President's Beginning Day Letter

In the coming year, On Line Kappa will celebrate its tenth year of existence! As one of the two last charter members of this chapter, I'm still wondering where all the years went!

In the year 2000, I learned about On Line Chapters by researching the web, and because I lived so far from any "land chapter" in my new home state of Texas, an On Line Chapter that functioned much the same as a "land chapter" seemed to be the answer for my needs. Most of our members came to OLK in pretty much the same way as I, and we all knew the concepts of Beta Sigma Phi - life, learning and friendship - and within just a few weeks our chapter became 25 members strong and we were "off and running".

We have just celebrated our fourth "Gathering" of members from all over the country, and one-third of our members attended. We spent five nights under the same roof, sharing responsibilities along with life stories, and we shopped together, laughed together and even dressed in identical yellow shirts proclaiming the OLK Online Northwest Gathering, 2009.

In the last several years, our International organization began to recognize on line chapters holding standard meetings as "viable" for members who had no land chapter to build on their "time in Beta Sigma Phi" and in so-doing, to work toward their next degrees. This year, our Cyber Council has gathered a committee that will work on creating a Yardstick specific to on line chapters. In spite of our using one that was more land--chapter oriented, our chapter has managed to be a three-star chapter every year of our existence.

In our nearly ten years of existence, we've celebrated graduations of our members, births, new homes, new jobs and marriages. Our members hail from no less that 14 states, yet distance means nothing to us, and we are as close as any sisters in a "land chapter".

This year marks the fourth year of my Presidency throughout OLK's history, and while I'd like to think someone else will fill this seat for the next two years, I'll always be available to OLK to fill a Board position, a committee position, or whatever is required.

I look forward to "Sharing Our Passport to Adventure" for 2009-2010 with all of you.

I am thy sister,
Carrie