GAMMA RHO CHAPTER REPORT 2001 NCD CONVENTION

MARCH 30-APRIL 1

WHO WE ARE-AND WHAT WE HAVE DONE THIS YEAR...

Service to College/University Band

The Gamma Rho chapter of Tau Beta Sigma has been extremely busy this past year, especially in the area of service. Service is very dear to our hearts here at EMU. One of our biggest separate service projects is the Tau Beta Sigma Honors Chamber Ensemble Concert. This event takes place annually and is organized and carried out entirely by the sisters of Gamma Rho. The participants are determined through a selective auditioning process. Our panel of judges consists of Eastern Michigan University Professors. The Chamber Ensemble Concert has been a successful endeavor for decades. This year we had 7 groups perform for a packed house. We closed the recital with our sisters singing our National Hymn.

The sisters of Gamma Rho also publish the Band Lyre each semester. This is a small newspaper for the music department to read.

Gamma Rho and Delta Upsilon have been working more jointly in order to better serve the bands. One of our big service projects this past year was purchasing music stands for the department. These stands will be installed in practice rooms. We also purchased a printer/copier machine for the Band Office. (A much needed item.) We also sewed percussion covers for keyboards and timpani. A basketball band banner was also made to display at EMU basketball games for our band. Another big service project that we do is NIB recordings. EMU band members can more easily apply for the NIB through this project. Several small service projects have done jointly include buying apples for the marching band at every home game, cleaning the band and orchestra rooms, ushering for the music department, and providing funding for scholarships and awards. Our groups also provide food for several concert receptions as well as donuts and juice for all tours taken by EMU Bands. Our joint group also purchased a computerized projector to assist the marching band in viewing drill. To recap our biggest service project ever, we now have the results of our Marathon. We helped to raise almost $13,000. Half of our proceeds went directly to Habitat for Humanity in Huron Valley.

This year our candidate/MEC class decided to clean up our practice rooms for their service project. This was very successful, seeing that they never get cleaned on a regular basis. Financial Assistance to College/University Band Gamma Rho holds bake sales every other Tuesday. This is our biggest fundraiser/service to the department. Everyone always looks forward to the Sisters' bake sales. We also continue to sell our t-shirts, band pens, boxer shorts, window stickers, and sweetest day grams.

Together with Delta Upsilon, we work on Valentine's Day grams, sell band wear, and hold car washes. We also continue to work at the Concessions Booth at basketball and football games, as well as for the Robotics Convention. Currently we are selling EMU Band Scarves.

Delta Upsilon and Gamma Rho have turned this income over to the EMU bands by funding Honors Recitals, donating furniture to the Student Commons, NIB recordings, juice and donuts for tour, purchasing stands and other equipment, and for the Marathon. (Which brought in almost $13,000, the biggest amount we've ever donated.) This year we have also donated $300 to the winners of our new soloist competition-the William Stewart Award. The soloist is featured with our University Bands. This competition is an annual event.

Leadership within the Band

Gamma Rho provides a great amount of leadership and support within EMU Bands. We had 4 sisters serve as Marching Band Section Leaders this fall. Currently we have 2 sisters as principals in Wind Symphony, and 3 sisters as principals in Symphonic Band. We also have 2 sisters proudly serving on the EMU Band Staff. We also house band members during band camp and for senior marcher day. In addition, we work at Clinic Day for the music department, and we always provide ushers for EMU music events.

Social Projects

Several social activities take place throughout the school year. Gamma Rho is always trying to incorporate social activities in order to strengthen our sisterhood. Sisterhood events include candle passes, star sister, movie nights, dinner nights, candle parties, pampered chef parties, and a picture party. We like to incorporate candle passes every once in a while at our meetings to allow other sisters to know what is going on in our lives. This lets us know how supported we our within our bond as well as letting us release some of the stress of our everyday lives. Star sister is something new that we started this year. Each week a question is asked that pertains to membership/constitution. The sister(s) that answers the most questions right at the end of the semester is given a prize. This is our way of continuing membership education with actives. Movie and dinner nights allow us to take a break from our busy lives and just relax with other sisters. At the candle and pampered chef parties we all get together to have fun and buy fun and useful in terms to help other sisters.

The sisters of Gamma Rho are also very concerned with social activities that include the brothers of Delta Upsilon and the rest of the band members. Our biggest time for this is during band camp. This past band camp we sponsored a skit-in-the-bag night, a pie eating contest, an ice cream social, and on the last night we had pizza and pop for all of the marching band members. For our rush activities we played capture the flag, and had a night of icebreakers. Everyone was encouraged to go to these activities and we had very good turn out at both. The groups also had a Hot Dog Fiesta during homecoming week for the current band members, as well as the alumni. With the leftovers we held a Hot Dog Fiesta Part 2 the following week after a rehearsal. Just recently we held a board game night at the music building where everyone was invited to bring games for a night of fun and high spirits.

With these social activities the sisters of Gamma Rho try to include everyone that would like to participate. These people include alumni, our brothers of Delta Upsilon, and the current members in the bands. We are also always trying out new ideas to try to get the most turnouts of interested people.

Communication

Gamma Rho has been working on keeping good contact with the rest of the district through many different ways. Our main contact, currently, is one of our actives, Trudy Caudron, who is the NCD's president. She keeps us informed and up to date on all of the different activities and events that we can go to on a weekly basis. She also can relate part of Gamma Rho to the District. Also, a letter is sent out to the NCD at least once a semester updating the sisters on what is going on at Eastern Michigan University. Yet another source that we like to use is the Internet. One of our sisters has put up a Gamma Rho website which is kept updated with all of the happenings and activities that take place in our group, as well as all of the information of members and membership.

Gamma Rho also keeps alumni informed of all of the activities of our chapter as well as in the district. This is done through our Alumni Newsletter, a calendar, and information packets. We try to stay in touch on a regular basis. E-Mail is also used for this purpose; we send invitations about our degrees and other events this way.

One of our main goals in the chapter is to increase communication. This is not for only within our chapter, but we wish to extend this goal to include alumni, and our district.

Expansion

This year during our rush, the sisters of Gamma Rho have been concentrating on the education of our candidates. We have been more concerned with the quality of our candidates rather than the quantity. Even so, our group has had an even turn over of graduates and incoming actives. Our newest members have been given great education by our chapter and are of the highest quality that we have come to expect in our members. We have found that much more can be accomplished when the membership is of the higher quality that is upheld by our Eight and Five, even if this means having a smaller candidate class. The members that are our expansion uphold these ideals to the highest degree and we are very proud to be expanding greatly within our sisterhood with this class. We have decided to only educate one class per academic year, instead of the usual 2. This way we can better educate candidates, on an individual basis. We have found this process to be very rewarding. Our candidate class brings to us great ideas, and a drive to serve the bands like no other. In this way, we our expanding our own roots of Tau Beta Sigma.