Poll

[JonoBN41]

I thought I'd start a new thread for comparisons between the Zetas. We already did the Rx question but there are other less sensitive traits we might have in common.

Watermelon Bust seems to be rather pervasive within Lambda Chi Alpha. Do you hold this event at your chapter?

And I have another one: How much importance do you put on "Century Brothers"? (A century brother has the same last one or two digits in his zeta number, ie: my century brothers are BN141, 241, 341, 441, 541, 641).

Jono
BN41

[Tom Earp]

Unfortunatly, We do neither.



Dont really know that much about the Water Melon Fest/Bust and how they function.

[lenoxxx]

The Shippensburg Chapter has always placed a great impotance on 100, 200, 300 , 400 etc, not multiples of 100. like 141,241 etc.

Also

The chapter at Shippensburg doesnt have a watermelon bust/fest, nor does it seem to have long standing traditions of that type. We have have had an alumni golf game for 17 years straight (still going), an adopt a highway for 11 years, a volunteer book move with a local church for about 13 years all come to mind.

However, Shippensburg's Greek community (along with many Pa State Schools) went from being fairly consistent from the 1950's to 1980's to becoming totally unglued since the mid 1990's

All the housing at our school has changed hands, Delta Zeta Sorority has had one house the longest (1999-present) to give you an idea of how in-consistent it is. When I was a freshman in 1993 you knew

Sigma Tau Gamma- Beach Party
Kappa Sigma- Graffiti Party
TKE- Cisco and Disco
Sigma Pi- Jello Wrestling
Phi Sigma Kappa- spring fling and fall ball concerts at their house/farm

TKE and KS have been closed / recolonized and have none of the same houses, PSK and Sig Pi are just gone and their houses are gone now and one is demolished and one is apartments now. Sig Tau has lost any housing it had and have been on and off campus about 4 times since then.

Lenoxxx

[Ryan400z]

At our chapter at UT- Knoxville, we take both of these things very seriously. Watermelon Bust is one of the biggest events at our school next to Derby Days and SAE'S boxing Tournament. We raised $6,000 for St. Jude's Childrens Research Hospital in Memphis through the following: sponsors, vaccuming sorority dorms, selling t-shirts, fundraising during football games. It is a two month process from a few weeks before schools starts to the first week in October. A lot of aspects go into ,WB such as: getting the watermelons, having soliciation forms to do all the charity work and the actual events, digging the pit, getting sorority registration fees, and many other things. Overall, it is a blast, we had 500 girls show up for the event and Delta Delta Delta won with KD coming in second, both sorority's take it extremely seriously, they brought their whole chapters.
In return we cut them a check for $150.00 to their philanthropy, give them a plaque and a riverboat mixer in the spring.

As far as century brothers, the person that is 100 EO'S {Epsilon Omicron Zeta} higher than yours, takes you out for a steak dinner at the Tennessee Grill, a very nice restaurant in Knoxville, the owner is a Lambda Chi Alpha and he always takes care of us. This is about to happen for me after next spring, so I am really looking forward to this.

[JoinerLxa]

Georgetown's LX's have been doing WM bust every year
since 1984 I think. I'ts a major annual event on campus.
Independent girls dorms participate along with sororities
(until a few years ago, we only had 3 sororities....4 now).

In the 80's a big part of the tradition was the "opening ceremony"
...find some "WOW" way to bust the first WM. One year, a
sky diver jumped out of a plane with a WM and threw it on
the ground as he was about to land. Another year we got a
ladder truck from the fire department...fireman carried WM to
top of extended ladder and threw it. Eventually ran out
of good ideas, so there's no "opening ceremony" now I think.

Vanderbilt started doing WM bust while still a colony in the
early 90's and it continues today. They had to change the
name to "WM Fest" since "WM Bust" was not politically
correct (especially the "Watermelon Bust Queen!")

As far as I know, neither chapter does anything with "Century
Brothers"...Vanderbilt hasn't had many centuries anyway...
since they rechartered only 11 years ago (chapter closed
since the 1930's)

[EM1843]

We now do both things. WB is just getting started here. We had one last year as a pumpkin bust, due to our schedualed date. This year we actually had a watermellon bust. We had 12 Sororities there and it was a great time.
We also have "centuries" and I look forward to getting my first next semeser, and then introducing him to 843...

EM1843

[Tom Earp]

Maybe the Big Brothers as jono was talking about could keep some Alums more interested.

LXZ never did that and over the years, I would have had a lot of Brothers who became 11, 21, 31-----601 etc.

The concept of keeping Alums from different generations is very interesting in contact say through email notes etc. This should work hand in hand with the Associate Classes who became close.

It is still the idea of keeping Alums interested in the Active Chapter and LX along with Your Brothers!.

I like.

Good Up Bro JONO!


CAN anyone give me an Idea and scheadual of Watermelon Bust/Fest events?

[JoinerLxa]

WM Bust schedule:

It's usually something like a "field day" in high school. Its
a competition, always involving watermelons, between
the sororities.

A LXA brother is assigned to each sorority (or independent
team) as a coach. They do all sorts of watermelon sports
(relay, toss, roll, tug-o-war while holding watermelons, etc. etc).

Some chapters make it into a whole week. House decorating
(sororities again), 5k race, friday night dance, etc. A great
way to get the sorority girls to "smooze" all over the LX's

There's usually some philanthropy involved. Bring canned
goods to get into the WMB Party. Or a common one: the
WMB Queen. Each soror has a candidate. Collection jars set
up in some common area on campus for the week. The
candidate who gets the most money donated to their jar
is the Watermelon Queen!

The Queen was a great fundraiser at
Gtown when I was active. Every year, just as "voting/
donating" was about to end, the Sigma Kappa's and
Kappa Deltas sent someone with a checkbook...both
with instructions to write a bigger check than the other!
Of course to be "fair", we couldn't tell either how much
they needed to win...they'd both just have to write the
fattest check they could! Blatant bribery! All for the
charity, of course! It was a hoot!

Pretty simple idea.....just gotta find someone with a
couple of hundred watermelons, usually well after the
growing season is over (if in the fall), or before it begins
if in the spring.....can get pricey! Oh, and a BIG MESS
when its over.

Did I mention the "never scheduled but
always happens" watermelon fight? Kinda like a pillow
fight, or maybe a water ballon fight, just with chunks of
busted watermelon.

[JonoBN41]

Haha.

Joiner I gotta love that one. Who knew you were such a wild man?!!! It's almost as if we were...

...separated at birth.

There was one particular WM that made its way (apres bust) back with us to the 7th floor. (No one else is reading this right?) Right. Well there was this non-LCA from the North Side of the building and the two of us wondered...

To make a long story short, I opened the window and he tossed it out. Thank God no one was injured. Can't say the same for the '65 Mustang parked below, though. The chunks. They went over the hood, up the windshield, over the roof, and stopped on the trunk. Ground Zero was right over the left headlight.

We owned up to it and paid the damages.

I have to say it was worth it.

ZAX,
Jono

[jonsagara]

We used to do Watermelon bust back in the day, but I don't know if the actives still do it or not.

Regarding century bros, our Web site makes it painless. Click on a number, 0-99, and a Web page lists all of the centuries for that number.

[JonoBN41]

Yeah, JB, our webmaster set ours up in a similar way, using an asterisk. Entering *41 will instantly display all the forty-ones.

Cool....

[JonoBN41]

Sometimes brothers (younger ones) sign e-mails with only IZ, instead of Yours In ZAX, or even In ZAX. Do you think this is okay?

In ZAX,
Jono

[docroc67]

Brother Jono,

As is most often the case, you ask a great question! My first reaction was that it must be "Yours in ZAX" to be correct. Afterall that was the way I was taught it should be written and that is the way I almost always write it. However, I realized that we don't call ourselves "Lambda Chi Alphans." Usually it is Lambda Chis even if this designation does not fully embody the meaning of our Brotherhood; others may say "Choppers" or "Lamb Chops" but we don't. Those nicknames are disrespectful and have been know to cause "problems" with others!

When you look at the English translation of ZAX, it does continue to make sense in an abbreviated form like "IZ." I suppose someone could use "IX" and it would still make sense in translation. Even so, I'll be a traditionalist and say that for me it is 'Yours in ZAX" at all times.

Yours in ZAX,

Mike Raymond, ZUZ

[JoinerLxa]

It seems all of society, including the fraternity, is plagued
by acronymns and abbreviations today. A couple of years
ago I moved back to the hometown of my alma-mater and
started attending chapter meeings.

Announcements and discussons were made about "BB1 meeting
at 7, XYZA this, ABCD that."...I thought I was in the wrong
fraternity house....I had no clue what the heck they were
talking about.

Eventually I learned the "new lingo" so I guess I can claim
to be a "Lamb" again (that's our nickname here).

That's life as we know it!

Yours in Zeta Alpha Chi,

Kevin Joiner

[JonoBN41]

others may say "Choppers" or "Lamb Chops" but we don't. Those nicknames are disrespectful and have been know to cause "problems" with others!

Actually I think "choppers" is neat, (as well as "Chop House"). In fact we're in the process of setting up an online store to sell Lambda Chi items to benefit the alumni association. The name?

The Chopper Image

Kevin, I agree about the new terminology. We never said things like Kappa, Zeta, and ZAX. We had them, just didn't call them that.

In ZAX,
Jono