
Founder’s Day 2013
Dear brothers and friends: Our annual Founder’s Day dinner was finally held April 5 after being rescheduled from the February 8 blizzard of 2013 at Spirito’s restaurant. As the saying goes three times a charm well Spritio’s out did themselves and I believe we have found ourselves the “unofficial” home for RI Beta for many Founder’s nights to come. We had more guys drive in from out of state this year than ever before in part because the better weather in April so with a show of hands we have booked next year’s dinner to keep the meeting in April, so mark your calendars now and reserve April 25, 2014. Forty-six Phi Psi’s attended the dinner meeting including three from the Massachusetts Beta Chapter and Alumni Association. R.I. Beta was represented with brothers in the 20’s no not age but consecutive numbers. Lowest consecutive number goes to Gerry Miller #22 with Eric Hall at the top end at #1005. This year we all enjoyed the product of Br. Pat Rossoni’s hard work to recreate and digitize all of our composites. The digital slide presentation was the talk of the evening as we all watched as our college pictures flashed up on the big screen. Thanks Pat. As has been the new tradition for our annual dinner of having a key note speaker from National, Bruce Tavares as master of ceremony this year introduced our National Fraternity Expansion Director Ron Ransom. How timely for Ron to deliver his message regarding R.I. Beta and our colonization plan this coming Fall semester. The plan is for Ron and his team from National to visit with U.R.I. officials on this trip and have “boots” on the ground for rush interviews and pledging in September 2013. The National team will be accompanied by Bruce Tavares and his Advisory committee to pick up the ball when national departs. The goal is to have a self sustaining brotherhood of 45 brothers living in the dorms until 4 Fraternity Circle is available in the Fall of 2015. Very exciting times for R.I. Beta on the verge of a brand new brotherhood of undergraduate members. Stay tuned for further developments as Bruce and his team reach out to the Alumni for any assistance we can be to make the return of R.I. Beta a success. Thank you to Ron for extending his trip to R.I. to include this important presentation to our Alumni and special thanks go out again this year to Br. Bruce “Beast” Tavares for being Ron’s tour guide and our master of ceremony for the night although Br. John Martin should check to see that there are not Duracell batteries in the microphone next year and we might adjourn to the cigar bar a bit earlier. To all those brothers that attended this year it is always great to connect with all of you thank you for attending. For all those that missed out this year please put April 25, 2014 on your calendar for next year’s dinner. Once again I am honored to write this letter on behalf of the new board of directors of our house corporation. The following were elected at this year’s annual meeting at Founder’s Dinner and the selection of officers held at our first meeting on April 29; Chris Conti #400 – President, Tom Linhares #142 – Vice president, Joe Hart #431 – Treasurer, Eric Hall #1005 – Secretary, Bruce Tavares #250 – National chapter advisor, Ray Marshall #171 – IAC building committee chairman, Patrick Johnson #979 – Member at large, Glenn Stratton #168 – Member at large, Andy Marcoux #134 – Social committee chairman, Walter Augustyn - #258 – Building committee chairman, Patrick Rossoni #260 – Historical committee chairman, John Spagnolo #126 – Member at large, William Bowers #15 – Honorary member at large, James Norman #8 – Honorary member at large. Please congratulate each of these brothers for their willingness to serve our brotherhood. We all look forward to another year that will bring continued hard work to follow all our success we have made over the past four years as we prepare for the return of our chapter. Thank you all for your continued support for the mission of your AHC and R.I. Beta. Look forward to seeing you all at the Pop-top golf event August 3. Fraternally, CC#400…