DALLAS, Texas - A crowd of blind Americans and their supporters marched through Dallas on Wednesday for the unveiling of the first U.S. coin with readable Braille characters.

Display of the design and prototype of the commemorative 2009 Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar opened the National Federation of the Blind annual convention. U.S. Mint director Frater Ed Moy (Lambda, Univ. of Wisconsin), NFB President Marc Maurer and U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions revealed the design in front of about 1,000 people at an outdoor plaza.

The heads side of the silver dollar depicts Louis Braille, inventor of the Braille reading and writing system, with the word "Liberty" above it.

"This is going to put Braille in front of people in a very dramatic way," said Chris Danielson, a federation spokesman.

On the back of the coin, the Braille code for the word Braille - or "Brl" - is inscribed, above a depiction of a school-age boy reading a Braille book with a cane resting on his arm. Behind him is a bookshelf bearing the word "Independence."

"It really expresses the hopes, the dreams and the independent spirit," NFB Executive Director Mark Riccobono said of the design.

Designers with the U.S. Mint worked with the NFB to come up with the design and chose the final version in less than 18 months, Frater Moy said.

While all coins distributed by the U.S. Mint are distinguishable to the blind by their size and weight, the Braille silver dollar is the first to have Braille characters that can be read, Frater Moy said.

The commemorative 1-ounce coin will be available in spring 2009, the 200th anniversary of Louis Braille's birth. The U.S. Mint will produce 400,000 of the coins.

For each silver dollar sold, $10 will go to the National Federation of the Blind to fund Braille literacy programs, Frater Moy said.

The group is launching one of the largest campaigns to boost Braille literacy by doubling the number of young Braille readers by 2015. Fewer than 10 percent of blind children are learning Braille, NFB officials said.

Read more about Frater Ed Moy in the Spring 2008 edition of THE TEKE Magazine. Adapted from the Houston Chronicle, Online Edition. If you would like to see your chapter news here, contact Communications Coordinator Tom McAninch.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity proudly announces the revival of the William V. Muse Alumni Volunteer Academy (AVA), a training academy unlike any other hosted by the Fraternity. Named for Frater William V. Muse (Epsilon-Upsilon, Northwestern State University), esteemed Past Grand Prytanis and former President of Auburn University, the AVA focuses on alumni skill development. The 2008 AVA will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana on August 1-3.

Frater Muse once said, "There is nothing on a university campus that presents as significant an opportunity for leadership development, character formation, and the cultivation of skills that will be important in career advancement as does membership and active participation in college fraternal organizations. One has opportunities to become both a leader, as well as an effective follower or team member. When experienced to its fullest, there is hardly any better preparation for the challenges of life after graduation."

The AVA aims to cultivate and develop emerging alumni leaders within the Fraternity. The weekend-long, multi-faceted training program will allow participants the opportunity to recommit to their Bond by being engaged and equipped to give back. The curriculum will encompass a variety of topics such as facilitation skills, chapter visit how-to's, utilizing resources provided by the Offices of the Grand Chapter, partnerships in TKE such as St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the White Ribbon Campaign, and cultivating an effective relationship with campus professionals.

"We want to provide volunteers with a 'tool box' of life-skills to develop stronger men in the Fraternity," said TKE Vice President for Fraternal Services Frater John Deckard (Grand Chapter). "In addition we will arm these volunteers with functioning sets of institutional and operational knowledge for working with collegiate chapters, university and college campuses, and the Fraternity at large."

Participants will not only have the opportunity for fellowship with other Fraters, but also reconnect with a sense of purpose in the TKE Nation.

For additional information and to apply to the Alumni Volunteer Academy, click here. The AVA is accepting applications until July 1, so be sure to get yours in today.

For more information, please contact Frater John Deckard (Grand Chapter), the Vice President for Fraternal Services at 317.872.6533 or by email. The Offices of the Grand Chapter looks forward to seeing you all at the AVA.

If you would like to see your chapter news here, contact Communications Coordinator Tom McAninch.

DETROIT, Mich. - With Chrysler LLC losing money and its market share plunging in the U.S., Chief Executive Frater Robert Nardelli (Zeta-Theta, Western Illinois Univ.) is tackling what he sees as the root cause of most of the auto maker's problems: its Old Detroit mind-set.

Over the decades when Detroit's Big Three dominated the nation's auto market, Chrysler, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. often put their own priorities, like keeping their plants running at full capacity, ahead of satisfying customers. Now, Frater Nardelli is trying to replace those old habits with some of the no-nonsense management principles that have fueled the success of General Electric Co., one of his former employers.

On Wednesday, the top 300 executives at Chrysler are expected to turn off their BlackBerrys and begin three days of in-house management seminars aimed at putting customers first in all of Chrysler's operations. Frater Nardelli himself is scheduled to lead a session on the corporate culture of a customer-driven company.

The event is the centerpiece of a broader, yearlong effort by Frater Nardelli to overhaul attitudes at Chrysler. "The traditional way of running the company got us where we are now," Mr. Nardelli said in an interview last week. "So we're trying to break some of the old paradigms."

Since August, when Cerberus Capital Management LP acquired Chrysler and installed him as CEO, Frater Nardelli, who left the top post at Home Depot Inc. early last year amid a dispute over his pay package, has vowed to turn the company into a smaller, nimbler and much more profitable auto maker.

As a newcomer to the industry, he often defers decisions about new vehicles to Vice Chairman Jim Press, a former Toyota Motor Corp. executive who joined Chrysler in September. Another auto-industry veteran, Tom LaSorda, runs the company's manufacturing operations.

But Mr. Nardelli has taken charge of re-evaluating some of Chrysler's traditional ways of doing business. The campaign for cultural change is "a big focus for Bob," said Nancy Rae, Chrysler's head of human resources. "We're leveraging his background" at GE.

GE is known for agile decision-making based on carefully compiled data the company keeps on its various businesses, including their cash flow, competitive position and other details.

Mr. Nardelli doesn't have much time for his new ideas to sink in. Although he says Chrysler is hitting its financial targets, he acknowledges the company is chalking up losses and burning through cash. And its business is being hammered as $4-a-gallon gasoline drives buyers away from trucks, sports-utility vehicles and minivans, vehicles that make up about 70% of Chrysler's sales.

In May, Chrysler's U.S. vehicle sales fell 25%, and they are likely to continue falling because Chrysler offers few small cars and those it has aren't big sellers.

Mr. Nardelli's campaign started earlier this year with detailed assessments of the company's 300 leading executives, many done by Mr. Nardelli himself. Plans call for this week's three-day seminar for top executives to be followed by four more two- or three-day training sessions throughout the rest of the year.

The Chrysler CEO is also scheduling what he calls "fireside chats" with 10 or 12 executives one or two evenings a month to discuss the company and its challenges.

Frater Nardelli and Mr. Press began thinking about changing Chrysler's culture soon after they joined the company last year. They found some of its practices worrisome. Promotions were often based more on seniority than performance. Overly optimistic sales forecasts led to poor planning and decision making. They also saw a tendency for the company to use the cheapest parts available, even if that compromised quality.

In an effort to turn the situation around, people familiar with the matter said, Mr. Nardelli had dozens of top Chrysler executives read "The Ice Cream Maker," a book by quality consultant Subir Chowdhury. He also named a chief customer officer.

In addition, Mr. Nardelli began bringing in outsiders to offer advice on turnarounds. A few months ago, a former International Business Machines Corp. executive talked about how the computer company merged some of its divisions, a person familiar with the matter said. Mr. Nardelli then began working with Ms. Rae on the series of five seminars that kick off Wednesday.

Around the same time, Chrysler got a reminder of how much farther it still needs to go. J.D. Power & Associates was about to release a closely watched quality survey in which the company's three brands -- Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep -- all ranked below the industry average, and Jeep was dead last.

Just before the survey was made public, Mr. Nardelli wrote a memo reminding employees to confront the company's problems. "Do not let anything override the priority to satisfy the customer," he wrote. "To win in a competitive market, we need to install a mind-set of never being satisfied with 'good enough.'"

Adapted from the Wall Street Journal, Online Edition. If you would like to see your chapter news here, contact Communications Coordinator Tom McAninch.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The Offices of the Grand Chapter extend a heartfelt Happy Birthday to Frater Les Paul (Gamma-Delta, Univ. of Miami) as he celebrates his 93rd birthday.

Born Lester William Polsfuss, the music icon adopted the simplified stage name Les Paul and began his career as a professional guitarist at age 13. In 1941, Frater Les Paul developed one of the first solid-body electric guitars. Through his partnership with Gibson Guitars, the first Les Paul guitar was sold in the early 1950s. Today, Gibson Les Paul guitars are still sold worldwide in a wide variety of setups, styles and finishes.

One of the most popular Les Paul models is the handsome Gibson Vintage Mahogany Les Paul Guitar. With a carved mahogany top on a mahogany back, this model resembles the guitar that was first debuted as the famous 1957 Custom Black Beauty.

Frater Les Paul is also remembered for his groundbreaking innovations in multi-track recording. Using wax discs to overlay tracks, he composed "Lover (When You're Near Me)" in 1947 and the session that produced the song marked the first time multi-tracking was used in professional recording.

To learn more about Les Paul, click here.

Frater Les Paul still performs weekly in New York City's Iridium Jazz Club. The Offices of the Grand Chapter sends a loud chorus of sincere thanks to this American jazz guitarist for his groundbreaking work and wishes him a very happy birthday.

If you would like to see your chapter news here, contact Communications Coordinator Tom McAninch.

ITHACA, New York - NASA's Spirit mission may hold the key to proving that life on Mars is not just wishful thinking. The patch of silica-rich soil accidentally uncovered by the rover last year had a major impact on the scientific community, who started asking one question: was that a sign that past life on Mars was ever possible?

In a study recently published in the journal Science, a team of researchers led by Frater Steven Squyres (Scorpion, Cornell Univ.) explained that the hot springs, which are believed to have played an important role in forming the silica layer, could indicate possible forms of life.

By comparison with Earth, such deposits, usually associated with hot springs and other forms of volcanic activities, contain fossil remains of microbes, Jack Farmer, professor of astrobiology in Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration, and co-author of the study, explained.

However, it remains hard to tell whether that could be the case on Mars, considering that the Spirit rover doesn't carry the adequate instruments to probe that. But, Farmer added, what scientists can say is that this environment, once rich in liquid water and energy needed for life, was at some point a habitable environment.

Last year, Frater Squyres said that whether the water came from a hot-spring, similar to a geyser, or from a fumarole in which acidic streams rose through the cracks, the concentration of silica is the most significant discovery by Spirit for revealing a habitable niche that existed on Mars in the past.

Scientists still oscillate between the two possible origins of water on Mars, and some even said that the deposits found have a great level of titanium, which is often encountered in Earth's fumarolic deposits, indicating that water may have originated from fumaroles.

The Spirit Mission, originally planned for 90 Martian Days of surveillance, has gathered over four years on the Red Planet. The next Martian mission, with the next generation of rover - Phoenix, is expected to prove that life on Mars is not just a myth. The Mars Rover landed on May 25, in the northernmost point studied to date. Frater Squyres is very excited about the data they could collect from this mission.

Adapted from eFluxMedia News Article. If you would like to see your chapter news here, contact Communications Coordinator Tom McAninch.