Changes

(The Beta Upsilon chapter in the spring of 2020 held all functions per usual. we started on the week of January 11th and 12th with our recruitment practices, called “Kamp Kappa” with all current pledge classes. During this time the girls are able to run through the ropes of recruitment and practice the rounds and talk about ideals based recruiting and the future of the chapter. Spring 19 and all who were receiving littles within this new pledge class attended ritual reviews and practiced for the initiation of the new members. The following week, recruitment week took off and our girls were put to work! Recruitment started on the week of the 19th and continued during the weekends for the next two weeks. We gained a new pledge class of 38 girls and welcomed them home on Bid Day, February 2nd. The following day on the 3rd the new members attended the New Member Pinning Ceremony and started their new member meetings with the new Member Chairman. They had their new member retreat on the 13th of February and ended the weekend with our annual “Kappa Crush” date party. The following week of the 16th was the begging of the Big/Little Clues, where the new members were given clues by their big of who they were. Our Big/Little reveal was on the 20th, and the girls were so excited to see who their big finally was after a week of clues! Inspiration week took place that Saturday and started the week of the initiation process. During inspiration week, we had an Ice-Skating sisterhood Event at the local ice rink and spent time skating and having fun with our sisters and new members. that week also included the return of the new member pin ceremony, ritual reviews for the bigs and initiation practices. To finish off the week we had our crest ceremony and finished the weekend with initiation. We were so excited that during this initiation, the beta upsilon chapter had initiated their first alumna, who is also the current house director, Rickie Huffman. This was a huge milestone in our chapter’s history because she was only the 12th overall alumna initiated within the Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity. To kick off March, our newly initiated pledge class had their first ritual review and ended with our parents’ weekend. Over that weekend we had our parent date party on Saturday the 7th and had our Golden Key Luncheon the following day. The Golden Key Luncheon was a fundraiser for our philanthropies, the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation and the Norma Mae Huggins Cancer research Endowment Fund. We had guest speakers and parents and members and local alumni were able to take place in raffles and had a buffet style lunch served. To honor our 4.0 members, we hold a dinner for them every semester and the dinner for that semester took place on March 6th. Our Spring Break began that weekend,little to know shortly after that would be the last time we were on campus for the semester. During the end of the spring semester and virtual classes, the elections of the Panhellenic Executive Board were completed, and our member Blair Lewis was the new Vice President of Communications. Over break the university had informed all students and staff that we would switch to remote learning due to the outbreak of COVID-19. It was unfortunate that we were not going to be able to see our sisters for the rest of the semester, but all kept in touch over the following months. The chapter continued the weekly chapter meetings, and it was a nice way to keep all of us together and keep all members still involved within our organization. We had to become creative with all the ways we could virtually spend time together, which was now going to be the new “norm” for us. Our members had completed their spring semester and were at home with their families for the summer break. with COVID-19 still spiking and spreading over break, girls were limited on the travel and contacted we had with one another in person to make sure we all kept one another safe. Our break was filled out by with sisters participating in FaceTime calls, emails, and social media to make sure we all were staying healthy and to check in on one another in such hard times. unfortunately, although we were allowed to return to campus, 90% of classes were to be held virtually the upcoming fall semester. The was going to be challenging for our chapter council to continue their duties and events now switching virtually. But with resilience, our chapter council had found a way. We started the fall semester with themed chapter meetings and giving away prizes to the member best dressed. As in person events and meetings were now cancelled, we still found ways to have chapter Registrar)Highlights (scholarshipand member involvement. We had our virtual founder’s Day on October 13th and celebrated the 150th year of Kappa Kappa Gamma. our Sesiquentcentennial celebration was very important to us and celebrated in a way to keep all our members safe and healthy. Our Education Chairman had put together our founder’s day with alumna speakers and our annual house board meeting with all members present. Alumna had the time to share their favorite memories of kappa, and what kappa has given them. We also opened the floor to current members, honors/awardsand it was a heartwarming time to share with each other all the amazing things this organization has given us. We all can agree it had given us many friendships, memories, and had opened so many doors for all of us to excel and become the best version of ourselves. Our founder’s day concluded with pictures of the house over the years and all the members and pictures from over the past decades. Later on in the semester, special eventsour Risk Management Chairman had put together a dunking Donuts drive thru for our members which was a great pick me up before we had all gone home for thanksgiving break. She had also spent time doing a chapter game night of two truths and a lie, philanthropy and service projectsmembers were able to send in fun facts about themselves for sisters to guess! Prizes we also given away for winners and our chapter had really loved getting to know some interesting things about one another. We unfortunately would not be having any in person classes and most students would return home for the rest of the semester when leaving for fall break over thanksgiving. Panhellenic meetings were now virtual and members joined in, etcbeing able to interact and had played a Kahoot trivia game against the other sororities on campus.): '''Housing:'''   '''Philanthropy:'''   '''A member of our chapter, Emily Lyle had won first place out of over 100 other women! We had finished off the semester with the presentation of the slate and our 2021 Chapter Convention Awards'''Council elections and voting was held virtually over formal chapter meetings to conclude our chapter functions for this school year. This past year was nothing short of unique, and like said before we had faced it with the utmost resilience.