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'''1,230 223 initiates (as of June 20172018)
==Highlights of 2011-20192020:==
==Highlights of 2014==
==Highlights of 2016:==
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Finally, a huge congratulations to our marshal, Kristen Sevick, for organizing the initiation of our 15 new members in November. It was the best initiation Beta Psi has organized in years and we are so excited to officially welcome them into our sisterhood.
[[User:History|History]] ([[User talk:History|talk]])
==Highlights of 2017==
Beta Psi had an exciting year in 2017! Officer transitions in January went smoothly with officers adapting to their roles well. In January, we held our sisterhood retreat at our former President Hunter Sleeth's farm. In February, we held our annual Kappanada philanthropy for the charities Beautiful World and Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation. We raised money through our event and online donations from friends and family members. In March, Beta Psi won 4 Panhellenic awards, Panhellenic Spirit, Most Outstanding Chapter, Most Improved Chapter, and Outstanding Recruitment. In April, we held a exciting Sapphire Formal, organized by our Event Chair Lauren Goncalves at the end of the term where the women and their dates had dinner and danced at Lisbon by Night. With the beginning of school again we held a successful formal recruitment and COB, who were initiated on November 18th, 2017 thanks to the hard work of our Marshall Nicolette Zukowski and the whole chapter. In October, we held our first philanthropy of the 2017-2018 academic year. It was called Kappas in Wonderland, with an Alice in Wonderland theme and supported a University of Toronto-based group called Silence is Violence, which works to support sexual assault survivors and advocate for better policies. We also donated half of our proceeds to the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation. We concluded the year with elections and officer transitions, readying Kappa for 2018.
Beta Psi is a lively chapter and the 2017 Pledge Class added more energy and excitement to the chapter, especially as many will take on Chapter Council positions in 2018. The University opened the law school's new library which has become a favorite study spot of many women in the chapter.
We continued to volunteer with the organization, Out in the Cold, which provides shelter and warm meals for those without a place live during the winter months in Toronto. We also held our annual Reading is Key event in December, where we host a Christmas Party for children from a local community centre.
We supported both organizations because they help empower women. Beautiful World helps girls in developing countries be able to afford to go to school (from elementary to post-secondary) by providing supplies, transportation and other types of assistance. Silence is Violence is a survivor-driven that advocates for better policies, provides educational workshops and helps surivivors by providing resouces.
Beta Psi continues to meet in our chapter house at 32 Madison Avenue. During the summer it underwent some aesthetic renovations including a new cushion for the window seat and a reorganization of the basement to include two beds and make it a more functional study space.
==Highlights of 2018==
It was another great year for the Kappa Kappa Gamma’s Beta Psi Chapter! Officer
transitions in January went smoothly and the first Chapter Council meeting was a good
start for Kappa in 2018. Our new member retreat at the end of January, held at 32 Madison
Ave for the newly initiated members, made for some additional sisterhood bonding time.
Kappanada (Kappa Canada), our annual philanthropy took place in February. After lots of
hard work on the part of the chapter and the Philanthropy Chairman; we raised money for
the charities: Beautiful World and the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation. In addition, our
chapter won a few Panhellenic awards such as 'Best New Member Programming', a
member won 'Best Panhellenic Officer' and multiple women won awards for
'Outstanding GPA'. In April, after a touching Senior Send-Off, we attended our Sapphire
Formal at the restaurant Lisbon by Night where we announced prizes, ate lots of food and
danced with our dates. After the well-deserved summer break, our chapter regrouped in
September to take part in a beautiful and well-organized recruitment and COB,
orchestrated by Shyanne Cole-Denault. In October, the new members got to experience
their first Kappa Philanthropy called Kappa Koachella (named after Coachella; the flowery
Californian music festival). Half of the proceeds went to the Children’s Aid Foundation
and the other half to the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation. November was a busy month
for Kappa; Marshal Jessica Meszaros went above and beyond to organize an Inspiration
Period and Initiation that was conducted by the book and with grace. Later in the month
the Chapter headed out for a weekend to our Sisterhood retreat in Richmond Hill thanks
to Nadian Shaban that welcomed us into her home. The year was concluded with Chapter
elections and our annual Reading is Key Christmas party, where we host children and
their families from a nearby school, to end off a great year!
This year the University of Toronto decided to revoke the Panhellenic Council's ULife
recognition. However, efforts are being made on the part of Panhel and the seven
sororities to try to restore these ties. For Beta Psi, 2018 has been a year of growth. Not
only has the chapter gotten closer but many members have put extra time and effort into
having more sisterhood events, volunteering opportunities, and much more.
This year the Chapter has supported Out in the Cold, which provides shelter and warm
meals for those without a place to live during the winter months in Toronto. In December,
our women host a Christmas party for children at a nearby school, this is the annual event
for Reading is Key. Furthermore, our philanthropies have allowed us to donate to the Kappa
Kappa Gamma Foundation, Beautiful World and Children’s Aid Canada.
==Highlights of 2019==
Beta Psi Chapter had a great 2019! We had successful officer transitions and soon after conducted Winter Continuous Open Bidding for the first time in five years, welcoming four new lovely members into our chapter. In January, we conducted our fifth annual Canadian-themed philanthropy, Kappanada, which was extremely successful in attendance and enthusiasm! We later had a registered nurse come to our house to talk to and inform us about women's reproductive health. Senior send off consisted of a lovely chapter dinner to recognize the seniors and all of their achievements. Additionally, a number of our wonderful members were awarded Alpha Awards, being recognized for a 3.5+ GPA. We also had a study date with one of our sorority neighbours, Alpha Gamma Delta, and in April, we hosted our Sapphire formal social event. Senior Send off noted a close to our semester at our last meeting until September.
[[File:Beta Psi chapter 2019.jpg|thumb|Beta Psi chapter 2019]]
In September, we had a successful Fall formal recruitment where we recruited an amazing new pledge class. Bigs and littles took part in activities to then be paired together. In October we had our sisterhood retreat at our home, at 32 Madison Ave., and then at the "Rec Room", a fun arcade located in downtown Toronto. In October we then had our second philanthropy, Scream Kweens, an exciting Halloween themed event with fabulous attendance and donations.
Our annual Founders Day brunch was hosted on October 20th which had a great turn out and where an abundace of Kappa Kappa Gamma alumni were awarded for their contributions and involvement over the years!
In November we conducted initiation, and in December we underwent our election process, passing on roles to a group of extremely motivated girls who will continue the legacy of Beta Psi!
Kappa Kappa Gamma and other sororities on the University of Toronto Campus are still not recognized, and have had a continuous challenge with the city trying to licence us as a rooming house. Despite these challenges, our Chapter has had great growth within the past year. We have bonded and embraced our sisterhood through events and strive to always provide support and care to one another.
At our first philanthropy of the year, Kappanada, all of our collected proceeds were donated to the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation, Canada. The donations of our following philanthropy, Scream Kweens, were given to the Canada Cancer Society. For our first philanthropy event, Kappanada, our chapter wanted to support the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation in its efforts to support women in scholarships. As for our Scream Kweens philanthropy, we donated to the Canada Cancer Society, as mulitple of our members and families in our community were directly affected by it around the time and we wanted to work together to support them.
==Highlights of 2020==
2020 was a whirlwind of a year, but in full Beta Psi spirit we continued to have an exciting and eventful year! In March, chapter operations came to a halt when COVID-19 forced classes to be moved online. Our composite photoshoot and Sapphire formal were postponed to the Fall term. Due to the unique challenges faced this year, the date and time of chapter meetings and chapter council meetings for the Fall term were rescheduled to accommodate time zone differences for our members, and extra consideration was taken when planning chapter events to ensure inclusivity of international members.
Beta Psi turned 109 this year, and our chapter was honoured to be recognized for our many achievements through both the Fraternity and our campus Panhellenic Association. We are proud to have received the Gracious Living Award, and an honourable mention for the Ritual Award for 2018-2020 at convention. Additionally, our chapter was voted Most Outstanding Chapter, Best Panhellenic Spirit, and Panhellenic Council Officer of the Year for 2019 by the University of Toronto Panhellenic Association.
Recruitment this year was fully virtual. Beta Psi welcomed 20 new members to our chapter, doubling our chapter size from the beginning of September, growing from 23 members to 43.
With respect to the Panhellenic Delegate role, due to the spread of COVID-19 in early March, it was decided to cancel the in-person all-sorority social that was to be hosted by Kappa Kappa Gamma (a self-serve sundae bar to encourage bonding and sharing amongst sororities); the decision was made to prioritize the health and safety of everyone in the Greek community.
We welcomed the best pledge class that gradually grew to become a headstrong group of 20 ladies. With that, our first challenge was determining an appropriate time to hold our New Member meetings given how international our pledge class was. We were able to sort this out to accommodate most time zone differences. New Member Chair held Office Hours or anyone to ask any questions or even to provide a platform for anyone to simply hangout. In addition, given that it was a fully virtual year, we had to overcome the logistics of planning online events for a Chapter of over 40 ladies.
[[File:KKG Beta Psi Virtual initiation November 21, 2020.jpg|thumb|Beta Psi, Toronto initiates its 20 new members virtually on November 21, 2020. Special guests included the alumnae association president and district director.]]
We had our two formal pinning ceremonies on October 4th and 25th. Then we had our first ever online “House of Blues” themed BID day on October 10th. That was followed by several Big/Little Speed Dating Events and Coffee Dates where the bigs and littles got to know each other. Despite some initial logistical issues, we were able to figure out a set up that worked really well.
Another challenge faced was the distance that made sending our newest members their Bid day and Big/Little welcome gifts a bit more complicated. However, we managed to overcome that obstacle as well! This all lead up to our Big/Little Reveal on November 7th and given our
extra-large pledge class we ended up with 5 pairs of twins! For the reveal, we also had many guest appearances from alumna members. One thing that was nice about having online events was that it allowed more flexibility for alumni to join. Lastly, we ended with Initiation on November 21st. It was an amazing year, but we are most grateful for the very tight knit pledge class that was so understanding and positive despite all the challenges and delays that we faced as we tried to sort out these new circumstances we found ourselves in.
In regards to Academic Excellence, Beta Psi still continued to do monthly KKGenius, hosted a few drop-in study days and also an academic panel!
In regards to Beta Psi Vice President of Organization, we worked on reinstating committees, we did not get a LC visit during the Spring and fall semester, due to COVID, but we are working to find options to hold the visit virtually in the future.
We are very proud of the chapter for pulling off a great recruitment and particularly proud of the transparency with which we presented finances to potential new members. Our treasurer and financial advisors have also met every couple of weeks during the 2020 year to revisit the budget according to changing government guidelines, to issue credits to members for events that weren't held, and kept members updated throughout the process to promote transparency as well.
Public Relations was more crucial than ever in 2020 with all operations shifted online. 2020 was a year that came with multiple challenges for the entire chapter. PR was especially important this year for the chapter as it is the main channel where people would receive the latest updates on important matters such as recruitment, philanthropy, sisterhood activities and more. In the summer of 2020, PR had to step up to post the chapter's stance on BLM and COVID safety-related topics. Moreover, PR was one of the most integral parts of the chapter's success in recruitment as it was the main form of communication between the chapter and PNMs. To have the chapter to be as involved as possible, our PR efforts also included weekly takeovers by chapter members from all across the world including, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Latvia, South Africa and more! 2020 also welcomed new segments in our chapter's PR such as showcasing the house with a house tour video during recruitment, a Founders' Day video, a short house tour of our Christmas decor, featuring the sister of the week and Kappa's values on our Instagram. Beta Psi also followed a thorough PR plan release by Kappa HQ for our recruitment promotional materials. In terms of philanthropy, as everything is held online this year, PR was crucial in spreading the word out to the public. We have posted daily Instagram posts, stories and videos highlighting our philanthropy drive. We have also asked chapter members to repost promotional material for the drive daily too. All in all, 2020 was made easier through the chapter's collective effort of taking over Kappa's Instagram to showcase individuality and where our members are located as well as in keeping the chapter connected to the public.
With COVID, all in-person events were either cancelled and/or scaled down for Beta Psi in 2020. In a regular year, our chapter would usually have Sapphire, our year-end dinner in April. As everything was closed then, our chapter voted to postpone Sapphire to September. Due to safety concerns and to adhere to local guidelines and regulations, we had a smaller scale Sapphire in 2020. Sapphire was held on September 6th 2020 and it was a hybrid event. We had the option to call into the event and/or to join in-person for members who were in town and/or are comfortable with an in-person event. We only had chapter members attending Sapphire this year rather than the regular attendance of both chapter members and a plus one. It was an extremely successful event in terms of sisterhood as it was the first and only in-person event that we had in 2020 and it was held the week before school commenced. Over the semester, we had multiple online events that members could join. Some of them included an online social with UofT's Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity and another online social with Kappa's Zeta Omega chapter. We also had optional sisterhood events such as Zumba and yoga classes. We will be ending the year with another online event where we will be having a movie night along with Kahoot.
On February 3rd Beta Psi held its first fundraiser of 2020 with its 6th annual all Canadian-themed philanthropy, Kappanada. All proceeds of this event were donated to the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation for its efforts to support collegiate women through scholarship programs. The COVID-19 pandemic presented real challenges to executing philanthropic activities for Beta Psi, as most service efforts are reliant on in-person engagement. Aside from supporting the philanthropies of fellow Greek organizations on campus, Beta Psi held their Keep6ixwarm Give-back in December as a way to provide care packages to the city’s local vulnerable people experiencing homelessness, particularly as COVID exacerbated Toronto’s already precarious housing situation. Through a high social media presence the chapter was able to raise many donations in order to support this project.
Beta Psi celebrated Founder’s Day virtually with the Toronto Alumni Association on October 18th. The Education Chairman held a programming event to go over the history of Kappa and Beta Psi.
