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Members List:
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President:
Bob Look
VP:
Brandon LaCourciere
Treasurer:
Don Carmichael
Secretary:
Jason Sinclair
Member at Large:
Gary Churchill
Tom Venettis
Webmaster:
Gary Mallia
Grand Chapter Advisor:
Ryan Cousino
GAMMA PSI CHAPTER WEBSITE ASP HQ WEBSITE DELTA RHO ALUMNI -CMU THETA ALUMNI - U OF M BETA RHO ALUMNI - TOLEDO
Sig News
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This page is dedicated to any news or special event a brother wants to share.
To add something to this page, send a note to our Webmaster If you would like a photo inserted, please include it with your email. Thank you.
2009
February 2009- Alumni VP Brandon Lacourciere will be hosting a friendly poker night at his house on Thursday Feb 12, 2009 - please read the following and advise accordingly:
From Brandon:
Poker will be Thursday Feb 12th at my house in Royal Oak. Feel free to get there around 7pm. I am going to have 5 tables set up and the buy in is $5.00. If you are going to attend please send me an e-mail. The actives are going to try to make it out as well. My address is:
3907 Auburn Dr.
Royal Oak MI,
48073
(586) 8225934
Thank you,
Brandon LaCourciere
We had a great turnout Saturday and it was a fun time. I know, time is precious and you have to make good use of your time. But who knows what tomorrow will bring? Therefore, take advantage of these when you can.
These are the alumni that attended:
John Lambert, Tom Venettis, Don Carmichael, Steve (Skip) Havens, Jeff Illasenko, Bob Grzczynski, Mark Sitko, Prof Dave Gurjack, Ryan Cousino, Nick West, Brandon LaCourciere, Bob Look
Attendance from the active chapter was awesome! There were more actives than I could count and keep track of. Also two of the four pledge candidates were present as well.
John Lambert brought out a couple of black sports jackets he had made up with the Greek letters on them. These are nice, quality jackets and are the modern day equivalent (and then some) of the older black jackets from the 60’s an dearly 70"s. If you want more information, please contact John.
Tom Venettis brought up an idea for an event that we're presently researching and hope to announce details of this later on this month. The event would be held in late March or April. More to follow.
I had a request come in for someone looking for a software developer lead position. See below for more details:
"Working for (a US Automaker), I have been offered a buy-out, something worth while to entertain. … With over 23 years in Cad Design (CATIA last 16), and a Masters in business, - Is there anyone, interested in seeking an employee, or even a business partner... I realize this is generic in nature -- but if there is interest --- I can handle the communications one-on-one. "
Please email me if you are interested and I will put you in touch with this alum.
Also Gary Mallia has done wonderful job revamping the Gamma Psi Alumni website. Please be sure to check into it and see for yourself the updates he’s done. The link is: http://www.alphasigalums.us/ .
Also, rush starts next week at Tech and I hope to visit campus and meet some of the actives and the potential rushees.
Alumnus and Grand Chapter Advisor Ryan Cousino '04 will be a facilitator at the Presidents Academy of Leadership to be held in Indianapolis during the weekend of Feb 7th. This program is designed to educate the new active chapter presidents on leadership principles as well as managing fraternity operations. The Alpha Sigma Phi Educational Foundation pays for the travel, board, meals and programming expenses associated with the Academy.
An alumni lunch social is scheduled for Saturday January 31st at Shields in Southfield. The time for this is 11:30am. Please join us for an hour or so of food, friendship and fun.
At the luncheon we are going to finalize plans for a poker night to be held at the active chapter house on Friday Feb 13th or Friday Feb 27th. Alumnus Brandon LaCourciere ’04 is coordinating this.
Got any news to share? Let me know and I’ll pass it along to the group.
December 2008- Sunday December 7th
I wonder if Detroit can fire Bill Ford?
I remember a story about the legendary Lions QB Layne, said something like it would be 50 years before the Lions would win a championship given the management style of the Lions. This was in 1958 and he was traded to Pittsburgh early in the ’58 season. Well it's been 50 years so maybe the curse is over?
Kevin Pelkey writes that he proposes a get together at Mr. B's Pub 215 South Main Street Royal Oak, Michigan 48067 (248) 399-0017, www.mrbspub.com on Saturday, December 13, 2008 at noon. The food and atmosphere are good and the brothers can throw darts, shoot pool, play foosball, and pinball. This sounds like a fun place. If anyone has any interest, please contact Kevin at the following: kgpelkeylaw@yahoo.com. Thanks Kevin for suggesting this.
I recently heard from Ron Houck 70. Ron is living in Florida and enjoying the warmer climate. Ron is a grandfather (four grandkids) and starting a much-needed home repair business. If anyone would like to contact Ron, his email is: ronhck@yahoo.com. Welcome back Ron!
The active chapter has initiated three of the five men that pledged last fall. Congratulations to the Fall Class of 2008.
The active chapter held elections and the following are the new officers:
Congrats to the new active chapter leadership team!
Saturday December 6th was the initiation day for the three new brothers: Ralph Whitmore, Mark Rekuc, and Brad Thiele. Congratulations to the Fall 2008 pledge class.
The Ford Field events have been going well; the chapter paid their Liability Insurance bill due October 1 (appx $4400) and has money in the bank ($3,000) to go towards paying next years bill.
Three members of the chapter, one alumnus, Brandon LaCourciere, and two actives, Josh and Matt (see below), are volunteer leaders in the up and coming leadership academy for new chapter presidents to be held in January. The academy is named after Mr Alpha Sig, Ralph Burns and is called the Ralph Burns Institute:
Josh Hewitt Society Facilitator
Maybe we can get a brief update from them after the academy is held.
Also, please note the Gamma Psi alumnus Dennis DeMara has joined eGammaPsi. Dennis's email is: dmd2060@msn.com
Will wonders ever cease?I was completely surprised that our golf outing photo from last September's golf outing was included in LTU's Fall 2008 alumni magazine. It's on page 34 and the caption reads: Fraternity celebrates 75th anniversary.,/B> I don't know why the editor had to include this in the same story-line but they mentioned that PKY also celebrated their 75th anniversary and there will be something about their celebration in the spring 2009 magazine. And of course it doesn't hurt that PKY's Mike Fitzpatrick (Paul's cousin) donated $1million to the University. Go get your own story-line, guys!
Also in the magazine it mentioned the passing of certain AGY alums including John Speck 36, George Sierant 47 a former member of the faculty, James Bonnington 38 who I met in December 1997 at one of our events, and many others from the old campus.
Walt McCoskey (1951 graduate) told me that his grandson, Matt, is attending Tech and is a junior in the Architecture program. Matt's other grandfather is a member of Rho Delta Phi and a Tech graduate as well. Walt also sent on the following note:
In your list of AGY members passing the name of Theodore Milek, BSME'51, was omitted. His obituary in the Tech Magazine is very interesting - he and his wife were survivors of the sinking of the ETHAN ALLEN excursion cruiser in 2005 in northern New York. Ted and I graduated in the same class.
Walter
Tom Krauth heard from Bob Parker recently. Bob wrote that he purchased a car wash in Clermont, Forida and is offering car wash discounts to anyone from the chapter. Robert, I'm packing up my car and heading south!
November 2008- I'm glad the election is over.
I didn't vote for the "one" but I would rather have a clear win then a roomful of lawyers, judges, and swinging chads deciding the outcome. I guess we'll find out where this all leads. I'm an optimist.
Last Saturday's lunch at Shields was pretty good. Even I got to attend which is no small thing to do. Here's the list of alums who attended: Rod Rusk from CMU, Paul Fitzpatrick, Tom Venettis, Dr Dave Gurjack, Kevin Pelkey, Lance Vanik, Branden LaCourciere and myself. I'm in the process of getting the list of actives and pledges that were there and will forward that to you. I know undergraduate officers: Brian Czarnecki, Derek Egnatowski and Troy Hawkins, along with Brent Palian, and Seth (regrettably, I don't remember the last name) attended. Four of the five pledges were likewise in attendance. If I have overlooked anyone, please let me know. My memory was never that good and sure isn’t getting any better. Also, Tom Venettis reported that we netted app $500 from the golf outing.
I would like to find out if there is interest to have a simple get together during December? Perhaps we could borrow Tech’s alumni lounge and have a small-catered event? Or perhaps meet during the Christmas and New Year holidays at restaurant?
Let me know if you have an interest and we’ll see what we can do.
I recently heard from Jim McLeish after about a two years when I lost contact with him. Here's what Jim has to say:
Jim McLeish here, how are you and ASP doing. I lost touch with you and everyone else in Alpha Sig. When I left GM in 2006 after 25 years, all of my ASP contact info was on my old GM laptop. I took one of the GM early out packages when my department was eliminated during one of the numerous corporate down sizing/reorganizations that are a result of the continuing hard times in the auto industry. As it turned out I was one of the lucky one to get out early before things got ever worst. I was at the LTU web site today and found the student life fraternity web page and followed the links to the alumni association.
The next week I started working with people I knew who started a tech spin off out of the University of Maryland. The Dept of Defense and the National Science Foundation had a think tank there working on methods for achieving ultra reliable military electronics. This created a new science based approach to quality and reliability in electronics (rather than based on probabilistic statistical) that has become known as Reliability Physics or Physics of Failure. I found this group when I was the GM Electrical/Electronic Reliability manger and got GM to become a sponsor of this research and managed our research projects with them. When the Army start requiring this approach in 2005 for any new procurements in electronic the approach started growth and a number of the U of Md. researchers created a company to performed engineering and lab services based on these methods.
We have been growing rapidly every since, I am now a partner with this company called Design for Reliability Solutions, here’s a link to our website http://www.dfrsolutions.com.
We are headquartered in the Washington DC / Baltimore Suburb of College Park Md., in a tech incubator down the street from the University. I opened their first branch office to service the auto industry and the Mid West here in Rochester Hills in 2007, this year we opened another office in the San Francesco Bay / Silicon Valley area. We are currently working to open a second lab in Taiwan next year to support the vast Asian electronic market. So as you can see I have been very busy the last few years getting this company started which requires a lot of travel all over the world. Oh and get this I am also a guest instructor at Lawrence Tech teaching the quality/ reliability section in the Automotive Engineering masters program.
As for the home life, my wife Pat is an mechanical engineer working on military vehicle driveline systems at General Dynamic Land Systems, our oldest boy Sam is a business student in his second year at Oakland U. Our younger son Bill is a high school senior and quite the sports hero, he is captain of his soccer team and was named first in the state for his position last year.
So that is what I have been up to. What is happening with you the active and alumni these days. There was not much recent news on the web sites. Please use the contact info listed below to update you contact lists and keep me up to date.
Yes you may forward my contact info to ASP active and alumni.
The work e-mail is jmcleish@dfrsolutions.com. As a back up my personal e-mail (which I rarely use) is jimmac248@wowway.com and the home phone number is 248-375-5410.
Take Care,
October 2008- What a year for the Lions! 0 and 7 for the season and after 50 games, they finally failed to have a sellout at Ford Field. So be it!
I have some good news to pass along. Gamma Psi alum Tim Frasier was recently promoted to Regional President for Automotive Electronics for the RL Bosch Company. Congrats to Tim on his new assignment.
This coming Saturday's luncheon at Shields is looking pretty good so far. Here's a list of alumni brothers who have told me they are going to be there: Ryan Cousino, Branden LaCourciere, Kevin Pelkey, Tom Venettis, Les Lukacs, Nick West, Paul Fitzpatrick and myself. Here's a chance to meet some of the actives and the fall pledge class.
September 2008- Please read the following memo from Tom Venettis regarding the Grip and Sip Golf Outing. Kudos to Tom for organizing this event. With Tom in charge, I had no reason to worry and I am extremely appreciative of Tom's involvement with running this event. It's a lot of work contacting people, following up with them, and promoting the event but it was well worth the time and effort. Also, Randy Dawley and Gary Mallia took pictures at the Grip and Sip and we hope to be putting these on the website soon.
Just a note to express my appreciation to all 44 participants to the 2008 Grip-N-Sip. The weather started out somewhat dicey until Bob Look accessed Barack Obama’s telephone number on his speed dial, then the skies cleared and all was well.
Again, by unanimous consent be advised that the 2009 Grip-N-Sip has already been scheduled for the first Sunday following Labor Day:Sunday, September 13, 2009 at Northville Hills Golf Club
Mark it on your calendar now!
Additionally, I hope you will consider participating in one or more of our pre-planed alumni breakfast or lunch get-to-gathers over the upcoming months. Look for one of Bob’s famous e-mails regarding dates.
Again, my sincerest thanks to all in making the 2008 Grip-N-Sip a great success. May you all hit them long, straight and not so frequent in the best of health.
Best Regards
Tom Venettis
Active chapter treasurer, Troy Hawkins, was able to get the chapter working the events at Ford Field again. Earlier this year Ford Field management desired that only 501(c)3 organizations work these events but Troy was able to "cut a deal" that satisfied Ford Field requirements. The Ford Field events are important to the chapter since the chapter collects appx $1500 from these events. In addition, the Michigan International Speedway NASCAR races is another source of revenue for the chapter. Combined operations from these events bring in over $3,000 which the chapter uses to pay the chapter liability insurance bill. This year’s insurance bill is $4,800. We're not the only ones that struggle with this. Every fraternity, sorority, and RSO at Tech as well as at other Universities across the country have the same struggle with obtaining and paying for liability insurance. Good job, Troy!
Troy also has alumni polo shirts for sale. The cost is $30 and the quality is excellent. You can email Troy at the following: troy.hawkins@gmail.com. Perhaps Troy would be willing to send me a picture that I can publish?
Alumnus Ryan Cousino 04 is tying the knot with his high school sweetheart at the end of this month. After their honeymoon, the couple will be settling down in Troy. Ryan is an architect working for SSOE and his soon to be wife is a nurse.
I received a note from alumnus Mal Nark. Mal has published a book on the subject of ADD. It seems that Mal has personal experience with this condition and has found ways to manage this condition. The following is from Mal:
To download the free 10 page (Mal's book) preview pdf go to the following web site: (www.ControlADHD.com)
Malcolm Nark, High Tech Associates
303-695-1990 FAX 303-695-1166
malcolmnark@earthlink.net
www.hightechcolorado.com
I don't know if many of you know this but as a youth Mal spent many years traveling overseas with his family. Mal's dad worked for Ford. Not the Ford Motor Co, but instead worked directly for Henry Ford II. Apparently Henry Ford II liked to have first hand information regarding the operations of his business units rather than rely upon reports from audit committees and the like. I guess when you own the Company, you're allowed to run it as you see fit.
I managed to make it to campus these past two weeks to check up on rush. The chapter's rush chair Brent Palian 07 was busy getting the chapter organized. More to follow on rush.
Look for an alumni luncheon toward the end of October and a card party.
June 2006- Joe Broski '81 retired from GM last month after working there since 1967. During that time, Joe spent two years active duty including a tour in Vietnam and afterwards came back to GM. Joe worked with Lou Petro, the former dean of the school of management while at GM.
Joe decided to pledge the old Gal in 1981. What was surprising was that a married, 34year old (at the time) father of two, would go through the pledging process, but he did. Joe was in charge of exhibits and promotions at GM. Joe lives in Troy with his wife, Karen. Good luck on retirement Joe!
June 2006- Also joining the ranks of the retired is Kurt Essenmacher. Kurt writes:
Thanks for sending out the latest news. Really appreciate getting these monthly updates, as that is a great way for me to keep up with the alumni. I need to have you change my email address that you have on the mailing list. I'll be retiring from this job with the Defense Supply Center Columbus on Thursday, June 29th. So I'll need to get all future emails after that date at my home email address: kurtessn06@yahoo.com. My intent is to take the summer off and then go back to work somewhere in the fall. I don't think I'm ready for a full retirement yet, but I've completed 35 years in with the government, and it's time for me to do something else!!
Kurt was initiated in 1969 as part of the Four Roses pledge class. Those in the pledge class with Kurt were Dan Heffernan, Chuck Borghi and Tom Thompson. Kurt graduated from Lawrence in 1971 and began working for the Dept of Defense right after graduation. He has three kids: Chad, Kristi and Beth.
Also, Kurt is on the Zeta (Ohio State) Chapter House Corp Board of Directors for about 10 years and the Grand Chapter Advisor for about the last nine years and received the DBXi award in 2002 for his efforts with the Zeta chapter.
Congrats on retirement!
June 2006- Please welcome two more additions to the Gamma Psi alumni: Nick Hydorn and Bobbie Dimopolous. Both were initiated in 2004 and had been undergrads during the colonization and chartering era.
June 2006- The Gamma Psi Chapter had a great showing in the campus IFC elections. As a new organization, it is not a custom that our organization would be holding a position on E-board. However, last year Brandon LaCourciere held the position of Judicial Chairman. At the conclusion of this semester Brandon was then nominated to be the Vice President. Furthermore, Brian Zwyaer was nominated for Treasurer. After the election, Alpha Sigma Phi became the first organization in six years to hold two positions on IFC E-board. With our chapter in the driver's seat for next semester, we look forward to a positive Fall 2006 semester.
May 2006- For the last four years, Gary Mallia has served as the Grand Chapter Advisor to the active chapter. His term expires this summer and Gary had decided not to serve in this role and is recommending Ryan Cousino to replace him. Congrats Gary on your service to the chapter. In honor of his service, the actives have created a "Gary Mallia" award, which is awarded to the active with the most improved service to the chapter.
May 2006 - Elections will be held this fall. Don, Denny, Paul and Bob have served 3-years during the current term and the terms are really meant to be two years long so we are a year past due. At this time, none are sure that they will run again. It's not exactly a high maintenance job, if you are interested, please give Bob Look a call to discuss the details. Don't let geogrphy be an an issue -Bob lives south of Jackson in Hillsdale County and have about a 90-mile drive, one-way, to Southfield. With todays technology, distance shouldn't be a factor.
Apr. 2006- Bob Look received an annual report from the Alpha Sig Ed Foundation. The report states there are 57 chapters with an average chapter size of 39 men. The foundation awarded $27,000 in scholarship and spent about $66,000 on leadership/management training for the chapters. From this report, it looks as if our chapter was third in the number of men that attended these leadership programming sessions in 2005.
Mar. 2006- Kudos to Gamma Psi alum Gary Mallia '84 on his recent promotion. The following is from his employer's announcement:
March 6, 2006 - Southfield, MI UHY Advisors MI, Inc. (UHY) a leading professional services firm today announced that Gary T. Mallia has been promoted to Director of IT. In his new role, Mallia will be responsible for the management and strategic direction of all IT operations within UHY's two Michigan offices. He also serves on UHY's National Technical Advancement Committee which oversees and defines IT policies and standards for all UHY offices across the United States.
Mallia brings to the position a wealth of knowledge, skill and ability with proven leadership experience gained over his 20 year career in IT. Prior to his promotion, he served as UHY's IT Manager. Before joining UHY in 1997, Mallia was Technology Manager for Brooks and Kushman, PC where he was responsible for support and managing the day-to-day operations of their computer systems.
Mallia graduated from Lawrence Technological University with Bachelors degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics. He has also successfully completed several Windows Server, Novell Netware, and Citrix design and administration courses. He represents UHY at technology conferences including the IT Alliance as well as Boomer Consulting, Inc. Technology Circle group meetings. He is a member of the Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity and serves as the Chapter Advisor at his Alma Mater. He is also involved with several outreach activities within his Church, Our Lady of Sorrows in Farmington, MI.
Nice work, Gary!
Mar. 2006 - Ryan Cousino '04 reports that he has been accepted into the Masters of Architecture program at LTU and will begin classes in May. A future architecture Dean in the making, I predict!
Feb. 2006- Congrats to Lawrence Tech Prof/Admin Stan Harris on retiring from Tech. Stan started teaching at Lawrence Tech in 1968; prior to that he spent eleven years with GM Corp. Brother Stan was intitiated AGY at the Delta Chapter of GMI (Kettering) in 1954?. Stan's email is: stan@ltu.edu.
Kudo's to Super Engineer Brother Bob Gruszczynski '82 for his work on a patent, U.S. Patent #6,847,882 for
work that he had performed at Visteon, and for achieving one of his life's goals.... In Bob's own words.... "In a nutshell, we took something that Ford did in hardware at several $$ per vehicle, and did it in software on the main processor, thus eliminating the need for the hardware...."
January 2009- I trust everyone had a good holiday.As for me, I worked the holiday season and gave my team time off. I also covered for my manager, his boss, and our VP. I guess it was pile on time. no matter. I'm taking this first work week of the new year.
Bob
2008
Matt Carriere, President
Seth Seifert, VP
Mark Baker, Treasurer
Brent Palaian, Rush
Matt Carrier Society Facilitator
Brandon LaCourciere On site Coordinator
James McLeish, CRE
Senior Technical Staff / Consulting Associate
DfR (Design for Reliability) Solutions
http://www.dfrsolutions.com
DfR Solutions (Michigan)
2006
2005
