What's Up with the West - November 2013

What’s Up in the West?

November 2013

Gamma - KKPsi

Gamma would like to introduce the Western District to our Alpha Zeta class! Pictured above are our 26 new Prospective Members and we are so excited to have them. We’ve been keeping busy helping the marching band in particular making visiting band snacks and doing whatever we can to make help our band finish strong. Finally, Gamma is happy to announce that we will be hosting the District Leadership Conference this season and we’re pumped to have so many brothers come visit us in Seattle!!

Omicron - TBSigma Hello Western District,

For November, Omicron has been very busy lately. Our fall semester class, Phi Class, was installed officially in center of the season. Nine candidate membership members became sisters. Welcome Aidan Tarufelli, Alex Schaefer, Bobby Brown, Brandon Killen, Bridger Snow, Chloe Bolton, Courtney McComas, Kenzie Allen, and Melissa Dawson! We had a wonderful ritual and dinner event that brought together not just active members but also alumni members!

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Along with this; for Thanksgiving, Omicron had the pleasure to hosting its third annual Ugly Sweatersgiving Event. This is where we invite the entire Marching Band over to someone’s house, share leftovers in the form of a potluck dinner, encourage everybody to come where ugly sweaters, and play games and watch a terrible movie. This is meant to invite all the members of the Band over in case they can’t go home for the holiday. About thirty people attended this event but the reason it was so special was an alumni member from our Alpha class, Marybeth McGuire, came. It was so great to have her over. The amazing part of her attending was the part she brought a box of a lot of TBS memories. Pictures and posters of National Convention, Western District Convention, and Chapter memories in the band were in the contents and everybody was looking at these memories. Seeing the history of the past was a great experience because new members got the chance to looks at the origins of Omicron. It was a great opportunity to watch everyone look through the past and appreciate the future of TBS.

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PsiEK - KKPsi & TBSigma

Psi and Epsilon Kappa have many things to be thankful for this November! In celebrating the National Month of Musicianship, the combined chapters held our first biannual PsiEKonzert featuring incredible performances by various brothers and sisters. We held another round of snack packing to welcome the wonderful visiting bands from the University of Washington and the University of Colorado. The recruitment effort has officially kicked off for both chapters with the hosting of Psi’s annual Day at the Park and EK’s Spaghetti Dinner. Both were overwhelmingly successful with an outpouring of interest from potential new members. The chapters strengthened our bond by hiking together in the hills of Malibu, reaching the secluded Escondido Falls. Finally, both chapters hosted a “Band Thanksgiving” to allow members of the UCLA Marching Band who cannot make it home for the holiday to celebrate with us. All in all, it has once again been a great month of service!

Omega - KKPsi This past month has been very busy for the Omega Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi. We started out the month by having our Second Degree. We currently have 11 Prospective Members and we are looking forward to rest of the semester. On Veterans Day, we had two service projects in the Tucson community. In the morning, we had several active brothers and prospective members plant trees in the Tucson community with a service organization called Trees for Tucson. Later on that day, the Joint Omega chapters played music at the local Veterans Hospital for Veterans Day. We played many patriotic songs and school fight songs and got a chance to talk to many of the Veterans there that served our country. Later in the month, we had a service project at the Ronald McDonald House in Tucson, where some of the Brothers and Prospective Members cooked dinner for the people staying there. During the month, the Pride of Arizona has had three home football games and we are looking forward to travelling up to ASU and performing a show with their marching band. We are looking forward to finishing out the rest of the semester.

Beta Omicron- KKPsi Beta Omicron kicked off November with a visit from Yvonne Daye, one of the Chapter Field Representatives. She spent two whole days with us, meeting with members of Executive Council and other members of the chapter, as well as attending a chapter meeting. She gave us lots of great advice--from how to run efficient meetings to dealing with chapter drama--and even inspired us to apply Rituals to every part of our lives. It was very helpful to see what we’re doing well, and what we can work on in the future.

On Veteran’s Day Weekend, the Brotherhood Committee hosted a “Staycation” Fall Retreat.

Traditionally, Beta Omicron goes camping in northern Arizona in the fall, but since we hadn’t had a free weekend since football season started and basketball games were starting that weekend, we stayed in Tempe so more people could attend. This also made it possible for Prospectives to attend certain parts, so they got to get a few interviews out of the way and simply get to know the Actives during the weekend. Retreat ended with a closed session on A Mountain, where we watched a sunset and reflected on the bonds we share with our Brothers.

This weekend (November 30th), the Sun Devil Marching Band will participate in Battle of the Bands with UofA’s band, and then we’ll watch the highly-anticipated football game against our rival school. Though we’re rooting for our football team now more than ever, we’re also looking forward to saying hi to some Brothers and Sisters from the Omegas! We’re looking forward to putting our Delta Nu class through 2nd Degree on December 2nd, playing at the Pac-12 Championship Game on December 7th, and traveling to a Bowl Game over Winter Break (Karma Caps!).

Gamma Kappa - KKPsi

Gamma Kappa was very busy this November. We had our CFR visit which went great! It was a lot of fun and Yvonne Daye was very helpful. Along with that, we just had our Fall Rush Class (Beta Sigma) go through Third Degree on November 24th. We had a lot of fun preparing for Third Degree with all of our traditions the previous week. We also edited our Chapter Constitution and Joint Bi-Laws with our sister chapter, Alpha Chi. The edits will be very beneficial next semester and in the future. Besides just band related activities, our football team made the playoffs for the first time since 2003; so the marching band is very excited to be a part of this historical feat and be part of such a successful season.

Iota Pi- KKPsi Iota Pi has been very busy working this month!

First, our fundraising committee has started working overtime on preparing for our second annual Run For Music. Last year, this was a great fundraiser that brought in over $800 for three different purposes.

This year it will be held again at Cal Poly on January 26, 2014. Second, we have finally sent out bids and are excited to introduce our new class in January.

Third, in early November, we had retreat the day after we got back from an away game at UC Davis.

Everyone was exhausted but we ended up having a wonderful retreat, which involved different clues and driving to different parts of San Luis Obispo. Then we had a serious portion where we discussed the KKPsi Mission Statement which is: Kappa Kappa Psi is a fraternal organization that promotes the advancement of college and university bands through dedicated service and support to bands; comprehensive education; leadership opportunities; and recognition; for the benefit of its members and society. We recently had a holiday meeting at one of our brother’s home where we had a thanksgiving feast!

Lambda Psi - KKPsi

Lambda Psi is very glad to announce that we had a successful Third Degree and welcome eight new Brothers to our chapter at San Jose State University.

We have been making fun memories at service events such as hosting concert receptions, and at our “Brosgiving� potluck. We have been holding many fundraisers to raise money for instrument repairs for our college. Our members are excited for our last home football game with the Pride of the Spartans, the Spartan marching band.

Hello Western District!

I hope you enjoyed the Newsletter for the Fall Term! There will be no December article as I will be working on and publishing the Best Of Edition at the end of December. I hope everyone has a wonderful break and holidays. Good Luck on FINALS! Hillary Tung