2,350
edits
Changes
→Highlights of 2017
The Epsilon Sigma chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma had an incredible year in 2017. It started with an excellent rush, where we welcomed an entire new pledge class of great women to our chapter. The first week, in an effort to integrate the new class with existing members, each class hosted a night of bonding. The second years took them bowling, the third years did pizza and movie night, and the forth years hosted a potluck. All three nights went wonderfully, and they were followed with more weeks of fun bonding activities and dinners.
In April we had our initiation, and it was a great success; not only serving as a really special experience for the new girls, but as great momentum for the chapter as we continued to work to get off probation. Run by our incredibly capable marshal Amanda Payne, we ran our first fully accurate Initiation in many years. By this, I mean the LC who came to join us during the week leading up to Initiation worked with Amanda and the chapter to understand the songs, rituals, and physical process of the Initiation, which our chapter had struggled with in past years. We are hoping to continue this progress with the next Marshal. Amanda also integrated new traditions, such as having the new members write themselves a letter after Fireside, to be kept in a time capsule until they are seniors, when they will then be returned to them. She also added a Kappa quiz for the new members, which they had to take before Fireside. It covered the basic facts about Kappa, our traditions, symbols, and history. Overall, Epsilon Sigma is moving towards becoming a stronger chapter and understanding ritual as being more than just words in a book.
Our academic focuses have also been tested this year. While we dropped in the school rankings, it was only due a tiny shift in our GPA. In an effort to combat this drop, we started a whole slue of programs to increase academic performance. We started the ‘A Jar,’ in which people can write their names and the good grades the got that week and be entered into a draw for a gift card. We also host weekly study nights at the house, complete with study snacks to help fuel our academic efforts.
We hosted two Fraternity visitors this past year, Jan Larson (EME Trainer) and Maddy Poletis (LC). Audrey Jackson, VPO, worked closely with Chapter Council and the VPO Committee to make their stays with us as comfortable as possible. Committees and Committee Nights were improved with the use of "GroupMe" communication and the delegation of various jobs within committees to give leadership roles to chapter members. Audrey also created a Food Committee to improve house meals and a T-Shirt committee to design our shirts. Committees still have problems, however, such as lack of participation among some members and the disproportionate sizes of committees. We are actively working to solve this problem, and have some potential ideas to resolve the issue such as combining the smaller committees and placing more active members in often-used committees (such as philanthropy and marshal). A couple smaller achievements include officer binders and anonymous surveys. Audrey created Chapter Council officer binders with their respective leadership guides, so officers can archive important documents and incoming officers can refer to them for help. And created a monthly anonymous survey for chapter members to anonymously submit their comments/questions/concerns. This is a great way for members to speak their minds and is very helpful for Chapter Council.All of these efforts culminated in May. After overseeing the Chapter Strategic Plan and Strategic Goals to ensure that the Chapter Council was tackling the problems addressed in our Chapter Survey and in our probation letter, Lynn Kelly, our leader and president, informed us that our Kappa Kappa Gamma Headquarters removed our chapter from a letter of probation. They recognized our improved communication, financial organization and priority to decrease risky behavior. As a result, we have been able to begin a Capital Campaign for chapter house renovations. As a chapter we were overjoyed, to know that all our hard work had paid off, and that we were fully embodying what it means to be great members of Kappa Kappa Gamma. [[File:Epsilon Sigma Chapter Room.pdf|thumb|The Epsilon Sigma chapter room.]]
This moment, however, was bitter sweet, as shortly after we had to say goodbye to our incredible fourth year class. We did so, however, with a bang. Sophia Gribaldi arranged a dinner for the graduating girls, and facilitated a presentation with baby pictures and letters from their parents. In addition, all the littles of the graduating girls read blurbs about them at their final chapter.
