Welcome to the Main Information Page for the
Rho Alpha 52nd Annual Frank Norris Pig Dinner!
April 26-27, 2024 in Blacksburg, Virginia
overall weekend agenda (UPDATED 29 FEBruary 2024)
Friday, April 26th, 2024
8:00am-12:00pm Golf Outing TBD if there is sufficient demand
6:00pm-12:00am Grad-Undergrad Meet-and-Greet bonfire at Rho Alpha chapter house (202 Church St SE)
Saturday, April 27th, 2024
9:30am-11:30am House Corporation & Board of Chapter Advisors Business Meeting (Data & Decision Sciences Bldg, Room 120)
12:00pm-1:30pm Brothers-Only Awards Luncheon (Data & Decision Sciences Bldg, Room 120)
6:00pm-7:00pm Cocktail Hour (Inn at Virginia Tech)
7:00pm-11:30pm Rho Alpha’s 52nd Annual Norris Pig Dinner Banquet (a.k.a. Dancing and General Mayhem) (Inn at Virginia Tech)
Sunday, April 28th, 2024
8:00am-11:00am No-Host Breakfast Buffet (Preston’s Restaurant in the Inn at Virginia Tech)
Click here to go to the merchandise store to register for Pig Dinner and/or to order merchandise.
Click here to go to the lodging room block at the Inn at Virginia Tech.
Golf Outing Information
Friday, April 26th, 2024 (morning)
25 January update: Sign up during registration… subject to cancellation if there is insufficient interest.
friday night bonfire at the chapter house
Friday, April 26th, 2024 (6:00pm-12:00am)
Everyone is invited to hang out in the back yard of the Rho Alpha chapter house where we’ll get a bonfire going once it starts getting dark. This is one of the best opportunities for brothers from all generations to interact! Catered food options are being explored… BYOB for those of legal drinking age (of course).
BUSINESS MEETING
Saturday, April 27th, 2024 (9:30am-11:30am; 120 Data & Decision Sciences Building)
All Graduate and Undergraduate Brothers are welcome to attend to hear from the Chapter officers, House Corporation (Tim Bowling), Board of Chapter Advisors, Section Leader Chippy Roberts and Purple Legionnaire Dana Hesse.
Come hear updates on (a) elimination of the pledging program across Phi Gamma Delta, including Rho Alpha; (b) construction on the lot adjacent to the Chapter House; (c) potential repair and upgrade projects to the Chapter house.
Brothers-Only Luncheon
Saturday, April 27th, 2024 (12pm-1:30pm; 120 Data & Decision Sciences Building)
All Graduate and Undergraduate Brothers are expected to attend. Many of the traditional Pig Dinner rituals like Bringing In the Pig, the Exiles’ Toast, Keynote Speaker, Memorials to Ad Astra Brothers, etc. will be performed at this luncheon so that everyone’s time at the banquet can be spent more efficiently.
This will be a SOBER event, held in Room 120 of the D&DS classroom building. Attire will be business casual.
This event is included in the general registration costs for all Graduate and Undergraduate Brothers.
This is a MANDATORY event for ALL Undergraduate Brothers. Only undergraduates who attend the luncheon (or provide a valid excuse to the Chapter President and Purple Legionnaire ahead of time) will receive their banquet admission tickets for themselves and their guests.
Rho Alpha's 52nd Annual Norris Pig Dinner Banquet
Saturday, April 27th, 2024 (6pm-12am)
After we all enjoy some cocktails at 6pm, the main banquet commences! A streamlined program will get us fed quickly and get us all to the dance floor as soon as possible! Popular cover band “Leggz” will travel in from Richmond once again to provide post-dinner dance music in the main ballroom of the Inn to fuel our traditional “Dancing and General Mayhem.” Cash bar at the banquet. Attire: Semi-formal, with black tie optional.
Of course, the highlight of the evening will be the presentation of Golden Owl Awards to our “more senior” brothers, formally recognizing their 50 (!) years of being initiated members of Phi Gamma Delta. We will recognize our Silver Owl awardees as well, recognizing their 25 years of membership. NEW FOR 2024: Phi Gamma Delta has just created the Bronze Owl award to recognize brothers on their 10th anniversary of initiation. If you were initiated in 2014, you will have a Bronze Owl certificate and lapel pin to collect. If you were initiated between 2000 and 2013, and if you register by March 15th, 2024, we will have your Bronze Owl certificate and lapel pin waiting for you as well.
New Gold Owl Awardees: [THETA] W. Phil Jessop, George Sakell, and Jim Showalter. [IOTA] Larry Campbell, Dickie Lee Coffey, and Darrell Oakes.
New Silver Owl Awardees: [BETA SIGMA] Doug Davey, Jason Dye, John Gravatt, Jimmy Hauer, and Francis Thompson.
New Bronze Owl Awardees: [GAMMA OMEGA] Tom Brady, Stewart Hancock, Reid Hinton, Mason Keen, Delk Koolman, Reese Mason, Kevin Musco, Holden Soffer, Reid Thomas, Zack VeShancey, Robert Ware, and Sam Whitehurst. [DELTA ALPHA] Robert Amarin, Zachary Best, Ryan Fox, Ian Gregg, Andy Kennedy, Austin McGowan, Michael Mendelsohn, John Murphy, Miles Navid-Oster, Santiago Pardo, Michael Rice, Alec Schadelbauer, Matej Sis, and Ben Tebor.
As mentioned above, the luncheon and banquet dinner are one combined cost for all Brothers.
Graduate Brothers’ costs for the combined Saturday luncheon and Saturday banquet are $120 unless you graduated in 2019 or later, then you get the YGB (Young Grad Bro) discount price of $115.
Graduate spouse/guest/date costs for the Saturday banquet dinner are $75.
Every Undergraduate Brother’s cost is collected as part of his chapter dues throughout the year, so his Saturday luncheon/banquet costs will be pre-paid, and he will only have to come up with $70 for his Saturday banquet date.
Drink tickets for the banquet bars can be pre-purchased as part of the banquet registration! So avoid the sometimes-long cashier lines and pre-order your tickets, but of course only if you will be of legal drinking age by April 27th, 2024!
Click here to register and see everything in the store!
PIG DINNER T-SHIRTS
The undergraduates have come up with the following t-shirt design.
GLASSwARE
Ale glasses and shot glasses with painted commemorative inscriptions for the 52nd Rho Alpha Pig Dinner are available for optional purchase.
Every undergraduate brother will receive one shot glass as part of the payments collected through his chapter dues.
Lodging Information
The Inn at Virginia Tech is under contract to provide discounted rates to 52nd Pig Dinner attendees between the dates of Thursday April 25th, 2024 and Sunday April 28th, 2024. Click here to make your reservation.
Secondary hotel reservation blocks may be set up if our block at the Inn sells out and we can’t add more rooms to it.
A complete list of local lodging options can be found here.
Miscellaneous Information
babysitting services
If you would like to inquire about babysitting services for your kids up to 12yo, email papigdinner@gmail.com.
donations to benefit the chapter
Click here to explore both tax-deductible and non-deductible donation options to further the mission of the Rho Alpha Chapter.
LOST AND FOUND ITEMS FROM CHAPTER HOUSE &
MINI-COMPOSITES AVAILABLE
Over the past several years, clean-ups at the chapter house have turned up unclaimed/abandoned materials belonging to our Brothers. Also, there are many years’ worth of ~11”x17” miniature composite photographs available. Click here to see if your name is on the lost & found list, and how to claim any items you may want delivered at Pig Dinner or shipped to you.
local covid-19 information
Any COVID-19 masking or gathering size restrictions that will be imposed by state, local, town or university authorities during Pig Dinner week will be listed here, so check for updates as the date approaches. The New River Valley Health District’s website contains the latest local COVID-19 information.
MISSING AND UNSUBSCRIBED BROTHERS; spam folder prevention
Brothers who have missing/invalid email addresses and/or mailing addresses can be found here. Please scour the list and help the committee find “lost” brothers!
Brothers who have clicked on the “unsubscribe” link in an email from the Graduate Association/Pig Dinner Committee can be found here. Some Brothers have ended up on this list without intending to (and then wonder why they aren’t hearing anything from FIJI), so please check if you or any of your pledge brothers are on the list. A link to re-subscribe is provided there too.
There have been more than a few reports of the committee’s mass emails being sent into Brothers’ spam folders… this can be prevented by adding “PApigdinner@gmail.com” to your email service’s phonebook/safe list/whitelist.
vt.edu email addresses for graduate brothers are problematic
Recent industry changes as to how email servers handle mail coming from free domains like gmail.com and yahoo.com are causing many of the committee’s emails to “soft bounce” at the VT email servers, such that many dozens of our grads aren’t receiving emails. The best ways to fix this is to provide the committee with your personal, non-VT email address, and also to add “PApigdinner@gmail.com” to your safe list/whitelist in all of your phone books. Ditto for the chapter Corresponding Secretary’s email “vtfijicorsec@gmail.com” which is used to distribute chapter newsletters from this same Mailchimp tool.
Thank you Brothers!
Perge!
