374
edits
Changes
→Highlights of 2013
Describe the recent changes on your campus and describe the overall nature of your chapter.
After gaining 110+ girls, our chapter meetings had to be held in the Nursing Building Auditorium to fit such a high capacity. USC is set to have Pi beta Phi on campus in the fall
==Highlights of 2014==
Scholarship:
-Our chapter has continued to improve our GPA both semesters. Our chapter was ranked tenth out of all of the University of South Carolina’s sororities and fraternities for the spring of 2014 and ninth in the fall of 2014 in regards to GPA.
-Our chapter fostered academic growth through Geek of the Week, 4.0 gifts, Exam Breakers during exam week, Sweet Tea with KKG, Kappa Kappaccino, and study hours.
Awards:
-Received the Silver Excellence Award from The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life for both spring and fall 2014
-Honorable mention in Recruitment and Public Relations from the Kappa Kappa Gamma National Convention in June of 2014
-Voted “Best Sorority” of the University of South Carolina for Best of Carolina 2014
Leadership:
- National Conference in Houston, TX June 25-29th, 2014: Officers attended: President, Public Relations Chairman, Event Chairman, Marshal, Treasurer
- Leadership Academy September 11th-14th, 2014 attended by Taylor Kessock
-South Eastern Panhellenic Conference (SEPC) March 28-30th, 2014 attended by Lindsay Webb
- Student Leadership and Diversity Conference (SLDC) February 1st, 2014 attended by Taylor Kessock
Traditions:
-A sister presents Lady Minerva at each chapter meeting. One sister writes a letter in a journal to a sister who inspires her and then reads her letter aloud to the whole chapter. The sister who is written about writes about another sister and reads her note aloud at the next chapter and so on and so forth.
Programs:
-We hosted a Sister Sorority of the Month Event with Delta Zeta on Feb 20, 2014. We had an ice cream social at the Delta Zeta house where we learned about one another’s sororities and histories.
-Alumni Babysitting event planned by Amy Stonecipher.
-We placed 3rd at Greek Week in April 2014.
-Our parent’s event this year was the Parent’s Cocktail, held September 26, 2014 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. The night included food, dancing, and a silent auction. The auction raised $3,000 for the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation.
-Our chapter placed second overall in USC’s Homecoming Competition by participating in events throughout Homecoming week with our Homecoming partners, Lambda Chi Alpha and Phi Beta Sigma.
-Reinstallation of a Founder’s Day activity: we held a banquet at the Kappa house on October 19, 2014.
-Sisterhood Events
March 19th, 2014 – HiWire
September 30th, 2014 - Pinterest Party
October 2nd, 2014 - Cycling Class
November 18th and 20th, 2014 – UnWine
-Spring 2014 New Member Weekly Events:
• New Member Meetings are held every Sunday at 8pm in the Chapter Room (Kappa House)
• Meet with the different officers and discuss how their positions work and what you can learn from them in relation to Kappa
• Chapter Meetings are held every Monday at 8pm in the Chapter Room (Kappa House)
• Study Hours- 2/week (Library Logs in T-Coop and Kappa House)
-Fall 2014 New Member Weekly Events:
• New Member Meetings are held every Sunday at 8pm in the Chapter Room (Kappa House).
• Meet with the different officers and discuss how their positions work and what you can learn from them in relation to Kappa
• Chapter Meetings are held EVERY Monday at 8pm in the Chapter Room (Kappa House)
• Study Hours- 2/week (Library Logs in T-Coop and Kappa House)
-One Time New Member Events:
• New Member Retreat- October 4, 2014
• Learn about yourselves and the other members of your pledge class. Discuss and build upon what you and your pledge class want to contribute to the chapter as a whole. Sisterhood bonding and individual growth. The retreat involved low ropes courses which helped the new members learn to work together.
• Big/Little Reveal- April 3 (spring) and October 9 (fall)
• Initiation (OVERNIGHT)- April 4-5 (spring) and October 17-18 (fall)
-Functions:
• Spring: Mixer with Beta Theta Pi (Winter Olympics Themed), Kappa Kappa Gatsby, Sapphire Ball, Spring Luau/Senior Band
• Fall: Woodstock Function, Backwoods, Semiformal
Philanthropic Involvement:
-Members of our chapter participated in the University of South Carolina's Dance Marathon on March 1, 2014. Our team's fundraising contributed to Dance Marathon's total of $318,469 raised for Palmetto Health Children's Hospital, our local Children's Miracle Network Hospital.
-Our chapter's Relay for Life team raised over $8,000. Relay for Life took place on April 4, 2014.
-Some of our sisters participated in Light the Night, a walk benefitting The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, on October 30, 2014. Our team raised $4,405.
-This fall we held Kappa Kickoff, a flag football tournament open to all campus organizations, on November 7th, 2014. When advertising for this event we went to each campus organization that may be interested and gave our flyers & sign up sheets. We told them about the tournament and what the money would benefit. This event, in the past, gave money to a scholarship fund that we called the Hill Family Fund started by our chapter for the children of one of our former chefs who tragically passed away along with his wife in a car accident. Every year that we have held Kappa Kickoff we have invited the Hill family to come spend time with their Kappa family and to give the organizations involved a chance to meet the family that they are providing an education for. Through the support that the Hill family has received from Kappa Kickoff, they are now in a stable financial position. Because of this, we decided to use Kappa Kickoff to help another family in need. This year’s Kickoff benefited the family of Amy Hampton Knight Caldwell. Amy was a very active member of the Epsilon Kappa chapter, and she went on to become a Leadership Consultant after she graduated. Unfortunately, Amy was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease and tragically passed away. Her death left her husband and two boys with expensive medical bills. We decided to donate the funds from Kappa Kickoff 2014 to help the family cover Amy’s medical bills. We raised over $3,500.
-We made weekly trips to read to the children at local elementary and middle schools. Participated in Reading Rocks a book drive event and celebration of reading at local elementary school.
-Through a combination of percent nights and other various philanthropic efforts we raised over $5,000 and divided it between RIF and the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation.
Goals:
The three main goals from 2014 of the Epsilon Kappa chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma were as follows: make the chapter feel more involved in activities and reward those who participate, come closer to ritual, and improve attendance at events. During recruitment we took over an hour to work through different sections of chapter life and take suggestions from people on philanthropy events, socials etc. This lead to the alumni babysitting event Amy Stonecipher planned, as well as the ticket system Katie O’Donovan, our VP of Organization invented. In order to come closer to ritual, Maggie Reade announced Kappa facts at every chapter meeting, and asked a question to get people involved in fun aspects of our ritual. A reward was given at the end of the semester for those who answered the question. We restructured ritual reviews so that there was a reflection question on what Kappa means to you. There was reinstallation of doing a founder's day activity; this year we held a banquet for our Founder’s Day. To improve attendance and efficiency of taking attendance, we adopted a ticket system, EventBrite makes taking attendance extremely easy. We restructured bylaws so that attendance at chapter is more mandatory and worth our members’ time. Before members were allowed two unexcused absences per semester and could send in excuses to the Recording Secretary if they had a reason for missing. Now, all members have three absences per semester, excused or unexcused.
With our newly renovated house, we were able to begin having chapter and all other meetings at our house. Our chapter welcomed our largest pledge class yet with 131 new members. Pi Beta Phi colonized in the Fall of 2014, becoming the twelfth Panhellenic sorority at the University of South Carolina. Members of our chapter supported them through social media and by wearing Pi Beta Phi buttons on our backpacks.
Our chapter holds chapter meetings in our house. Our chapter has its own house in the Greek Village. The land the house is on is owned by the University of South Carolina but each house in the Greek Village is privately owned and operated by an Alumni House Corporation. 20 sisters live in our house along with our house mom. Our chapter has only owned this one house throughout its history.
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