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This fall, our Sorority Council took the initiative to enact a Greek-wide plan that ensures safer Greek events. Under this new plan, events must be approved by the University of South Carolina's Fraternity and Sorority Life a few weeks prior to the actual event. Events are only approved if they follow strict guidelines in order to ensure the safety of its participants. Each week, a list of the approved events are sent out to the members in Greek organizations, discouraging the attendance of events that do not follow the University's regulations.
==Highlights of 2017==
'''Scholarship'''
-Our chapter's average GPA of 3.48 was ranked 5th out of the 13 Panhellenic sororities at the end of the spring semester and ranked 7th overall Panhellenic Sororities and Fraternities.
-We focused on academic growth through Geek of the Week, 4.0 gifts, Kappa Kappaccino, Sweet Tea with KKG, study groups for the new members. We also introduced smarty pants as an award once a month.
-For Kappa Kappaccino and Sweet Tea with KKG, members were encouraged to invite a professor to the house for refreshments in order to encourage socialization outside of the classroom.
-We also created an EK Kappa Google Drive to allow all members to access sisters’ teacher recommendations, class recommendations and other very helpful academic resources.
'''Awards'''
-This year our university changed the date of the award ceremony to the spring so we won’t know any of the awards we won until this spring.
'''Leadership'''
-Leadership Academy attended by Kat Gerrity.
-Coalition for Collegiate Women’s Leadership was attended by Lulu Hawken and Lindsay Bratun.
-Kappa Leadership Conference- Attended by Beth Pochè, Kristin Stotler, Brenna Shipman, Kate Jepson, and Olivia King
'''Traditions'''
-At each chapter, the Lady Minerva stands up and reads aloud a meaningful letter that she wrote for a sister that is important to her. The sister who is written about becomes the new Lady Minerva and takes possession of the journal in which all the letters are written. She will write her own letter to a different sister and present her it at the following chapter.
-Geek of the Week acknowledges a sister for her academic achievement. She is awarded a giftcard at chapter for her achievement.
- Our Vice President of Academic Excellence added “Smarty Pants” to chapter once a month. This award is presented to one sister who has excelled in academics. She is awarded with a pair of smarty pants (underwear) of her choosing.
-Our Chapter Recording Secretary sends out a newsletter to everyone after chapter with the weekly news.
- Supportive sister is nominated weekly and is awarded the Supportive Bar.
'''Programs'''
-Chapter meetings held every Sunday night at 7 pm in the Chapter Room of the Kappa House.
-Epsilon Kappa Celebrated our 50th anniversary. Founders Day Celebration: We had a huge Gala weekend planned by our Education Chair and active alums. We had a Welcome Event at the Top of Carolina on Friday, February the 17th, then on Saturday, February the 18th Alums were welcomed to tour the Kappa House, and the night was ended with a Golden Key Gala where sisters danced, took pictures, and listened to stories from alum.
-Recruitment workshops were held early in the spring semester to prepare members for the upcoming fall recruitment process.
-Parent's cocktail was held at the State Museum on October 6, 2017. Sisters and their family members enjoyed yummy desserts, a dj, and other fun activities.
-Founders Day Celebration was held on October 10th during Inspiration Week. Our Education Chair planned a fun educational slideshow followed by cake and conversations between sisters.
-Our sisterhood committee worked together to plan exciting sisterhood events throughout the year. Our sisters participated in cycle classes, ice cream parties, bachelor watch parties, a trip to a pumpkin patch, a barre class held in the Kappa house to help benefit Dance Marathon,
-Our Chaplin holds weekly Bible study sessions in the yellow room of the Kappa house on Monday nights at 8 pm.
-Every Tuesday at 3:30 there is a nutrition committee meeting to talk about the menu for the next week
'''Seniors'''
-Senior Sisterhood events include:
-Senior Tea
-Sweat Cycle Class
-Senior Recognition
-Barre Class at the Kappa House
-Senior Programming events include:
-Senior Superlatives
-Senior Wills
-Attending the Initiation sleepover to bond with New Members
-Senior gifts include:
-Gold bracelets with a fleur de lis on it
'''Fall 2017 New Member Weekly Events'''
-New Member information meetings held every Wednesday night in the chapter room of the Kappa house. New Members learned the history of Kappa Kappa Gamma and what it means to be a woman in Kappa. New Members also learned about our own chapter through presentations made by various sisters with Chapter Council positions.
'''One Time New Member Events'''
-Big/Little Reveal: October 05, 2017
-Initiation: On October 14, 2017, following I-Week, Fireside, and the Initiation sleepover. The Initiation Brunch was held the day after Initiation with all of our sisters and several alumnae.
- Alcohol Education: On 11/15/2017 New Members attended an alcohol education seminar.
-New Member Retreat: Overnight trip held on November 4, 2017. New members spent the night in cabins which allowed them to further bond with the sisters in their pledge class.
'''Kappa Trainer Events'''
-9/24/17 by One Love came and taught us about warning signs of unhealthy relationships and what healthy relationship looks like.
-10/15/17 on best places to live on and off campus and sisters shared their experiences with internships.
'''Functions'''
-Spring:
-2/11/17 Dynamic Duos
-3/24/17 Kappa Kup
-4/21/17 Masquerade Formal
-Fall:
-9/15/17 That’s So 1870’s Show
-11/17/17 Backwoods
-12/1/17 Semi Formal
-12/7/17 Rock and Roll Mixer with Sig Ep
'''Special Events'''
-4/10-14/17: Participated in Greek Week; a week-long event to unite the USC Greek community. This year the overall theme was 90’s Throwback. Our chapter was teamed with Kappa Sigma and Sigma Phi Epsilon. Events from this week included: A blood drive, Night at Strom, a cultural food fest, and Greek Sing.
-10/23-27/17: Homecoming Week, partners with the Phi Kappa Tau. Overall we came in 3rd place and got 2nd in the float building contest!
'''Philanthropic Involvement'''
-Spring:
-This spring out chapter had many difficulties trying to put on our regular spring philanthropy of Lip Sync Battle, so we decided to create a new event called Kappa Cookies. We had an extended bake sale, for three days we tabled on our campus’s busiest street selling baked good that sisters baked themselves.
-2/25/2017: Many sisters participated in USC’s Dance Marathon; this event was able to raise over $700,000.
-3/1/2017: Sisters attended a percent night at Village Idiot Pizza to support Circle of Sisterhood.
-3/16/2017: A Literacy is Key event was held at AC Moore Elementary.
-4/5/2017: We as a chapter voted to skip a meal at the house and donate the $800 to the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation. This same night we hosted a Percent night at Village Idiot Pizza for RIF and raised $286 from our pizza orders.
-4/7/2017: Many sisters participated in UCS’s Relay For Life
-Fall:
-9/20/2017: Phi Mu’s Bonnamu was held to support Children’s Miracle Network
-9/21/2017: Successful Petal Percent night
-9/26/2017: Pelicans Percent night
-9/27/2017: Barefoot Percent night
-9/29/2017: Barbeque for Books was our main philanthropy event for the fall semester. It was advertised for far in advance, so other members of the Greek community could purchase tickets. Tickets could also be purchased at the door as well! It was held at a music venue in Columbia called Breakers Live. There was a band and unlimited food with purchase of a ticket. Sisters came out enjoyed the music, food, conversation, and supporting RIF. The event was a success we were able to raise $2,863 for RIF.
-9/30/2017: Many sisters supported St. Jude at Delta Delta Delta’s Game Day event at Jake’s on Devine
-10/9/2017: Pelicans Percent Night
-10/24/2017: Vestique percent night
-10/25/2017: We participated in Trick-or-Treat with the Greeks, which was a Homecoming event that invites the local community children to come and trick-or-treat.
-10/27/2017: A group of sisters went to Satchel Ford Elementary and volunteered at their Fall Festival. Sisters helped with a variety of different stations and
-11/15/2017: A team participated in Chi Omega's Cookoff event to benefit Make a Wish and was awarded 3rd place.
Our chapter choose to support the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation and Reading is Fundamental because these are Kappa's two national philanthropies. We love being able to help our own sisters that are in need through the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation. Giving back to them is so special especially when they have given so much to this organization. In addition, we choose to support Reading is Fundamental (RIF) because it is so important that all children are given the resources necessary to learn how to read. We love how we can see the impact of our philanthropy throughout our own community's primary schools. We get to travel to different schools throughout South Carolina through Cocky's Reading Express and deliver books to children in need. Seeing our direct impact to a cause that is so important makes our philanthropy so special. At the beginning of the year we also voted on whether to host Girls Academy. We all saw this as an amazing opportunity to help young women in our community. We as not only college women, but sorority women have so much to offer young minds. We have the power to inspire these young girls in such an important time of growth in their lives. We are so excited to be active in so many amazing philanthropies.
This fall, our campus experienced the consequences of yet another natural disaster. Hurricane Irma closed campus for two entire days the weekend after labor day. Thankfully, the city of Columbia was not directly affected by the storm; however, other coastal areas in South Carolina were impacted by flooding and strong winds. Once again our campus was able to assist our neighboring communities that were directly affected by this hurricane.
'''Goals'''
During 2017, our chapter had two main goals. Our first goal was to improve communication throughout our entire chapter We noticed that we had so many different forms of communication. We had two Facebook pages; one was the EK Facebook page, and the other is Kappa Klassifieds Facebook page. We also created a Google Drive created for all members, and we also use GinSystem. The Ek page was for all important announcements, updates from officers, philanthropy information, and minutes were posted there as well. It was a great resource but we found it lacked many of the feature that GinSystem already had and we are all paying for GinSystem, so we as a chapter council decided to delete the EK Facebook and take full advantage of Gin. This way we can streamline information to all members. Now Gynsystem is the go to place for everything. Members can check in to mandatory events here, look at the calendar and find all the events happening in the month. Also, anyone can post announcements on the board similar to the EK Facebook page. We still have out Kappa Klassified Facebook page, which is where sisters can ask other sisters about Columbia recommendations, teacher recommendations, questions, and where members can go to sell their loved Kappa apparel. We also use the Google Drive, which is where all things academic are held. There are teacher recommendations, class recommendations, and other helpful tips to help with some of the most difficult courses. Our second goal was, as a chapter council, be as transparent to all members as we possibly could. To do this we presented on the budget so members know exactly where their money is going when they pay dues. We also did presentations on standards expectations, so there is no confusion on what is expected when it comes to the standards process. Lastly, we did presentations on PR and risk reminders before especially high risk periods like spring break, first game day, Halloween, and functions. We all worked together to try and enact these and many other small changes throughout our chapter, to try and create the best and most effective chapter we could.
'''Recruitment'''
This year’s recruitment was a values based recruitment. The Colligate Panhellenic Association decided to switch the sisterhood and philanthropy round. This August we had a very successful recruitment and welcomed 118 new members into the Epsilon Kappa chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma on Bid Day.
'''Chapter Facility'''
Our chapter regularly meets in the chapter room of the Kappa House. We are lucky enough to be one of the only sororities on our campus that has a big enough room to accommodate for our entire chapter at once. For informal chapter, we sit around our tables, on the floor, or on the couches. For formal chapter, we will arrange chairs into rows throughout the entire room so that everyone has a seat. There is a new stage at the front of the room that member present on. We usually display a powerpoint for chapter notes across the back wall so that everyone can follow along. We occasionally have paper chapters which means that only the most important things are presented and the rest of the announcements are provided in our newsletter. This not only insures an efficient chapter meeting, but it also encourages members to read the newsletter.
[[File:Epsilon Kappa Chapter Room.png|thumb|Epsilon Kappa's Chapter Room 2017]]
