Mike Darch Becomes President of the Alumni Association

Trine University recently welcomed new officers to the Alumni Association’s board of directors. On Oct. 6, Mike Darch, BSBA ’67, was elected president, Rick Hoover, BSAE ’71, vice president, and Scott Brown, BSCE ’80, secretary.
Mike retired from NCR Corp., after serving in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong and China for 34 years. His interest in information technology stemmed from his experiences at Ball State University, where he earned a master’s degree and a graduate assistantship. While at Ball State, Mike worked in the university’s computer center and taught computer science with Hubert Austin, Ph.D., who had been Mike’s mathematics professor at Tri-State. While at Tri-State, Mike was active in Student Council, Booster Club, Modulus Yearbook, Tri-Angle, Inter-Fraternity Council, Kappa Sigma Fraternity and Skull & Bones.

From the Financial Committee on July 9, 2011

Greetings Brothers !

We’ve come a long way in the last six years, including our new House on the Hill, christened in January 2009.

• The new house is full and working out great, supporting itself for annual operations.   All 12 rooms have been full every semester since finishing the house in January 2009.  The Brothers have doubled up a couple of the larger rooms the last 2 semesters so occupancy has actually exceeded the plan.
• The Chapter Brotherhood is growing stronger each semester as the facility and traditions attract quality pledges.   The actives are establishing priorities and criteria for grades, house duties, house and campus activities, and leadership.
• The Brothers are enjoying the return to having a cook and eating meals together on a regular basis.  Out-of- House Brothers can also sign up for the Kappa Sigma meal plan and join in group meals at the House. 
• Faculty advisor and Brother Marek Kolar is mentoring the EC and the GT on chapter financial management.  Marek is a professor of Business and Finance at TU.
• Alumni Keith Turner and Mitch Rhoads are mentoring the EC and House Manager on facility care and operation management.  Keith is an ex-GM (1975) and recently retired, splitting his time between Auburn, Crooked Lake, and Florida. 
  
  Alumni participating in the ground breaking for the new "House on the Hill back in 2008.
  
  Mitch (KSK 1966, KS 2010) is on TU’s Board of Trustees, and splits his time between Angola, Colorado, and Texas.
• We have a Brother working for TU in the Student Life area who is helpful in the background with to facilitate engagement and leadership in campus activities.  Campus leadership is a traditional strength for Theta-Xi and is a priority for the House.

When we decided to build the new House on the Hill, we raised substantial initial funds for the down payment, and financed the balance of the house project cost.  We have a mortgage of about $900,000.   We’re paying the loan interest every month with operating revenues, and making some progress on the mortgage principal pay off, but not very fast.  With the global economy and banking situation, we would be much better off to reduce and eliminate our debt as soon as we can
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The people in attendance for the dedication of the new "House on the Hill back in 2009.

Our steady annual alumni financial support comes from about 50 guys averaging about $850 per year.  That’s less than 10% of our total alumni group; it’s an unbalanced unsustainable load on too small a group.  A significantly safer and more stable position would be to broaden our alumni support base to say 250 brothers averaging $360 per year ($30 per month).   That’s still less than 50% of our total alumni group.

So this fundraising campaign is very important and it is aimed at our entire alumni group to try to get to at least 250 steady annual donors for the next five years.  This will help greatly to strengthen our financial position and give us a better view down the road for financial planning.

A group of alumni brothers has agreed to match a portion of the donations from NEW DONORS, in order to encourage more brothers to get involved.  That challenge match provides added incentive and benefit for growing our donor base this year and every year, and will help us pay off our mortgage even faster.  One alumnus Brother has already kicked off with a donation of $25,000, and we have another Brother’s pledge for $10,000 over the next 7 years.

Ribbon Cutting for the new "House on the Hill by active brothers back in 2009.

Every donation, large or small, is important and will get us closer to our goal of raising $80,000 - $100,000 per year from a much expanded support base.  History of the new house project and the current goal and action plan is attached below.

Click here for more information on the house and our financial concerns.

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