Iota Phi Chapter: A History
Iota Phi Chapter: A History is a book detailing Iota Phi's history from its founding to present. The book emphasizes post-rechartering from the 1960s and onwards, and is the result of extensive research into the chapter's past. The book was released on September 9, 2011.
Creating the book
The idea of a chapter history book began during the summer of 2009, when Iota Phi Wiki was redesigned and redeveloped to encourage more content. The Wiki contained hundreds of articles capturing the culture and traditions of Iota Phi and its interactions with the greater Fraternity. However, many of the records were incomplete. In the following two years, extensive research went into the chapter's history in an attempt to bring those records as close to completion as possible. In the process, a lot more information was uncovered, and it all culminated as a history book.
The following steps were taken to recover information over a two-year period:
- Reorganization of the entire Iota Phi Wiki to make information easily accessible
- Extensive Google searches about Iota Phi Chapter and its members
- Thorough interviews of dozens of alumni from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s for information about chapter culture and facts
- Extracting information from over 3,000 e-mails in the Yahoo! mailing group Iota Phi used from the 1990s to mid-2000s
- Acquiring all available paper documentation from the National Office
- Contacting the National Fraternity for available Chapter Distinguished Service Key records
- Interviews of Distinguished Service Key recipients or their contemporaries to learn more about the recipients
- Reviewing available Torch & Trefoil issues from the 1950s and onward for mentions of Iota Phi
- Reviewing three large bins worth of chapter scrapbooks, some dating back to the 1970s
- Reviewing all available meeting minutes, though many were missing due to the chapter website being hacked in 2010.
- Tracing back family lines to their inception in 1979, and compiling the information into Excel files
- Researching Iota Phi members' involvement at the sectional, regional and national levels
- Much of this research unveiled information about all of Region X, and thus went into the Region X Wiki
- Checking for available relevant documents at the university library's Special Collections desk