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  • From the Desk of the Noble Ruler

        My name is Sam Johnson, and have grown up on a third generation farm in Southern Minnesota where we raise corn, soybeans, and beef cattle. Through my years, my passion for agriculture continued to strengthen through my involvement in the 4-H and FFA organizations, participating at the local, region, state and national levels. At SDSU, I serve as an Ag-Bio Ambassador, President of the Ag-Bio Prexy Council and Executive Committee of Little International. I look forward to the fall semester as Noble Ruler as we continue to progress forward as an organization!

    Fall Update: With 36 brothers in the fraternity and our new house mother, Donna Robinson, we are looking forward to a semester with a variety of events ranging from on-campus activities such as recruitment, to off-campus events like the annual tractor pull. This year we are excited to have planned an aggressive recruitment season and look to grow the chapter with knowledgable, passionate young men who look to make a difference in the agricultural industry. While this semester will continue to stay busy for the entire chapter, the brothers and I are excited to take our skills to enhance our chapter involvement and increase our outreach in the community.

    Sincerely,

    Sam Johnson

    Noble Ruler

    2nd Annual Golf Tournament was held

    Saturday August 26th 2 p.m.

    This was be our 2nd annual golf tournament for our alumni association! The breakdown of the tournament was the same as last year with 2 man scrambles and pin prizes. Thanks to all who participated

     

    The next meeting of the Alumni Board will be held

     Sunday December 3rd at 3p.m.  at the chapter house library with Sr. Supper to follow

     

      The Sigma Alpha and Alpha Gamma Rho chapters of South Dakota State University served breakfast at the Old Sanctuary on Sunday, March 19th to raise money for a worthy cause and give back to the Brookings community.

    The members of the professional agricultural sorority and fraternity teamed up to host their first pancake feed. At $5 a plate pancakes, sausage, eggs and beverages were served. Proceeds went to support the South Dakota State FFA Foundation, Blue Jackets Bright Future.

         This organization provides FFA jackets to youth that can’t afford to buy their own. According to the National FFA website, the corduroy jacket is an article of faith, honor and pride. The symbolic essence of the jacket, along with the pancakes, helped to make the event a success.

         From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. the members that volunteered served 175 community members and raised around $1250 dollars, which will sponsor 16 jackets. Not only were the members pleased to support FFA, they were happy to give back to the community.

         Philanthropy and service are both important aspects of Sigma Alpha and Alpha Gamma Rho and giving back to the Brookings community by being able to put on an event and serve them gives the members more public outreach. 

    Thank-you to all that attended and made the event a success!

     

    New sign out front of the Alpha Gamma Rho house

    A special thanks to alumni board members Keith Goehring and John Wiese for finding these rocks perfect for carving and for helping get them to their new home

     

    2016 Inaugural Alumni Golf Tournament

    was held August 20th at 1:00 pm at

    Edgebrook Golf Course, Brookings, South Dakota

    It was a fun afternoon of golf fellowship and food.

    There were 16 two man teams that participated in the golf tournament 

     

    The funds raised will be used to cover remodeling costs of current house

    In future years, funds will be directed towards a new house

    Special Thanks to the following for helping to put the golf tournament together

    Noble Ruler, Tyler Pierson

    VNR Alumni Relations, Tom Harris

    Asst. VNR Recruitment, Andrew Heine

    Alumni President, John Wiese

     

    2016 Alpha Gamma Rho National Convention

         Brothers Fliehe, Groos and Bregel to attend the 64th AGR National Convention in Omaha, Nebraska with Faculty Adviser, brother Brad Blaha. We have been very fortunate these last 2 years to have one of our own, brother Cal Willemssen serve on our Fraternity's National Board of Directors as Grand President. The men attended attended a dinner at the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace museum. Fun fact: Brother Willemssen insisted on taking a picture in front of the "Lucky Lady" because his father flew this type of plane during World War 2. We thank brother Willemssen for his dedicated service to not only the Alpha Phi chapter, but to Alpha Gamma Rho on the national level, we wish him nothing but the best as his term as Grand President comes to an end. 

     

    The men of The Alpha Phi Chapter took the Milk Can home with a convincing 21-5 victory over FarmHouse in a game of softball

     

    2016 National Leadership Conference

     

    The alpha phi men attended with their sister sorority Sigma Alpha

     

     

    52nd Pink Rose

     

     

    Guest Speakers both AGR Alumni

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

      

    Tim Nichols- Dean of Honors College at SDSU                 Scott VanderWal National Vice  President of Farm Bureau

     

     Congratulations to Alpha Phi Alumni Scott VanderWal for being elected National Vice President of Farm Bureau.

         VanderWal, president of the South Dakota Farm Bureau, is the first ever from the organization to serve at the executive level of the national organization.

    Scott has been the South Dakota Farm Bureau president since June 2004 and served on the national board for 10 years. He says he's ready to put his leadership experience to work to accomplish the organization's goals and become an even more effective voice for American agriculture. He farms with his family in Volga, SD. VanderWal says agriculture faces many political challenges in the year ahead, especially with the prospect of a new administration.

    He will serve with newly elected President Zippy Duvall of Georgia.

     

    Congratulations to brother Adam Krause ,#1018, and his family for being honored with the South Dakota Pork Producers 2015 Family of the Year Award.

    The Krause family of Clear Lake is along time contributor to the pork industry.

    From left are Tiffany, Adam, Jolene, Laron and Brent and Lyndy Krause. 

    For the Full Story featured in the Tri State Neighbor Click Here

    Willemssen Reception

         A reception was held Saturday September 12th, to honor our National Grand President and Alpha Phi alumnus, Cal Willemssen and his wife Lynne, from 12:00 to 2:00pm at the chapter house. A pulled pork dinner was served. We had a good turn out and all the alumni that came had a great time getting to see old friends. Brad Garrison the Director of Development from the national office was able to join us in this celebration.  


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    The water softener in the chapter house has quit working, it has been out for over a year. We sought out bids and received bids to have it replaced from three different companies. There are two types of systems we could replace it with a twin softener or a single.

    Ekern Plumbing and heating                                  Ecowater

    $3375 twin system                                                   $3432 twin system

    $2300 single system                                                 $1918 single system

     

    Courtesy Plumbing

    $4250

     

    The board has tabled the subject of replacing it for now until funds are secured.

    If you would like to donate towards this project of replacing it or know of someone else to get a bid from please contact

    President  John Wiese 605-997-3468

     

     

 

  • The Boiler


    New Boiler

         Alumni president Dr. Jason Johnson reported to the large gathering of alumni at the 50th Pink Rose alumni meeting, that the original boiler, installed in the mid 70's with the building of the current house; would no longer be allowed to pass the annual inspection, according to the city inspector. An alumni committee of Tyler Fruechte, Dave Hove, Keith Goehring, and John Wiese, began to solicit bids from three area contractors. The bids came in as follows: Lemmes (Volga)-$19,550; Midwest Mechanical (Sioux Falls/Brookings)-$19883.92, and Ekerns (Brookings)-$19,436. The bid of Ekerns was accepted at the May 18th board meeting.     

     

          The project included a high efficiency, modulating boiler, with future domestic water heating capabilities, should our current commercial water heater need replacing in the future. The project was completed towards the end of July.

  •      National AGR Convention

     

         The weekend was filled with great speakers, conversation, and brotherhood. Along with all of that we were able to see new legislation passed on the national level to help benefit all the chapters of Alpha Gamma Rho. Brother Peterson was a co-chairman of the Statues and Constitution committee and was able to present all the new legislation to the floor of the business meetings. We were also fortunate enough to catch a AAA baseball game while we were there as the Indianapolis Indians took on the Toledo Mud Hens and after the game was over we were able to get a tour of the field and facilities by the head grounds keeper.

         After all this had happened the most exciting part of the convention was yet to come as on Sunday night we were able to see Cal Willemssen, alumnus of the Alpha Phi Chapter, be elected as Grand President of the National Board.

         We would like to thank the overwhelming support of our Alumni for financing this trip for us and allowing us to make these great memories in Indianapolis.