KS & MO Alumnae Chapters in Themis

The Kansas and Missouri alumnae chapters received awesome coverage in the latest issue of Themis! Every chapter filed an alumnae Themis report, and three of our chapters had photos published. Great job to KC Metro, Mid-Missouri and St. Louis for sending such amazing photos!

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!

Julia Hill Attending Zeta Day

Julia Marthaler Hill, President of the ZTA Housing Corporation and former National President, will be speaking at KS/MO Zeta Day! Make plans to join us in Kansas City April 9 for the event. It will be a great day of sisterhood, service and celebration!

Save Pink Yoplait Lids!

In 2009, Zetas collected more pink lids than ever before-346,618 lids! Now entering our fifth year with Yoplait’s Save Lids to Save Lives campaign, our hope is the ZTA membership continues its success with bringing awareness to Breast Cancer through this fun, exciting and simple program. One big change this year to the lid collection program is that all lids need to be sent to:

Save Lids to Save Lives
PO Box 400007
El Paso, TX 88540-0007

CLEARLY LABEL YOUR ENVELOPE WITH THE ALUMNAE CHAPTER NAME ON THE OUTSIDE AND INSIDE OF YOUR LID PACKAGE. Yoplait is counting the lids and needs to be able to clearly identify who receives proper credit.

Lids must be postmarked by Dec. 31, 2010 in order to be counted!

ZTA at Kansas State

Zeta Tau Alpha is working hard to recruit chapter members for our Beta Upsilon chapter, returning at Kansas State this fall! A team of national officers arrived in Manhattan over the weekend, and infoviews with members and recruitment parties will be taking place all week. ZTA Traveling Leadership Consultants have been on campus since classes started, and they have helped sign up over 500 potential new members!

We are very excited to welcome our newest Zetas in the district on Bid Day on Thursday, 9/16. It will be even more exciting to reactivate our link in the chain of chapters later this fall. What a great time to be a Zeta in Kansas!

"Experienced the Sisterhood" in New Orleans for ZTA's Convention

It was a great privilege and ton of fun representing Kansas and Missouri alumnae at our 50th National and 39th International Convention. Although I had to leave Friday morning to celebrate my brother's wedding, I was able to "Experience the Sisterhood" and loved every minute.

I arrived early on Tuesday afternoon with other national officers and enjoyed spending time catching up with them. At our national officer dinner, we learned about Mardi Gras krewes and got creative dreaming up our own krewes.

After some training, we started to welcome our Zeta sisters attending as delegates and visitors during lunch on Wednesday. At the opening session, we were introduced to National Council, the ZTA Foundation Board, the National Housing Corporation Board and Traveling Leadership Consultants as they paraded in throwing beads and goodies. Their Mardi Gras floats were decorated luggage carts!

We enjoyed free time to do some ZTA shopping at Crown & Co. and view the amazing new museum-quality historical exhibit. At dinner, we learned to "Laissez le bon Temp Rouler!" (let the good times roll). We enjoyed a delicious meal followed by a King's cake. The sister who found the baby got the honor of being crowned! It was also a fun surprise to welcome the Krewe of Caesar. This is a real Mardi Gras Krewe who dazzled us with their amazing costumes (see photos).

Thursday's opening business meeting included all of the traditional elements that make it so special: the flag processional with all the chapter flags, singing the national anthem and creed of Zeta Tau Alpha, and formal welcomes and greetings. New and reorganized alumnae and collegiate chapters were recognized, and it was a special highlight to receive a baby cup for the Flint Hills, KS chapter.

At lunch we received the State of the Fraternity address and were reminded of everything we have to be proud of. After more free time, we gathered for dinner and celebrated our collegiate Crown Chapter winners.

Thursday concluded with the initiation of Tanya Snyder, breast cancer survivor and wife of the Washington Redskins owner. She has been instrumental in the team's Think Pink! efforts, including a fabulous partnership with ZTA.

Although I missed the rest of Convention, it included more business meetings, sisterhood time in the Crescent City, alumnae Crown Chapter night, the presentation of Honor Rings (including one for yours truly), a sisterhood party with surprise performances by DJ $crilla and the award-winning Epsilon step team, election of our new National Council, the Silver Awards banquet and a jazz brunch. To "experience the sisterhood" yourself, check out the ZTA webpage (www.zetataualpha.org) and the ZTA Facebook page.

Now, make plans to attend ZTA Convention 2012 in Louisville, Kentucky!

Recommend a Woman to Join ZTA!

While it seems as though summer just started, before we know it, Formal Recruitment will begin for many of our collegiate chapters. You can help make recruitment a success for our collegians by voluntarily submitting Membership Information Sheets (MIS) for outstanding young women that you know.

You can submit an MIS online and it will automatically reach the Membership Advisor for the designated chapter. You can also print out a PDF or a fill-in Word document of the MIS and send it by mail if you like. The instructions for all those options are outlined in the spring issue of Themis.

To access all the MIS options, just visit the "Recommend a Member" tab of Sisters Only on the ZTA Web site. You will need a username and password to open that page. That process, if you haven't already completed it, is very simple. Just follow the online prompts.

The "Recommend a Member" page also includes our policy on legacies, which you may want to review.

If you are uncertain when a particular campus holds recruitment, you can find that chapter on the Chapter Locator Map. The chapter profile that opens includes the recruitment start date.

If you have any questions about the MIS process, please contact International Office by e-mail or call 317-872-0540.

Thank you for helping our chapters identify outstanding women as potential new members of Zeta Tau Alpha.