapter was well-represented in New Orleans during Conclave 2009.   Trustees Michael A. Smith and John Reagan attended as did alumnus and former TKE Educational Foundation member Russ Heil and chapter adviser David Adcock.

John’s wife Clare came to keep John from getting out of line but also made sure he got out in town to sample some of the finer cuisine.

Smith was the voting delegate for our chartered alumni association.

Brendan Patterson, Nathan Raines, Matthew Biggers, and Jeremy Ku represented the undergraduate organization.

During the first session of the Grand Chapter, Steve Forbes was inducted as the 250,000th initiate of the Fraternity.   Frater Forbes also spoke at the Life Loyal Teke reception.

Beta-Pis at the End of Conclave 2009 in New Orleans (L-R) Dave Adcock, Matt Biggers, John Reagan, Michael Smith, Brendan Patterson, Nathan Raines, Jeremy Ku

Smith, who is also the GPA (Grand Province Advisor) for North Carolina, helped with the educational programming, meeting with delegates from his province to do goal setting for the coming year.

Adcock, Smith and the undergraduates participated in the Conclave Service Project Saturday morning at City Park, clearing brush along Bayou St. John and spreading mulch along paths in Couturie Forest.  The effort was covered in an article in The Times-Picayune.

Legislation that would have made it easier for chartered alumni associations to conduct honorary initiations and that would have increased the voting power of alumni associations at Conclave was defeated in the Grand Chapter.  However, these issues will be revisited in coming Conclaves.

One undergraduate was arrested for “petting a policeman’s horse” but we suspect there is more to the story than that and it wasn’t one of our undergraduates anyway.  Everyone made it safely back home, the alumni to our jobs and the undergrads to a fall workweek already in progress.

Next Conclave … San Antonio in 2011!

The new tke.org features good form as well as function

At the 2009 Conclave in New Orleans, TKE HQ unveiled the updated fraternity website, www.tke.org.  The site reflects modern design principles and the use of flash and other tools.  The old site, while more informative than most Greek websites, appeared as if an … ahem …  engineer had designed it.

To help with recruiting, HQ has also updated www.jointke.org, the site developed for prospective members and parents.

TKE HQ has also begun hosting and providing templates free of charge for chapter websites.  While the beta-pi has chosen to do these things on our own, this new service is a boon to smaller chapters and to those that lack the requisite skills.

These projects, and more forthcoming, illustrate TKE HQ’s determination to use up-to-date technology, where appropriate, to deliver services more efficiently and effectively.

The BOT is coordinating some major projects during Summer 2009 designed to enable the current facilities to last “in good form” until the upcoming major renovation is complete.   These projects address long term maintenance and quality of life issues that affect the ability of the undergrads to recruit new members now and the perception the alumni have of the level of care shown for the property.  This will be the last major round of work on the property until the upcoming major renovation.

We are starting to convert our kitchen from a service facility to a teaching facility.  Tasks include a major scrub-down, new non-skid floor, refinished walls, and new and refurbished equipment to make it possible to make make more and buy less pre-made.

The kitchen is temporarily unavailable for cooking

In the dormitory, showers, sinks and cabinets that had simply worn out and would no longer respond to cleaning are being replaced.  We are using tiles left over from the 1996 project to replace worn out flooring.

Outside, we are repairing and replacing exterior trim and gutters that need it.  When this work is complete, we will have a professional firm power wash the exterior to remove deep-seated dirt and other contaminants.

When you come by the house this fall, you will notice more changes than even we anticipated–and we haven’t even said anything about the interior painting yet.