Christmas Came Early This Year

Sam Walls, Brett Lowry, & Amogh Rajagopal drove to a state park to go fishing.

Over the weekend of February 21 brothers and pledges took a trip to a Christmas wonderland in Blairsville, GA. This getaway allowed brothers to bond with associate members in a relaxed setting, far from the demands of school. The weekend was packed with activities that helped everyone get to know each other better, including a brotherhood movie night, fishing trips, and plenty of basketball games. A special highlight of the retreat was our tug practice, a longstanding tradition that unites the Brotherhood. With Greek Week on the horizon, brothers were eager to get back into action and defend our three-year winning streak in tug. This practice boasted the largest attendance yet, and allowed this tradition to reach out further among the Brotherhood. As Jagat Sachdeva put it, “I really enjoyed tug practice—it’s a great way to bond with brothers and learn from those with more experience.” We’re excited to keep up the momentum and continue building on this tradition. Many brothers simply enjoyed exploring the house and the property, with Brandon Wang sharing, “I really liked the basement game room and the theater downstairs.” With a pool table, shuffleboard, and an array of board games, there was no shortage of things to do.

A Weekend of Learning

For some brothers February 7-9 was spent learning how to better lead the brotherhood. Brock Brito, Brett Lowry, Krish Mittal, Zach Allgoever, Jagat Sachdeva, John Nesbit, Vinay Govindaraju, and Charles Fucile spent the weekend at the Southern Regional Leadership Academy learning how to lead our chapter and communicating with other chapters in the Southeast about our best practices. This academy was a massive help for learning how to manage our Loss Prevention Policy, increase social event attendance, and continue to make an impact in Atlanta through brotherhood service. Vice President of Recruitment Jagat Sachdeva said that his biggest takeaway from RLA was that he needs to get more brothers involved in recruitment and commit to a long term year round system. This sentiment was mirrored by the other chapters present at the conference who helped to give us advice on how we might improve our chapter as we discussed with them policies they might implement which we have. Examples include our J-Board policies, work task policies, and our budgeting methods.

Serving Atlanta Together

Brothers volunteering to go out and deliver food to people around Atlanta.

On February 15th, brothers and sisters of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority worked together to provide food and sort clothing for the unhoused population of Atlanta. Philanthropy Chair Krish Mittal organized the service day with the local Atlanta charity, Food 4 Lives. Brothers worked to create sandwiches for the unhoused population of Atlanta, and after the sandwiches were made, they went out and distributed them across the city. Many brothers enjoyed this opportunity to support our community as well as work with other members of the Greek sector at Georgia Tech. Brother William Schulman shared that he enjoyed the service day, specifically because it allowed him to work with other brothers in a setting that he doesn't experience on a day-to-day basis. Service days are always helpful because they allow brothers to get to know each other better while also engaging in activities that help improve our community. This service day was unique because of how we were able to bundle together so many beneficial actions: providing food, offering clothing, and allowing brothers to actually see the impact we’re having on the communities we are part of. Brothers are hopeful for future service days and are excited about the possibility of engaging in more large-scale service in the future.