District 9 Conferences

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2024 - St. Louis, Missouri - Hosted by the Missouri Epsilon Chapter

The 2024 District 9 Conference was an exciting experience for all. Three from Kansas Gamma attended the conference: President Nick Divilbiss, Events Director Dalton Rizzo, and Membership Director Emily Pine.

On Friday, February 23rd, they picked up a rental car in Manhattan, left town just after noon and arrived in St. Louis around 6:30 pm. Much fun was had on the way, since Missouri Epsilon had tasked everyone with completing a scavenger hunt presentation on the way. One of the tasks was to take pictures of signs on the way to St. Louis and then use them in a presentation to illustrate the route. Instead of photographing signs, Kansas Gamma stopped and took a picture with every bent on the way. Another task was to answer the question: What is a Billiken? Technically, it's STL's mascot, but the K-Staters decided that Billiken sounds like Billy-kin, which must be a reference to the heirs and heiresses of the one and only Bill Snyder. That received some chuckles during our intro presentation.

Delegates met at Fitz's Bottling Company on Delmar for dinner before departing to the hotel. Once at the hotel for the night, Rizzo and Divilbiss put together Kansas Gamma's intro slides. The next morning, business began in the Pere Marquette Gallery of DuBourg Hall with greetings and chapter intro presentations at 8:30 am. Following this was the annual engineering challenge at 9:20 am. This year, chapters were tasked with making an accurate marshmallow launcher. Kansas Gamma took a different route than most and engineered a marshmallow gun, which did not win. But, it shot at least ten-times farther than any other contraption, which garnered an honorable mention. Missouri Beta won by default with a score of one point... The only non-zero score.

At 10:45 am, breakout groups formed for Interactive Chapter Exchange discussions, where we tried to help other chapters solve their problems and vice versa. at 11:45 am, lunch was served and an alumni panel took questions for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, at 1:40 pm delegates left their seats and went on a campus tour for a while, seeing giant wind tunnels and 3D printers, along with Missouri Epsilon's bent. Divilbiss was especially happy to see it since he had not been able to access it during the first leg of the Bentspedition. Presentations on chapter operations took place afterwards by Matt Romero, who then announced his resignation as a District Nine Director.

Finally, at 4:00 pm, the time came to select the host of the 2025 conference. Kansas Alpha (KU) skipped the conference for the second year in a row, so we teamed up with Kansas Beta (WSU) and nominated all three Kansas Chapters to host next year's conference on KU's campus. Missouri Beta (S&T) self-nominated. Unfortunately, we lost 3-8. so next year's conference will take place in Rolla. We made progress though; our nomination of KU was thrown out last year. So, at this rate, we can count on successfully bringing D9 to Lawrence when it is time to vote at next year's conference. Then KU might find time to attend.

The evening wrapped up with presentations on the 2024 Convention, SAB resources, a conference survey, and dinner/networking. Most delegates departed that night, but Kansas Gamma qualified for another comped hotel stay, and wound up visiting the St. Louis Gateway Arch the next morning before having a late lunch at Twisted Ranch, where they tried 48 different flavors of ranch dressing. We were well represented at the 2024 District Nine Conference. It was a fun experience, and our relationships with other local chapters are much stronger now.

Divilbiss, Rizzo, and Pine pose for a quick photo with Bentzy before leaving Manhattan

Stop number one on the trip to STL was in Lawrence, Kansas at Kansas Alpha's bent. It'd be a shame if they ever showed up to a conference

Stop number two was in Kansas City at the Missouri Delta bent

Stop number three was in Columbia at Missouri Alpha's bent. This is where we met up with the MO-Alpha & Delta crews for cookies and a group photo

Dalton Rizzo holds a Key Lime Soda just right so Divilbiss can take this photo at Fitz's on Delmar

Pine, Divilbiss, and Rizzo sneak over to the Missouri Gamma bent with some good Kansas Beta folk

Here's a group photo of everyone in the conference venue. The gallery was the original library on campus, so it's a pretty cavernous space

Dalton Rizzo, Events Director; Nick Divilbiss, President; Peter Porcaro, President of KS-B; Emily Pine, Membership Director; and Rachel Stukey, KS-B showing off Kansas Gamma's marshimallow launching weapon, Kansas Beta also worked on the masterpiece

Another group photo was taken for good measure while on the campus tour

At long last! The Bentspedition reaches the bent of Missouri Epsilon!

Dalton Rizzo, Events Director; Nick Divilbiss, President; and Emily Pine, Membership Director at the top of the St. Louis Arch on February 25th, 2024

2023 - Kansas City, Missouri - Hosted by the Missouri Delta Chapter

The 2023 District 9 conference was a great success! Will VandenBos, Eric Yu and Nick Divilbiss participated from Friday night through Saturday night (3/3/23 - 3/4/23), and Professor Paul Snider joined them Saturday morning when they met with the other chapters at UMKC. Tricia Gomulinski from TBP HQ treated them with massive portions of delicious Italian food at Buca di Beppo on the plaza Friday night. That's the setting of the photo with the good-looking pizza. Saturday kicked off with an engineering challenge, where KS Gamma placed 3rd in an attempt to build the tallest spaghetti tower. Saint Louis University and Missouri S&T built the 1st and 2nd place towers, respectively.

After losing to two Missouri schools, KS Gamma split into breakout sessions with the other chapters. This was a valuable experience as many ideas were exchanged with other chapters who do things much differently, while facing similar issues. Following the sessions, they split into two groups and toured the new research facilities at UMKC, which were very impressive. The highlight of the day came everyone took a turn in their $100,000 flight simulator. You'll be glad to know that Eric Yu and Nick Divilbiss were the only set of pilots to land on the aircraft carrier. You'll be less thrilled to know that they neglected to remember the brakes, so they did not stop on runway.

After the tour everyone returned to the conference hall for a couple exhilarating presentations about chapter operations, and expense reporting. Excitingly, everyone watched the KC alumni chapter receive their charter, which sparked the consideration of a Manhattan alumni chapter. Then, it came time to decide who would host next year's conference. There was a fierce battle between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, but, ultimately, Saint Louis University capitalized on their exciting location and won the vote. K-State earned some laughs by voting for KU (who didn't show up). UMKC had Jack Stack cater the final meal of the day, during which all exchanged LinkedIn's. The conference was a valuable and enjoyable experience for all.

Above are the Kansas Gamma delegates at Buca Di Beppo on the Country Club Plaza (L-R): Will VandenBos, 84th President; Nick Divilbiss, 78th Treasurer; and Eric Yu, Events Director.

Above: D9 Delegates smile for a group photo on the UMKC Student Union staircase

Above are the Kansas Gamma delegates (L-R): Will VandenBos, 84th President; Eric Yu, Events Director; and Nick Divilbiss, 78th Treasurer. Advisor Paul Snider was present but is not pictured.