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At our first philanthropy of the year, Kappanada, all of our collected proceeds were donated to the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation, Canada. The donations of our following philanthropy, Scream Kweens, were given to the Canada Cancer Society. For our first philanthropy event, Kappanada, our chapter wanted to support the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation in its efforts to support women in scholarships. As for our Scream Kweens philanthropy, we donated to the Canada Cancer Society, as mulitple of our members and families in our community were directly affected by it around the time and we wanted to work together to support them.
==Highlights of 2019==
2020 was a whirlwind of a year, but in full Beta Psi spirit we continued to have an exciting and eventful year! In March, chapter operations came to a halt when COVID-19 forced classes to be moved online. Our composite photoshoot and Sapphire formal were postponed to the Fall term. Due to the unique challenges faced this year, the date and time of chapter meetings and chapter council meetings for the Fall term were rescheduled to accommodate time zone differences for our members, and extra consideration was taken when planning chapter events to ensure inclusivity of international members.
Beta Psi turned 109 this year, and our chapter was honoured to be recognized for our many achievements through both the Fraternity and our campus Panhellenic Association. We are proud to have received the Gracious Living Award, and an honourable mention for the Ritual Award for 2018-2020 at convention. Additionally, our chapter was voted Most Outstanding Chapter, Best Panhellenic Spirit, and Panhellenic Council Officer of the Year for 2019 by the University of Toronto Panhellenic Association.
Recruitment this year was fully virtual. Beta Psi welcomed 20 new members to our chapter, doubling our chapter size from the beginning of September, growing from 23 members to 43.
With respect to the Panhellenic Delegate role, due to the spread of COVID-19 in early March, it was decided to cancel the in-person all-sorority social that was to be hosted by Kappa Kappa Gamma (a self-serve sundae bar to encourage bonding and sharing amongst sororities); the decision was made to prioritize the health and safety of everyone in the Greek community.
We welcomed the best pledge class that gradually grew to become a headstrong group of 20 ladies. With that, our first challenge was determining an appropriate time to hold our New Member meetings given how international our pledge class was. We were able to sort this out to accommodate most time zone differences. New Member Chair held Office Hours or anyone to ask any questions or even to provide a platform for anyone to simply hangout. In addition, given that it was a fully virtual year, we had to overcome the logistics of planning online events for a Chapter of over 40 ladies.
We had our two formal pinning ceremonies on October 4th and 25th. Then we had our first ever online “House of Blues” themed BID day on October 10th. That was followed by several Big/Little Speed Dating Events and Coffee Dates where the bigs and littles got to know each other. Despite some initial logistical issues, we were able to figure out a set up that worked really well.
Another challenge faced was the distance that made sending our newest members their Bid day and Big/Little welcome gifts a bit more complicated. However, we managed to overcome that obstacle as well! This all lead up to our Big/Little Reveal on November 7th and given our
extra-large pledge class we ended up with 5 pairs of twins! For the reveal, we also had many guest appearances from alumna members. One thing that was nice about having online events was that it allowed more flexibility for alumni to join. Lastly, we ended with Initiation on November 21st. It was an amazing year, but we are most grateful for the very tight knit pledge class that was so understanding and positive despite all the challenges and delays that we faced as we tried to sort out these new circumstances we found ourselves in.
In regards to Academic Excellence, Beta Psi still continued to do monthly KKGenius, hosted a few drop-in study days and also an academic panel!
In regards to Beta Psi Vice President of Organization, we worked on reinstating committees, we did not get a LC visit during the Spring and fall semester, due to COVID, but we are working to find options to hold the visit virtually in the future.
We are very proud of the chapter for pulling off a great recruitment and particularly proud of the transparency with which we presented finances to potential new members. Our treasurer and financial advisors have also met every couple of weeks during the 2020 year to revisit the budget according to changing government guidelines, to issue credits to members for events that weren't held, and kept members updated throughout the process to promote transparency as well.
Public Relations was more crucial than ever in 2020 with all operations shifted online. 2020 was a year that came with multiple challenges for the entire chapter. PR was especially important this year for the chapter as it is the main channel where people would receive the latest updates on important matters such as recruitment, philanthropy, sisterhood activities and more. In the summer of 2020, PR had to step up to post the chapter's stance on BLM and COVID safety-related topics. Moreover, PR was one of the most integral parts of the chapter's success in recruitment as it was the main form of communication between the chapter and PNMs. To have the chapter to be as involved as possible, our PR efforts also included weekly takeovers by chapter members from all across the world including, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Latvia, South Africa and more! 2020 also welcomed new segments in our chapter's PR such as showcasing the house with a house tour video during recruitment, a Founders' Day video, a short house tour of our Christmas decor, featuring the sister of the week and Kappa's values on our Instagram. Beta Psi also followed a thorough PR plan release by Kappa HQ for our recruitment promotional materials. In terms of philanthropy, as everything is held online this year, PR was crucial in spreading the word out to the public. We have posted daily Instagram posts, stories and videos highlighting our philanthropy drive. We have also asked chapter members to repost promotional material for the drive daily too. All in all, 2020 was made easier through the chapter's collective effort of taking over Kappa's Instagram to showcase individuality and where our members are located as well as in keeping the chapter connected to the public.
With COVID, all in-person events were either cancelled and/or scaled down for Beta Psi in 2020. In a regular year, our chapter would usually have Sapphire, our year-end dinner in April. As everything was closed then, our chapter voted to postpone Sapphire to September. Due to safety concerns and to adhere to local guidelines and regulations, we had a smaller scale Sapphire in 2020. Sapphire was held on September 6th 2020 and it was a hybrid event. We had the option to call into the event and/or to join in-person for members who were in town and/or are comfortable with an in-person event. We only had chapter members attending Sapphire this year rather than the regular attendance of both chapter members and a plus one. It was an extremely successful event in terms of sisterhood as it was the first and only in-person event that we had in 2020 and it was held the week before school commenced. Over the semester, we had multiple online events that members could join. Some of them included an online social with UofT's Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity and another online social with Kappa's Zeta Omega chapter. We also had optional sisterhood events such as Zumba and yoga classes. We will be ending the year with another online event where we will be having a movie night along with Kahoot.
On February 3rd Beta Psi held its first fundraiser of 2020 with its 6th annual all Canadian-themed philanthropy, Kappanada. All proceeds of this event were donated to the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation for its efforts to support collegiate women through scholarship programs. The COVID-19 pandemic presented real challenges to executing philanthropic activities for Beta Psi, as most service efforts are reliant on in-person engagement. Aside from supporting the philanthropies of fellow Greek organizations on campus, Beta Psi held their Keep6ixwarm Give-back in December as a way to provide care packages to the city’s local vulnerable people experiencing homelessness, particularly as COVID exacerbated Toronto’s already precarious housing situation. Through a high social media presence the chapter was able to raise many donations in order to support this project.
Beta Psi celebrated Founder’s Day virtually with the Toronto Alumni Association on October 18th. The Education Chairman held a programming event to go over the history of Kappa and Beta Psi.