2006 Fall - Alpha Phi Delta Foundation

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGEReflections on ConventionWow! That is the first word that comesto mind when I reflect back on this year’sSummer Convention at Hershey, Pa. This yearwe had over 160 brothers and their familiescome together to enjoy a long weekend offood, sport, recreation and each other’s company.This is one of the most successfulSummer Conventions that I have ever been toand from what I have been told, one of thelargest in quite some time. Each year, I feelthe same way, but John Russo manages tooutdo himself each and every time. Based onour ever-increasing number of attendees overthe last 3 years, I have put forth the challengeto have more than 200 attendees at our nextSummer Convention in Tannersville, Pa.I have to say that one of the more enjoyablemoments for me, other than watching ourPast National President, Manny Rodriguez,corkscrew himself into the ground on somewhirlwind strikeouts was to sit in our hospitalitysuite each night and enjoy the company and stories fromsome of our alumni from back when they were undergrads.Besides the stories and storytellers themselves being completelyfascinating was the fact that as some things change over time,some things still remain the same regardless of era. This is oneof the things I look forward to at each of these events when wegather.The Summer Convention was a great way to kick off my secondfull term as President of Alpha Phi Delta and it has given usthe momentum we need to implement the many changes andimprovements in the way we do business.The Executive Committee met to discuss many items includingrevamping our database and website to become a better toolfor Central Office and our membership. Our plans are to makethe site more informational and easier to navigate. We will alsobe automating the database feature to update information onour brothers via electronic forms. These forms will eventuallyreplace our current paper forms and help us to become trulypaperless while reducing errors. The increased efficiency andspeed will allow Central Office to concentrate on servicing thebrotherhood and the needs of Alpha Phi Delta.We also discussed our insurance policy. It is time to renew ourinsurance and an old broker has put a very competitive quotetogether that will now give us a choice of vendors for our insurance.This can only be a positive thing for Alpha Phi Delta and itis something that I wanted to do with all of our contracts. WeEvan SottosantiNational Presidentshould be in the driver’s seat when it comesto doing business with vendors. We have asizeable membership and we should seek todo business with vendors that appreciate thatand are willing to work with us. Any opportunitythat we can get to lower our costs withouta decrease in value or service, will be entertained.Finally, we have some new officers takingoffice on September 1st. That includes DougSundo, our new Executive Vice president. Iam looking forward to working with Dougand to trade on his skills to help ourFraternity as a whole. He will bring somefresh ideas to the table while helping usachieve the goals that we have set forth. Wealso have some new District Governors takingoffice, which includes Nate Barnes, DustinMatern and John Lallo. It is great to see somenew faces taking an active role in Alpha PhiDelta.We have turned a corner as a fraternity in that it appears thatour financial issues are behind us and with good fiscal management,we can actually start saving money, lowering dues and givingback more to our members. I didn’t think it would come thisquickly, but through the hard work of our officers, the understandingof our brothers and the financial support of our alumni,we were able to pull it together quicker than I could everhave imagined. It just shows you what true teamwork and brotherhoodcan do. If we continue on this course and my successorsfollow this path, we should be able to set up Alpha Phi Delta fora long time to come for success.It is a pleasure to finally concentrate on member education, arevamping of our Risk Management Policy and streamliningCentral Office. These are but only a few things that we will beworking on this year to make Alpha Phi Delta more efficient,more service-oriented and more responsive to the needs of ourbrotherhood. I hope you notice the difference and feel free tolet Central Office or any of our Executive Committee membersknow how you feel about the changes.Fraternally,Evan SottosantiBH ’88Fall 2006 www.apdscholarship.org KLEOS-The Magazine of Alpha Phi Delta 3