Author: inzax01

Brothers,

The 2025 Greek Challenge ends in 11 days. We’re still in 2nd place overall. Updated scoreboard is below. We can still win but WE NEED YOUR HELP. If we move into 1st place in Total Donors and New Donors, we will be the overall winners even if we’re in 2nd place for Total $$ Raised.

The alumni organization is working on getting us to at least 90 total donors and 48 new donors. To get us “over the top”, we need 6 more alumni brothers to join in the next 11 days.

If you haven’t joined the Catamount Club, please consider doing so. Here’s a link https://www.givecampus.com/campaigns/21052/donations/new

ALSO – IF YOU’VE JOINED IN THE LAST YEAR BUT YOUR NAME IS NOT ON THE LIST BELOW, YOU MUST TO CALL GABBY FRANKLIN AT 980-522-4022 TO GET IT STRAIGHTENED OUT. I joined, but when my name wasn’t on the list. Credit for my membership was being given to my daughter who got her masters at Western. I know at least two brothers who are in a similar situation. They joined, but Lambda Chi isn’t getting credit. PLEASE CALL GABBY IF YOUR NAME ISN’T ON THE LIST.

5/5/2025 Aaron B. King

3/28/2025 Benjamin A. Comm

5/6/2025 Brody J. Martin

6/5/2025 Carlon G. Hutchinson

12/6/2024 David L. Dills

3/25/2025 David M. Stephens

1/23/2025 Derron C. Cloud

5/12/2025 Edwin B. Jagger

9/19/2024 Forrest T. Hoppes

4/25/2025 Gary A. Griffin

2/4/2025 Harry D. Satterfield

1/28/2025 James B. McDonald

4/3/2025 James L. Medlin

8/28/2024 James R. Cleaveland

6/4/2025 James T. Miller

3/28/2025 Jason E. Young

11/20/2024 Jason R. Rawald

7/10/2024 Jeffery J. Blanton

5/27/2025 Jeffrey A. Gordon

4/14/2025 Jeffrey S. Nevins

11/4/2024 Jeffrey S. Rush

3/17/2025 John C. Andrews

3/28/2025 John C. McArthur

3/31/2025 John M. Griffin

4/8/2025 Joseph T. Cleary

12/5/2024 Karl H. Giles

12/6/2024 Keith M. Ramsey

5/20/2025 Kurt T. Krueger

5/29/2025 Lawrence G. Arbaugh

3/22/2025 Mark A. Benge

4/30/2025 Mark Ethridge

12/5/2024 Matthew C. Harnad

3/28/2025 Michael D. Jones

5/21/2025 Michael D. Neal

6/3/2025 Michael E. McKinney

3/17/2025 Michael K. Waddell

3/27/2025 Mitchell R. Treadaway

1/22/2025 Patrick C. Anderson

2/26/2025 Patrick R. Watson

4/30/2025 Paul J. Zytnik

12/6/2024 Ralph C. Shelley

3/28/2025 Richard E. Freeman

5/29/2025 Robert H. Neill

5/14/2025 Robert L. Sabin

3/28/2025 Robert S. Williams

4/22/2025 Rodney F. Jessup

12/5/2024 Roland H. Johnson

2/27/2025 Romulus L. Teague

3/28/2025 Ronald B. Sink

12/5/2024 Ryan S. Duckett

11/1/2024 Scott T. Dill

3/26/2025 Stephan W. Miesiaszek

10/30/2024 Ted H. Fowlkes

9/4/2024 Thomas M. Patton

12/6/2024 Timothy E. Gillespie

5/15/2025 Todd W. Cates

8/16/2024 Tony L. Ashley

12/11/2024 Vance A. Cook

5/20/2025 W. W. Hopkins

4/16/2025 William B. Greene

Hello Brothers,

Every year in the Catamount Club Greek Challenge, we lead in total $$ given.

Because of the way the scoring is done we come in second place to the Pikes or KA’s because they sign up more new Catamount Club members from their alumni than we do.

We want to put a stop to that.

Our goal is to have 15 alumni join the Catamount Club by the end of June. We believe that will give us an unbeatable lead. If you haven’t joined in over a year, please consider doing so. You can do it for as little as $100.

We’re looking into ways to incentivize brothers to join. Maybe a free t-shirt to everyone who joins this month or put everyone who joins in a raffle to pay for one persons homecoming golf tournament fees. I’ll do another post with details about that soon.

To prevent the KA or Pikes from doing “last minute” memberships to win, you may want to consider waiting until the end of the month to join. We’re talking to the Catamount Club about to find out more about that & will have more details in the next post.

Here’s where you go to join: https://www.givecampus.com/campaigns/21052/donations/new

Most recent “scoreboard” is below.

Call me with questions. Pat Watson 909-992-9806

Good Evening Brothers!

I hope you are all safe and well.

Joseph D Hooker (Jody), BZ 398, owner of Southern Custom Shutters in High Point is organizing an effort to deliver essential supplies to our neighbors in Western NC who have been impacted by Hurricane Helene.

Jody will be using several of his business vehicles to carry water, food and other essential supplies from the Triad area to the relief agencies with the boots on the ground to deliver it to those who need it most.

If you would like to contribute, the easiest way is to visit BZ-Alumni.com & use any of the payment methods listed under “How do I pay my dues”. Please specify that your contribution is for WNC Relief and we’ll get it to Jody. If you have questions or concerns, please contact Jody at Jdhscs@gmail.com or (336) 905-0266.

ZAX

Hi brothers, for alumni who are on the WCU Alumni Association mailing list, an email went out today about how to RSVP for the post-homecoming parade alumni party in Sylva.

This is the same party that we emailed about earlier where brothers Tim Queen, Mike Gillespie, Tim Gillespie and others will be playing in the band. If you want to donate to the band, you can do so on Venmo at “Wcu HC Jam Band”. Let me know if you need a link.

We wanted to forward the info that was in the Alumni Association email so everyone can RSVP if they want to. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work to copy & paste the link, so here’s what you do:

Go to http://www.wcu.edu

Click on “Alumni” at the top

Scroll down & click on “Homecoming”

Scroll down to Friday, November 1st

The second event listed is the post parade party.

Under the event is a button that says “RSVP Now!”.

This is what it will look like.

It’s $5 to RSVP. The first 500 people get a commemorative cup.

I went ahead & did both… donated to the band & RSVP’d. For $5, why not…

If you’re playing in the alumni golf event / the cocktail party afterward, know that you won’t be able to make it in time for the start of the party in Sylva, but… last year, many of the golfers wives went to the party & the golfers showed up when we were done. It was a blast. I’m definitely going again this year. It says 6pm to 9pm but last year it went a lot later than that.

ZAX,

Pat

Hello fellow Chops,

Tim Queen here!

I’m following up on Pat’s recent email about the Homecoming festivities and I wanted to share some additional details about the awesome new format for this event!

The parade will start around 5:00 p.m., but we need all our Chop fraternity brothers to be in downtown Sylva by 4:30 p.m., ideally at Martha’s Place (formerly the Papermill).

Martha will be serving dinner with limited menu items and, of course, drinks will be available as well.

Additionally, there will likely be a gathering for ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s alumni at Innovation Dillsboro from noon until 4:00 p.m. the same day. It’s always a great time, and I encourage you to attend. This is a big Greek event, so you’ll see lots of old friends and maybe even some independents.

The 25th Anniversary Jam will feature a lot of the Homecoming Musician’s that have played at various WCU HC venues in the past. These talented cats have been jamming over the last 25-30 years.

Stacy Miller (WCU alumni gal who took over from Marty Ramsey) is coordinating many of the invitations, which will go out via email for events at the various Main Street venues. This years HC event is a start on downtown Sylva becoming a huge main street festival including:

Matt Stillwell @ Mad Batter: 6:30 – 9:30 p.m.

Chop Jam @ Martha’s Place: 6:30 p.m. – late

Duo @ Balsam Falls: Time TBD

Acoustic @ Innovation near the end of town: Time TBD

One of the alumni contacts mentioned to Tim Gillespie a couple weeks ago that there wasn’t enough$ in this year’s budget to pay for the typical Homecoming band, The Sophisticats. After discussing with the band members, I decided we would try to raise enough money to bring in a band by having the Chop alumni contribute to the musicians.

Mr. Tad Grattan will be the primary supporter for this event, stepping in to cover any financial shortfall once we determine the amount needed.

The plan is to have a main four-piece rhythm and blues group, providing the rocksteady foundation: bass, drums, and two guitarists, including John Luzzi, who many of you know from previous Homecoming gigs. This group plays regularly at the casino and other venues, so they know a ton of tunes to jam on.

The event will highlight all the jammers from past Homecoming bands, including:

Yours truly on mind melting guitar!

Tim Gillespie on trumpet, harmonica, vocals, and acoustic guitar!

His evil twin brother, Mike Gillespie, on Bass!

Steve Goulas on drums!

My sister, Terri Lynn, on vocals!

Mike Byers (WCU CFO and lifelong best friend) on drums!

Steve Crawford (Sig Ep) on drums!

Isaac (WCU Marching Band member) on drums!

Mike Neal on acoustic guitar (He may not be able to attend, but let’s give him some friendly pressure to join the Jam!)

Come on Nealo you and Pam get up to HC.!

Other performers:

Forrest Todd Hoppes on acoustic guitar!

Pat Anderson and Rick Hill on the pan flute (AKA the Zamfirs)!

Greg Hutchinson, Vic Cope, and Greg Hamer on cowbell and tambourines. (LOL)!

Scott Baker on guitar!

Tommy Dennison on guitar!

My cousin, Marni Queen, on vocals and acoustic guitar!

Along with many others!!!!

Also all donation names will be highlighted on a large banner @ the event.

BTW: if anyone on this link is a musician and wants to Jam at HC please reach out to me @::

tqguitarz@gmail.com.

I will have a rough set list here in a couple of weeks.

Here is the donation link to help pay the band:

https://www.venmo.com/u/wcujam

Me and all of the musicians performing at the gig really appreciate the financial support from the best Lambda Chi Alpha Chapter Ever!!! We are gonna Rock and it’s gonna be EPIC!!!

Naught Without Jamzzz!!!

In Zax,

Tim Queen

BZ: 285….

Rock On!!

Brothers

As of today, we’re at 110% of 2023 in terms of dues.

Chris Sweeney is the 100th alumni brother who has paid dues so far in 2024.

To me, that’s both a good milestone and a challenging one.

It’s good because thanks mainly to the hard work of Cale Johnson we have a lot more alumni engaged today than in the past.

It’s challenging because with around 900 alumni brothers, we’re only reaching around 11%.

Although we’ve expressed our long term goals in terms of having “a place of our own”, the most meaningful goal will always be to re-engage alumni brothers with what for most of us is one of the most important things we’ve ever done and outside of our families are the most important relationships we’ll ever have.

Here’s something to think about… If you know an alumni brother who would benefit from getting re-engaged, please think about reaching out to them…

Here’s a breakdown of dues payments by BZ number so far in 2024:

0-100 6

100-200 6

200-300 19

300-400 20

400-500 18

500-600 18

600-700 4

700-800 3

800-900 6

Good Morning brothers. Cale Johnson posted this to the alumni facebook page a couple of days ago. I thought I would post it here for those who don’t do facebook.

WHAT DO ALUMNI DUES PAY FOR?​​

We got a really good question from an alumni brother a couple of weeks ago. It was such a good question that we thought it was worth sharing.

The question was “Since we’re taking in so much more in alumni dues than we used to, what are they being used for?”

The short answer is that we have short term “annual” expenses and long-term goals.

The annual expenses are things like

• Homecoming (food, soft drinks, ice, paper products, golf reception)

• Alumni Awards (annual scholarship, workhorse award)

• Chapter support

-Chapter support was $4000 in 2023 (improved rush events, new tailgating tent). It will be about the same in 2024 although this year we helped them with General Assembly costs.

-The chapter gets no money from the alumni for social events or things like that.

The long term “vision” we have is for the alumni to buy a piece of property near school where we will eventually build a building that can be used as an “event space”. This could begin as simply as a “shelter” with a fireplace and picnic tables. Eventually, we see it as a single family “home” possibly with a large enclosed space underneath it. The home would be rented as an Airbnb during most of the year (ideally, it would generate enough revenue this way to make it self-supporting). Individual alumni could use it as a place to stay when they visit the area. We would plan to reserve it for the alumni group during events like homecoming. The enclosed space under the home would only be used during these times. The idea is to have a “place of our own” while avoiding the headaches & liabilities many of us remember from the past. As stated, this is a long-term goal and subject to change.

If you have thoughts or ideas relative to any of this, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

The alumni board always welcomes input. We encourage all alumni to get involved in whatever way works best for them.

Also, if you haven’t, please pay your alumni dues. We are getting close to homecoming where we will spend the largest majority of our annual expenses and want to make sure we are in a good position.

Hello Brothers,

The 2024 Lambda Chi General Assembly happened last week in Phoenix. Carson Reeves (BZ High Alpha) and Max Buchannan (BZ High Theta) were there.

Ten chapters from around the country earned awards that were presented at the conference.

The BZ boys from WCU won the “Innovative Chapter” award. The award states:

“This award honors a group that goes beyond the General Fraternity requirements through programming, events, etc., exhibiting innovation and challenge of conventional wisdom.”

Pictures of the award and Carson & Max are below.

This honor was earned through hard work on the part of the BZZ chapter.

Carson and Max being able to be there is a direct result of the generous financial support of our BZ alumni. If you haven’t paid 2024 dues yet, please consider it. As you can see, it’s a worthy cause.

Hello Gentlemen!

While all alumni who pay their dues are heroes to the active brothers who benefit most from them, we have to have special recognition for brother Scott Dill -BZ366 who stepped up yesterday with what I believe is the largest dues payment the chapter has ever received. Scott took us from being 49% ahead of last year to being 66% ahead of last year.

Adding in dues payments today from Larry Ford – BZ 48 and Bill Trull – BZ 40, we’re now 69% ahead of last year. That’s $9710 in dues received so far in 2023.

We have the possibility of going over $10K in dues for the first time in the history of the chapter. I believe someone will put us over that goal before homecoming.

Will it be you?

Dues can be paid in three ways:

1. Venmo link is below
2. You can use our website http://www.bzalumni.com
3. You can mail your payment to:

Lambda Chi BZ Alumni

3402 Windswept Dr.

Summerfield, NC 27358

Thank You!