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Inaugural Address
Inauguration Speech
Good evening y bienvenido(or welcome) fraters, auxiliary members, friends, family and guests. Tonight's installation celebration marks the grand finale to Alpha Zeta Omega's 90th National Convention, but before I continue, I would like to congratulate our outgoing slate of officers directed by Frater Brian Pinto (now PSD) as well as Agnes Brooks and the auxiliary on a job extremely well done. I would like to thank the fraternity for the opportunity to serve as the 2010-2011 Supreme Directorum. It is truly a great honor for me and it will be my pleasure to serve alongside my fellow fraters in what I believe will be yet another successful year.
Thank you Myron and Mike for serving as our emcees tonight. I would like to congratulate Edith Abrams on her installation as National Auxiliary President. I wish you and the auxiliary the best of luck and success. Congratulations to my newly elected board! We definitely have our work cut out for us, but I have all the confidence in the world that each of you will perform your duties spectacularly!
I have lived, breathed, dreamt and even drunk Alpha Zeta Omega for the last 13 years, but I would like to acknowledge the constants in my life throughout these years and always, my family. I am so grateful to my parents, Luis y Elida Ortega, for always supporting me in my activities whether it was coaching a little league baseball team, attending spelling bees or tasting my very first batches of Blue Whale. My parents have always stressed to me the importance of embracing our Hispanic heritage through teaching me our customs, how to speak Spanish and constantly visiting our families in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and of course, Puerto Rico. Now if you add into the mix my brother Lou, whom always looks out for me and keeps me updated on current events either in politics or sports, and my pal, my confidant, my advisor, my sister with the heart of gold, my Jen Jen, who has taught me some dance moves throughout the years, and what do you have: SALSA. Also in attendance are mi Tia Elsa y Tio Teo and their 2 sons whom served as phenomenal hosts to the Pintos and I during our first scouting trip to Puerto Rico last May as well as some other family friends. Gracias por compartir este momente tan especial conmigo. Los quiero mucho! Thank you for sharing this special moment with me!
In the spring of 1997, I decided to pledge the Epsilon chapter of AZO through the influences of fraters Len Goldfeld, Omer Munir and eventual pledge master, Doug Ortiz. I enjoyed pledging because I learned so much about the true meaning of the fraternity: peace, friendship and brotherly love. In hindsight, it was the best decision that I could have made in college. I remember attending my first convention in Boca Raton in 1998 and being overwhelmed by the warmth and camaraderie displayed by my fellow fraters and realized that the fraternity was much larger than just my chapter. From that moment, I knew that I wanted to move up the ranks to eventually become Supreme Directorum. And here I am, I made it.
Now what the heck do I do now?
Well I believe that my little brother and predecessor Frater Brian Pinto has steered us in the right direction, so we should build on the foundation that was laid out this year. Now that the new website is up and running, we will be working on improving its functionality for better communication between our members while taking the appropriate security measures to ensure our confidentiality. The website is a great medium to keep everyone updated of the events in your chapter and facilitate communication between our members. I cannot stress enough the importance of communication between chapters, officers and Supreme, which I believe is at an all-time high. Make no mistake about it communication is definitely the engine that runs the fraternity so please keep up the good work.
I believe that AZO is prime for dramatic expansion in the next few years. We must be more aggressive on this front. Our Directors of Development have drafted a letter that will be sent out to the colleges of pharmacy to hopefully spark interest in AZO and lead to the formation of new chapters. At the present time, there are new opportunities up for consideration at Northeast Ohio University College of Pharmacy, Touro in New York, Jefferson University in Philadelphia and of course the University of Puerto Rico.
It is my pleasure and honor to introduce the newest chapter of Alpha Zeta Omega, the Pi Rho Chapter at the University of Puerto Rico School of Pharmacy. We are very excited about this new chapter and plan to support them in any way possible so they may flourish for many years to come. I guess I'm just going to have to sacrifice myself and make a few trips to Puerto Rico this year to make sure things go smoothly. Congratulations to the Pi Rho Chapter and their 18 new fraters!
I would like to thank the Acting Dean of the University of Puerto Rico's School of Pharmacy, Dr. Wanda Maldonado for all of her help and collaboration on this endeavor. Upon the advice of my fellow fraters, and as one of my first acts as Supreme Directorum it is my pleasure to present Dr. Maldonado with a certificate which bestows her the title of honorary member of Alpha Zeta Omega.
In addition to establishing a new chapter here in Puerto Rico, we are also looking into working in collaboration with the Colegio of Farmaceuticos in recruiting possible new alumni fraters and possibly co-sponsoring continuing education seminars here in Puerto Rico. Recruiting alumni members would help facilitate retention of student fraters as well as establish a totally new network for these licensed pharmacists.
Although chapter expansion is an ambitious and exciting endeavor, we must not forget about our lost fraters and work diligently in retaining our recently graduated fraters, which has plagued us in recent years. Through the efforts of many fraters this year, we have compiled the most updated mailing list of active and inactive fraters in years which will serve as our Master List and now be under the supervision of the Associate Signare. Because of this hard work, from the 125 fraters that were on this list, we now plan to reach out to approximately 1,000 lost fraters and recent graduates through our revamped AZO Direct team through blast e-mails and bulk mailing by the end of August.
In the spirit of Brotherly Love, I encourage fraters to join our Mentorship Program to help orient our younger members. Whether it is professional advice through contacts, job placement or sharing your knowledge of the offices held in the fraternity, all are equally welcome and valuable. In addition to the traditional way of recruiting mentors, we will continue utilizing social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn to expand our mentorship database, so please spread the word. Let's tap into the greatest resources that this fraternity possesses, its knowledge and experience, in order to ensure our members' and AZO's continued success in the future. At this time, allow me to thank the countless amount of fraters that have served as mentors to my peers and I for the last decade. It is because of the guidance of these fraters that we have been able to achieve so much in Supreme in a relatively short period of time. Thank You!
I would like to congratulate the Constitution Revision Committee for all of their hard work on cleaning up our Constitution and bringing it up-to-date as well as establishing the new guidelines for the Ephraim G Sless Memorial Fund to conform with the stipulations of the Paul Pumpian endowment made to the fraternity.
One of the most rewarding endeavors each year is definitely our support of the national charity amongst other individual chapter community work projects. This year, I would like to direct the fraternity to focus its efforts in the awareness and fight against breast cancer through the National Breast Cancer Foundation. This disease has affected the mother of one of our own fraters, Frater Mehul Patel. She has been battling breast cancer for quite some time now. We wish her a speedy and healthy recovery. And I believe that everyone in this room knows someone who has been afflicted by this disease and has either defeated it or regrettably succumb to it. Through awareness, we can learn the importance that early detection has in the survival of this disease and through our donations we can help fund treatments and continued research.
Now I would briefly like to speak about a touchy subject, our finances. We all love coming to conventions which we always enjoy, but they are getting more expensive as time goes by. As a former Supreme Excheque, I know that monies received from our dues simply aren't enough to cover convention and operating costs so we resort to fundraising through our annual publication, the Azoan, and raffles. In addition to possibly receiving more activity fees from frater retention and lost fraters through AZO Direct, I welcome and encourage fraters to come up with new ideas to generate more revenue for the Supreme chapter in order to become more financially viable. I believe that this responsibility falls on everyone and should not be limited to just a small group of fraters who graciously dedicate countless hours on fundraising with very little recognition. So let's all work together and help our fellow fraters in sharing the task of providing for this fraternity, which we all love!
Now with this busy agenda laid out, let me present you with the fraters whom have graciously accepted appointed positions to help reach the goals set for this year!
Once again, congratulations to Steve Brooks on receiving a well-deserved Meritorious Award. I would like to thank Lou and Gloria Flacks for putting together, yet again, another extraordinary convention. I have personally experienced the amount of work that both of you have put into every single detail to make this a memorable convention. It has been truly remarkable!
And last, but certainly not least, the Epsilon Chapter! I am extremely proud to have pledged AZO at the Epsilon Chapter. I don't know if I'd be here if it weren't for the direction that my pledge master, Doug Ortiz, took for our pledge class which was bring us back to basics: school work as a priority followed by history, traditions and respect for AZO. I took this to heart as every pledge that followed me was subjected to "AZO Bedtime Stories with Salsa" as I read them our history from the "40 Years of AZO". Something that has always made me proud of my fellow Epsilon fraters is the willingness to always help and support each other for the good of the fraternity as well as in our personal lives. All of you, Brian & Leann Pinto, Poppy, Omer, Anciano, Poppado, Bump, Tomson, Shari, Mehul, Tina, Bill & Diane, George, Harjeet, & Izzy are truly a part of my family. And definitely not forgotten are the crew which we endearing call "Epsilon South", the Krops, Fines, Kravets, Ross', and Sobelsons, thank you for all of the work and dedication to Epsilon in the past and always being there to advise us. Epsilon has always motivated me to give my absolute all & do things right therefore making me a better frater and ultimately a better person. I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart!
Thank you all for sharing this moment with me! You are all my family. I will do my best to live up to the standards on this office! Que Dios los bendiga siempre and may God bless Alpha Zeta Omega! Muchas gracias y buenas noches!
Lenny Ortega
Directorum
Past Directorum Messages
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