Housing Corporation,

Brothers,

The purpose of this communication is to discuss the past year, and to focus on what is coming in the next year.

The past year has been one to remember in Phi Tau history. The chapter got off of level 3 probation early in the year, completely changed its social strategy, and displayed some of the strongest leadership in chapter history. The House Corporation opened an investment account with Fidelity, upgraded the house safety features, and overcame some pretty large rent collection hurdles. And finally, the Alumni Association raised almost $5,000.00 in its fundraiser, introduced the highly praised PhiTauAlumniNews, and put on the largest, most respectable event in Phi Tau History, the 20th Anniversary Dinner.

Being that I am currently the House Corp President, I want focus on the House Corporation for a minute. First of all, opening an investment account is one of the smartest things that the House Corporation did this year. We may not realize it now, but in 10, 15 or 20 years, Phi Tau will undoubtedly thank us for our efforts. In a time when most Greek Organizations at SU don't have a penny to their name, we are leading the way to a future for Phi Tau.

In addition to investing monetarily, we invested in our house. We put up a new fence, re-painted our basement, line-striped the parking lot, put parking blocks in the parking lot, and installed a light on the back of the house. All of these upgrades help to improve the living conditions and safety of our chapter members. While we are making these improvements to our house, other Greek Organizations are stopping and staring. They are all wondering how we are doing it. We are leading the way in making Greek Row a better place to live.

Finally, we are setting new standards for accountability. We have had a few tenants challenge us on paying rent this year. Even though we are not completely out of the woods, we realized we had a problem and took control of the situation. You may ask why I list this as an accomplishment. The reason is because we have helped Phi Tau strengthen it accountability through being good role models. Money Management is one way the House Corporation helps our undergrads ready themselves for the responsibilities that lie ahead in the real world.

With all of our accomplishments this year, there are three things that we started but did not finish. The first of which is the re-keying of the house. Joe Pinkerton has been in contact with a number of locksmiths and should be receiving a quote in a few days. We will discuss this at the Annual Meeting (Saturday April 6, 2002), but it is important to note here so that we don't lose sight of what we are trying to accomplish. Re-Keying the house will set us up with a strong move-in move-out policy and procedure for future tenants.

The second is the Policy and Procedure Manual. This was started as a result of the meeting we held in November where we opened up the floor for some open discussion between the House Corporation and the Chapter. At the time, it was felt that this open forum was needed to open up the lines of communication. The House Corporation was hearing a number of rumblings from Chapter members about the House and the Corporation in general. The P&P Manual, which is about 50% complete, will help us ensure that we have consistent operations for the House Corporation by setting some guidelines for how to manage certain processes.

The third is our financial reporting and money management. We started to make some real progress with our financial reporting and cash management this year, but did not follow through consistently. It is my hope that we can follow through this year. We need to start monthly reports, large event PL's, annual operating reports, separate reporting on our use of the parlor fee account, and to re-focus on investing. Our strong reporting and cash management will ensure that we stay the course with our investment and operations strategies.

In conclusion, I want to thank everybody for all of your hard work throughout the past year. Our chapter is blessed with many talented people who are very giving and ask for little in return. The number of hours we all give to Phi Tau is often overlooked, and we don't thank each other enough for our contributions. As I look back at all of the contributions of time and talent, I realize just how proud I am to be a member of Phi Tau. I have faith that we will continue to strengthen our organization, and position it for the future!

In ZAX,
Jason Leisure
PTZ 279