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Service is very important to our chapter as a whole and girls often say that some of their best sisterhood memories are from the times when we are helping others.
==Highlights of 2016:==
The Eta Zeta Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma continues to uphold standards and values of the fraternity through community service, sisterhood and campus involvement.
Our 2016 president was Victoria Williams. She attended the Kappa National Biannual Convention in June to vote on changing the structure of the organization and elect the new fraternity council. She gained new advanced knowledge about Kappa and met other sisters from across the country. At the convention, Eta Zeta was awarded the Finance award in recognition of outstanding achievements for the years 2014 to 2016.
Throughout her term as Vice President of Standards, she worked with her committee to implement as many new and refreshing ideas as possible. The biggest changes have come through just working to communicate better with the chapter as a whole about standards and overall expectations. The committee has continued many of our sisterhood building ideas from the past such as the Blue Bra of Support, and weekly Kappa Keeper of the Key. The VPS created a new Sisterhood Favorites Binder to have in our study lounge that our sisters can look to for ideas to build each other up, if someone is having a bad day. This year we also had a very fun sisterhood retreat that we used as a way to bond coming back to school from summer break, and also a way to prepare for recruitment. As we welcome in new members, a new set of needs to be fulfilled by Standards. Our chapter has improved greatly in terms of inclusion and morality due to the events planned by the VPS. Our chapter has taken major steps towards being more accountable for each individual’s actions, which has been a great learning opportunity for all of us.
Upon starting her time as the Vice President of Organization, she really wanted to improve committee involvement. She therefore tried to implement a committee member of the month system, where each committee chair would nominate a member of their committee each month that they believe has significantly contributed in one way or another. While this did not hold up, it will be tried next term. There was a new approach to committee usage with merged groups that the former VPO created and she continued them this year because they were received well. The groups remain as follows: Risk/Events, House/Philanthropy, Ritual/Corresponding Secretary/New Member, Panhel/Registrar/Membership/PR and VPO/Education/VPAE, with the standards and finance committees dispersed throughout these 5 groups. Eta Zeta also hosted two Leadership Consultants, one in April and one in September. These visits were very successful, since many girls got to meet the LC’s, took them out to dinner and were able to benefit greatly from their knowledge. The first visit during April allowed chapter council to focus on how to get members more involved and how to be more cohesive as a council. The second visit in the fall was focused around recruitment. All of Eta Zeta’s members were able to learn how to better communicate with the PNMs as well as refresh their knowledge on recruitment procedures. Furthermore, having a Leadership Consultant present during recruitment made the weekend a lot smoother and the voting process a lot clearer and more efficient. She really feels that the involvement and interest that the girls showed in both of the LCs this year was really great and was really happy to see how much we were all able to benefit from their visits. Looking forward, she thinks that encouraging committee involvement
and usage of the Ginsystem, as well as planning organized, fun visits for the Leadership Consultants, should be a point of focus of the next VPO.
Our Vice President of Academic Excellence began a new program called “Geek of the Week” that recognizes one sister each week for an outstanding academic achievement. This has been a fun way to celebrate excelling in classes. She emphasized tracking study hours through the Gin System, rather than the binder in the library we used to use. This helped to increase the number of study hours we completed as a chapter, because they could be recorded from anywhere on campus. This showed how committed our chapter is to their studies. She continued the academic buddy system for last year, which pairs up new members with someone of the same major for advice with scheduling, etc. She was overwhelmed with the positive response from this program. For fall 2015, we had a GPA of 3.26 and were 3rd for all of Greek Life and also 3rd for the sororities; the average all female campus GPA was a 3.19. For spring 2016, we had a 3.31 and were tied for 3rd overall for Greek life and also tied for 3rd of the sororities. The average all campus female GPA was 3.31. Overall, she is a great motivator for the chapter and has led to an increase in our academic involvement.
The Corresponding Secretary has added many new ideas to Chapter Council and the chapter as a whole to both keep everyone on top of their position and unit the chapter as sisters. She ordered report reminder cards and handed them out to each officer as a way to help get reports turned in on time. She started a secret admirer box which sits in the lounge and girls can write compliments about each other and then they are read out loud at chapter. This has encouraged positivity and encouragement amongst the Kappas. She also sent out birthday cards to advisors and alum in order to keep our relationships with them high.
The Eta Zeta treasurer instituted a program called Kappa Cash last year in order to better educate members of their personal finances. She teaches a mini lesson related to finance and then asks a question about it at a later date to ensure people understand the meaning and application. Those that answer the question correctly are then entered in either the checking, a midterm gift card drawing, or the savings, a final gift card drawing, account. This has been a great way to get everyone involved and learn more in fun ways. From the duties of the treasurer, everyone in the chapter gains a better understanding of how to manage their money.
In order to keep the sisters of Eta Zeta constantly involved in Kappa history, the Registrar did various history updates in chapter or on the Facebook wall. Additionally, she ordered a Museum in a Box from Headquarters which provided an exciting amount of new history to the entire chapter. This was celebrated along with a history presentation around Founder’s Day. Eta Zeta also celebrated their 15th anniversary as a chapter on November 17.
Our Marshal of Eta Zeta chapter made it a goal for girls to understand the procedure of ritual. After gaining twenty-one New Members through recruitment this Fall, the Marshal held the Pledge-In ceremony on October 9th , one week after Bid Day. Leading up to Inspiration week, she prepared Eta Zeta for Initiation by holding twice-weekly Initiation reviews, requiring each member to attend at least one per week. She wanted girls to really know the songs for Initiation. The Sunday starting Inspiration week she had two girls stand up in front of the chapter and tell members what kappa means to them. This got the Initiates excited to join a strong bond of sisterhood. On Wednesday, November 16, the Marshal planned Blue and Blue and Flowerside for the sisters of Eta Zeta as a way to strengthen the bond between our sisters as we prepared for Initiation on Saturday. At Blue and Blue, letters were written from Initiates to their future littles telling them about Inspiration week and how they are feeling and about their Kappa family. Bigs wrote letters for their littles to read the night before Initiation. In addition, the Flowerside ceremony took place the same night as Blue and Blue, where the New Members received flowers from their bigs that represented them in some way. Littles of graduating seniors also spoke on behalf of their bigs at this time. A thorough Initiation review followed the ceremony to prepare everyone for Saturday. On November 18th, Fireside ceremony took place and before that everyone helped to set-up for Initiation. Getting prepared for Initiation was a little challenging this year since the New Member period was shortened. However, the chapter worked together. On Saturday, November 19th, twenty-one New Members were Initiated. The Marshal met with the newly initiated members of Eta Zeta in order to debrief from Initiation.
At the end of Spring 2016 we said goodbye to eleven Kappas. This year our chapter has a graduation class of seventeen. The Education chair recently organized Founder's Day at the Westwood Country Club in Rocky River. We were in attendance along with various alumni from the Cleveland area. The chapter has also been actively participating in education events and programming nights. During the fall semester, the chief of the John Carroll police department gave a presentation about substance abuse, and the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center gave a presentation about sexual assault and harassment. The senior class of 2016 also participated in some fun sisterhood events at the end of the year, and care packages were sent to the Kappas that were studying abroad. Overall, this past year has been successful and we are looking forward to more educational events in the future.
Eta Zeta’s housing chairman continually strived to maintain a clean, inviting space on the sorority floor for all of the sisters. She used her budget to add new decorations to the floor before recruitment and saw a great reaction. Girls are always in the lounge and it is always a welcoming and homey atmosphere. In addition, she utilized the Kappa House Board who generously funded a new vacuum and microwave. Along with Residence Life on campus, she implemented creating the roster for the floor sooner (in November vs. February) to avoid people signing leases to live off campus, which was a small issue in the chapter this year. She continues to reserve rooms on campus to hold all of Eta Zeta’s events and submits work orders to fix anything that needs repair on the floor.
Our 2016 Membership Chairman said recruitment was wonderful. Kappa Kappa Gamma was able to welcome twentyone new members during formal recruitment. This year we had a 100 percent retention rate on the first day of recruitment thanks to all the hard work from our members. Through formal recruitment we reached our school's capacity of membership and did not participate during informal recruitment. In the Spring, Kappa Kappa Gamma participated in a workshop to practice conversation skills and the Membership Chairman also had a separate workshop to educate our new members on the recruitment process. In the Fall she created events to get girls excited for the long weekend ahead. There were a total of two workshops one to improve conversation skills and another pertaining to the logistics of recruitment. Throughout the weekend everyone had high spirits and were excited to welcome our new members.
The new member period for Eta Zeta was shortened from eight weeks to five weeks in order for them to be initiated before semester break. While it was a lot to take in in a short time, the New Member Educator worked very hard to ensure a smooth, enjoyable transition for all the girls. Her goal was to be creative with her position and think as much outside of the box as possible because she believed that the program was becoming repetitive each year. Keeping with tradition and following all of the events, she put her own twist on things. The new members also completed the "Not Anymore" program prior to being initiated.
Last year, Kappa passed a bylaw that stated members must attend one Panhellenic event per semester which has been a great way to get all our sisters involved with other greek life. Eta Zeta showed a great presence at other greek life activities, philantrophy events and panhellenic fundraisers. This year Kappa had one member serve on the Panhellenic Executive Board as Vice President of Finance and Administration. Three other members were also chosen to be Recruitment Counselors (Pi Chis) and assist with the potential new members during fall recruitment. At the end of the semester, three memebers were elected onto the Panhellenic Executive Board for the following term - President, Vice President of Scholarship and Standards, and Vice President of Public Relations.
This past year, after taking over Public Relations Chairman from a member who had previously held the position for the last 2 years, she worked hard in continuing to maintain a favorable image for Eta Zeta over social media and other digital platforms, but implemented brand consistency to help our chapter become better recognized and distinguished from other organizations. For example, she created a new social media logo and cover photo for the chapter and created different campaigns and graphics showcasing our members (eg. 30 Reasons Why We Love Kappa, National Kindness Week, Kappa Keeper of the Key). As a result, the chapter and members received lots of positive feedback and were featured multiple times on the Kappa Headquarters Instagram account. Through her PR efforts, she tried to encourage members to become more involved in the chapter by taking an interest in following their sisters' accomplishments, headquarters news and supporting other Greek organizations on and off campus. She also created materials such as flyers, banners, buttons and social media advertisements to promote our philanthropy events like Kappa Dog Day and Kappasta. In addition, she updated the chapter website through the GIN system by including new officer and position bios and pictures, uploading new images of members and adding a new section under the website menu that included our campus involvement. She also put together the annual newsletter which will now be sent out every December since officer transitions are conducted then. This makes the most sense to summarize the events that took place in that time frame (from January - December) based on the members who held the positions then. She also completed the Chapter Honors Report and sent it in to headquarters in May. Overall, many positive strides were made this year for Eta Zeta’s public relations.
To continue to build relationships with the Greek organizations on campus, Eta Zeta had many social events. In the spring, we had a Board Game mixer with Beta Theta Pi, a Letter Shirt mixer with Delta Tau Delta, a Gym Day with Sigma Phi Epsilon, and a Floor Hangout with Lambda Chi Alpha. We also had many mixers during Greek Week including a Pizza Party with Kappa Alpha Theta. Sapphire Ball was in late April. In the fall, Kappa had a Tailgate and Cookout mixer with Sigma Phi Epsilon, Pumpkin Carving with Lambda Chi, Karaoke with Beta Theta Pi, and Christmas Cookie Decorating with Delta Tau Delta. Eta Zeta held a "Perfect Pairs" date dance in early November. The Events Chairman worked hard to improve behavior at date functions and continue implementing all risk management procedures. In the future, Eta Zeta hopes to cultivate relationships with all Greek Organizations on campus and to improve Panhellenic relations with more sorority mixers.
During the Risk Management chair’s term, she worked to promote healthy living habits to the chapter in new, fun ways. She made many upbeat playlists through Spotify in which the whole chapter could access for workout motivation. She has offered workout plans and diet plans to anyone who is interested. She continued the Buddy system from last year, which assigns buddies to each member for all social events in order to be responsible for each other’s actions and promote low-risk behaviors. Our risk behavior has improved greatly from last year due to the immense efforts of the Events and Risk Management Chairs to relay to the chapter the importance of respectable actions. The chapter has become more reliant on each other and constantly working towards no high-risk behavior at all. Along with that, the chair brought in Brian Hurd, the head of campus police, to discuss the risks of underage drinking. He even had the chair undergo sober checkpoints to illustrate how someone would be tested. This was a great reminder to the chapter of the real, legal consequences that can come with alcohol. The risk management chair is also planning a fitness event off campus through Orange Theory Fitness. She worked extremely hard and increased the morale of the chapter this past year.
The philanthropy chair continued with our annual fall Kappasta event to raise money for Reading is Fundamental. It was football themed and titled “Kappasta Bowl”. This year, a total of $2,563 was raised in addition to approximately 400 books. An event is in the planning to distribute and read the books to local schools. In the spring, Eta Zeta hosted the first annual “Kappa Dog Day” in which hot dogs were sold and there was also a hotdog eating competition in order to raise money for Kappa Kidney Camp. This was a very successful event that got other students on campus involved with one of our philanthropies and also allowed for some friendly competition. The chapter has continued to be involved in many service events on campus including Danie’s Day, a day of service with children who have downs syndrome, and Through the Eyes of a Child, where Kappa has a coloring page table and pictures with Santa for children from inner city schools of Clevelend. The members have continued collecting service hours that are over and above the required amounts.
We have had no major changes on campus this year. Our chapter is very respected on campus and has a good reputation. We are known for being involved in many things other than just our chapter, constantly exploring our other interests and expanding our experiences. Despite a few bumbs with high-risk behavior in the past, the chapter has motivated each other to become more responsible of their actions and respectable of their sisters. No matter the issue, the chapter and their council always work together to establish the best solution and overcome whatever lies ahead.
Eta Zeta has supported Reading is Fundamental through our annual Kappasta Event, where we offer endless pizza, pasta and salad to our campus and community for a small monetary donation or a childrens book donation. We have also supported Kappa Kidney Camp and the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation with various smaller scale events throughout the year.
Reading is Fundamental is our national sorority philantrophy, but also a great foundation in which all of our members believe in. The Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation is a great way for us to give back to Kappa and support our fellow sisters all over the country.
==Highlights of 2020s:==