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→Highlights of 2013
-November started off to a great start with the first full week being Initiation Week. The Sigma’s packed in Big/Little Reveal, Key Reveal and Initiation all in one week. The chapter was also fortunate to have the Leadership Consultant, Morgan, stay with them for the week. At the end of the week 44 new members were initiated into Sigma Chapter as the New Member Class of 2013.
An overall description of Sigma Chapter and the UNL campus is “growth.” This year brought Sigma the biggest pledge class that it has seen in awhile, with over 1,000 girls going through recruitment this past fall it was bound to happen. UNL has also been building new dorm halls and a new housing building called the 50/50 building. Lincoln has also been growing. Building a new area in the Downtown area of Lincoln, called the Railyard, which is where the new Pinnacle Bank Arena is. The new Arena has brought many concerts and fun events to Lincoln and is also where the UNL men’s basketball team plays their home games. “Growth” is a word that is heard around Kappa all the time. With the bigger and bigger pledge classes every year, growth is a common word. Sigma is always looking towards the future and to how the chapter can improve and become the best that it can be.
==Highlights of 2014==
The year of 2014 marked yet another successful and busy time for Sigma chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma. To kick off the year, 18 new officers were installed at formal meeting and they had the pleasure of attending Leadership Day. Leadership day brought the new and old officers together under the assistance and activities of Sharon Gober, Director of Standards. This paved the way for a smooth transition into the new roles and helped promote support between officers as well as motivation for a great year! Under the leadership of President Hannah Kupka, the chapter took on a great year of events.
2014 brought new chapter goals for the actives to work towards including: to increase involvement outside of Kappa and improve social media image, improve chapter academic excellence, establish awareness of Fraternity/Chapter History, By-Laws/Standing Rules, Chapter Budget, and Ritual, and lastly to strengthen chapter accountability, courtesy, and trustworthiness. To achieve these goals, a monthly focus action plan was implemented. VPO, Lindsey Arneson established a theme each month and programs were put on to that concentrated on this theme. For example, October is Fraternity/Chapter History Month. To put this into practice, in October 2014 we celebrated Founder’s Day, which celebrates the establishment of our national fraternity. Throughout the month, the members were further educated on Sigma history through trivia questions and quizzes during meeting and a newsletter around the house with many fun facts.
For Spring 2014, our All-House GPA was a 3.35. Of this, 43 members received a 3.5 GPA or above and 10 members received a 4.0. We had tremendous support and financial donations from the local Alumnae Associations. We are so fortunate to have such generous alumni. They provided us with many scholarships just for Sigma Chapter amounting to over $25,000. They were presented at our event, Celebrate Sigma, during the Spring of 2014. Challenges include increasing our chapter’s GPA and academic rank on campus. I believe we succeeded in informing our chapter of our academic expectations. We provided exciting incentives for attending class through the “No Skippy Jar” and reward academic successes through the “Owl Jar.” For recruitment, we voted to increase the grade requirement for incoming freshman from a 3.33 to a 3.5 GPA. We are very excited about these changes!
Sigma chapter successfully completed two main philanthropies under guidance of Philanthropy chairman Ally Patterson. In the Spring, our chapter put on Kappa Goes Country in our parking lot with a local fraternity on campus. At Kappa Goes Country, the girls helped facilitate games and line dances, while also passing out Arby’s sandwiches. We also had a live concert from a local artist, Nicky James. We raised a little over 2,000 dollars for the Alzheimer's Association. In the fall, we had our second annual Kappa Kickball. This event is an all day kickball tournament for local fraternities around campus. We had over 22 teams participate and ended up raising 5,500 dollars for Educate Uganda. We also sold spots in our parking lot to raise money for the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation for our home football games. Last but not least, we started collecting children's books from alumnae to start up a book drive. Additionally, Kappas took on the unwritten tradition of participating in Dance Marathon to benefit the Children's Miracle network and The Big Event, a volunteer day reaching out to the city of Lincoln. Many Kappas served on the executive board for this event.
Along with all the other events Kappas participated in this calendar year, three different formals took place. Two of which were held at a venue and the girls and their dates dressed up in formal attire. In addition, we had "Kappa Date Night" in the Spring at the house were we enjoyed eating all together and having their dates interact. Last spring we also held dad’s day, the dads and their daughter went on a tour of Memorial Stadium and enjoyed company from each other. The moms and daughters are eager to attend the mom's day which will be in Spring 2015.
This past year the chapter was educated in a number of ways. Last year’s seniors were able to take part in three Senior Programs during the Spring of 2014. These programs were focused on etiquette, relaxation through yoga, and Celebrate Sigma. The seniors this year were also able to participate in three Senior Programs. These were focused on budgeting/finance, building a resume, and once again relaxation through yoga. In Spring 2014, we had a successful Celebrate Sigma, where the seniors were honored and multiple women received awards and scholarships. The week of September 22-26 of 2014 was National Anti-Hazing Prevention Week. Each day of the week there was a different contest/activity, all of which combined to promote anti-hazing with our fraternity and campus. During the fall of 2014, we also took part in Founder’s Day, where we celebrated the 144th year of Kappa! In addition, this past year we also participated in Greek Week and Homecoming. Both events were successful and we had great involvement from everyone in the house. We also held two dinner exchanges during the fall semester with other sororities on campus. In October, we hosted our annual "Boo and Boo" event where we decorated the whole house, provided snacks, organized Halloween themed games, and had trick-or-treating at each of the rooms. There was a great turn out with alumnae, their children, family, and friends.
Another big highlight for Sigma this year were the retreats the ladies of Kappa got to participate in together. Each pledge class had the opportunity of choosing their retreat in Spring 2014. A couple initiation classes decided to go to Husker baseball games together, while others took on self defense classes. In the Fall of 2014, members attended an all house retreat at the recreation center. During this time together we did many team building/trust building activities as well as a couple childhood games such as playing with a parachute and ships and sailors. We had a lot of fun getting to know one another a little bit better through the games we played and trust builders we worked through. Also in the Fall the standards committee held a night for all of the new members to come over to carve/paint pumpkins together and eat caramel apples! Throughout the entire year, the standards committee worked to strengthen the sisterhood of Sigma Chapter and get women more involved in the lives of their sisters.
This past summer eight Chapter Council members and two Chapter Council advisers traveled to Houston, Texas to attend Kappa’s Biennial Convention. It was an honor to represent Sigma and we were awarded the Standards Award among five other honorable mentions. We take pride in our chapter, thanks to our devoted members, influential Chapter Council, inspiring Chapter Adviser Mary Ford, and loyal alumnae. Also in the summer, Sigma had a very successful work week and recruitment week. One day of formal recruitment we focused on our national philanthropy, Reading is Fundamental where the members of the chapter created bookmarks with the women that were coming through. This was a new and exciting experience.
In other news, it was a great year for finance this past year, members were timely about paying their bills every month. Also, this past year, we a live out meal plan for members so that they could eat at the chapter house as often as they wanted. This plan seemed to be effective and because one of our chapter goals was the chapter budget, it was great that our finances went smoothly this calendar year.
Fall was a very exciting time for Sigma because our new members were getting initiated! We initiated 46 New Members on November 8, 2014. We then held ritual review for the new members following Initiation. For the entire chapter, we continued to improve on ritual and held practices for songs and meanings of ritual. We also continued to follow parliamentary procedure as well as continuing to hold Kappa Kappa Gamma values and ritual to a high standard. The new members had the opportunity to grow as a class and in sisterhood at their two new member retreats that fall. They went to the pumpkin patch for one and then passed the key for the other.
Kappas also focused on reaching out to the other Greek organizations on campus this year. Sigma sent out sympathy cards and flowers to actives and other greek organizations who experienced losses, as well as sent out Valentines and holiday cards in the winter to chapters on campus.
In November we hosted a Staff Appreciation Dinner to thank all of the staff at Kappa for what they do for us. To ensure the house was held to standard and to show our support for all the house board does for us, we started to have mandatory live-in meetings every first Thursday of the month as something new to keep everybody in the loop. These were extremely successful and helped remind and encourage the women of Kappa Kappa Gamma to respect the house. Overall, the year 2014 was nothing short of excellent for Sigma Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma and they look forward to an exciting and successful 2015!
The Greek community at Nebraska is a very strong system. Summer of 2014 brought in the most amount of women for formal recruitment our campus has ever seen! It houses 23 Interfraternity Council Fraternities and 15 Panhellenic Council Sororities. The Greek community is very diverse and prides itself community events; each organization hosts at least one philanthropic fundraiser each year. Kappa Kappa Gamma has immense support from the other organizations, which is apparent in the amount of money raised this year. Just like the Greek system in general, Sigma has a diverse population of young women involved in various things on campus, such as University athletics, officers of clubs, members of Honors Societies, a newly accepted treasurer of Panhellenic, and many more. The overall nature is inspiring, uplifting, and motivating.
Sigma chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma holds chapter meetings in a multipurpose room in the lower level of their chapter house. It is a chapter owned facility on the campus of University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Our chapter has their own house that they love and take pride in. Our chapter was one of the first houses established on campus at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Due to this, it is now considered a national landmark. The house consists of three levels. We have two person and three person rooms on each level, and the occupancy of the house is 65 sisters. Active members from every pledge class love to come to the house and spend their free time there; it is unique, cozy, and makes our members feel "at home."
==Highlights of 2020s:==
