Parents,
Without your support, we realize that none of us would be here.  For 18 years, you guided us, taught us right from wrong, and gave us every opportunity to succeed.  Now your son is in college, away from your watchful eye, and we are here to make sure that your son neither forgets the lessons that you taught him, nor stops growing as a person.  We offer a wide range of opportunities for your son to continue to develop into a mature and balanced man.  We hope that you will talk to your son about these opportunities and encourage him to get the most out of what the fraternity has to offer.

Academics
In our chapter, academics come first.  Despite what you may think, being a member of our chapter actually increases our members’ grades.  Our chapter GPA is well above the all-male average at the university, and we are consistently well above the all-fraternity average as well.  Our pledge class GPA is also well above the all-freshmen GPA.  This is because we offer a number of programs designed to help your son succeed in this area.

• Study hours – Our fraternity reserves a classroom in the journalism building twice a week so that our members can have a quiet place to study.  We require our pledges and any brother on academic probation (2.7 GPA or below) to attend and many other brothers voluntarily attend.
• Study Lounge – We have a separate, unconnected building behind our house with internet connection and computers, study notes from brothers that have taken classes in the past, and a conference table with chairs so that our members ALWAYS have a quiet place to study.
• Scholarships – We offer $300 scholarships to the top four pledges based on academics.
• Membership Education – Outside of the classroom, our members also learn about other important subjects.  Every member is required to attend seminars that teach about the risks of alcohol abuse and drug use.  Our members also attend seminars on business dress, common etiquette, and other subjects to help them prepare for the professional world after college.  Finally, all of our members are required to read the book How to be a Gentleman by John Bridges.
• Help – Finally, our brothers have taken classes with virtually every teacher on this campus and we can help your son with homework, study habits, and even class selection.

Campus Involvement
Another important aspect of college life is campus involvement.  Graduate school and job recruiters are increasingly looking for balance in a job candidate over academic excellence alone.  That’s why we REQUIRE all of our members to be involved in at least one non-Greek campus organization.  To help our members, we make announcements and get the word out about numerous campus organizations so that our members will know about the opportunities available to them.  But, beyond that, we are also starting a new program where our older brothers work with our younger brothers to help them identify organizations that appeal to them and fit their talents.

Leadership
A recent brother summed up our brotherhood in one sentence: “we are leaders and difference makers on campus.”  We are also leaders and difference makers in class and in the community.  We offer a number of programs to help our members become better leaders:

• Leadership Academies – Our national fraternity offers 3 leadership academies every year.  Members who are accepted get an all-expense-paid trip to either Colorado, Maine, or Washington, D.C. to spend a week learning about leadership.
• Southern Division Leadership Conference – Each year, our chapter sends a huge delegation (at least 15-20 percent of our chapter) to attend the Southern Division Leadership Conference.  At the conference, our members attend workshops on personal development, chapter management, and leadership techniques.  This also gives our members to network with Delts from chapters across the South.
• Chapter Leadership – Within the chapter, there are numerous ways for your son to learn about leadership, management, and acting professionally.  All of our chapter and committee meetings are run using Robert’s Rules of Order, giving our members the chance to get familiar with them before using them in the real world.  All of our members are also required to be on a committee, giving them the experience they need to work on committees and teams in their jobs. Your son can learn about identifying problems and finding solutions as well as strategic management and goal setting by being on the executive committee.  Your son could learn about planning, organizing, and executing an event by being on the administrative committee.  Finally, your son could learn about risk management and insurance by being our risk manager, or he could plan and manage a $250,000 yearly budget by working on our finance committee.  All of these things offer a real-world opportunity to learn about leadership and management

Community Service
We recognize that not everyone in the world is as blessed as we are.  Thus, we are taught from the first day of our pledgeship to give back to others who are less fortunate than us. 

• Campus Philanthropies - Our members participate in a number of philanthropies across campus including Dance Marathon and Relay for Life (benefits cancer patients), and H.E.R.O. (benefits children who are innocently born with AIDS). 
• Adopt-a-school – Our fraternity has adopted the Chase Street Elementary School.  We do everything from helping out with the after-care program to serving food at PTA meetings.  Further, over a third of our chapter goes to the elementary school to tutor at least twice a week.
• Delt Winter Wonderland – Our fraternity also sponsors our own philanthropy.  It involves three parts: (1) we work with sororities to raise gifts for needy children, (2) we raise donations from our parents and alumni to give to the Salvation Army, and (3) we decorate our house, buy milk and cookies, and invite the Chase Street Elementary School kids to our house for a party and to sit on Santa’s lap.  This year was just our first year, yet we raised over 500 gifts, we raised over $500 for the Salvation Army, and we hosted more than 75 needy children from Chase Street who came to see Santa

Brotherhood
Life is about more than getting a good job and making a lot of money.  It is about relationships.  The friends that your son will make in our fraternity will be a source of life-long camaraderie and assistance.  We offer a wide array of activities for our members to participate in together, including intramurals, cook outs, tailgating at football games, etc.  Further, we offer your son a wide range of social opportunities to make friends and meet people outside of the fraternity.  The goals of our socials, parties, date nights, and philanthropy fundraisers are to have fun, meet new people, and build social confidence.

Life after college
The point of college is to prepare your son for his future job and family life.  Our chapter can help in both areas.

• Preparation – We keep our members informed about a wide array of campus opportunities that will help them prepare for their future careers.  Our members attend etiquette dinners, career fairs, resume workshops, and mock job interviews to name just a few.
• Networking – Our chapter has a huge alumni base that can help your son find an internship or a job. Whether your son will be a doctor, a lawyer, a businessman, or any other profession, we have a number of prominent alumni that can help them get a job.  We even post our members’ resumes to our website so that thousands of Delt alumni have easy access to it.
• Upcoming Programs – We are starting a new program to have illustrious Delt alumni come back to our chapter to speak about their experiences as Delts and to relate how the lessons they learned in our fraternity have helped them in their career, in their family life, and as active leaders within their communities.  We are also setting up an exclusive career fair of Delt alumni in numerous professions so that our members can network and find jobs.

As you can see, our chapter offers numerous exclusive opportunities to help your son succeed in college and in life.  This sets us apart from many fraternities who are solely concerned with parties and social life.  But, in order to get the most out of the fraternity, your son actually has to take advantage of these opportunities.  Please encourage them to get involved so that they don’t miss out.  You have done a wonderful job raising your son to this point, and hopefully our chapter can help your son continue to grow into an educated, mature, and balanced man.

Sincerely,
Banks Deal
2009 Vice President

Important note:  If you ever have any questions, comments, suggestions, or concerns, please feel free to contact us.  You can find contact information for all of our officers.