Alumni Projects

A property management company has been hired to help maintain the property in lieu of local alumni. This company currently manages houses for other fraternities and sororities at RPI and other capital region schools. They are an engineering firm specializing in building infrastructure and systems and will be a valuable asset to the long term renovation and upkeep of our house. The services they provide are as follows:

1. Conduct an initial site visit and assessment of the building and grounds for the purposes of identifying observable and significant physical plant problems such as heating, electrical, roof, and drainage/water problems - Such critical maintenance backlog will include preliminary cost estimates.  The information gathered will be the basis of developing a prioritized capital maintenance plan with the building owners. The cost for this assessment is $1200.
2. Provide bi-weekly inspections of the property with the accompaniment of the house manager to identify (or follow-up) any problems and areas of damage that may have been caused, or the responsibility of the house residents.   Damaged areas will be brought to the house managers attention for corrective action; any problems not reasonably attended to will be documented and forwarded to the property owners for further action.  In addition, any new problems or damage that is identified and determined not to be the responsibility of the house residents shall also be brought to the property owners attention.  For the purposes of this proposal, the bi-weekly inspections are anticipated to take no more than 1/2 hour. The cost per visit is $85.
3. Provide project development and contractor management services, at a cost of 20% of the contractor invoice:
   • Provide specifications or technical documents as needed to quantify the intended work and material quality to be used on major construction work
   • For major projects, provide standardized quoting and/or bid forms to minimize irregularities in contractor(s) quotes and bids, and to contractor(s) and vendors hold and maintain the minimum general liability and worker's compensation insurance
   • As determined necessary, provide periodic site and construction observation of Contractor(s) work to verify the correct materials are being used, and that quality and workmanship are being maintained as required by the project specifications and quote/bidding forms
   • Review and recommend (or reject) payment requests by Contractor(s) and Vendors.
4. As needed or when requested, act as liaison between the property owners and  governmental officials, RPI representatives, or others as determined by the property owner, for any property related issues. The cost is $85 per hour, plus expenses, plus mileage ($0.50 per mile)
5. Provide 24 hour on call services to address any property or physical plant related emergencies. The cost is $85 per hour, plus expenses, plus mileage ($0.50 per mile) 

The Troy Little League was given permission by the Fraternity to use part of our lot framed by Walker and Spring Aves as baseball fields. Over the past several years they have made offers to buy that land outright, which the Alumni Board refused. At the time it was not felt that we needed the money nor did we wish to relinquish the property rights.
Times have changed and the Alumni Board is now in need of funds to be able to provide the much needed repair and renovation to our house to enable more generations of men to have the same experience we did while attending RPI. As of June 15, we will be signing a purchase and sale agreement with the Little League, selling them the property for $100,000. We retain the rights to be first purchaser of this land should the little league ever decide to sell. In addition, our brothers will still be able to use the fields when not in use for league games or practices.
Our property line will include the hill on the back of the house, ensuring that our privacy is maintained.

While this sale might seem drastic or unnecessary, I assure you that this infusion of cash is desperately needed. A large portion of it will go directly to the first infrastructure project on the list from our building assessment.

A new, state of the art boiler and hot water heater have been installed in the big house replacing existing equipment that was over 25 years old at a cost of $12,000.
The new systems are more efficient and produce more heat and hot water for the brothers. When choosing a heating system the Alumni Board looked to the future, choosing equipment that will allow the house to be split in to multiple heating zones for thermal and energy efficiency.
The next step for the heating system is to scope out a future project that will perform the large heating infrastructure upgrades which will not only distribute heat better overall but also bring heat to rooms that have never had it. The current estimate for these upgrades is around $30,000.

Phi Mu Delta uses a third party collection agency named Omega to collect dues from each brother each semester. To help collect dues more efficiently it has been decided to collect dues each semester through the RPI Bursar.

There are several benefits to this

• Brothers can pay for room and board using RPI based scholarship/loan programs that they would not have previously.
• The house will be considered on campus for ROTC, meaning ROTC students would be permitted to live in-house and have their ROTC scholarships pay for room and board.
• RPI is considering mandating all sophomores live on campus; PMD will still be considered on campus as a result.
• Delinquency of payment will be reduced since RPI will now issue penalties.

Update: Bill pay through RPI has been set up. Starting in the spring of 2009 all house bills will be sent through RPI.

Currently, the Alumni Board does very little in the way managing of the fraternity house. In theory the A-board is supposed to handle property bills such as taxes, electricity, insurance, etc this is not currently being performed. Instead, the actives pay these bills and deduct it from what they owe in rent to the a-board. Not only does this put the responsibility of paying these bills on the actives, it also leaves little room for alumni to build in a savings for maintenance projects.

Dave Covino is creating a plan to change this. All bills for the operation and maintenance of the house will be paid by the alumni board. In addition, two types of funds will be earmarked for specific types of projects. The first is the Small Project fund; money be sourced from here to fuel small projects that can be completely professionally over summer break. The actives will vote on what they want the money used for during the school year and the Alumni Board will make sure contractors are ready to go at the beginning of the summer. Some examples are

• Remodeling the Barn Bathroom
• Repaint and Re-tile the Foyer
• Renovate the dish room

The second is the Large Project Fund; money sourced from this fund will fuel larger projects more related to housing infrastructure. The timing and priority of these improvements will be decided by the Alumni Board. Some examples are

• Rewire the house
• Removal of all asbestos from the house
• Repair / Replace the retaining wall behind the little house

For more information, slides [ppt] are available.

Update: The above mentioned plan has been reviewed by RPI, finalized and voted on by the actives. This plan will be in place next semester. The alumni board is currently in the process of moving the responsibility of paying bills from the actives to the alumni board.

After a year on this plan it will be reviewed and adjusted to meet the financial need of the house better

The Water Main, coming into the house sprung a leak. The leak started as a small drip, and continued to worsen. The leak was before the water shut off of the house, no one in the house knew how to fix it. After calling in a plumber it was determined that this pipe was made of lead, along with much of the rest of the piping in the basement. Due to new laws in New York State, plumbers are not allowed to fix lead pipes, but must replace them.

The entire pipe running from the house to the street was replaced. An emergency shutoff valve was also installed. Other pipework that was "fixed" by actives over the years was replaced and cleaned up.