The Pike House

2008 Real Estate Awards

Iota Delta Chapter Wins The 2008 House of the Year Award

Chosen from the four House of the Quarter winners, Iota Delta Chapter at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology won the 2008 House of the Year Award at the International Convention in Memphis, Tennessee. The Iota Delta chapter house (originally known as “The Glenn Home”), located at 5500 Wabash Avenue in Terre Haute, Indiana, was built in 1903 and served as an orphanage until 1973. The house, grounds, and boiler room are on the National Register of Historic Places. The chapter house sits on over 20 acres of land and is accompanied by seven additional buildings on the property including a newly renovated free standing gymnasium with a full basketball court, three old dormitories, a boiler house, and a social hall. This property is basically its own campus.

The chapter does a very good job of managing its money and putting away funds for future projects or needs. Iota Delta Chapter itself currently has over $100,000 in savings that it intends to use on real estate improvements. This has been accomplished while the house corporation has still addressed its responsibilities involving the Iota Delta campus, and serves as a great example of how a chapter can successfully save funds through effective property management.

The house manager has a full committee, and each position has specific tasks. This delegation of duties has allowed the house manager to better plan and communicate with the house corporation. The house manager generally meets with the house corporation weekly.

Iota Delta’s house is a well-known landmark, and the grounds are extremely unique and are very well known, both because of their sheer size, and because of how well the real estate is cared for. The work Iota Delta has done has gained recognition in the community. You can view additional photos of the property at their website http://www.pi-kappa-alpha.net/.

 

2008 Improvement Project of the Year Award
Goes To Alpha Kappa Chapter

In the last year, Alpha Kappa Chapter at Missouri University of Science and Technology (MS&T) built an addition which included 20 suite style dormitory rooms with ten connecting bathrooms, a conference room, individual study room, laundry room, outdoor access guest bathrooms, outdoor pavilion, and additional parking spaces. Along with this attached addition other updates were made to the existing chapter house including a walk-in refrigerator and freezer, a speaker system throughout all common areas of the house, a security surveillance system which monitors the entrances, full height ceramic tile walls in the community showers, additional trophy cases in the library, and the conversion of the office into a suite style room.

In addition to these improvements a house operations manual was revised, which is their standard of procedures and policies concerning the physical house and its operations. Several other chapters have used Alpha Kappa’s manual as a model for their own house operations manual.

Alpha Kappa has found it helpful to hire a cleaning consultant, Hillyard Cleaning Solutions, that assists the chapter with housekeeping plans and schedules, and conducts training sessions with the new members at the beginning of each semester. The chapter emphasizes, although the house operations manual outlines specific procedures and tasks, that it takes the hard work from all of the members to ensure that everything is completed and done properly.

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About the Awards:

Pi Kappa Alpha acknowledges chapters that do an outstanding job of caring for, maintaining, and improving their chapter facilities. Recognition is provided for House of the Quarter, House of the Year and Improvement Project of the Year. Quarterly winners receive a plaque and a $250 grant for maintenance and improvements. The House of the Year receives a $2,000 grant, a trophy, and recognition in the Shield & Diamond. The Improvement Project of the Year winner receives a $1,000 grant, a trophy, and recognition in the Shield & Diamond. If your chapter is interested in applying for these awards, applications are available online in the Real Estate programs section at www.pikes.org or by contacting the real estate department at the Memorial Headquarters at 901-748-1868 ext. 116.