2012 Founders Day Starter Kit

This year Phi Kappa Psi celebrates the 160th anniversary of our founding. This document contains information that may be helpful in preparing your Founders Day event. If you need any additional resources, please contact the headquarters office at your convenience. 2012 Founders Day Theme Share the Vision The theme for our 2012 Founders Day is Share the Vision. We all joined this great organization for various reasons, but through the education as an undergraduate and continuing today, we are guided by our organization's core values: To be gentlemen, advancing ourselves intellectually and, most importantly, helping those less fortunate. Sometimes, those values can be lost, and the natural benefits of social gathering become our focus. To that end, a recent rebranding of our organization, complete with the rewriting of our vision and mission has refocused our programs and actions to continue our tradition of service and excellence. That new vision is Shared Experiences Allow Us to Succeed in Our Careers and Relationships. What better way to sum up what our chapters and alumni associations do! For Founders Day, share this vision statement in what you do. Share the experiences of the brothers in your area to benefit the membership. Use the platform of association to continue to teach what our association stands for. Focus those in attendance on what it truly means to gather as brothers of Phi Kappa Psi. To make it another 160 years, we will need to stay committed to what it truly means to be brothers of Phi Kappa Psi. OUR VISION Shared experiences allow us to succeed in our careers and relationships OUR MISSION The Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity engages men of integrity, further develops their intellect and enhances community involvement. With a legacy built on acceptance and trust, each brother realizes his highest potential through a lifelong experience of service and excellence.

The Founding of Phi Kappa Psi Our founders, William Henry Letterman and Charles Page Thomas Moore, were attending Jefferson College in the western Pennsylvania town of Canonsburg. A typhoid epidemic struck the campus, and Letterman and Moore spent long nightly vigils caring for their stricken friends and fellow students. From those humanitarian efforts, they experienced the great joy of serving others and sought to share it with others. The founding of Phi Kappa Psi was in distinct contrast to that of most other fraternities of the time. Those groups grew, for the most part, from local clubs, formed without any idea of expansion. Phi Kappa Psi was founded with the vision of it being a national fraternity which would assemble within its folds the best men at outstanding colleges throughout the country. Inviting several others to join them in an association to promote service to others, they founded our brotherhood on February 19, 1852 a Thursday -- with just two members themselves. Alas, the other invitees, all of whom soon joined, had missed the opportunity to become cofounders. Phi Kappa Psi has grown in both members and chapters to what we know it to be today. Our co-founders could not convince a single other man to attend that momentous Feb. 19 meeting but instead they have attracted 110,000 or so, to date, in all the years that followed. That is the equivalent of nearly two new members a day for every day in those 160 years.

Phi Psi Songs Noble Fraternity Noble fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi Thy loyal sons would lift thy banner on high Brave may we ever be in all lifes fiercest battles Bearing the glorious shield of Phi Kappa Psi. Sweet bond of unity, Phi Kappa Psi Thy cherished memory in us neer shall die. Joy of our college days weel never tie of giving Three cheers and high! High! High! For Phi Kappa Psi. Amici Our strong band can neer be broken, Formd in ole Phi Psi Far surpassing wealth unspoken Sealed by friendships tie Chorus Amici, usque, ad aras Deep graven on each heart Shall be found unwavring true When we from life must part College life at best is passing Gliding swiftly by Then let us pledge in word and action Love for old Phi Psi Chorus When we sing our lifes last measure Sweetest then shall be Strains recalling evry treasure Of fraternity Chorus

Official Phi Kappa Psi Banquet Toasts Toast order: First: Second: Third: Fourth: Fifth:

_______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________

First Toast _____________________________________________________________ To the United States of America

Second Toast (to be given after) ____________________________________________ To the President of the United States of America

Third Toast (to be given after) _____________________________________________ To the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity

Fourth Toast (to be given after) ____________________________________________ To the President of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity

Fifth Toast (to be given after) _____________________________________________ To the Ladies of Phi Kappa Psi

The Phi Kappa Psi Creed

I believe that Phi Kappa Psi is a brotherhood of honorable men, courteous and cultured, who pledge throughout their lives to be generous, compassionate, and loyal comrades; believe that I am honor bound to strive manfully for intellectual, moral, and spiritual excellence; to help and forgive my Brothers; to discharge promptly all just debts; to give aid and sympathy to all who are less fortunate; I believe that I am honor bound to strengthen my character and deepen my integrity; to counsel and guide my Brothers who stray from their obligations; to respect and emulate my Brothers who practice moderation in their manners and morals; to be ever mindful that loyalty to my fraternity should not weaken loyalty to my college, but rather increase devotion to it, to my country, and to my God; I believe that to all I meet, wherever I go, I represent not only Phi Kappa Psi, but indeed the spirit of all fraternities; thus I must ever conduct myself so as to bring respect and honor not to myself alone, but also to my Fraternity; To the fulfillment of these beliefs, of these ideals, in the noble perfection of Phi Kappa Psi, I pledge my life and my sacred honor. Written by John Henry Frizzell, (Amherst 1898) and Kent Christopher Owen, (Indiana 58); Adopted by the 1964 Grand Arch Council, Denver, Colorado, August 29, 1964

Graphics

Letterman

Moore

Co-Founders