Page 2 - The Tech Teke

From the Chairmen
Anew school year has begun and Phase 1 of the new TKE house
is occupied with 63 residents. We thought it a good time to bring
you all up to date on some changes to the organization. For years
nonprofit organizations have faced a shortage of people who can devote
an appropriate amount of time and attention to the cause. We all know
how families can be stressed by both spouses working in demanding
jobs while still having the responsibilities of kids and other family
members.
Over the years, Beta Pi has been lucky to have a small band of
fraters willing to find the time for what we believe to be the important and will probably become a widely accepted model for fraternities and
work of helping young men mature and grow into responsible adults.
We still have the greatest volunteers in the fraternity world. It’s just
that everyone has less time. If you have the time and interest (and
patience) to help in this important work, we need you. Please contact
either one of us to get involved.
At the same time, fraternities have become much more difficult
businesses to operate. Building and maintaining major facilities in
expensive real estate markets require volunteers to have more expertise
than when there were just a few old houses to keep up. And the public
and academic environment we operate in has become much more
litigious and unforgiving. What passed for pranks twenty years ago,
will now land one of our young men in legal trouble.
So, with the commitment to complete the development of a new
permanent home for Beta Pi, we realized that we needed to better
organize ourselves for the long term. Toward that end, we decided
to separate the property owning function from everyday chapter
operations. We revised the charter of our long-time corporation,
Tau Kappa Epsilon of Georgia, Inc. (the “Property Corporation”), to
include only those powers and responsibilities necessary to develop
and maintain the house and property. The property corporation also
has ultimate responsibility for making sure that Beta-Pi survives and
prospers at Georgia Tech.
We created a new nonprofit corporation to manage the day to day
operations of the chapter, which is named Tau Kappa Epsilon Beta-Pi
Chapter Corporation, Inc. (the “Chapter Corporation”). The chapter
Top: David Adcock and John Reagan during
construction inspections. Bottom: John Reagan
and Gary Minor prior to move-in. Right: Before
2 and after of 3rd floor hallway.
corporation now oversees the operations of the undergraduate and
alumni chapters, represents us to Tech’s administration and to TKE
International, and enforces the risk management policies of Tech, TKE
and Beta Pi.
The two corporations operate separately and have no overlapping
directors. The property corporation leases the property to the chapter
corporation on an annual basis and the chapter corporation subleases
housing and social space to the undergraduates. We believe this “arm’s
length” relationship is good for the long term viability of our fraternity
sororities.
So far, the system is working well. The property corporation,
with input from the chapter corporation, managed the design, financing
and construction of Phase 1 and significant refurbishing of the social
quarters. The chapter corporation leased the facility to 100% of its
capacity and has managed the move in and startup. The building is
being given the “stress test” that is fraternity life. So far, only minor
problems have occurred and we have worked through them quickly.
We’d like to thank those of you who have been so supportive over
the years. For all of us, this has been and will always be a labor of love.
We invite you to come see the first phase of our ultimate house and to
learn more about how it was built and operates. And, we look forward
to your help in completing it.
Yours in the Bond,
John A. Reagan ’71
Chairman, Tau Kappa Epsilon of Georgia, Inc.
David L. Adcock ’85
President, Tau Kappa Epsilon Beta-Pi Chapter Corporation, Inc.