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→Highlights of 2019:
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==Highlights of 2020:==
The year of 2020 was a crazy one for Beta Rho. Amidst all the struggles of COVID-19, our sisterhood is still stronger than ever. With our newly elected chapter council settling in, we had an eventful transition day that set us up for a successful year. January was very simple, but our semester quickly started picking up in February. We kicked off February with our Chapter Council and Advisory Board sisterhood at a local bowling alley. Later that week on February 8th, Night for the Fight was in full swing. This event was started by a Kappa several years ago, and we continue to support it. Night for the Fight is a fundraiser to help raise money and awareness for childhood cancer. The day after on February 9th, it was a busy one for Beta Rho. We had GIRLS academy leader training, a cycle bar sisterhood , and the start of literacy week with a craft day! Continuing on through literacy week, we had our annual Kappa Dog Night where we sell hotdogs on our porch to raise money for RIF. That night also doubled as a Kendra Scott fundraiser in which 30% of the proceeds went to RIF. Overall, we raised over $800 that night. Nearing the end of February, the chapter was getting ready to put on our GIRLS Academy Event. On the night of February 28th we prepared and had another leader training. Finally, early morning on the 29th, GIRLS Academy was in full swing. The event was a big success and had such a great impact on the girls attending. Throughout the entire month of February, we held a book drive competition with the men of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Collectively, we raised over 800 books that we donated to schools around the area. Early March we started off strong with the initiation of one our new members followed by a cycle bar fundraiser. This fundraiser raised over $300 for our philanthropy. That night on March 7th, we celebrated our formal, Sapphire Ball. Our theme was Great Gatsby and we danced the night away at the Newport Syndicate. The day after our formal, Katelyn Edgbers, our membership chair, held a membership review. At this review we went over some recruitment basics to get our mind on all things FDL & recruitment. Sadly, our semester was cut short once COVID-19 started to set in. We were sent home from campus on March 14th and all in person events were suspended. As we flustered around to try to still make spring 2020 memorable, we kept our chapter in the loop with weekly PDF updates that gave our chapter announcements. Throughout March and in to the summer, we did things to keep our sisterhood alive. We hosted zoom meetings and virtual game nights to keep everyone engaged. We also sent out information packets that included a quarantine survival guide and things to do while at home. While the summer months were hard, even though we were apart, our sisterhood grew stronger.
In April, Collage Panhellenic awards we announced. Beta Rho took home the gold! We won CPC Outstanding chapter and CPC overall premier Chapter! In the midst off all these challenges, we persevered and made the best of the situation. Our chapter council took these months to basically start over. We had to throw out everything and start from scratch so we could have an enjoyable fall 2020 semester. We worked on ways we could have events, and how we could keep girls engaged so that when it was time to come back together, it would feel like we were never apart. The fall 2020 semester started off strong as our house girls moved in safely, the weekend of August 14th. We hit the ground running on August 17th with our virtual FDL week. Here we learned all things virtual recruitment and how to have a successful recruitment. Throughout the next two weeks, we had recruitment practice almost every night. We even practiced bumping with the NYU Kappas!
During the month of August, Convention awards were announced! Beta Rho had swept the floor with the awards. We won the Chapter/Advisory Board Relations Award, Most Improved Academic Excellence Award, and we were inducted to the KKG Foundation Adelphe Society. We also took home the honorable mentions from the Advisory Board award, Ritual Award, Gracious living Award, Panhellenic Award, Standards Award, and the Sally Moore Lifelong Education Award. With all of our practice and hard work, on the weekend of September 11th, we held our very first virtual recruitment! We absolutely killed the recruitment game, adding 42 lovely new members to our sisterhood! On September 13th, we celebrated these new bids with a drive thru car parade! We safely went to all the dorms, screaming and cheeering for our new girls!! We closed out the month of September with out vitual homecoming week with the men of Sigma Chi! We hosted zoom events like speed dating and trivia to get to know them better, it was a blast! We also had our very first virtual event night on September 29th. Thanks to our event chair, Shelby Mecklenborg, we had a Netflix party where we all virtually watched “What A Girl Wants”! The beginning of October was pretty laid back, until we kicked off our Founders Day celebration! On October 17th, Carrie Cramer, hosted an outstanding virtual Founders Day celebration. Later that week, we hosted a Chipotle fundraiser in which we raised $300 for RIF! As the semester started to close in fast, we put together many last minute ideas to make in memorable! The first week of November was celebrated as big little week, the new members would come to the house one by one and grab their baskets! Following that week, we had a safe and social distanced big/little revel! On November 4th, we had our very first POD event night! Our risk manager and event chairmen worked extremely hard to get these pod nights approved. We assigned members to a pod and they could only participate in events with these people while still being COVID-19 safe. The event was a charcuterie board contest, the winners got amazon gift cards!
The following week of November 9th was the start of I-Week! On November 10th, we had a donut truck come to campus for our members. On November 12th we had our I-Week POD sisterhood. PODs did events like bowling or candle lab. Finally on November 14th, we welcomed 42 new members as our sisters. Initiation was completely virtual and all three ceremonies were combined into one. The ceremony was short and sweet, but still had all the aspects of making it important to Kappas ritual. The day after initiation, Nom Com met to create the slate. Then on November 17th, the slate was presented to the chapter. Later in November, we hosted another POD event night on the 22nd. The PODs did the same type of activities, but rotated. On November 23rd, we held a virtual 2-way with the men of Pi Kappa Alpha in which we played Family Feud. The next day at chapter, the slate was voted on and approved. We then left for thanksgiving break, nearing the end of our semester. The Monday back to school we had a joint chapter council meeting so the new officers could get a feel for what it was like. Finally, on December 1st, we installed the newest chapter council. This year was filled with celebrations as well as challenges for Beta Rho. However, we still came out on top. Our sisterhood is stronger than ever, and that is something we hope to continue into the spring semester. We are beyond grateful for all the battles we fought because it ultimately made us a stronger organization and stronger women. We cannot wait to see what 2021 has in store for us.
What organization does the chapter support? Our chapter supports the organization Reading Is Fundamental (RIF). RIF is all about supporting child literacy and teaching others about the importance of making an impact on our young community and their ability to read. Kappa works to raise money and collect books to donate to inner-city schools. Kappa also shares an Adopt a Class with our Alumnae Association at Ethel M Taylor Academy where active members join alumnae once a month to spend an hour crafting with our kindergarten class.
How did your chapter include diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in your programming this year? (e.g., adding a DEI officer, philanthropy events, social media awareness campaign, chapter training, etc.). This year was a busy one for our diversity and inclusion chair, Sami Weis. She put so many hours and a great deal of effort into our chapter to ensure that we promote diversity and inclusion. Sami was very involved within our chapters as well as other councils. Every chapter, Sami did a presentation a different student organization, their impact, and how to get involved. She also introduced a new segment called “council spotlight”. Within this spotlight, she highlighted new members every week across all four Greek councils on our campus. She discussed what organization they were in, their accomplishments, and a little about them. One activity ami started was the council wide “Boo Bag”. She made Halloween bags for a chapter within each council and they had to carry on the tradition of “boo-ing” another chapter. This kept all councils included with one another to promote friendship and diversity. Sami also created a presentation on diversity and inclusion and gave it to the chapter during FDL week to ensure we promoted a diverse and inclusive recruitment.
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'''Note to Chapter Registrar:'''
