At the House After a Summer

Editor's note: The following was written by Alpha Sigma Sean Sanford ’16. There will be regular updates from Sean and possibly Delta Dan Bruce ’16, and they will be posted on this site. If you would like to learn more about any of the updates, contact Dan at delta@pizetes.org. After a long summer, the brothers of the Pi Chapter returned to the house and were ready to get to work before another school year. Brothers Brett Cutler ’15 and Nolan Ceuch G’13 held down the fort over the summer while they were in Troy for work. More brothers started arriving to the house the first weekend on Friday and Saturday, August 16 and 17, and began setting up their rooms.

In addition to the work in individual rooms, all of near wing got completely redone because of all of the additional live-in brothers.. Two of the rooms got brand new carpet, and two got brand new paint.

Each day consists of plenty of cleaning, as the new house manager James Jakobek ’15 finds plenty of "activites" for everyone to take care of. As the guys are finish up their duties during the day, the nights bring some time to relax, work out, or play pickup, all before kicking back for the night.

Aside from getting the house ready for the year, some IHQ staff and even a brother from our Ireland chapter, Theta Omicron, stopped by for a few days and hung out with Pi Zetes.

Update No. 3: Sprinkler Installation

An email came down from above today, from Chris Geer at Albany Fire Protection, Inc., via Jay Webb ’61. Here's where the project stands:

  •  Two workers are currently installing pipe at the house.
  • The main supply pipe in the wing is complete, running from the kitchen to wing head.
  • All of the piping on the second floor is complete. All to be done is the installation of the sprinkler heads.
  • The piping to the third floor is "stubbed," or stopped off for now. The company is planning on doing the entire third floor and then finishing up the first floor.

Thanks for the update Chris and Jay! Of course, updates will be published as they come out. Stick around!

Update No. 2: Sprinkler Installation

An email sent to directors and actives from Jim Ljunglin '57 provided an update on the fire sprinkler project. Some points are listed below:

  • Work began this morning, August 6.
  • Dan, the installer, is running 2 1/2" pipe from the communications room behind the kitchen, over the ice maker, and down the wing.
  • After the supply pipe is laid out, work will begin on plumbing and installing sprinklers in the rooms.
  • While the sprinkler heads cannot be painted, the pipes, which are currently black, and the fittings, which are currently red, can and likely will be painted the next time the respective rooms are painted.

Thanks for the update, Jim!

As updates are sent out from those involved with the project, they will be posted here. Stay tuned!

A Pi Zete Spends his Summer in Pearl River

Nick Keefe has been interning at IHQ in Pearl River this summer. We finally caught up to him to see what he's been working on: Right now, I have a few projects that I'm currently working on. One is the creation of a binder for active Phis to use that will cover major topics that all chapters should be aware of. It will include topics such as recruitment, pledging, philanthropy, risk management, ritual, how to budget, and a few others. We should have it ready for convention this year. By creating this, we hope to make the transition for new Phis less daunting, and thus they will become more efficient and effective leaders. Our goal is for this binder is to get passed from current Phis to the next one and so on. I've also been working on the database and convention planning. I'll be attending convention for free so that will enable another Pi Brother to go for less money.

Thanks for the news Nick. We're all very proud of you and hope you bring a lot of good stuff back to Troy!

Sprinkler Progress!

We only have verbal updates from Troy regarding the sprinkler installation, but we hope pictures are coming soon. The street excavation commenced this week. A medium-size backhoe dug the hole in the street and put the earth in a big dump truck. Both these are parked in the street overnight with traffic cones channeling cars down to a single lane. There are thick steel plates over the hole. The City began tapping the water main yesterday and installed a large valve on the lateral.

More to come soon!