Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:49:58 -0500
From: dhickman@ITS-MY.NET
Subject: What in the hell is wrong with us?
To: MOM-ALUM@LISTS.MST.EDU
Wow!
All of this makes about as much sense as the Amish Web Page or Amish fax machine.
The Amish purposly shun post industrial revolution techonology because they fear that technology with drive their society
instead supporting their society. Guess what, they are correct in their observations. Implementing technology for technology's sake does not work.
But the Amish are not stupid people. They do have email, fax machines and even web pages. They quietly utilize technology in order to help them live their
live closer to their goals.
Last I checked, Triangle Fraternity is a Fraternity of Engineers, Architects and Scientists. Our particular chapter is located at the State of Missouri's Technology University.
I swear our chapter has more in common with Luddites than future leaders in technology. If we would have listened to the Luddites in our chapter, the house would probably be dead due to total lack of interest in living in the house.
1. Coax ethernet network - Circa 1995 - I can remember certain people (the usual suspects from now on) who was against that ad-hoc system to the point that one of the fun and games was to sabotage it on a nightly basis. The fun went away for them when I installed a redundant ring that only affected the rooms around the usual suspects.
2. Shared house laser printer - Again the usual suspects were against it. Man it was nice to not have to go to campus to print something out, even though it cost money. Remember Comp Sci majors could print out for free in the CS Building. In 1996 the ability to get on the internet and print out locally was a big deal.
3. Fall 96 pledge Project - Install Cat5 to rooms - Again the usual suspects was against it. What they did not realize is that those of us who were behind it, saw the big picture. Campus was preparing to offer internet service to Fraternities. The push to get the rooms wired was to make us look the most attractive since we are next to one of the fibre endpoints. Over that summer, the house has 10meg, for that year we had better internet access than the in the dorms.
Over the years there has been minor upgrades to the network, mostly switches. But the system is still in place and works well.
No one even thinks about that part of the house infrastructure, but if it was not there, it would look bad for the house.
On to the phone system. The house was quite progressive to have an actual pbx in the early 1990's. Over time that system has began to fail. I noticed issues with the system a couple of years ago and offered to help them then. At that time, it must not have been a priority but the offer still stands.
Recently the system has completely collapsed and the house has reverted to pre 1980's sneakernet/party lines.
The usual suspects state that this is good for brotherhood. Lets take this to the next level. In order to have the good old days, lets take the cable out of the rooms. We will have much more brotherhood with one tv in the house. Next lets get rid of all of these individual rooms and bring back the sleeping porches. I am sure there are alumni who remember that the elimination of the sleeping porches ruined brotherhood. After that we need to remove the TV, because that got in the way of brotherhood. We can keep on going with this... I would be surprised if the house had indoor plumbing when it first opened. We all know how waiting outside next to the outhouse promotes brotherhood. Damn, that makes the dorms look quite attractive.
Fraternities have a very bad rap right now. To be quite honest, to most people they are a place to get drunk and beat the shit out of each other. From my memories of the active chapter, the stereotype is fairly accurate. I know things have changed. That is good. But in order for the house to remain competitive with campus and other houses, it has to have the basics. Remember, most of the on campus and off campus housing has air conditioning, working telephones, ethernet, game rooms, etc. We have to get people in the door before any brotherhood can be built.
I am like a lot of the newer alumni, I stay close to my pledge brothers and a few select others. But I feel that I have little in common with the alumni. In fact this email thread has gotten me in contact with other brothers who can not believe that certain people are still stuck in the last decade and have not grown up.
If anyone else would have spearheaded this, they would have been applauded and helped. Lets just be honest, the fact is that I came up with the idea and want to implement it is the reason most of you are against it. Those of us who work in the real world know that being able to be reached by a telephone is critical for career advancement. The last time I checked, the selection of college house is the beginning of decisions that affects your entire career.
I just made some drastic changes to my career that will allow me family time and free time. I was hoping to actually to start to get back involved with things.
On the issue of workdays and other things. Please for the sake of god, plan them farther in advance than less than 2 weeks. The reason that I never go to them is usually either that I do not know about them and/or I have little to no notice. Since I have a family, I have to plan things out much in advance.
While I was in NYC, I met up with some Triangle Brothers in Midtown who met for lunch once a month. Quite interesting since there are no local chapters. I happened upon them while getting a book at Barnes and Noble and saw someone with a triangle pin in his tie.
I still meet up on a semi monthly basis with the comp scis, I went to school with at MkGurks on the first saturday of the month. Why don't we have something simular? That way it will be much easier to have people come and there is a good chance that they will participate more on other things if they feel involved.
Most, if not all of us are working professionals, we can't we meet monthly for lunch or a dinner? This would encourage those who do not party anymore to get more involved.
$0.02
F/S/C
Br. David H Hickman
-----Original Message-----
From: Missouri Mines Chapter Triangle Fraternity Alumni Listserv on behalf of Joe Gibbens
Sent: Thu 2/14/2008 2:34 PM
To: MOM-ALUM@LISTS.MST.EDU
Subject: Re: [mom-news] RE: PBX system requirements
Lets take a step back. The purpose of our fraternity is grow architects,
scientists and engineers --leaders in technology. Our future leaders are
going to be asked to overcome far more difficult challenges than addressing
the impact of technology on establishing and maintaining the bonds of
brotherhood. The sentiment at issue is the concept that the availability of
technology will hurt the house by degrading brotherhood. IF intended to be
taken seriously, this sentiment shows a lack of confidence in the house's
leadership that is an embarrassment to the fraternity and an insult to the
active chapter's leadership decisions. That being said, I personally don't
believe that Marc was being serious when he commented on the danger of email
and voice mail. IF that perception is incorrect, the stance should be
re-iterated directly to the active leaders. I do think that Marc was being
serious about making sure that priorities are in order. If there is another
project with more merit that would *conflict* with the resources needed to
implement a phone system, then that project should be made visible to the
actives so they can consider it. It was the active chapter president that
started the PBX thread. The house is asking the alumni for a phone system.
Unless the house's priorities change, Br. Hickman and I intend to implement
a phone system. Financial assistance would be appreciated, but I intend to
make this happen with or without additional alumni financing. If any
brothers feel that there is something that I and/or Hickman could be doing
that would be more useful the house, post it and we'll let the active
chapter decide. If not, we would still appreciate any technical suggestions
that will help us meet the requirements posted earlier.
f/s/c
--
Joe Gibbens
TLA Inc.
High Speed Internet
(309) 449-6002
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