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In 1926, May offered to act as editor rather than author of the history, acknowledging the task of authorship too difficult on top of her other duties.
Still, the task was intimidating over the next four years, as few chapters or past Presidents responded to her plea for research and writing assistance. Her publishing goal of October 1930 – 60 years after the founding of Kappa – came and went, and she personally felt a failure. But May persevered, and the thick blue-and gold-bound ¬¬¬volume volume was presented with pride (and the aforementioned caveat against history writing) in 1932. “It is a volume full of fascination … of questions answered and unanswered. It is the Kappas who wrote it and took part in it. It is May Westermann. It is the Fraternity. And now it is a collector’s item.”
May continued to serve Kappa, when in 1934, the work of Historian was separated from Ritualist and she took on the latter task.
Her efforts and loyalty were recognized with the presentation of the Westermann Cup, now known as the Efficiency Award. The retired cup is engraved, “To own the cup a chapter must have served the Fraternity in a small measure as our Nation President has – meeting its demands untiringly, unselfishly, unceasingly.”
* There were only two National Presidents, May Whiting Westermann and Georgia Hayden Lloyd-Jones, before the designation Grand was used again. It was then eliminated in the 1940 revision of the Bylaws.