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Why did your chapter choose this organization(s) to support? We believe that it represents an important cause to benefit given the current political and social climate in colleges across the nation. Also our philanthropy chair sent out a poll asking which place chapter members wanted to benefit and the most people said the DC Women’s Rape Crisis Center.
== Highlights of 2017 ==
For Eta Tau, 2017 was an exciting year: old traditions were celebrated, new traditions were initiated, and our sisterhood continues to strengthen. Chapter Council 2017 approached this year with fresh, exciting ideas, and it has been wonderful seeing these new traditions brought to fruition.
[[File:Eta Tau 3.jpg|thumb|Eta Tau chapter members.]]
Throughout the year, we participated in and held several events that have focused on improving our chapter’s commitment to philanthropy, academic excellence, Panhellenic relations, and member development through sisterhood. To name a few, we hosted a Galentine’s Day sisterhood event, celebrated academic excellence with new professional development initiatives and two Academic Excellence Banquets, professional headshots, a trip to the movies, monthly book club meetings, several study breaks, a Dinner with Seven Sisters event, a women’s workwear workshop, our first chapter RIF event, a sisterhood pumpkin painting night, participated in other organizations’ philanthropy events, hosted our first annual Family Weekend Brunch, and so much more. To strengthen Panhellenic relations, Panhellenic planned the first ever meet-and-greet for our Chapter Council and Kappa Alpha Theta’s executive board, two Panhellenic pizza parties, Panhellenic office hours, and various other opportunities for members of both Panhellenic chapters to mingle and learn more about Panhellenic.
[[File:Eta Tau.jpg|thumb|Eta Tau celebrates Galentine's Day.]]
This April, some of our Chapter Council officers traveled to Pittsburgh for the very first Kappa Leadership Conference. These officers brought back with them new ideas that they immediately began implementing in our chapter to promote leadership and membership development. Additionally, we welcomed two Leadership Consultants, who each served as valuable resources for our chapter. With their guidance, we began new initiatives to enhance our chapter’s understanding of Fraternity Ritual – several ritual reviews, the Marshal Minute, and several forms of trivia regarding Fraternity history and ritual.
With our many successes, we certainly had our fair share of challenges this year, specifically with regards to budgeting. Unfortunately, we had fewer funds than we originally anticipated at the start of the fall semester, resulting in budget cuts. Despite this challenge, our Chapter Council, specifically our Treasurer and Assistant Treasurers, worked diligently to collaborate and find innovative ways to continue having fun events with fewer funds. This challenge in particular encouraged our Chapter Council to be as transparent as possible with Chapter members regarding Chapter finances. Additionally, with several pervasive issues surrounding our nation today, regarding feminism, diversity, and inclusivity, our Chapter has worked to address these issues and ensure that Kappa is a safe space where each member feels her voice is heard – specifically, through addressing all concerns brought through the anonymous Standards and Chapter Council forms, creating discussions surrounding women in the workplace and chapter issues, discussing ways we can introduce more inclusive language day to day, and feminist role model presentations.
In April, we said goodbye to 37 extraordinary seniors who created a lasting impact in our chapter. Through Fall Recruitment, we welcomed 34 incredible women into our chapter. They are dynamic, diverse, and wonderful young women who we are proud to welcome into our sisterhood. We are incredibly excited to see the impact they make in our chapter’s future.
With 2017 coming to a close, it has been remarkable to reflect on this year and see our chapter’s efforts to continue being a steadfast home to each and every member in our chapter. We are hopeful and excited that 2018 will be a year full of even more innovation in our chapter, with an unwavering commitment to Kappa Kappa Gamma’s ideals and values.
In 2017, Kappa Kappa Gamma Eta Tau has continued to develop through a variety of opportunities both on and off campus and seeks to make the chapter increasingly more inclusive.
Chapter Council altered their style of discussion to a more discussion-based platform which allows for increased dialogue regarding the challenges that our chapter faces most often. Our leadership is ultimately working toward a more collaborative environment to become more socio-economically accessible to all and retain more members long-term. These efforts hope to create a more cohesive chapter in the overall.
Eta Tau has implemented a lot of organizational changes aimed at creating a more efficient chapter. Our total shift to the GIN system is almost complete; we have successfully uploaded all documents, forms, and calendars to that system. Our last remaining step is to send all chapter correspondence out using the GIN interface, which should be complete by the end of this academic year. The usage of committees has also been improved; new members have been assigned to committees and committee heads have been working to better communication with their committee members, as well as better utilize the resources they provide. We have also implemented a new "committee recap" system in chapter, where one member of each committee stands up in chapter to recap what has been discussed in their meeting. This practice aims to increase regular chapter member participation. By the end of this academic year, we aim to implement positions within each committee to assign tasks and responsibilities to better engage chapter members with leadership roles. All these efforts to increase chapter participation aim to culminate in a greater effort on the part of the chapter to get to know our next LC.
In the fall, over half of our active members received an academic distinction. We also celebrated Eta Tau's average GPA of a 3.578. Throughout each semester, we provided chapter members with a number of opportunities to excel academically and professional. We booked private study rooms in the library for Kappa use only, debuted a number of initiatives, such as the Study Abroad Spreadsheet, Major Buddies, Senior Coffee Chats, and KKG Alumni Network, and hosted a number of study breaks for members.
Furthermore, this year our chapter continued to work towards the preservation of ritual and history despite our relatively new establishment. After our Registrar and Marshal reorganized and took inventory of our off-campus storage unit, we were able to purchase new white ropes for our 34 initiates to use at our recent initiation on November 11. This was by far our most successful and efficient initiation to date with every member of the Zeta pledge class being initiated together. Three new members' moms were able to attend Fireside and Initiation: Francesca Kehoe, Lindsey Schneider, and Peyton Shelburne. Out of 34 new members, 28 ordered fraternity badges. Additionally, we now have a t-shirt blanket to use at recruitment that depicts the variety of events that our chapter has held over the past 4 years.
[[File:EtaTau2.jpg|thumb|Eta Tau at big-little reveal.]]
In addition to welcoming 34 new members into our chapter this fall, Eta Tau has continued to make strides with our public relations. This year public relations has increased dramatically as we continue to build a positive relationship with the university administration. We have worked to ensure this by creating an online store to give members access to merchandise to represent our chapter on campus, designing and purchasing a banner to put up during all Kappa Kappa Gamma events, purchasing a camera for the chapter's use to increase the photos that our chapter has, and increasing the understanding across the chapter of the importance of positive imaging online and across campus. Finally, we will be holding a hot chocolate event for all students during finals week as a stress reliever and to exhibit the positivity that Kappa Kappa Gamma brings to Georgetown's campus.
The Education Chair and programming committee have also become a larger, more dynamic presence in our chapter. Every month there has been at least one programming night per month where we incorporate Georgetown's motto of cura personalis, or care of the whole person, into our programming events. For example, we've had personal gender based violence presentations, discussions about sexual assault, SoulCycle classes, documentary screenings, improv troupes leading us in team bonding exercises, and wellness workshops in order to try and foster a sense of holistic well-being amongst our sisters. We have laughed, bonded, and learned the value of balance through these monthly events.
In terms of senior programming, we've placed a large emphasis on senior sisterhood with manicure events and self-defense workshops, as well as a bonding-based senior orientation. We have also continued doing senior wills, senior gifts, family letters, and a then-and-now style slideshow, to celebrate our graduating sisters. Additionally, we've celebrated Founders Day in a meaningful way; we've partnered with surrounding alumna associations to commemorate our founders with a chapter-wide dinner, presentations on the six founders accompanied by trivia and giveaways, and a thoughtful ceremony. We continued the tradition of doing Founders Day awards, where we celebrate the traits of our 6 founders and present the women in our chapter who also possess those traits with commemorative posters.
Outside of chapter and senior programming, the committee has continued to have a positive impact on our chapter's culture. We have started a monthly book klub, Wellness-Wednesdays, our first annual Family Weekend Open House at the local coffee shop, our First Annual Secret Snowflake gift giving event, feminist role model presentations during elections, and more. By starting all of these new sisterhood- and empowerment- focused events, the education chair and programming committee have certainly increased their presence in Eta Tau.
Overall, we look forward to the positive impacts that 2018 Chapter Council and all members will make to continue this progress next year.
During this past year, Eta Tau has engaged in philanthropy and service for others in a variety of ways both on and off campus. In addition to each member completing service hours that often included unique and interesting clubs outside of our chapter, we have collectively partnered with other Greek and non-Greek organizations, raised awareness about important causes, and donated money through fundraising efforts.
In the spring of 2017, we focused primarily on Kappa Karnival which took place in April. For our annual Kappa Karnival on April 1st, we secured a co-sponsorship with Georgetown University Hawaii Club and donated all of the proceeds to Kahumana, a non-profit in Oahu whose mission is to co-create a healthy, inclusive, and productive, farm-based community with homeless families, people with disabilities, and children. We raised and donated $2000 to Kahumana. The event itself was a huge success, as we had the biggest turnout of any of our Karnivals to date, with participation from all of Georgetown's Greek organizations as well.
In the fall of 2017, we spent most of our energy aiding Reading is Fundamental. We raised about $800 dollars to go to the national RIF organization through our Family Weekend Brunch in addition to hosting a book drive that received about 250 books that will be going to DC Preparatory School. We crafted bookmarks in both the spring and the fall which will be going to DC Prep as well. Eta Tau also hosted a Reading is Fundamental station at the Center for Social Justice’s Fall Fest where the entire chapter came to do Mad-Libs, read fortunes, and play basketball with elementary school children in the CSJ’s tutoring programs.
Eta Tau has also been a helping hand to other organizations on campus this year. We purchased 50 books for the Center for Social Justice last spring to help them finish their book wish list for tutors to read with students. Our chapter members signed up to run Sigma Phi Epsilon’s annual Halloween 5k in which all the proceeds go to Doorways for Women and Children, an organization that provides protection to survivors of domestic violence. We also hosted a bake sale at the 5k. Additionally, we participated in Delta Phi Epsilon’s collection of pads for the homeless. Our chapter collected a total of 45 boxes of pads that went to N Street Village, a Washington D.C. shelter that aims to empower homeless and low-income women.
Our chapter has engaged with other off-campus organizations by raising $1040 for a young Zambian girl named Advent through Save the Children in the spring. We collected food donations for Washington D.C. Capital Food Bank this Thanksgiving season. We collected a total of 113 boxes and cans of goods for the food bank. We have also planned to sponsor nine children from the Georgetown School of Nursing Angel Tree to buy them presents for the upcoming holiday season.
Finally, we engaged with our local chapter of Relay for Life. Georgetown's Relay for Life, which was held on April 21st and raised over $100,000, $9,824 of which was raised by our Eta Tau team. At the event, many women from our chapter painted faces, participated in the Luminaria Ceremony, and cheered on one of our own in the Survivors Lap. This fall, our team has already raised $605 for the 2018 Relay for Life event.
Eta Tau looked both close to and far from home this year when selecting organizations to support. While we hold our commitment to RIF, Relay for Life, and other Greek organizations constant year to year, Kahumana, Georgetown's Center for Social Justice, Save the Children, Washington D.C. Capital Food Bank, and the upcoming Angel Tree were suggested to the chapter by our very own sisters. Working with organizations close to the hearts of our members is a phenomemenal way to keep them involved in our philanthrophic pursuits.