Omaha Alumni Dinner

[BigRedBeta]

Thought I'd give a brief rundown of what happened last Saturday night.

Great turnout, about 160 people were present.

Our past two chapter counselors were given the Distinguished Service Awards. Very special, lots of nice things that deserved to be said about about these two guys.

For the most part it was a celebration of Alpha Tau. Many of the speeches by the GF officers were (I thought) a little too prone to hyperbole in singing the chapter's praises, but it's certainly is appropriate to note Nebraska's role in the Men of Principle Initiative. I found out during the night that a lot of the initial ideas and implementation concepts of the MOPI came from materials put together by the group of alums that lead the reorganization of AT in the mid 90's.

Most completely bizarre, over the top statement of the night basically said that the reorganization of Beta at Nebraska might be a defining moment in not just the history of Beta but also the entire Greek World...I certainly don't agree. Change in the course of Beta and the rest of the Fraternities and Sororities were inevitable, and would have happened about that same time regardless.

Overall good night, good company. The food wasn't worth the $55 a plate (and no open bar) that they charged.

The night cap featured about 12 alums from the 2003, 2004 and 2005 graduating classes along with a handful of undergrads (along with some Beta Sweethearts) closing down a bar 2 blocks from the hotel...We were the only people in the place for the last hour and a half, but it was a lot of fun.

[NickoJCU]

The Cleveland Alumni Assoc. New Year Celebration Banquet was quite similar.

There were pver 150 Brothers there- ranging from myself and 4 others (who were initiated two weeks previously) to a Gentlemen who has been an initiated Beta for 69 years!!!

There were speeches from our District Chief, as well as a very long, uninteresting speech from a Beta who's on the Board of Directors at Case Western. None of us could glean anything from his speech Beta-related. It was entirely about CWRU's upcoming renovations.

There was an open bar, though due to the fact that the Banquet took place at 11:30am, none of us were able to enjoy it as much as we would have liked.

The Loving Cup ceremony was definitely something to behold. Having never participated in one larger than the 22 Brothers of my Colony, I was slightly overwhelmed- It took nearly 10 bottles of champagne!

It was a fun experience overall, and I highly suggest any other Active Brothers attend one in their area. You never know who you might meet, and what they'll offer to do for your Chapter (even if they went to another school). We were given job offers, internship opportunities, met Avery Friedman (a CNN News Anchor) who signed-off his next newscast with a gesture for The Brothers at JCU.