Below are the details for Founders Day 2009:

Saturday, February 21st, 2009
Bridgeport Brewery, 1313 NW Marshall St., Portland
Cost will be $20.00 per person

• 5:00pm - House Corporation meetings
• 7:00pm - dinner
• 8:00pm - live auction

For the second straight year, the association organized and hosted Founders Day at Kells Restaurant in downtown Portland, on Saturday, February 16th. Founders Day 2008 was once again a rousing success, with over 100 members and guests in attendance.

Our keynote speaker for the evening was Uchenna Agu, an Oregon Alpha alumnus and former track and field standout at the University of Oregon. Uchenna and his wife Joyce were the winners of The Amazing Race Season 7 on CBS, and they also participated in The Amazing Race All Stars in 2007. Uchenna came all the way from Houston, Texas, and he delivered a compelling and entertaining speech in which he recalled the many times in his life when his membership in Phi Kappa Psi was instrumental to his personal and professional development.

Once again this year, we ended the evening with a highly successful auction, with most of the proceeds dedicated toward scholarship funds for our local undergraduate members. Nearly $7,000 was raised from this year's Founders Day event and live auction!

This year's first annual alumni golf tournament was a rousing success! Alumni members played at Langdon Farms Golf Club in Aurora on Thursday, June 21st, 2007. Photos from the event can be viewed here.

The golf tournament was a great opportunity to recruit new members to our alumni association. Twelve participants in the tournament joined the ranks, bringing our total membership to 60 members in just five months since receiving our charter!

Low Gross: John Dimmer
Low Group: Toby Deering, Kevin Gorvo, Josh Schweitz, Jeff Weiler
KP:Josh Schweitz
Long Drive: Will Dietz

Oregon Beta undergraduates took part in Phi Kappa Psi's National Day of Service on Saturday, April 28th, 2007 by participating in the Walk/Roll-a-Thon at the Corvallis Caring Place. Members and pledges helped push wheelchairs and escort seniors as they walked to raise money for the "Wild Cat Park." The park is being rebuilt to address safety concerns for children. There will be an additional opportunity to help with the dirty work of putting the park back together from May 30th through June 3rd. Hats off to new Oregon Beta president Christopher Gerritz for organizing the event. Way to go, guys!

Founder's Day 2007 in Portland, Oregon, was one of the most memorable I can remember in years past. It followed the recent formation of the Oregon Phi Kappa Psi Alumni Association, an association for all Phi Kappa Psi Alumni living in the state of Oregon. Adding to the significance of the evening was seeing both state chapter houses (Oregon Alpha and Oregon Beta) celebrate their first Founders Day together in several decades. Held in the resplendent banquet room above Kell's, a well known Irish Restaurant & Bar in downtown Portland, the atmosphere was well suited for this fraternity event. All in attendance appeared to enjoy the venue, which included a full functioning bar, grand layout of tables, and adjacent rooms for the usual pre-event house corporation meetings.

Adding further to the evening's enjoyment was our keynote speaker, former national fraternity president and one of our fraternity's most decorated Phi Psis, Dick Ong. Dick, an Oregon Beta graduate of 1955, covered several items in his presentation. Among them were that Phi Kappa Psi's Endowment Fund is the largest of its kind across all fraternities, and that Phi Psi also maintains the largest average chapter size! Dick also gave us a wonderful overview of the American Leadership Academy located in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where several attending undergraduates are leaving with tremendous skills, insight, and most of all "enthusiasm about serving" this great organization called Phi Kappa Psi.

Finally, the evening headed towards a close with a strong chorus of "Amici," but not until a tremendously successful auction took place where winners and top donors Brent Monroe won lodging at the Nelson estate in Cabo San Lucas with a bid of $3,500, Chris & Molly Rouch won four skilled contractors for a day's work with a bid of $1,050, and Bob Hastings won three items including golf, wine, and travel with collective bids of $1,000.

At evening's end, a tremendous amount of cheer was enjoyed by all, not to mention event profits that sent separate $3,500 scholarship checks to both Oregon Alpha (University of Oregon) and Oregon Beta (Oregon State University). (See below for financial details.)

We would all be remiss to not extend a hearty "thank you" to brothers Craig Stockbridge and Chris Koons, who together organized this tremendous evening.

Now....onto planning our "next" Oregon Phi Kappa Psi Alumni Association event...This summer's O.P.K.P.A.A Golf Tournament!



Founders Day success benefits undergraduates

Total net revenues from this year's Founders Day event exceeded $8,600, including revenues from the dinner, the oral auction, and additional donations. Per a motion passed by the governing body, OPKPAA will keep no more than $2,000 in reserves. Any additional revenue will be distributed 50/50 to scholarship funds for Oregon Alpha (University of Oregon) and Oregon Beta (Oregon State University). (Please see the Government page for officers' meeting minutes for details.)

On February 2, 2007, we received our charter in the mail from headquarters, making us an officially recognized alumni association!

Our alumni association will help us to strengthen our brotherhood, build new friendships, provide networking opportunities, and enable alumni to support our undergraduate brothers. Please consider joining today! Membership is only $20.00 through 2007.