Zeta Day Awards

I enjoyed seeing many of you in Kansas City on Saturday for Zeta Day! "Zeta Through the Decades" was a wonderful day with highlights like Mrs. Julia Hill playing heads or tails and then giving a speech, recognizing 5 White Violets including one 75-year member, viewing historical photos and artifacts from our district, playing many games, recognizing graduating seniors, and celebrating with awards.

My favorite part of Zeta Day is presenting awards to deserving women and chapters, so I wanted to post the awards here.

St. Louis alumnae won the attendance award again because 12 members made the trip to Kansas City.

10% Membership Awards went to Flint Hills, KS (19% growth) and Mid-Missouri (75% growth) chapters.

The Alumnae-Collegiate Relations Award went to Mid-Missouri.

Lawrence, KS Area won the Alumnae Website Award.

The Alumnae Service Award went to St. Louis.

Congratulations to our hostess chapter, KC Metro, for winning the District President's Silver Award for Public Relations!

Award Winning Alumnae

The alumnae chapters in district XVIIA are amazing and very deserving of awards. Congratulations to these chapters for their achievements!

10% Membership Increase: Lawrence, KS Area and Kansas City Metro

Alumnae Chapter Programming: St. Louis

Alumnae-Collegiate Relations: Springfield

Alumnae Service: Mid-Missouri

Alumnae Membership: Lawrence, KS Area

Alumnae Panhellenic: Kansas City Metro

District Silver for Fundraising: St. Louis

Alumnae Zeta Day Attendance Award: St. Louis

Zetas Think Pink! All Year

Is it pink enough for you? Pink just might replace black and orange for the month of October thanks to Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Pink is not just an October color for Zetas, though. After turquoise, it is probably the most loved and worn color for Zeta Tau Alphas!

ZTA alumnae and collegians across the world are "pinking out" their colleges and communities, collecting pink Yoplait lids, wearing and handing out pink ribbons, volunteering at Komen events, organizing countless fundraisers and so much more to promote breast cancer education and awareness.

In our own district, ZTA alumnae are busy doing their part too. The newly forming Flint Hills, KS alumnae chapter in Manhattan is passing out pink ribbons and BSE reminder stickers. The Lawrence, KS Area alumnae have started a partnership with their local Young Survivors Coalition to work together on fundraisers and awareness activities. Alumnae in Kansas City had a great showing at the city's Race for the Cure, and they are doing new and different things to collect pink lids. Mid-Missouri Zetas help the Alpha Psi collegians at Mizzou with their Rockin' for the Ribbon fundraiser, and Springfield alumnae held a Think Pink! garage sale. St. Louis ZTA alumnae focus on sports fans by handing out pink ribbons at Rams football games and Blues hockey games.

Without a doubt, Zetas are "learn[ing] the nobility of service". May the world be a little more pink under our influence!

Zeta Day Recap

Pink-A-Palooza was fabulous! Over 300 Zetas from KS and MO gathered in St. Louis for Zeta Day. We honored a White Violet, bought crowns to support the ZTA Foundation, played Zeta Jeopardy, and raffled off a quilt and handmade ZTA bags. Highlights include sharing philanthropy ideas and learning how to network. We gathered items for a local shelter, made more than 30 blankets for the shelter and created keychains for breast cancer survivors. Of course we celebrated our successes with awards too! Alumnae awards are below:

10% Membership Increase: Lawrence, KS Area, Mid-Missouri and Springfield, MO

Alumnae-Collegiate Relations: Lawrence, KS Area

Alumnae Website: Springfield, MO

Alumnae Service: Mid-Missouri

Alumnae Public Relations: St. Louis, MO

District President's Silver for Programming: Lawrence, KS Area

Congratulations!

District President Travels & Official Visits

It has been a busy couple of months for your humble District President! In January, I traveled to Springfield, MO to visit alumnae and participate in Province Wide Officer Training (PWOT). I enjoyed a delicious coffee at a local hangout in Springfield and had a great conversation with the President and PR/Historian of the Springfield alumnae chapter. When the President and I got back to her house, we chatted until the wee hours of the morning and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company! PWOT was an excellent day for everyone, and I assisted with the PR/Image session for collegians. I met with the Zeta Day Chair-women, and I also enjoyed spending time with other alumnae I do not see very often.

In February I met with KC Metro alumnae EC officers for a great officer training session. We all brought salad toppings to make our own salad bar buffet, and we covered a broad range of topics that included the Crown Chapter Award, ZTAF contributions, alumnae recruitment and retention, programming and service. KC Metro officers have created useful and attractive notebooks to assist them and the future officers to follow in their footsteps.

In March I stayed closer to home (literally, since I hosted the meeting at my house) for the Lawrence, KS Area chapter visit. The chapter elected its new EC officers for 2009-10 and enjoyed some delicious brunch items. They have had a food/cooking theme all year, so members who attend meetings with food take home a couple of recipes for the things that they sample! I talked about Zeta Day and showed the philanthropy recruitment video and parts of the new member education video.

In April I am headed to St. Louis for Zeta Day, and in July I will travel to Indianapolis for National Leadership Conference. My ZTA travels are a fun way to connect with my Zeta sisters and serve the fraternity that I love dearly.

District Silver Award 2009: Programming

It gave me great pleasure to polish up the district silver platter (okay, so my dear husband and favorite Zeta Man actually polished it) and award it at Zeta Day 2008. The award had been out of circulation for 8 years, and I decided to give it for excellence in membership. Congratulations to the Lawrence KS Area chapter for receiving it!

This year, I am inspiring District 17 chapters to excel in alumnae programming. I have created a new scorecard and published it, so I look forward to seeing some amazing events. I only wish that I could attend more of them!