Before they were subject to the busy schedules of their respective conferences, the five men were treated to a gift by Kansas Zeta alumnus Warren Bergquist, who currently resides in the St. Louis area. Bergquist provided rooms at a 4 star hotel in St. Louis. "It is always awesome when alumni get involved in our activities" said Jordy Train. "It helps us see that we are in a lifetime organization. For Warren to pay for a hotel room for us, that speaks a ton about his feelings about Phi Delta Theta and we all appreciated him."

 After the overnight stay, the men got to work. The RBC delegates attended workshops throughout several days about Social Excellence and received priceless knowledge to help Kansas Zeta recruit. Recruitment is the lifeblood of any fraternity. Clint Dick felt that RBC was " a completely new experience for me in the aspect of Phi Delta Theta...Not only did I have the opportunity to meet a countless amount of fraternity men from across the continent, but I was introduced to a new aspect of the art of recruiting. I think because of my experiences at the conference, Kansas Zeta will be able to bring in an outstanding recruitment class in the coming semesters." Hunter Rockhill echoed Dick's positive experiences. "At the end of the whole session, it was awesome to see all of the Phis from different places across America and Canada come together and have a great experience. All in all, I wouldn't trade the experience I had at RBC for anything." Being a veteran of Phi Delta Theta conferences, Jordy Train utilized his time to do "a ton of networking with people from different chapters in addition to reviewing what I had learned at past RBCs. Hopefully meeting all of these people will help me to accomplish one of my goals; I would like to get a job working for Phi Delta Theta." Overall, the men reported having an excellent time.

Hunter, Jordy, and Justin are pictured with Daniel James, a hypnotist entertainer at RBC, and Norman Nome, Kansas Zeta's Mascot.

Jessie Riggs had a somewhat different experience at President's Leadership Conference. As can be inferred from the name of the conference, PLC is for the President of each chapter of Phi Delta Theta. Therefore, the conference focused on techniques to manage internal and external chapter operations. In addition to this vital knowledge, Jessie was able to learn basic leadership principles. Jessie's experiences included "the opportunity to meet many other chapter Presidents from many different areas. During the conference we were split into mini-chapters of 10 people. I got to know them each pretty well. The discussions we had about the fraternity truly benefitted each mini-chapter member, no matter what his chapter was like at home."

Of conferences, Jessie said that they "are a must for any Phi Delt. It helps you see both the big and small picture better than just sitting at your home chapter." Conferences are often an energizing factor for the chapter. Tristan Walters said that he "loves when guys get back from Phi Delt conferences. Everyone is always ready to dive in head first for what needs to get done because they believe in what they are doing."

Chandler Kirkhart, a Kansas Zeta member and junior at Southwestern College,  made the four hour trip to Liberal, Kansas from Winfield on Friday January 16th to participate in the Country Showdown singing competition. Little did he know, he was also going to have one of his dreams come true.

Brother Kirkhart was one of 40 people to participate in the contest. The first 40 people sent in a recording of themselves singing to the contest judges in mid-December. The judges narrowed the number of contestants to 25 from the recordings. These singers were invited to the live competition in Liberal, Kansas. The top contestant of the 25 would win $1000 and the chance to open for country music star Jerrod Niemann. The contest consisted of two rounds. In the first round, each of the 25 contestants sang a song and was judged with half of the points coming from the audience and the other half from 3 judges. During this round, Brother Kirkhart sang his self-written single "Shelby". "I was 3rd to sing in the first round so I had to wait a long time to hear the results, but the worst part was the announcement of the contestants who would be continuing on to the final round," said Chandler. "They announced the other 9 contestants first. I looked around at those of us that were left and saw a lot of good singers. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when they announced my name."

Following the same format as the first round, each of the ten finalists performed a new song that was judged by the audience and the trio of judges. Kirkhart performed one of his two new singles entitled "Let's Go Fishin'" Then began Chandler's second long wait for the announcement of the winners. Speaking about the place announcements, Kirkhart said, "When everyone was finished, the contest officials began naming who got each place, starting at tenth place and going to first. When they got to the top three places and I hadn't been named yet, I was ecstatic. They named the other two contestants as third and second place winners and I realized I had won. It was like a dream come true to me because I knew I would be opening for Jerrod Niemann."

Because Chandler had won, he got to perform on the following day just before Jerrod Niemann. "I got to hang out with Jerrod before I went on to sing. He seemed like a really cool guy and I asked him to listen to me perform and tell me what he thought." Niemann remarked to Chandler that his performance was "pretty good" and some of Niemann's band members thought that Kirkhart's songs were similar to some of Niemann's songs. Kirkhart had performed the two previously mentioned recorded songs. After the gig, Kirkhart was able to speak with Niemann's manager and a representative from Sony Music.

Kirkhart's first single, "Shelby", can be bought on iTunes. His other two singles, "Let's Go Fishin'" and "Play Me Some Lonely" will also be able to be found there in the coming weeks.

Phi Delta Theta at Southwestern College recently said goodbye to two of its members. Jacob Tafoya and DJ Wilson attended their last Kansas Zeta chapter meeting in mid-December. Each of these young men had an impact on the chapter during their active years and will be missed greatly. This being said, we are all a little thankful to have a bit more breathing room in our tightly packed chapter room.

 DJ Wilson most recently held the President position in the chapter. "DJ stepped up at a time when we really needed someone to" said Tristan Walters. "He wasn't the most experienced person in the chapter, but he had the courage to do it. When all is said and done, he did a great job with the tools he had." Hunter Rockhill, who had recently become close to DJ, described him as "...a great guy, both in and out of school. He is just like any other brother; I can depend on him for anything and vice versa. He is a standup gentleman. I really enjoyed the time when him and I watched the KU-KState game at his house and grilled steaks on his back porch." DJ will be continuing the Master's program here at Southwestern before moving on.

Jacob Tafoya held the Vice Presidency before he graduated in December. In his seven semesters of being a member of Phi Delta Theta, Jacob also held many other positions such as Phikeia Educator and Community Service Chairman. Jacob's fellow pledge class brother Jordy Train had many things to say about Jacob. "Jacob Tafoya is the kind of guy who turns out to be the person you’d least expect him to be. He started out for me as a dude who I thought for sure was going to flunk out at semester, and who was a complete tool (mostly because he didn’t talk). But, I realized more and more that he was a committed person and when he set his mind to do something it was sure to get done. I also realized that he had a great lesson to teach a guy like me: you don’t always have to be the first to speak when making a decision. He’s a person I’ve grown to respect and admire for his hard work and his simplified view on life in general. We pledged together fall of our freshman years, and since I’ll be going a full five years I have to spend a year and a half as an active without him. It’s going to be hard getting used to not having him as a go-to guy for all of my crazy off the wall ideas, and I’m definitely going to miss someone to get Taco Bell with at 3pm on weekends when we finally wake up." Tristan Walters also had fond memories of Jacob. "I've lived with Jacob from the start of college. Many things changed over the years, but Tafoya always stayed the same. I'm proud to call him my best friend and I'm going to miss my sitting partner." Jacob is spending a month in Thailand with his uncle and is then considering graduate school or entering the work force.

Although it is always hard to say goodbye to our Brothers after they leave, we all must realize that Phi Delta Theta is a lifelong fraternity. The memories and experiences we have should not come from a short four years spent in college, but are intended to be spread out during an entire lifteime.

“This is an event we have been doing for several years now and with the success and the joy it brings the Fraternity to help families in the community, we will continue to do this project as long as possible,” says D.J. Wilson, president of Phi Delta Theta.  “There were 13 total members of the 18 that were able to make it out and deliver the food to the families.”

The items the fraternity provided to the families were turkey, ham, stuffing, gravy, potatoes, vegetables, rolls, salad and dressing, apple pie, and whip cream. 

Phi Delta Theta plans to help out the youth of the community at Christmas.  The fraternity will receive 20-25 names of children through Eagles Nest and Big Brothers Big Sisters and will provide presents for them. 

On Tuesday, Oct. 19, 14 members of the fraternity went to K-15 highway to pick up litter.

“Our organization does many community service projects throughout the year,” says Jordy Train, fundraising chair for Phi Delta Theta.  

Train says that the fraternity has been doing highway cleanup event for more than five years.

Phi Delta Theta at Southwestern College was founded in 1995 through a local fraternity, Theta Phi Delta.