PLT Wins Big at National Congress
Jun 26, 2012
On the third weekend in July, the 147th Chi Phi congress was held in Atlanta, Georgia. The brothers of Phi Lambda Theta went in full force with six active brothers and two alumni that made the trip down south. Amongst us were Andrew Hendrickson ‘13, Scott Watza ‘13, Mark Paleafico ‘13, Robby Holler ‘13, Will Evans ‘14, Matt Argiro ‘14, Adam Andersen ‘10, and Tom Deans ‘55. The weekend was full of Congress sessions, committee meetings, and social events.
While in Atlanta, we were also joined by a recent graduate and former Alpha, Tyler Moyer ‘11. Tyler recently took a job with the Chi Phi national office as a field director. He will be in charge of traveling to a select number of chapters in the Northeast United States helping them with difficult problems they might be encountering. In addition PLT alum, Ben Portman ‘07, was in charge of the 2nd annual Watts Gunn Memorial golf tournament. The tournament was held at the East Lake Golf Club and was a huge success.
Each active member and alumni that attended Congress was assigned to a random committee in order to delegate the essential issues and not waste as much time in full congress sessions. Some of the brothers were on committees that included Technology, Heritage and Traditions, and Accreditation. Issues and topics discussed ranged from items such as how to communicate effectively with the national office, all the way to revisions of the current accreditation system. Some PLTs played essential roles in these committees including, Tom Deans ‘55 , who was the alumni chair of the accreditation committee. After the Committee session, the three chapters, including PLT, that were judged Accredited With Distinction conducted brief one on one training sessions for any chapter seeking to improve their scores on the survey. Chapter Alpha Andrew Hendrickson provided assistance on behalf of PLT. The Accreditation program was started almost four years ago in an effort to achieve more fairness in the evaluation process and to provide an objective mechanism for chapters to identify their strong and weak points and develop a plan for improvement. Brother Mike Orta, 06, was an active member of the Accreditation Committee planning group. Mike is now a member at large on the Grand Council, the governing body of the Chi Phi National Fraternity. Many of the items and plans discussed in these smaller groups were addressed during the congress sessions, with legislation being passed in the end.
Phi Lambda Theta was honored to receive four awards at this year’s Chi Phi Congress. These included the Campus Involvement Award, Philanthropic Achievement Award, and Accreditation with Distinction Award. In addition to these awards, PLT also brought home for another year the Thomas A. Gehring Award for Chapter Excellence. We are very proud to be recognized at the national level for all of the effort and hard work we have put into the chapter and hope to continue this into the future.