Fundraising Opportunity for the SEF

(In addition to the blog, this message is being sent by e-mail via the SDG and Facebook.)

An amusement park close to Lyrecrest has a fundraising opportunity and I would like to put something together in support of the SEF. Basically, I am looking for brothers who would be willing to work for one day at Holiday World for an eight-hour shift. Holiday World is about one hour away from Lyrecrest.

Every person who works would earn $44.00 for the SEF and a free ticket to the park. The plan would be for us to all go back to the park the day after we work to enjoy the rides, so this would be a two-day excursion. I would make arrangements for everyone to stay in the cottage at Lyrecrest.

I am still trying to solidify a date, but I am looking at the week of August 10-14 (during the week). A sample itinerary would look like this:
Sunday, August 9 – arrive at Lyrecrest and sleep overnight
Monday, August 10 – work at Holiday World for 8 hour shift
Tuesday, August 11 – group trip to Holiday World
(You could leave at any point after your work shift is finished).

If you are interested and could make yourself available that week or if you have any questions, please e-mail me at krueger@sinfonia.org.

Prepping the Memorial Service for the National Convention

I've spent a little time finishing up the Memorial Service that will be done at the National Convention. Actually, I've been done with it except I need to add names of brothers who pass that get reported to the National Headquarters.

At the Convention, we do a reading of all the names of brother who have passed away since during the 2009-2009 triennium. On the Sunday of the convention, 242 names will be read during the service. As a point of reference, we had 155 names read in 2006.

There are a number of reasons for the increase in names. The most obvious reason is the Harris Connect directory that helped us locate and update many of our alumni. Coupled with that has been the work of individual members who have taken an active interest in chapter and regional alumni. Without their dedication of these individuals, there would be members who we either be looking for or mailing with the assumption that they were still alive.

The web has played a role in alumni updates as well. Using Google Alerts and Topix.com, I have been able to find members who use the key words "Phi Mu Alpha" in online postings, usually newspaper and magazines.

As I finish the list, here are a few of the more "well-known" names of Sinfonians who have passed on this triennium:
*Alvin Batiste, Mu Psi (Southern) ’73-Hon.
Norman Dello Joio, Epsilon Nu (Jacksonville State) ’71
Sandy Feldstein, Theta Iota (SUNY-Potsdam) ’60
*Maynard Ferguson, Xi Chi (Tennessee Tech) ’76-Hon.
Jerry A. Hadley, Delta Nu (Bradley) ’71
Ellas “Bo Diddley” McDaniel, Eta Omega (Florida) ’99-Hon.
*Dr. William C. Moffit, Beta Phi (Baldwin-Wallace) ’47
Luciano Pavarotti, Beta Tau (Miami) ’78-Hon.
*-Signature Sinfonian recipients

Thank you in advance to Dr. T. Jervis Underwood, Justin Lee, Ben Cunningham, Erik Karre, Ken Tice and David Crow for reading during the service.

Sinfonia Coming Back in the Twin Cities???

I've had some decent interaction with some guys in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN area about an alumni association. Scott Fricke, Iota (Northwestern) '85, has been my main contact with this group. They met last night and sent me some good news. (I've removed out some of the content that was directed towards me.)

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"We had 11 guys show (in addition to me). Blake Kuncl, Eta Nu (St. Mary's) '89, as well as at least three others, were interested but couldn't make it. Only a couple of the guys there were part of Blake's previous petition. Most were not aware of your visit last year. Some were not even on the list you pulled for me. This makes me excited that we are reaching new people.

Everyone seemed pretty interested in trying to get a collegiate chapter started at U of MN. What things would we need to make happen for this to become a reality?

Our plan is to meet the first Thursday of every month. Our next meeting will hopefully be at a church and involved dusting off the windpipes. So, more to come.

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With this group meeting yesterday and a group in Milwaukee meeting next week, I decided to try and put together a two-minute video to see if it may help motivate these alums to take up the torch and make something happen.

Have a good 4th of July!

Tearing Down Lyrecrest

Before anyone gets the wrong idea...Lyrecrest is still standing. Whenever National Conventions roll around, the NHQ becomes very desolate as most of our office supplies, computers, store items get boxed up and sent to the hotel.

This year is no different.

As I mentioned in my last post, the packing has already begun. We got most of the store stuff done last week, but now everything else is working its way down to the club room. I'm coordinating the majority of our shipping (those 4 college summers working on a loading dock are REALLY paying off) and most of my time has been spent away from my desk.

Random shipping note: The heaviest item we are shipping is our"big wooden box" for ritual. 258 pounds. Ugh.

I'm not sure if I'll get back here by the end of the week. Have a great holiday weekend. I hope to see you in Florida.

Pack It Up, Pack It In, Let Me Begin...

So it starts....

In case anyone was trying to get a hold of me today, I spent very little time at my desk. Today was officially the first day of packing for convention.

Why so early?

We are not doing what we have done in the past for this year. No more renting a U-Haul and driving it there ourselves. They may have worked with a 300 person convention. With 600 attendees this year, we needed to upgrade our shipping capabilities and will have a frieght company hauling our stuff down there.

Of course things brings in some added complications.

1. We have to plan a week in advance as the stuff we ship will actually arrive in Florida before we leave Evansville. We are doing the store stuff now, because we need the space in the club room to stage office supplies and everything else we need to take.


2. We have to weigh every single box...'nuff said.


3. We have to stack them on pallets and wrap them. Of course, we have no room for this type of staff at the NHQ, so we are staging all of the packing in the garage at Lyrecrest North.

We need to have EVERYTHING ready to go before we leave for the 4th of July weekend. The truck will come on Tuesday, July 7 to pick up everything. We have 16 pallets available...I'm hoping to keep it at 10.

Special thanks to the guys from the Lambda Mu Chapter at Montclair State University who are here on retreat for the weekend. They took Friday afternoon and counted merchandise, folded over 600 convention t-shirts and helped move boxes.

It's now 6:30 and I'm going home. Have a great weekend everyone!

Resonance on Convention

It seems a little early for me to start thinking about the August issue of Sinfonia Resonance, but the National Convention has pushed up all of my deadlines by about two weeks. Despite that headache, it has given me the ability to try something new for our e-publication.

The great thing about the e-newsletter is that it gives us the ability to write about timely stories and issues. The convention would be pretty timely, but the submission deadline is two days after it ends. I would have no time to write about the event...not to mention the lack of rest to put thought into a coherent story.

I sent out an e-mail to our attendees asking if they would like to create a daily video montage that would catch all of the highlights of the event. I had four guys contact me who said they will be able to record and edit a video while they are there. Each guy will record a day (Wednesday through Saturday) and submit it to me.

The main feature of the issue will be four 10-minute videos from the National Convention. In addition, we will be spotlighting our national honorary candidate, Frank Ticheli.

I hope all of this works out or I will be pulling some crazy hours post-convention.

2009 Signature Sinfonians Posted; Official Announcement on Monday

I've posted the ten recipients of the 2009 class of Signature Sinfonians. I'm actually waiting until Monday to announce it because I need to get one more headshot, which is supposed to be taken and sent to me over the weekend.

If you want to get a sneak peek, go to http://www.sinfonia.org/alumni/2009signature.asp.