In the Loop (and Prepped for Soup? And Shooting Hoops? And... you come up with one.)

Brothers,

The summer tends to be a time of relaxation and rejuvenation for much of our Brotherhood. Lots of us make plans to travel, to work and recoup funds lost during the previous semester, to lounge around the house doing absolutely nothing for a change…

And some of us are National Officers who manage to find something to do to keep Fraternally active during these quasi-slow months. Unfortunately, it often happens that all the busy work and planning done in the summer is lost on the rest of the Brotherhood until AFTER the first NEC meeting of the fall semester (which, in my experience, makes it terribly hard to prepare for what’s coming in time for its arrival). I’ve taken it upon myself to prevent that this time by updating you with the following program:

What’s up N.O.W.? (National Officers of Win)

On the desk of the National President (that’d be me, Garrett Cooperman) is, well, my main job – keeping track of the rest of the organization and trying to keep everyone in touch – and also the National Scholarship Program. The committee got off to a good start towards the end of last semester, and we’re taking our careful time with the document that will govern such a momentous, novel undertaking for the whole organization. We’re ready to kick back into full gear with Articles 1 and 2 of the policy in September. Oh, and I went to Israel – my first trip overseas.

Our neighborhood friendly National Vice President of Chapter Maintenance, Sarah Flourance, is working on the CM website and planning to begin some necessary updates to the CM handbook – you know, that wonderfully large and unbelievably helpful binder you all should have, with everything you need to know about managing a Chapter of Mu Beta Psi. She’s also been to Long Island and seen an epic ton of Brothers this summer.

The sensational Andy Stephens, National Vice President of Expansion, got a message of interest from a student at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ, and hopes for a response to his follow-up early this fall. He’s planning to facilitate work on the Colony Handbook with his committee this semester. With all of this excitement he managed to squeeze in graduating, too!

Famous National Treasurer Jennifer Staten has received her last EIN verification letter and can move forward on our Tax-Exemption Application! Huzzah! She’s soliciting audit materials from all Chapters, so get those in to her ASAP, please. I don’t know how she keeps up with everything while having a brand new baby to take care of 24/7. She’s either insane, Wonder Woman, or both.

Chrissy Fleming and alter-ego Benjamin Griffeth have been serving spectacularly as a tag-team Acting National Secretary to keep that office going. They’re also Alumni Association President and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, respectively, if you were unaware. Chrissy ran Mid-Year in Baltimore, MD as part of her summer and Griff spent some time on the beach.

By the way, they’ve been doing a fantastically helpful job, but they really shouldn’t have to. I know we have a ton of Brothers who are more than capable of handling this office with dexterous flair and fervent zeal. Seriously, start considering running for that position now. It’s never too early to get prepared, people. Brother Cooperman wants YOU for NS!

National Historian Nathaniel Kulyk, who needs no verbose introduction, has done us all a solid and begun securely storing the archives. He added some storage bins to better protect documents, etc, and set the oldest documents in sleeves for safety. The rest of the archives should be in the storage unit sometime around Labor Day. Nathaniel’s had a busy summer and apparently hasn’t done anything worthy of note for fun.

Kate Capehart, creative National Editor of the Clef, will be completing Clefly online publications and publishing the next issue this fall, so stay tuned for informatively festive literature (or was it festively informative?). Her favorite part of the summer so far was visiting friends and family in North Carolina.

Chairman Benjamin Griffeth and the Board of Trustees met quite recently, as a matter of fact, and began parsing through the National Goals. They have a lot on their plate for the rest of the year, so expect a high volume of activity in that department.

I hope today’s program has helped you prepare for the upcoming semester with our wonderful Fraternity. It would be cool if everyone who read this the whole way through could post their favorite part of the summer as a comment. ^_^

In Brotherhood always,

Garrett I. Cooperman

National President