Beta Houses.....

ZZ-kai- · #1 08-17-2001, 11:34 PM

I am an Oskosh Beta Alumni, and I am curious to know as to how many of you have taken road trips to other Beta Houses? I know that our Chapter usually does one or two trips a year, usually to Beta Pi in Minnesota or to a house in Illinois or Iowa.

Lets get some good road trip stories on here!

For instance, I have been to Iowa State for VEISHA Days, all on video....need I say more???? I have also road tripped to Denver and back, hitting the Denver, CO. School of Mines, Nebraska and Iowa State houses...all in one week. (Thanks for letting us crash guys!)

I have seen a total of 16 houses, mainly in awe of them all. Our chapter house sleeps six (we are only 6 years chartered, so our time is coming!!!!)

Let all the other Betas out in the 'infonet world' know what houses you have visited!

Yours in _kai_,

ZZ-kai-

Miami1839 · #2 08-18-2001, 08:27 PM

Hey ZZ,

Got your last email. As you know I am a George Mason Beta Alumni. When I was in school I went on a few road trips. Your list is quite impressive I must say. I went on a road trip to Virginia Tech(Alpha Phi Chapter). They had a Betastock party out in some field around Tech. It was supposed to be an all day party. It was loads of fun, three bands and there must of been hundreds of VT Greeks there. Though the party was cut short and all 500 of us had to pound our beers at the same time. Quite a sight I must say. Then later we got on the Beta Bus, shuttled over to the best burgers in town at Arnolds, and then went to a Theta Chi party. One fall semester I went with 3 other brothers to U of I. in Champaigne. One of my brothers is from that area and we stayed there for three nights during a fall break. I was quite impressed with the greek system there and the Beta House. They had a block party one of the nights with two other fraternities and three other sororities. Something I had never experience outside of our Beach Week(George Mason Greeks have one at Myrtle Beach, SC.). I remember we went to two other bars that night but the names I cant remember.

On our drive back to Virginia we stayed at the Ohio State house and a Beta named Doug took us out on the town. He was very hospitable and we got to go to a place that had 5 cent pitchers and 1 dollar shooters. We crashed in the house that night and they were very cool about it. So, Virginia Tech, U of I. and Ohio State. You boys rock!

Other Trips I've been on are U of Maryland our founding chapter. They have a nice house on the row at College Park and I went to a party of theres were they showed me a great time

Last fall I visited SIU and a Beta named Andy showed me around campus there and the Beta House. They have a sweet house there too and I noticed that they have a sweet Sisson Award. My chapter never had a house and we just used one of the houses we lived in off campus as Beta House. It was definitely an awesome feeling to visit other chapters that had houses.

Yours in __KAI__
Kevin Mullinix
Epsilon Mu #106
George Mason

Dragon92 · #3 08-18-2001, 09:08 PM

I've taken a few visits to other chapters. This year me and a few brothers are gonna visit about 10 other houses. Some close, some far, if anyone likes company or wants to come visit feel free to drop me a line. I don't know how far I plan on traveling, but within 6 hours I would for sure go, no question about it.

------------------
Jonez #92
Beta Theta Pi
SIUC

Miami1839 · #4 08-18-2001, 09:39 PM

Hey Jonez,

I'm up for it sometime.

Kevin
EM #106
George Mason

Betarulz! · #5 08-19-2001, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ZZ-kai-:

Nebraska (One of Betas best chapters!)

Hey ZZ, I'm going to be a pledge at Alpha Tau chapter this fall at Nebraska (I move in Thursday) and it definetly makes me proud to join that chapter when I hear things like that from other Betas. Hell, I haven't even done anything but sign and I'm already proud to be a pledge in Beta.

About houses, I know that I'll eventually see the chapters at KU and K-State (I've got lots of friends going both place but no one pledging beta

--their loss) and of course where ever my pledge class has our sneek to.

------------------
Geoff Mickells
Beta Theta Pi
Alpha Tau chapter
University of Nebraska

ZZ-kai- · #6 08-19-2001, 10:52 PM

Hey Beta Pledge,

Do whatever it takes to get your buddies to at least rush Beta at KU or K-State, they can make the choice from there...but it should be pretty simple, if you know what I mean???!! They are top doggs at those schools! Nebraska is too and they have the greatest house. As a matter of fact, its probably the nicest I have seen and one of Betas finest. Kind of a three way tie with Purdue and Auburn, but Nebraska is definately the cleanest!!!

Yours in _kai_, (someday my friend, you'll know what that means!

ZZ-kai-

ZZ-kai- · #7 08-20-2001, 12:59 AM

I have been to the following houses, and each time I was at them, I was treated awesome. Must be a Beta thing, because I know other fraternities don't go chapter to chapter.

Lawrence
Madison
U. of Illinois
Miami, OH (Alpha)
Middle Tenn. State (Old house, not their new castle!!)
Auburn (You have to see this house, they are the big doggs!)
Iowa
Iowa State
Denver
Co. School of Mines
Arizona (These guys treated me like a king)
Minnesota (These guys can sing)
Northwestern (We helped them re-charter)
Purdue (Sweet house)
Nebraska (One of Betas best chapters!)

One of our founders here at ZZ has seen over 40 houses (so I have a long way to go to catch him)...he was an Army guy, so where ever he went, he took his pledge manual along and went to the Beta houses. He is now our district chief!!

I am always up for a road trip, just let me know if you guys are ever up in WI, be sure to stop at ZZ in Oshkosh. Its not much to look at, but the chapter is awesome. About 50 guys, everyone has great Beta spirit. We are almost to our fundraising goal, so hopefully in a year or two, we will have a real 'fraternity house'.

Everytime I go somewhere on a trip, I make it a point to hit a Beta house. Now, I just have to go east.....

PS, Jonez, Southern IL, right? If so, just go to Indiana and Ohio for one weekend; you can see about 15 houses!

Yours in _kai_,

Wooglin4Ever · #8 08-26-2001, 08:47 PM

Where is George Mason? Jonez and I plan on hitting quite a few house this semeser. I want to see some of you guys in Southern Illinois. It's a great time, I promise.

Casey, I think I remember you a few years back from AOL IM. I used to be SIUKY, I'm not for sure though.

For anyone that cares I am now WoogieKY on AOL IM.

Miami1839 · #9 08-26-2001, 09:48 PM

Wooglin,

George Mason is about 25 minutes southwest of Washington DC. Its in a suburb of Northern Virginia called Fairfax. Its mostly a commuter school but theres a pretty big greek community there. We dont have any greek houses and all the greeks have their own residential houses off campus that they unofficially claim as their fraternity or sorority house. We were on campus for about 10 years. We won All Sports for IFC for most time we were on campus and I think we did win the Sisson a few times. But I could be wrong. We were definitely in the top three on campus and we were particularly strong considering our numbers.(we were a small chapter) We were very selective and most of the guys we picked were pretty well rounded and mostly were athletes. I played rugby myself. We had problems with some of our brothers paying dues/showing up to meetings and also with rush. Rush I would say was our biggest problem and that we had a lot of guys graduating at the same time. I dont really understand to this day how it could have fallen apart. But It did. It always seemed like only the officers did any of the work.(With the exception of a few other guys). We had two LCs come out on different semesters to give advice but It really didnt seem to help. Well at any rate hopefully we'll come back to George Mason some day. Mason is definitely missing out on us.

I'll have to make a poing of coming out to see you guys. I've been busy with this job I started a few months ago. But when I have the leave I will let you guys know.

My AOL IM is NI4F. I'm usually on after 7pm.

-Kai-

Kevin
Epsilon Mu #106
George Mason '97

ZZ-kai- · #10 08-27-2001, 08:24 AM

Yep, I do remember you from AOL IM a while back. Now that I am fulltime at work, and part-time back at school since graduating the first time, I really don't have much time to BS on AOL anymore.

-kai-

ZZ-kai-

Betarulz! · #11 11-12-2001, 06:50 PM

Hey last weekend I visited the house at Kansas. It is absolutely huge, and incredibly impressive. They have some very giving alumni. The old part of there house was originally owned by the Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln (i think that's right) and so the old part of the house is very historical. The guys there were really nice, although I know that I wouldn't have pledged Beta at KU if I had gone there, they are just different than us at Alpha Tau--most notably in the drinking in the house, and they have a rule that doesn't allow girls above teh first floor.

My pledge class is also going on sneak to K-state on Dec 1st. So I'll let you guys know how there house is. I'm really excited to go b/c three guys from my HS are pledges there and a fourth I met through an activity my Senior Year. Plus I have a bunch of friends that are at K-state that I'll get to see. Should be a blast.

ZZ-kai- · #12 11-13-2001, 10:33 AM

BetaRulz!,

You are very fortunate to belong to the Alpha Tau Chapter. Not only are they one of Betas best, but your location is by far one of the best in the nation. You have driving access to all the Kansas Chapters, Oklahoma Chapters and Missouri.

When you visit the other houses, try to soak up as much knowledge of Beta as you can, and pay attention to how they run their chapter and bring those ideas home with you. Not only can you learn new things from better ideas, you can also learn from the mistakes that they made and not run into the same problem back at AT.

Good luck, have fun in Kansas. I wish I could be seeing those houses.

Miami1839 · #13 11-13-2001, 09:01 PM

Betarulz

Nice on Kansas State

I enjoyed reading your experience. I never went there but I share in ZZ's jealousy. The farthest west I've visited would be the U of I. and SIU houses.

Betarulz! · #14 12-04-2001, 02:54 PM

Well sneak has come and gone, and it was great time, although the overall feeling among the guys who went was that it could ahve been much better. The K-state house was really pretty nice and our chapters are really very, very, very similar in terms of the types of guys in the house. Although it was obvious to me how Alpha Tau's reorganization a couple of years ago is still having an effect on our reputation today. The K-state Betas were getting some very hot ladies, while I think we are still in process of building our social reputation still.

Anyway, a lot of guys were dissappointed b/c there was a lack of parties during the weekend. Friday wasn't as bad b/c we drank on the bus ride down, but there was only a sausage fest that night at one of their live-outs house. But I had a great time hanging out with my best friend from HS (a GDI right now--he might go DU for some reason next fall), and another guy who we ski with a lot.

Saturday however wasn't the best, I couldn't get a hold of any of the people that I know (I'm from Kansas City so I know tons of people at K-state). The Gamma Epislon's had a rush event that afternoon, so the Alpha Taus just watched football (man if only VA Tech would have won

) That night K-states' pledge class had what we at AT would call a frosh (where the freshmen of a frat and sorority go do some activity - bowling, or the like - and then go party, we usually have ours on thursdays), but apperntly the KSU greek system doesn't have those normally. Any way they took the Pi Beta Phis to Kansas City for ice skating and shopping at the world famous Country Club Plaza and then partying at someone's house. So there were very few GE's around on saturday. Needless to say the AT's were an unhappy crew as we sat around and watched Colorado and Texas play and played pitch. A lot of people were upset that our hosts werent' more accomodating.

I got begged to go to KC by the four pledges I already knew, and by a 5th who we realized we had gone to HS soccer camp for three years. Also, one of the Pi Phi freshmen really wante me to go. Needless to say, I wasn't going to ditch my pledge bros, plus there would have been a lot of risk associated with my travel, and I could have ended up not making it back to UNL.

Still I had a good time, and brotherhood did rise a bit which is never a bad thing.

chscrew144 · #15 04-23-2002, 04:24 AM

I think a fun job would be travel and get paid for it or something like that. One day I would like to do what my uncle did and travel across Canada but i would also like to travel across the United States if I could, visiting friends and the like, much like what you do when you visit houses.

I'm in awe of some of the road trips the frats do here and rtheir ability to network and meet people. Other than the odd fellow HS alum or fellow member of a sporting fraternity (wrestling or rowing) I don't have that ability. Well, in any case, I enjoy reading the experiences you guys have.

Go on Kairos. Live the Fourth.