hello alumni!

My name is Michael Hanson and i am the new alumni secretary for the 2013-2014 school year. I was born in Williston, ND and i am currently 21 years old. I am majoring in Criminal Justice and will be a senior starting next fall. I may be here an additional semester since i wasn’t originally a criminal justice. I transferred from Williston State College this fall and that was when i met some actives and decided to pledge. I wasn’t sure my first few weeks on whether or not this was for me, but after i met more of the actives that weren’t in the same room or suite, i had grown to love this fraternity and it was one of he best decisions i had ever made.

We have an abundance of new actives that i am not sure all of you will know. There is my pledge class members

• Brady Prellwitz
• David Lavergne
• Michael Hanson (me)
• Josh Douglas
• Alex Buchholz

There was also a new pledge class that was inducted last weekend we had 5 pledges that went through the semester and worked hard and managed to make it through. We are proud to have these new actives inducted into our brotherhood.

• Cameron McBeth
• Braiden Killensworth
• Kevil Gilgallon
• Casey Feldner
• Alex Schafer

I will be posting a picture of their initiation night as soon as we can get one available

Also on Friday, May 3rd is the Mu Sig formal and all of you are invited. It will be at the Knights of Columbus at 8 pm. I hope to see you all there!

11/15/12

I haven’t put much information on the website for some time. However, when I do it is nothing less than breathtaking.

On the agenda of the Board meeting last night was a report on the Mu Sig Reunion of 2013.

Dave Aas has been gracious enough to volunteer to serve as the Reunion Committee Chairperson. In meeting with the University, Dave has found out that they will be celebrating their 100 anniversary next year and will be hosting an all Greek reunion over Homecoming. They have been gracious enough to include us in their mailings and will be helping out in other ways, too.

Homecoming next year will be held on September 23-28 with the socials being held at the Grand International (1505 North Broadway 852-3161 Toll Free for Reservations 800-735-4493 www.grandinternational.com).

As in the past Friday, September 27 and Saturday, September 28 will be those special days where we’ll get the chance to get to together and share some of those timeless and hilarious stories given to us by the foibles of our brothers.

As I mentioned in a previous communication, Jerry Bertsch (67) was gracious enough to send us the itinerary from the past reunion. If I have my facts right, it looks like there were about 148 past Mu Sigs that attended. Wouldn’t it be great if we could surpass this number by 100, 150, etc. In order to do this, we need your help to start spreading the word.

Enough said,

9/23/12

I’ve got some good news, and I have some better news. First the good news.

Last weekend Minot State held their Homecoming, and the Mu Sigs were again a big part of it. The Homecoming King (Max Buchholz) was, yes you guessed it, a Mu Sig. The actives got together a float, held a open house for past Alumni on Friday evening, and sponsored an Alumni breakfast before the parade. Great job actives.

The Friday night Open House was really great, and I had the chance to visit with some former Alumni I haven’t seen in awhile. Ron Bertsch (73), Dave Hapip (70), Bryan Anderson (82), and Mike Callahan to name a few. Speaking of Mike, he would like to give a shout out to all of his past teachers at Bishop Ryan and Minot State.

It was fun listening to many of the Alumni as they recalled past memories of their Fraternity days. Many recounted stories of pledging, the egg, the paddle, parties, living at the house, big brothers, other brothers, Mu Sig athletes, and some of the Fraternity sweethearts. I think we left that day feeling a little younger and grateful that someone had gotten us to pledge Mu Sig Ma Tau.

The Better News

While visiting with Jerry Harmon (70) in the kitchen, Jerry mentioned that it might be time for another Mu Sig Reunion. I told Jerry that I would carry his suggestion to the Mu Sig Alumni Board as we were meeting on Monday. The Board thought that having another Reunion would be pretty special now that the Mu Sigs are back on campus and we have a house.

We were a little worried about a conflict with the Hostfest, however; Larry Eidsness (76) checked with the University on the dates for Homecoming and it looks ok. Also, Larry found out that the University is planning an all Greek Reunion to celebrate the University’s 100 anniversary.

As most of you know Jerry Bertsch (67), did all of the leg work for the Reunion held in 09. Jerry has been contacted, and he was gracious enough to send us his itinerary for 09.

I wish I could say that everything was carved in stone concerning the Reunion, but I will try and let Alumni know after our next Board meeting on Monday, October 1st.

9/23/12

A big shout out to Jeff Peterson (80) way down in Sulphur Louisiana. In Jeff’s e-mail he was happy to hear that the Mu Sigs are back on campus. Jeff said, “The time I spent in the Fraternity, the friends I made, and the all those great memories will be something I’ll always cherish.” Jeff goes on to say that many of his Fraternity Brothers were involved in student government, working for the Sheriff’s department as well as the police department. It does sound like Jeff and his brothers were not all work and no play, however; as Jeff does remember those toga parties at the Frat, and the time most of the lights went out in Minot.

Jeff wishes he could get back and talk about some of those fun times with his brothers. All I can say to that is, “Jeff we’re working on it.” Stay tuned to the website for more information.

This is a picture of a few actives of the Mu Sigs and Beta Thetas from this year’s homecoming weekend. Even though we did not win the football game, we all still had a great time.

The pledging period is entering into it’s second week and all the pledges were assigned a big brother to help them out through the tasks they will be required to do. Here is a list of all the fall 2012 pledges:

• Andrew Garcia
• David Lavern
• Turner Krechel
• Micheal Hanson
• Alex Buchholz
• Josh Douglas
• Brady Prellwitz
• Joe Cartwright

My name is Rhett Pederson, the newly elected Alumni Secretary. I am replacing Eric Zitter who has moved down to Mississippi to attend a new university. I am originally from Estevan, Saskatchewan and I started to attend MSU during the fall of 2008. This is my senior year and I will be graduating this spring with a double major in Energy Economics & Finance and Business Management. I joined the Mu Sigma Tau Fraternity in the fall of 2011. Here is a short list of our 2012-2013 current actives, officers, along with some new news.

Current Actives and Officers as of August 2012:

Anthony Anderson – Minot, ND

Luke Artz – Bottineau, ND

Max Buchholz (Secretary) – Minot, ND

Jordan Crawford – Deloraine, MB

Jared French – Elk Grove, CA

Tully Garberg (House Manager) – Minot, ND

Alexander Gorze – Surrey, ND

Greg Groesbeck (Historian) – Salem, NY

Marion Hernandez (Rush Chairman) – Richmond, BC

Mickhail Hernandez (Pledge Captain) – Richmond, BC

Roger Herrmann (Vice President) – Bismarck, ND

Cody Hodenfield – Minot, ND

Ken Hurlburt – Saskatoon, SK

Jordan Kluck (Treasurer) – Minot, ND

Erik Larson – Minot, ND

Leif Larson – Minot, ND

Jake Nissen - Minot, ND

Dennis Norwood (President) – Florence, TX

Rhett Pederson (Alumni Secretary) – Estevan, SK

Justin Peterson – Post Falls – ID

Chris Reinemann (Publicity Manager) – Northbrook, IL         

Jared Schumaier – Minot, ND

Phillip Streccius (Sergeant At Arms) – Minot, ND

Brett Szafarski – San Diego, CA

So far we have 8 new pledges who have just received their pledging pins this past Sunday. More may come as we had a list of 17 who were interested in joining before. They will be at the tailgating event for this Saturday’s football game if you wish to see them.

On this friday, September 14, there will be an Alumni Appreciation day at the Fraternity house starting at 4pm and ending at 7pm. Come by and visit to enjoy some food and beverages.

8/18/12
I heard from Earl Johnson today. Earl is currently living in Albuquerque NM. Earl was a Mu Sig from 1940-1949. He took some time off to go fight in the war. (WW II)

Earl’s son, Gary, was the Governor of New Mexico for two terms. He is currently running for President of the United States on the Libertarian ticket.

Lorraine, Earl’s wife sent a little more information on him. Earl is 93 years old, managed the Firestone store while living in Minot, became a teacher when he moved to Albuquerque, and was Sergeant of Arms for the Fraternity for three years. If you want to read more about Earl, there is a biography, written by his children and located in the college library (Minot State) entitled “Once an Eagle”.

Richard Simpson (81) writes about the great time he had when he was involved with the Fraternity. He remembers the dances, formals, parties, keg rolls to Bismarck, and visiting with all his brothers. Richard mentioned that everything just seemed to revolve around the Fraternity.

I need to add something to the point Richard made about a Fraternity. I was at the Bus Depot today, picked up a Minot Convention and Visitors Bureau magazine and noticed an ad from Minot State. The ad for Minot State started with the title “Why choose Minot State University?” The ad mentioned 8 reasons why one should choose Minot State. Reason number 6 said, “Greek life has returned to the campus.” I couldn’t agree more.

After I type in this little communication, I will be sending out the URL to all of the past Alumni of the Fraternity. One of the Board’s objectives was to get a website for past Alumni to catch up on the latest happenings and stay better informed.

The current members of the Mu Sig Mau Tau Alumni Board are:
Aleshire, David
Bjornson, Gary
Boen, Ron
Clute, Barry
Eidsness, Larry
Fritel, Ethan
Froelich, Tom
Isaacson, Paul
Lee, Chase
Schultz, Chuck
Walstad, Bob
Welstad, Trey

As most of you know the house has been remodeled (looks better than the first remodeling) after the flood, and will have seven actives living there this fall. However, there are still some projects we need to finish on the outside and inside of the house. Speaking about projects, if you are back to Minot for a visit with family and friends, know how to swing a hammer or do a little plumbing, give us a call. Also, bring some of those great stories and memories.

Minot State’s Homecoming has been set for the week of September 10-15. Concerning Homecoming I have some good news and some bad news. First the bad news. At the time of this writing, Paul I. (75) will not be holding his annual breakfast. I think this would have been the 12th year he has had past Mu Sigs over before the Parade and Homecoming game. Paul took some hits during our last Alumni Meeting concerning breaking a Mu Sig tradition.
The good news is that the actives are going to have an open house on Friday, September 14, from 4-7pm. The house is located at 815 6th St NW.

Before I could notify all past Alumni about our website, I got a posting by Richard Simpson (81).
Richard shared some great memories of his days in the Fraternity. He mentioned something about the legendary brew called “Purple Passion”. The funny thing about this is at our meeting last Thursday a story about Purple Passion came up. It went something like this. A former Mu Sig was trying to sneak a metal garbage can full of Purple Passion into the Homecoming game. The person at the gate told them absolutely no. Another ingenious Mu Sig standing by placed a metal top on the garbage can and told the former Mu Sig to start beating on it with a wooden stick. He did, went to another gate person and was told to get on through showing all that school spirit.

I’m not sure what all this website can do yet, but wouldn’t it be nice if we could share some other great stories of our days in the Fraternity. i’ll check with the experts how everything works.

8/6/12

Dear Alumni,

Thanks to a recent graduate and Alumni of the Fraternity, Trey Welstad, we will have a website that Alums can visit to check up on what is happening with the Fraternity.

Trey pledged the Fraternity during his senior year, went active and then graduated 2 weeks later. When he was helping me set up the website, I asked him, “Why would you join a Fraternity knowing you would only be an active for just two weeks?” He said, “I knew many of the members, and they were a great bunch of guys. I wanted to meet some of the other actives and say in touch with the ones I already knew.” (Impressive Trey)

It makes me think back to all of the great guys that I met after joining the Frat. I was only in the Fraternity for 2 years, but had the chance to meet many, many great people and form some lasting memories.

As I mentioned above, I would like to use our website to keep all alumni informed about what is going on with the current Fraternity and Alumni Board, but I would also like to share information from the alums. If you have something you would like to share about yourself or a brother, please e-mail me and I’ll post it on the website.

Some of you may be aware that we lost another brother recently. Joe Linnertz (1966) passed away a short time ago. Joe was living in Bismarck and was working for the DPI. I met Joe about 10 years ago while taking a leadership class in which he was one of the instructors. I didn’t know at the time that he was a past Mu Sig. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family.

I’ll be in touch

Gary Bjornson (Co-President)

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