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==2012==
2012 was a year of excitement and improvement, within Eta Alpha and the Greek Community as a whole. Our most noteworthy accomplishment was a brand new philanthropy event. To replace our outdated fraternity pageant, we started the first annual Kappa Cook Off. Teams of fraternities competed for the best burger recipe and sororities competed for the best dessert. We charged admission for teams and for anybody in the Furman/Greenville community to eat and enjoy live music, and raised $1300. We were happy with the involvement of non-Greek students, professors, and other on-campus organizations and it was great publicity.
This year we participated in Homecoming week activities with Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Our hardwork and involvement with float-building paid off in great PR (photo on the Furman homepage) and the first prize trophy for floats! Kappa participated in many other Greek organizations' philanthropy weeks--coming in second place for both Sigma Chi Derby Days and Delta Gamma's Anchor Splash.
Internally, Eta Alpha made so many improvements that we were able to get off the focus letter that we were put on in 2011. This was achieved by every sister's own effort, as well as the hard work of chapter council and VPO, who came up with the Leadership Action Plan to follow. Areas we made great strides in were chapter efficiency, committee organization, and knowledge and appreciation for ritual. Similarly, we got overwhelming positive feedback on initiation in March, after adjustments were made to keep it more in accordance with ritual while also being a special sisterhood retreat. According to a chapter survey in December, ritual and anti-hazing policy rank highest among Eta Alpha's strengths.
Chapter council would also like to mention that this year we benefitted greatly from our LC visits and Kappa trainers, especially as our advisory board was going through many changes.
The Greek community at Furman started to undergo many changes in 2012. With the installation of a new Greek Life adviser, Cameron Smith, several aspects of informal and formal recruitment were adjusted this year. Informal recruitment rules were improved to allow us to better get to know potential new members. Our panhellenic counselors, previously called Alpha Zetas, were renamed Pi Chis. Pi Chi groups started doing bonding activities together earlier in the fall. Recruitment rules were very specific for sororities this year--more rounds, each one smaller, were added in order to make the parties less overwhelming for potential new members. Panhellenic has also become more interested in raising official quota for sororities on campus, in order to make chapters more equal in size.
As a chapter, Eta Alpha feels its members are genuine, warm, welcoming, and supportive. Our chapter is extremely diverse in our academic and personal interests, extracurricular activities, and backgrounds. We feel our chapter is strengthened by this diversity and the phrase "individually unique, together complete" fitting.