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Table of Contents

THE OMICRON OBSERVER Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity, Tufts University

Fall 2015

President 1

Presidential Report Matthew Felsenfeld

Vice President 2

BDD 2

Alumni 4 4

ZBT Omicron 5

Secretary 3

Treasurer 3

Throughout  this  past  year,  the  Omicron  Chapter  of  Zeta  Beta  Tau  has  been  incredibly  successful.    In  the  spring,  we  quickly  laid  out  goals  that  would  take  us  to  the  end  of  2015.    They  included  increased  recruitment,  diversified  social  events,  and  an  increased  service  goal.    I  am  proud  to  say  that  we  succeeded  in  every  one  of  those  objectives.      Both  in  the  spring  and  fall  semesters  we  have  had  very  large  classes.    The  spring  Beta  Iota  class  is  made  up  of  nine  incredible  now-­‐sophomores,  many  of  who  have  expressed  interest  in  taking  executive  board  positions  at  the  end  of  the  year.    The  fall  class,  Beta  Lambdas,  are  a  group  of  nine—yes  NINE—men  who  are  currently  in  the  middle  of  their  new  member  education.    These  two  excellent  recruitment  seasons  were  overseen  by  Matthew  Mazzarella.    Philanthropy  and  service  this  year  has  been  run  by  our  hard-­‐working  and  innovative  Vice  President  Joey  Cirone.    In  the  spring,  we  ran  our  annual  Get  On  the  Ball  event  and  raised  over  $2,000  for  Boston  Children’s  Hospital.    Joey  has  also  worked  closely  with  his  newly  formed  philanthropy  committee  to  develop  the  fall’s  service  project:    constructing  small  libraries  around  the  Tufts  campus  in  an  effort  to  bring  fiction  books  to  the  school.        Our  social  committee  led  by  Secretary  Jake  Mittleman  and  Social  Chair  Morgan  Gellert  has  done  amazingly  over  the  past  year.    We  have  maintained  a  great  relationship  with  the  Alpha  Omicron  Pi  sorority  on  campus  and  now  hold  frequent  mixers  open  to  all  of  their  sisters.    We  began  the  school  year  with  ZBTahiti.    The  party  was  a  success,  our  house  was  at  capacity  for  the  entire  duration  and  risk  management  was  handled  perfectly.    In  late  October,  ZBT,  along  with  the  entire  Greek  community  hosted  the  first  Greek  Fall  Fest.    Under  the  leadership  of  the  innovative  Brotherhood  Development  Director  Ryan  Hastings-­‐Echo  the  chapter  has  had  a  number  of  unique  bonding  experiences  as  well  as  a  revamped  new  brother  process.    During  both  semesters,  the  chapter  held  a  12-­‐hour  movie  marathon  for  all  brothers,  as  well  as  a  tournament.    Lastly,  this  past  weekend  we  took  a  trip  up  to  the  Tufts  Loj  in  New  Hampshire.    I  have  been  lucky  enough  to  work  with  an  amazing  group  of  men,  all  of  whom  I  have  the  privilege  to  call  brother.    Now  more  than  ever,  it’s  great  to  be  a  Zeeb.    Cordially,  Fraternally  and  Sincerely,    Matthew  Felsenfeld  

Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity, Tufts University

THE OMICRON OBSERVER

Vice Presidential Report Joseph Cirone

In  the  past  year,  our  chapter  has  recommitted  itself  to  our  core  values  of  service  and  community  outreach.  In  collaboration  with  other  Boston  chapters  of  ZBT,  we  organized  Get  on  the  Ball  for  the  Boston  Children's  Hospital,  raising  almost  $2,500.  In  this  event,  we  collected  donations  and  signatures  on  a  large  inflatable  ball  that  we  rolled  around  the  city.  At  the  end  of  our  fundraising,  we  came  together  with  the  other  ZBT  chapters  to  present  a  check  to  the  Hospital  and  show  the  ball  to  the  kids.   This  year,  we  visited  Gifford  Cat  Shelter  in  Medford  as  part  of  a  joint  event  with  AOII,  a  local  

Tufts  Sorority.  We  are  currently  working  on  a  little  libraries  project,  in  which  we  plan  to  place  a  small  outdoor  library  for  use  by  Tufts  students  and  members  of  the  local  Medford/  Somerville  Community.  As  part  of  this  endeavor,  we  will  also  be  raising  money  for  Books  for  Africa,  a  charity  dedicated  to  providing  books  for  classrooms  in  underdeveloped  communities.  We  look  forward  to  scheduling  even  more  philanthropy  events  in  the  future,  including  our  traditional  visit  to  Community  Servings  and  a  more  local  version  of  Get  on  the  Ball.  

Brotherhood Development Director Report Ryan Hastings-Echo

The  past  semester  has  been  one  of  growth  and  change  for  our  chapter.  We  far  surpassed  our  fall  recruitment  goals,  and  on  September  19th  we  initiated  nine  new  brothers  into  our  brotherhood.  This  was  accomplished  through  the  efforts  of  Recruitment  Chair  Matthew  Mazzarella  and  Rush  Chair  Ben  Pall,  along  with  the  BDD  and  recruitment  committees.  We  hope  to  build  on  this  success  in  the  spring,  and  are  expecting  ten  to  fifteen  new  brothers  next  semester.  The  nine  initiates  are  currently  finishing  our  new  brother  education  program  led  by  David  Bernstein  and  Trevor  Vassallo.  

We  have  a  full  schedule  this  semester,  with  movie  marathons,  jaunts  into  Boston,  and  a  camping  trip  on  the  books  over  the  coming  months.  These  come  as  an  addition  to  our  more  traditional  brotherhood  events.  We  have  reinvigorated  our  academic  programming,  and  are  planning  study  hours  where  brothers  can  work  on  their  coursework.  We  are  hoping  that  this  will  be  conducive  to  recruitment-­‐-­‐  allowing  brothers  to  get  to  know  potentials  from  their  classes  in  a  study-­‐focused  environment.   Funding  is  always  a  concern,  especially  for  the  BDD  committee.  Part  of  our  new  eboard's  agenda  is  a  renewed  focus  on  recruitment,  which  requires  that  we  appropriate  a  portion  of  the  budget  traditionally  reserved  for  brotherhood  events.  With  generous  alumni  donations,  we  hope  to  continue  to  expand  both  our  new  brother  program  and  our  programming  for  current  brothers.  We  would  also  like  to  set  aside  a  small  budget  for  house  improvements,  which  will  serve  the  dual  purpose  of  serving  the  existing  brothers  and  making  our  house  more  appealing  for  recruitment.  

This  semester  has  started  off  well.  We  held  our  annual  ZBTahiti  party  the  first  week  social  events  were  allowed  on  campus.  Even  with  more  people  coming  through  our  house  than  ever  before,  the  brothers  handled  the  challenges  of  the  event  very  well.  We  are  very  proud  of  the  brotherhood’s  risk  management  capabilities.

 We  have  been  in  the  process  of  expanding  out  social  outreach  to  other  groups  that  are    in  and  out  of  Greek  life,  as  well  as  on  and  off  campus.  In  October,  we  worked  with  the    

other  members  of  the  Greek  community  to  throw  an  event  called  Fall  Fest,  open  to  the  whole  community.    Brother  input  in  house  decisions  and  operations  has  been  great.  We  recently  formed  three  committees  –  Alumni,  Social,  and  Brotherhood  –  to  follow  in  the  success  that  our  Philanthropy  committee  has  had.  The  social  committee  in  particular  will  be  working  on  our  social  media  profile,  expanding  to  Twitter,  Snapchat,  and  Instagram.

Aliquam dolor.

Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity, Tufts University

THE OMICRON OBSERVER

Secretary Report Jake Mittleman

As  the  current  treasurer,  I  have  re-­‐vamped  our  operations  budget  in  order  to  better  manage  and  grow  our  savings.  In  this  way,  we  are  guaranteeing  that  our  brothers  in  the  future  will  be  financially  prepared  for  the  challenges  and  opportunities  ahead.  

 We  are  working  with  our  alumni  to  strengthen  our  alumni  network  and  financial  

  security.  Of  course,  any  donations  are  strongly  appreciated.  

Treasurer Report Jonathan Sirota

Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity, Tufts University THE OMICRON OBSERVER

Announcements

This past June, Jonathan Garbose married Rebecca Matyas in Albuquerque. Jon and Rebecca were introduced to each other by Elliott McCarthy their sophomore year. Evan Rothstein served as a groomsman and several brothers were in attendance celebrating!

Ezra Dunkle-Polier married Anya Gelernt-Dunkle this past September.

Anya was a frequent visitor of ZBT during their time at Tufts, and many Zeebs celebrated with them at the

#SlamDunkle of a wedding.

If you have any life updates that you want featured in our next newsletter, or if you have any other general questions / are looking to reconnect with the chapter, reach out to our alumni chair, Jason Brillon, at Jason.Brillon@tufts.edu

Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity, Tufts University

THE OMICRON OBSERVER

We are ZBT Omicron Beta Zeta

Beta Iota

Beta Theta

Jason Bril lon

David Bernstein Joseph Cirone Matthew Felsenfeld Morgan Gellert Ryan Hastings-Echo Ryan Havens Justin Lee Matthew Mazzarella Jacob Mitt leman Andrew Narahara Ben Pall Jonathan Sirota

Arlo Clarke Joshua Insler James Lacitignola Kevin Meli Benjamin Shipley Trevor Vassallo

Beta Kappa David Batubara Peter Bernstein Matthew Carr ington-Fair Rihab Fahad Jacob Hafey Kennith Lee Chris Kearns-McCoy Vance Matthews Daniel Meyers

Beta Lambda Alan Bartels Matthew Epstein Nicholas Fallah Benjamin Frances Daniel Kimmick Daniel Lang Kevin Lim AJ Malkani Alexander Ray

THE OMICRON OBSERVER Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity, Tufts University

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THE OMICRON OBSERVER

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Photo credit: Matt Mazzarella