Convocation in Long Beach California

First off let me please apologize for the long time between blog posts. We have been unbelievably busy. We had convocation for our Fraternity in Long Beach, which was the motivating factor for us going on this trip, and caused us to have too much to do and too little time. Blogging during the last week has not been possible. Therefore, I will attempt to summarize all of convocation for you and let someone else catch you up on the two days after convo. In addition, I will be creating two more posts which you guys should check back on in the next few days. In these guest blogs the current Sage of Sigma Pi at the University of Virginia, Steve Giordano, and Past Grand Sage of the entire Fraternity and UVA alum, Gary Tash, will share their views and memories of the great week.

We checked into our hotel first thing Wednesday morning after sleeping on the street nearby. We walked to Borders and updated the blog then headed back to the hotel for a meeting and opening dinner reception. After dinner we retired to our room where fellow Sigma Pi's from Wake Forest joined us for refreshments. After finishing what we had we decided to head down to a reception being thrown by current Grand Sage Larry Rovira. The three UVA bros elected to wear our shirts from The Price is Right and Tyler, Jordan and Snaps (The Wake guys) wore flamingo shirts that we let them borrow for the night. After meeting most of the current Grand Council we headed to the lobby bar and then retired to our respective rooms for the night.

The next morning we awoke bright and early and headed for breakfast. We had business meetings essentially all day which were highlighted by awards. In the morning session we were named one of the top 25 Chapters in the country. At lunch Steve Giordano won a scholarship from Gary, our Chapter had the 3rd highest GPA among Sigma Pis and we were named one of the top 12 Chapters. The top 12 award meant there were only 2 other chapters in our tier up for the Grand Sage Award which was our goal. All we had to do was be better than Georgia and Illinois. We were hopeful but not confident. If we won this would have been the third consecutive such award and we would have been the first chapter to ever 3peat.

Thursday night was a blast! The Fraternity had rented out Game Works, a large arcade with a bowling alley. We all wore Flamingo Shirts including Steve Giordano and Gary and Carol Tash. We were an absolute hit and just had a wonderful time. Afterwards we went to a bar with the Wake guys and some other fraternity brothers from Long Beach. Many rounds of Credit Card roulette were played and happily I never lost. Somehow on the way home Steve started talking to a Limo driver and managed to get 5 of us a ride home for only 15 dollars total. We have some great pictures from Thursday and you should definitely check them out. Friday was more of the same with business sessions all day. One exciting thing was that as a top 12 chapter we were invited to a hot breakfast rather then the typical bagels and fruit. That evening we all decided to take it easy and watched movies then turned in early. We all knew Saturday was going to be a big day.

On Saturday the Fraternity had to conduct some of our most important business involving the election of new officers and deciding on a budget for the upcoming year. Due to the heated nature of discussion we did not have time for a structured lunch break and were forced to sit in business from 9 all the way till 5. At 5 we closed business having finished everything we set out to do at this years convention and got ready for the closing banquet where the final award winners would be announced. We all got spiffied up and I provided bow ties for the entire UVA contingent. I must say we all looked stellar.

Dinner was delicious but we were too excited about the prospect of winning to really pay attention to it. At this point I should explain how the awards work. The Fraternities are split up into four tiers based on number of fraternities on that school's campus.
Tier 4 - 1-5
Tier 3 - 6-10
Tier 2 - 11-19
Tier 1 - 20+
We fall into tier 1 and usually are the final award announced. However, this year they decided to announce in a different order Tier 3,1,4, and finally two.

We were overjoyed to hear our name called second and celebrated by carrying Gary on a chair all the way from our table to the front of the room. Ecstatic about our win we waited anxiously to see if Wake would win in tier 2. Much to everyones excitement Wake Forest was also a winner in their category and therefore a massive celebration would have to follow. Needless to say we had a great time Saturday night and I was very pleased that one of the Grand Council was gracious enough to give me a very nice bow tie that he had worn to dinner and he also gave Kyle his cummerbund. Again you should really check out the pictures.

Here, look at the pictures