File - Sigma Chi Beta Lambda at Duke

 But he turned, when safe on the other side, And built a bridge to span the tide. "Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near, "You are wasting strength with building here; Your journey will end with the ending day; You never again will pass this way; You've crossed the chasm, deep and wide Why build you this bridge at the evening tide?" The builder lifted his old gray head: "Good friend, in the path I have come," he said, "There followeth after me today, A youth, whose feet must pass this way. This chasm, that has been naught to me, To that fair-­‐haired youth may a pitfall be. He, too, must cross in the twilight dim; Good friend, I am building this bridge for him." From the Tribune Brother Alumnus, It is been a pleasure to serve as the
Tribune for this past year. It has given
me the opportunity to meet more of you
and learn more about how valuable
alumni really are to an undergraduate
chapter. It is with this new perspective
that I hope to continue to help in the
area of alumni relations by being a
helping hand to next year’s Tribune.
I’d like to share with you a poem that I
found on the Sigma Chi website that
resonated with me and that I hope will
do so with you.
The Bridge Builder by Will Allen Dromgoole An old man, going a lone highway, Came, at the evening, cold and gray, To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide, Through which was flowing a sullen tide. The old man crossed in the twilight dim; The sullen stream had no fear for him; This poem inspired me to try to build a
bridge for future brothers to be able to
interact with alumni. As a chapter we
will continue to build this bridge and
hope that you can help us build it too.
In Hoc Signo Vinces, Tony Therattil From the Consul Dear Brothers,
This spring semester was a great time of
growth for the Beta Lambda Chapter of
Sigma Chi. We are happy to welcome
twenty new brothers into our chapter after
this recruitment period. Our Magisters,
Zack Silber and Colin Reed, did an
amazing job and maintained a 100%
retention rate for initiation.
Again, one of our greatest challenges this
year was in the domain of philanthropy.
We have been experimenting with new
events and have been largely successful.
Fruit Ninja, one of our new events which
involved paying to throw donated, spoiled
food at brothers or donating canned goods,
was a huge hit. All of the proceeds and
canned goods were donated to the local
Durham Food Bank in order to assist those
at risk of hunger.
In Hoc Signo Vinces,
Antonio deOliveira
Consul
Alumni weekend was also a lot of fun for
both actives and alumni. Our events
boasted about twenty-five alumni ranging
from recent graduates to classes in the 70's.
We kicked the weekend off with a BBQ in
the daytime and ended with the great Beta
Lambda tradition of BF on Saturday.
Planning has already begun for the fall
semester and the prospects for the future
look great for the Beta Lambda chapter.
Congratulations to the many seniors who
are graduating and continuing to live up to
their ambitious purposes.
Philanthropy fruit were gathered and taken to the
Duke Campus Farm for composting. After all was said and done, Beta
Lambda raised $400 and collected about
100 cans of food. All of this was given
to the Durham Food Bank.
In the counties served by the Durham
Food Bank there are over 96,000 people
at risk of hunger. The brothers of Beta
Lambda were happy to rally the Duke
campus and community around an often
forgotten problem.
This spring, the brothers mixed things up
with a new philanthropy event called
Fruit Ninja. The idea stemmed from the
popular game, also called Fruit Ninja,
which you probably have seen many
people play on their cell phones and
iPads.
Generous passersby donated money
and/or canned goods for the opportunity
to throw fruit at our brothers, who were
armed with tennis rackets and baseball
bats. Don’t worry, no food was wasted,
because the fruit used for the event was
unsellable fruit that grocery stores could
not sell or donate. The brothers took
swings at the fruit that was thrown at
them, providing lots of entertainment for
everyone that was out on the quad.
Although a messy event, all the scraps of
Ritual Peers This past year Sigma Chi has provided the opportunity for all of its brothers, including alumni, to be certified as Ritual Peers. The role of these Peers is to evaluate and educate undergraduate chapters in Ritual education, history and practice. They dedicate at least three years to ensuring that undergraduate brothers know and understand all facets of Ritual. One of our very own, Zack Silber (Class of 2014), became a Ritual Peer after completing his Ritual Renaissance training. Since then Zack has gone around to the chapters at Elon, UNC and NC State, passing along his knowledge and making sure that this important part of our brotherhood is conserved from year to year. Zack has also held a Ritual workshop with our own chapter this semester. The overall Ritual knowledge of the chapter is already quite good but Zack was able to teach brothers even more and show us that there is always something to appreciate and think about when it comes to Ritual. Thanks to Zack’s commitment and passion for Ritual, along with the other Ritual Peers around the country, Sigma Chi has been able to develop a sustainable program for educating undergraduate chapters. We hope that our chapter can continue to develop undergraduate Ritual Peers and encourage alumni to think about becoming one as well. It is a great way to give back to Sigma Chi and one way to immerse yourselves into what this brotherhood has to offer. Chapter Connections With the Internet becoming more and
more a part of the daily lives of many
people, so has the way in which people
stay connected to each other. With that
in mind, we’d like to remind the alumni
about our Facebook and LinkedIn
groups. The Facebook Group is called
‘Beta Lambda Alumni.’ The LinkedIn
group is called ‘Beta Lambda Chapter of
Sigma Chi.’ To join these groups, just
search the group name on their
respective websites and request access to
the group.
If you have any suggestions or feedback
on how we can improve communication
or any aspect of Alumni relations please
let the chapter know.
A Message from the Magisters It’s difficult to characterize what it’s like
being Magister. In some ways, you are
simply a teacher, presenting a set of ideas to
the pledges and encouraging them to
consider those ideas and how they might
apply to life. In other ways, you are a big
brother, always looking out for the pledges,
making sure they are keeping up with all of
their commitments, and helping them to
keep their priorities straight. And yet,
sometimes you must make yourself the
student and learn from the pledges, because
in order to truly understand someone, which
is a key part of being Magister, you have to
first listen to what they have to say.
worthy of initiation into Sigma Chi.
To me, Magister isn’t about just teaching the
pledges about Sigma Chi, or helping them to
get to know each other, or helping them to
get to know the fraternity. It’s about helping
each pledge to look inside himself, to learn
to think about his actions and his
motivations, and to realize just how much he
can affect himself and those around him if
he is just willing to put in the effort.
Watching that process occur as Magister
was an honor, and I will carry the memories
of those months with me my entire life.
In Hoc Signo Vinces,
The role of Magister is one of the most
difficult and rewarding positions in Sigma
Chi without question. For me it was a
constant struggle of logistics, balancing
pledges’ schedules and brothers’ schedules,
and an experiment in human relationships.
As Magisters, Colin and I really tried to
push the pledges to their limit, in order to
show them how much they could
accomplish, how much they could learn
about themselves, each other, and this place,
and what they could do in life if they were
willing to put their hearts into whatever task
was put before them. This meant that
sometimes we pushed a little too hard,
almost to the breaking point. I know that at
one point or another each pledge questioned
his decision to accept his bid to Sigma Chi.
But this was our goal. We wanted them to
question themselves, to question us, and to
question each other. And when we
succeeded in that goal, and the pledges were
honest with themselves, with us, and with
each other, we knew that the pledges were
Zack Silber