Founder’s Day 2013

The Fraternity’s Founder’s Day – October 6 – is an ideal opportunity to honor Sinfonia’s history and reconnect with old friends or your local chapter. An ideal way to honor our Founder, Ossian Mills, is by taking part in a Mills Music Mission. We’d like to encourage you to contact a local alumni association or chapter to take part in their Founder’s Day festivities. Particularly, we’d like to encourage all brothers to consider taking part in a Mills Music Mission to honor our founder and his vision. No chapter or alumni association in your area? You can still take part by carrying out your own individual Mills Music Mission, and sharing the gift of music with those who need it most. Consider donating time and performing at a hospital, nursing home, senior center or school. Follow this link to learn more about our National Philanthropy, and how you can organize one.

And if you celebrate Founder’s Day, either through a Mills Music Mission or other activity, please let us know about it! We may be able to direct other local alumni to you or your group, or highlight your efforts in a publication.

Three New Alumni Associations Formed

Three new alumni associations were recently approved by the Commission on Standards. They are:

If you are interested in joining one of these groups, we encourage you to contact the brothers listed. And if you have an interest in starting an alumni association, please refer to the Alumni Association Resource Guide, located at the following link: www.sinfonia.org/resources/AlumniAssociationGuide.pdf

Fraternity Begins Work on 2013 Alumni Directory

Keeping an up-to-date database of alumni information is one of the more challenging aspects of alumni engagement. While many brothers will periodically update their contact information through one of the Fraternity’s channels, for every updated contact list there are numerous brothers whose information is incorrect or not current. The Fraternity is healthy, strong and growing today, and we want you to stay involved in the lifelong Sinfonian experience. Without accurate information on what you’re doing and how we can contact you, Phi Mu Alpha won’t be able to get you the latest information on the opportunities, events, new programs and resources available to you.

Periodically throughout the Fraternity’s history, we’ve engaged in major and wide-ranging campaigns to update contact information and alumni data in our system. The last time we undertook this project was in 2007. Along with Harris Connect, a company that specializes in information acquisition, we’ve worked toward improving the state of our national database. We’ve again partnered with Harris Connect to help us update our records and contact information.

The other product of this endeavor is that Harris Connect will be producing a 2013 Alumni Directory, available for purchase when you speak with them. Purchase of the directory is entirely optional, but is a great way to have this collected information for yourself. You might use this to contact old chapter friends, or look up local Sinfonians in your area. Or simply have it as a keepsake and reference. Regardless of whether you decide to purchase the Directory, your contributions of information will, help us immensely.

We Need Your Help

In the coming weeks, Harris Connect will be reaching out to alumni, and we’d like for you to take a few minutes of your time to provide them with your most up-to-date contact information.

More generally, if you move, change your email or phone, or have other similar changes in location or circumstance, please keep us in mind and let us know. If the Fraternity doesn’t have your current contact information, you’ll miss out on not just the Resonance and mailings such as the Sinfonian magazine, but opportunities that may arise concerning national events, or local chapter and province events closer to your home.

We also value your privacy in these matters. Phi Mu Alpha does not share or sell our database to interested parties. The same restrictions apply to Harris Connect, whose usage of our data is contractually limited only to the ongoing campaign and creation of the directory.

If you have additional questions, feel free to contact us at the National Headquarters. We’d like to thank you in advance for your cooperation with this campaign. It will allow more alumni to stay informed and active, and will help to facilitate Fraternity communications on a number of fronts.

Capital Campaign for Sinfonia Education and Retreat Center (SERC) Enters Year 2

The Capital Campaign for the Sinfonia Education & Retreat Center was launched at the 2012 National Convention, and donations have been coming in ever since to help fund this amazing project! To date, we have received just over $173,000 in pledges for the building, and have collected over $42,000 of that amount.

To check on the progress of the SERC Campaign, to view layouts of the proposed development, or to contribute personally to it, visit the SERC website.

On the Horizon: Burrell Commemoration

March 22, 2014 will mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Brother Percy Jewett Burrell (Alpha), and the 10th anniversary of the Fraternity’s placement of a commemorative marker at Burrell’s gravesite in Watertown, MA. More information will be forthcoming as plans to mark this anniversary and honor Brother Burrell’s significant and lasting contributions to Sinfonia are developed and finalized. Mark your calendars, brothers, and expect further announcements in upcoming editions and, as always, at www.sinfonia.org.