Author: inzax01

Good Morning brothers!

The next brother who pays their 2023 dues will put us at the milestone of being 50% ahead of last year in dues collections.

Will it be you?

Hello Gentlemen,

Below is an important email from El Presidente of the Alumni Board – Cale Johnson. Please check it out. Your responses will help us make sure this year’s homecoming is one that won’t soon be forgotten.

Good morning Brothers!

We are less than 5 weeks away from the greatest homecoming extravaganza in the history of WCU! With that in mind please read this thoroughly as we are in the final stages of planning around food, budget, swag, etc!

We have the first annual Lambda Chi Alpha memorial golf outing scheduled for Friday, 10/27 at Smoky Mountain Country Club in Whittier, NC. The cost is approximately $50 and will be a fun captain’s choice golf event to honor those brothers we’ve lost along the way. If anyone would like to “sponsor” a hole with a “In Loving Memory of” sign, please let me know. We already have our first in memory of brother Kevin Williams sponsored by Adam & Kristine Newsom!

I have received confirmation that the following individuals are signed up for golf:

Mike Gillespie

Alan Howard

Gary Deese

Chip Fisher

Pat Watson

Matt Harnad

Gibbs Jones

Philip Preston

Cale Johnson

Matthew Patrick Reilly

Brandon Lail

Travis Stutts

Roddy Duckett

Kevin Westmoreland

Brandon McClure

Greg Lance

Shane Bishop

Matthew Boehlke

Troy Baker

Steve Knight

Adam Newsom

Reid Johnson

Carson Reeves

Cameron Martin

Ryan Whitley

Reilly Whitt

Ryan Piercy

Jack Dube

Ryan Thomas

Logan Balis

Max Buchanan

Gabe Rentz

Spencer Gilbert

Jacob Shea

Layne Coward

Player to be named later

Player to be named later

If I have left anyone off of the list, please let me know as soon as possible by commenting below or texting me at (919)607-9622.

We are also having a cocktail reception for brothers and their dates immediately following golf at Smoky Mountain Country Club with heavy hors d’oeuvres provided by the alumni association and a cash bar. Designated drivers will be provided for this event.

Please let me know if you plan to attend the cocktail reception and if you will have a date so we can get the final menu planned by 10/7.

Last but not least, is tailgating! Please let me know if you/date will be coming to tailgating at the alumni tent at Camp Lab parking area between 11:00 and 2:00. We are working on a menu and hope to be able to provide a wonderful atmosphere to spend time with our brothers. Designated drivers will be available for this event as well.

This is sure to be an incredible weekend that won’t soon be forgotten. Please confirm which events you will be attending and if you will have a date so we can ensure we have enough food. I would like final counts by 10/7, but earlier if at all possible.

Yours in ZAX,

Cale

BZ564

Good Morning Boys!

You can now pay dues using Venmo. Our info is LCA BZ Alumni (bzalumni). You can also simply use your phone to scan the QR code below. Doesn’t get much easier than that! Let me know if you have any issues or if there are any questions.

In ZAX,

Pat Watson BZ410

909-992-9806

How about sharing your best golf pix as we prepare for the Homecoming Golf Outing.

This is BZ 345 Jeff Gordon, BZ 285 Tim Queen, BZ 377 Mohammad Jugdish (Steve Goulas) and BZ 399 Gibbs Jones. (Honorable mention to the guy in the middle who is the bassist in Tim’s band.)

Good morning Brothers!

It’s the time of year to think about how awesome it would be to reunite with brothers you may not have seen in a decade or two. Why not do it October 27-28 in Cullowhee? It’s WCU Homecoming. Catamount Football is looking strong this year!

We have a golf outing scheduled for 1:OOpm on Friday 10/27 followed by a cocktail reception at Smoky Mountain Country Club. Bring your own team or sign up as an individual. The cost is @ $50. If you would like to play, please call or text Reid Johnson at (919) 749-7656.

On 10/28 we will have tailgating shenanigans at the Camp Lab parking lot with food, drinks, and fellowship. We will be doing frequent Facebook and Blog posts until Homecoming to remind everyone. Please help spread the word. A more detailed schedule will be posted as we get closer.

Who’s planning to attend?

Hi All,

Yesterday, we had our second zoom call about planning for Homecoming.

On the call were: Cale Johnson – Alumni Board President, Jacob Shea – Chapter President, Ryan Piercy – Chapter Vice President, Reid Johnson – Alumni Chairman, Patrick Creech – Rush Chairman, Ryan Thomas – “SWAG Chairman” and myself.

I took notes so I thought I would share them.

HOMECOMING COCKTAIL PARTY

1. On the last call, we were hopeful that we’d be able to have the Friday night cocktail party at the same golf course (Smoky Mountain) as the golf event is currently planned for.  Smoky Mountain has told us they’re not open to hosting a fraternity event.  Cale has taken on the job of trying to find a place to have the event.  Ideas put forth were:
   1. Try again with Smoky Mountain
   2. Try other golf courses in the area
   3. Try to find a local hotel with an open conference / banquet room – looking as far away as Cherokee
   4. We may be able to access a private piece of land near the Tuckaseegee river.  If so, an idea was put forth to put a large “event tent” on it.
   5. For anyone who is concerned about making their venue available to a fraternity, we proposed offering them a substantial (but fully refundable) security deposit.

HOMECOMING TENT FOR THE ACTIVES

2. The actives asked if the alumni would consider paying for a new tent for them to use for rush events, homecoming etc.  Their current tent is 10×10.  This used to be the “standard” size used by most fraternities, but that has migrated to 10×20.  The Pikes, Sig Eps and most others have 10×20 making ours conspicuously small. Prices will be as follows:
   1. 10×15 – $1000
   2. 10×20 – $1300

DUES INCENTIVES AT HOMECOMING

3. We discussed the idea of giving out some kind of swag as an incentive for people who are at homecoming & have not paid their dues yet to do so.  Ideas were: coozies, shot glasses, beer mugs etc.
4. Reid Johnson will get prices on a variety of items for us to consider

RUSH

5. Rush will take place between August 31^st and September 6^th.  This is unusual because it runs from a Thursday through the following Wednesday with bids going out on Friday the 8^th; making what is normally a 6 day “rush week” effectively 9 days long.  The weekend in the middle of rush week is Labor Day so many freshmen rushees will be going home that weekend.  All of this boils down to a more challenging than normal environment in which to get and keep the attention of rushees.
   1. The actives are looking for ideas for events to hold over the Labor Day weekend for rushees who don’t go home.  Because rush week will be so much longer than normal, the event(s) need to be economical.
   2. A river tubing event was proposed
   3. A “day at lake Glenville” event was proposed
      1. Ryan Piercy is going to check with the school to make sure there are no prohibitions on this kind of event.
      2. He is also going to check with Blake Greene to make sure LCA nationals doesn’t have any prohibitions on this kind of event.
   4. Relative to this, we discussed the alumni making a commitment to sponsor one rush event each semester (approximately $1300/semester)

CHAPTER ADVISOR

6. We discussed the urgent need to find a chapter advisor. 
7. Logan Fender was suggested. 
8. He graduated in December of 2022. 
9. Everyone seems to think he would be a good fit. 
10. He lives in Charlotte and is a project manager for a construction company.
11. Ryan Piercy is living with Logan this summer.  He will discuss this with Logan.
12. Cale is checking with the outgoing advisor; Joe SK to get his thoughts.

BUDGET

This afternoon as I prepared to write this, I started doing the math on all of the proposed spending for the year.  A summary is below:

BZZ Alumni 2023 budget forecast
Homecoming	$1,700.00	Same as we spent in 2022 – food, drinks, awards, alumni scholarship, etc *includes $350 we paid for DJ & food for cocktail party at LCA house
Homecoming “Swag”	$500.00	*SWAG estimate
Rush Events	$2,600.00	$1300 per semester
Undergrad Tent	$1,300.00	*firm estimate
Homecoming Cocktail Party Location	???
TOTAL	$6,100.00	*total amount taken in during 2022 was $5760.  I think we’re on track to do about the same this year

I point this out because I think we need to decide as a group about how we handle our budget.  If we have no plans of saving toward being able to afford some of the things we’ve talked about like owning our own “event space” at some time in the future, then setting our spending equal to our income (or dipping into our “savings” as/when appropriate) is no problem.  If we do want to “save for the future”, then I think we should set a goal for how much we want to save every year & both budget and fund-raise accordingly.

In ZAX,

Pat

BZ410

Hello Brothers!

Spring Rush was last week in the Whee. By all accounts, it was a very successful rush for BZZ. Our boys picked up 5 quality men.

Welcome to a tradition begun by BZ#1 Wilson Boyd III that has impacted the lives of nearly 900 men over the past 53 years.

From left to right: Andrew Ammons, Peyton Thompson, Max Buchanan, Ryan Thomas and Cole Taylor!

Our actives put on a heck of a week of events, led by the Rush Chairman, BZ 854 Patrick Creech. The rush poster is below.

Thanks to the generosity of our alumni paying their annual alumni dues, we were able to sponsor the Friday night event which was snow tubing at Cataloochee. The boys said it was the best event any of them had been to and it definitely added to their success. A couple of photos from the week are below.

Hi Everyone,

We’ve been fortunate to have brothers step up & take ownership of calling alumni in every geographic area except the following.

Greensboro NC area – I live here so I’ll work on it but with 92 calls to make, I’m hoping for some help

Eastern South Carolina (15 calls)

Western South Carolina (17 calls)

Midwestern US (13 calls)

Southeastern US (12 calls)

Western US (15 calls)

If you can help with this, please let me know. (pwatson@mshome.co or 909-992-9806) or reply to this post. You don’t have to live in an area to call people there.

ALSO – THE TWO QUESTIONS WE GET MOST OFTEN ARE:

1. How much are alumni dues? – ANSWER $50/year.
2. How do you pay alumni dues? – ANSWER go to the website http://www.bzalumni.com & click on the “Pay Dues” button at the top, right corner. Enter the amount you want to pay, select PayPal or debit/credit card & fill out the info.

Thanks!

Hi Guys,

As you’ve noticed, we’ve put a lot of focus into getting our contact list updated over the last few months; primarily using the website. The next phase is to start calling guys who haven’t updated their info yet.

We’re looking for alumni in each area to take ownership of calling the “missing” brothers in their area. Our goal is to have all calls made by the end of March.

The list below is organized by area. The numbers are the number of alumni in the area that have updated their info / the total number of alumni in the area.

Please take a look & let us know ASAP if you want to take on an area. We’ve had some guys volunteer already, but we still thought we would open it up to everyone.

North Florida 5/23

South Florida 6/29

Georgia 15/46 (maybe 2 guys here)

Military 1/3

Charlotte 36/167 (probably need 2 or 3 guys here)

Eastern NC 4/24

Greensboro 16/108 (probably need 2 or 3 guys here)

Raleigh 16/46

Western NC 40/196 (probably need at least 3 guys here)

Eastern SC 6/21

Western SC 4/21

Midwest US 3/16

Northeast US 2/13

Southeast US 1/13

Western US 6/21

Virginia/Maryland/DC 3/23

There are obvious reasons why we’re doing this, but there are also some less obvious reasons that relate to one of our “big initiatives” for 2023.

We’re hoping to use our alumni contacts to try to help the undergrads find internships when they’re under-classmen and even possibly jobs when they graduate. The math is simple. The more contacts we have, the greater chance we have of being able to help.

All of the actives are filling out “profile forms” now. The forms will allow the alumni to bettter understand who the actives are, what their majors & interests are and what kind of internships/jobs they’re hoping to find.

We’ll start sharing the profile forms through blog posts very soon.

We have two alumni brothers who have recruiting experience (Matt Harnad BZ 396 and Chris Jackson BZ 445) who will be reviewing the profile forms to make suggestions for improvement, conduting “mock interviews” and meeting with the undergrads individually both via zoom and on campus for coaching sessions on how to interview, how to present yourself in a professional environment etc.

We have no illusions that we’ll be able to find something for every active. If we can help even one of them for the Summer of 2023, that will be a “win” & we’ll shoot for more for the next year.

If anyone has ideas for how to improve this effort or to increase our chances of helping one of the undergrads, please let me know. We’re figuring it out as we go.

Until we have someone to manage this specific effort, you can e-mail me at pwatson@mshome.co or call me at 909-992-9806 with thoughts / questions.

The #1 goal for all our effort is to give our alumni the opportunity to be who we say we are – “The Fraternity of Honest Friendship” and “Brotherhood for Life”.

As we started working on updating the contacts list, it became clear that a lot of brothers really only know the guys that were in school around the same time they were. There are exceptions but mainly that’s the case.

We want to change that so we’re going to start doing a monthly “Meet your brother” blog post. Every month, we’ll focus on a brother from a different “era”. If you want to nominate someone, please reach out to Josh Duckett. He’s El Presidente of the alumni board & should be easy to find.

The first one is about Davin Brown. Davin was recently written up in his hometown newspaper; “The Clemmons Courier”. That article is below. The picture above is Davin, his wife Meg and their dog Otis.

By Mandy Haggerson
For the Clemmons Courier

Davin Brown grew up in Mocksville as the middle child of three siblings. One of the special components of the Brown family is that they not only played together but they worked together. “Probably as early as 12 years old I worked at my grandfather’s store, Hendrick’s Furniture. At first it was just lawn care, but I remember being around him and my father, and learning about the business early on,” Brown said. “Later when I was in high school, I worked in the warehouse more, and continued gaining valuable knowledge.”

The close-knit family experienced a tremendous loss when Brown was in high school. “My brother was killed in a car accident in high school,” Brown said.
Mourning the loss of his brother also affirmed Brown wanting to eventually come back home and work in the family business after college. Brown decided to go close to home and attended Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.
“I had been told since I was kid that I would take over my grandfather’s business so earning a degree in business management seemed like a logical step,” Brown said.

After four years at Western, Brown headed back home to start working at Hendrick’s Furniture. “Within the first year, my grandfather sold the business to my uncle who owned Boyles Furniture and Rugs. Although I had thought I would take it over, at that time I wasn’t quite at the phase of life where running my own furniture business made sense,” Brown said. “So, I went to work for my uncle at Boyles after that for the next 12 years.”

After Brown moved back home, he had also reconnected with his future wife, Megan, when he was 25 years old. “We had known each other and ran back into each other,” Brown said.
Sharing a passion for the furniture industry, Megan with interior design, and Brown for the business side of it, made their connection and interests very similar.
“In 2005 we started talking about opening our own store. We had identified a lot of brands that weren’t being carried in stores and thought we could do well with younger customers. We wanted to provide a better value than Pottery Barn that also provided local service. Boyles had started to go out of business slowly, and we decided to make the leap of faith,” Brown said. In 2005, Meg Brown Home Furnishings began.
“We had made other big changes in our life at that time too. Not too long after the store opening, Megan found out she was pregnant again. Andrew (18) was 2 at that time, and we were going to be expecting Adam (16). “It cut down on her time in the store, but we still collaborated on it,” Brown said.

“Being a parent is a lot like the furniture business. You learn as you go,” Brown said with a laugh. Now the father of a college-aged child, and owner of a store that spans over 15,000 square feet, Brown appreciates the support of the community. “We’ve been fortunate to have great customers and support from our community. That means a lot to us. We’ve tried to really listen and identify the needs of our customers which is why we have opened the sleep shop and the outlet to provide a variety of choices.
“We also have experienced designers that can help people make their choices and customize selections based on their needs.”
Another element to their store is that they support and offer a wide variety of North Carolina based vendors.

“My grandfather always told me that hard work pays off,” Brown said. “I am grateful that the lessons I learned from my grandfather, father and uncle helped us find a way to raise our own family in a community that has given us so much.”