CHAPTER REPORT

The Rho Chapter of Tau Beta Sigma

Indiana University

Bloomington, IN

Greetings, Sisters!

This year has been one of landmarks and accomplishments in the Rho Chapter of Tau Beta Sigma. We come to the North Central District Convention this year eager to share our experiences.

We began the Fall with the goal of increasing our membership. We came up with several ways to reach this goal, one of which was wearing our new chapter t-shirts. The bright red shirts and “Ask me about TBS” buttons along with our own enthusiasm about TBS towards our Prospective Prospective Members definitely drew the attention we were looking for. Before long we were educating a PM class of 12, our largest in several semesters. Not only did the Fall ‘99 class have numbers, but they had energy and drive! They jumped feet-first into our activities, services and fundraisers, going far above and beyond the duties of PMs. With their initiation, we not only gained their talents and bright spirit, but we also increased our membership by 30%! We are now training a PM class of 6, which is a strong number for a spring semester. This class also shows outstanding enthusiasm and talent, and we anxiously await their initiation into our chapter!

A large PM class is not the entire story of our membership activities this year. The Rho Chapter was given the honor of installing the first NCD colony in many years. We welcome our sisters-to-be from the University of Louisville to convention this year. Our chapter has really enjoyed working with this worthy group of people and look forward to the time when we can stand beside one another as sisters!

While our chapter activities continued, the vast majority of Rho sisters were also wrapped up in a packed Marching Hundred schedule. We had SEVEN home games this season, the first three of which were on consecutive weekends! Despite the time crunch, we performed a new and different show each game and further developed our connections with both the fans and the football team. The most memorable moment involving the football team came when the offensive line performed a Redstepper-style kickline in exchange for Marching Hundred t-shirts! Our away trip this year took us north to the University of Minnesoooota Golden Gophers. Though we did not emerge with a win, we had a wonderful time with each other, our host families, and shopping at the Mall of America.

Besides being a landmark semester in terms of membership, on November 19th we also celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of our chapter’s installation. We marked the occasion with our Third Degree and a reception, to which we invited our alumni, District and National officers, and our sisters and brothers from around the district. We had an excellent showing of alumni and sisters from other chapters, along with a few District officers and a National Officer. It seemed fitting for us that on our fiftieth anniversary we showed our strength by initiating our large and enthusiastic membership class in the presence of our honored guests.

In the service area this past year, we have been picking up steam. In the Fall semester we continued with our usual fall services, which included wake-up calls to the band on early game mornings and recognition certificates for the high school band directors of our rookie marchers. To this we added the handing out of “Boo-grams,” or bags full of Halloween candy, to the entire Marching Hundred for our October 30th football game, and a cookie bake and Christmas caroling activity for a local retirement community. This spring we have completed several projects, such as IU Summer Music Clinic envelope stuffing for our Department of Bands and a massive reorganization of our Marching Hundred Hall’s uniform room. Service projects in the works include helping a local Girl Scout Troop earn their music badges in mid-April, revamping some of our old ritual equipment, and - the biggest one of them all - helping our Department of Bands move their office from its current location to brand new offices in our renovated music building.

While this report does not contain every single thing our chapter has done over the past year, it does contain the high points and those accomplishments for which we have the most pride, save one. This year has also seen our chapter come together in a special way, an event none of us can quite describe or find a reason for. The usual bumps in the road associated with a large group of people have lessened, and we now work together with open lines of communication and a certain respect and friendship that can only be described as sisterly. We approach our duties and activities with shared enthusiasm and enjoy our accomplishments as a group rather than as individuals. Whatever you want to call that special energy, Rho has it right now and we are thankful for it. We look to maintain and increase this energy in the coming year, and we look forward our future together as a chapter.

Respectfully Submitted In The Bond,

Brooke Hensley-Marschand

Rho Chapter Delegate