Sharing Reports - July/August - 2019
On Line Theta is thrilled that Sassie (Cherie) has been able to return to our chapter. We sure have missed her. We had a pot luck luncheon in June and everybody sent delicious sounding recipes. Good thing it was virtual food as we sure would have gained weight!
We have another Canadian, Irene, in our group. Mair now has company and a special sister. Mair lives in Canada as well.
We do a book report every month. After all, Beta Sigma Phi was originally a book club when Bill Ross founded us many years ago. June's book was "The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris" by Jenny Colgan. It's an easy read book about love lost and love found.
We had two birthdays and 2 special days in June and a birthday and anniversary in July. Gay will be celebrating a 47 anniversary! We have new secret sisters for 2019-2020. Let the fun begin!
We will be doing Beginning Day the last Sunday in August. We are getting pretty excited! Our ladies always come up with fun activities!
Respectfully submitted, Arlene, president, On Line Theta
The chapter is still growing and receiving visitors. Jennifer and family relocated to IL and are busy with new schools and jobs. Karen stays busy with work and teaching art classes in her community. and her son is flipping a house for he and his girlfriend this summer. Her daughter is earning her five star cake decorating certification at the Master's level. Prayers for Judy as she fights through her illness. Joyce is always on vacation somewhere across the pond. We all continue to stay active and busy in this chapter. Three sisters have completed pledge training thanks to Jacey. Jacey received her Ritual of Jewels degree and is quite proud! Congrats to her.
Have a happy and healthy summer sisters!
Online Eta Sisters
Karen
Chapter Name: On-line Psi
President Beverly was traveling so Vice-President Cheryl conducted the business meeting. Several members said the meeting quarterly for Cyber Council was okay and that whatever works for everyone involved would be fine with each of them.
Carole posted the birthdays, anniversaries and chapter milestones for the month along with the review of the Book of Beta Sigma Phi reviewing the Legacy Program.
Rose gave her program on “How to Grow Tomatoes” and gave us a link to an article she found on Pinterest on Growing Tomatoes.
Rose posted her recipe for Killer Marinated Tomato Salad. Sounds good for those hot summer days.
Social: Rose posted a You Tube video of Epcot Center in Orlando Florida which was her favorite place to visit in the 1990’s. This social will be a trip “back to the future” from the perspective of the late 20th century.
Rose said “We visited many times and enjoyed every moment. My favorite exhibits were the Spaceship Earth, Imagination, the Showcase of Nations, the Lazor-Lightshow and the Millennium celebration in the year 2000. Epcot is about to change forever. More about this in part 2.
Part 2: EPCOT is about to change forever. Disney is trying to overhaul the park in time for its 50th Anniversary. Many rumors are circulating about which exhibits will be added and which will be removed.
Although time will tell, I think the following link from You Tube is quite interesting:
Then Carole V. gave the Book Review for June: “There There” by Tommy Orange
“There There” is set in Oakland, Calif., where Orange — he’s an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma — was born and raised. The title refers to Gertrude Stein’s comment about there being no “there there” in Oakland.
For July Beverly conducted the meeting and thanked Cheryl for handling it in June while she was traveling.
Carole again posted the Birthdays, Anniversaries and Chapter Milestones for the month of July.
Carole then posted the following explaining Using Excess Months Toward Progression
Now that we are allowing Members-at- Large to earn progression credit by doing independent programs, members have asked us to consider allowing members with excess time in lower degrees to count it toward their progression time. Before the change in rules that allowed members to take any degree in any chapter and get full credit for that time, members who had a higher degree than that of their chapter, or who had no local chapter of a higher degree to move into, built up months that did not count toward progression in any degree. The Executive Council discussed the issue and decided it was only fair to allow those months to count.
Now, members who have excess degree time at any degree level may contact their Division Chairman. She will work up how many excess months they have to add to their progression records. The member will then be able to take the next degree she is eligible for, provided she has enough months to achieve that degree. If, after taking her next degree, the member still has excess months, she may move those into the degree she just took. If that is enough time to advance again, she may use it and take the next degree until that time is used up and she is even with all her active months used toward progression. You may not skip degrees. You must qualify and take each degree in order before advancing to the next. You may continue with this process until you have used all your excess months toward higher degrees.
There is no automatic way to handle this for all of our members who have excess months, so you must contact your Division Chairman to determine the number of months you have and how to qualify for each degree until that time is fully used. Remember, the rule when you accumulated those extra months was that only time in the chapter’s degree or a higher degree chapter counted toward progression, even though you were doing program work as you would if you’d been in a chapter of your own degree. Because of this, it just seemed appropriate to allow those members with this issue to use those excess months to move forward in the progression of degrees.
We hope this change will make it possible for all members to get the degrees they have long felt they have earned and should have received. Then everyone can determine their degree by their total number of active chapter months, and hopefully any confusion with the old rules will be over. Remember, call or email your Division Chairman to help get this process underway. You will need to take each Ritual in order until you are caught up and your excess months are used.
The Program was given by Ann on 10 interesting facts about the 4th of July (Independence Day) and how it became a National Holiday.
For many, The Fourth of July is a day filled with family, friends, good food, and fireworks. We often look at it as a fun summer celebration to celebrate our flag, enjoy a busy city parade and snack on cotton candy at local fairs, but Independence Day is so much more than that. It’s easy to forget the details behind the holiday, but here are ten fun facts about the history of Independence Day so you can be reminded as to why we celebrate on the Fourth of July.
The Fourth of July is more than just a celebration of summertime — it’s a time to celebrate our freedom and how far we have come.
1. The Declaration of Independence began as a letter to King George to explain why the Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Great Britain.
2. The Declaration of Independence was started on July 2, 1776 and the Continental Congress approved the final wording on July 4. The American colonies were declared free and independent states.
3. The first Independence Day was celebrated on July 8, 1776 and the official signing took place on August 2.
4. 56 people signed the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson wrote the majority of it.
5. The first Independence Day on July 8, 1776 took place in Philadelphia. The White House celebrated Independence Day for the first time in 1804.
6. The Declaration of Independence has five parts. They are: the! Preamble, the Statement of Human Rights, Charges Against Human Rights, Charges Against the King and Parliament, and the Statement of Separation and Signatures.
7. According to census.gov, 2.5 million people celebrated the first Independence Day, compared to 316.2 million people today.
8. July 4 was officially declared a holiday in 1870, nearly one hundred years after the Declaration of Independence was written.
9. Currently, the oldest Independence Day celebration in the U.S. is held in Bristol, Rhode Island.
10 Independence Day is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence of the United States on July 4, 1776. The Continental Congress declared that the thirteen American colonies were no longer subject to the monarch of Britain and were now united, free, and independent states.
How did the Fourth of July become a national holiday.
For the first 15 or 20 years after the Declaration was written, people didn’t celebrate it much on any date. It was too new and too much else was happening in the young nation. By the 1790s, a time of bitter partisan conflicts, the Declaration had become controversial. One party, the Democratic-Republicans, admired Jefferson and the Declaration. But the other party, the Federalists, thought the Declaration was too French and too anti-British, which went against their current policies.
By 1817, John Adams complained in a letter that America seemed uninterested in its past. But that would soon change.
After the War of 1812, the Federalist party began to come apart and the new parties of the 1820s and 1830s all considered themselves inheritors of Jefferson an! d the Democratic-Republicans. Printed copies of the Declaration began to circulate again, all with the date July 4, 1776, listed at the top. The deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on July 4, 1826, may even have helped to promote the idea of July 4 as an important date to be celebrated.
Celebrations of the Fourth of July became more common as the years went on and in 1870, almost a hundred years after the Declaration was written, Congress first declared July 4 to be a national holiday as part of a bill to officially recognize several holidays, including Christmas. Further legislation about national holidays, including July 4, was passed in 1939 and 1941.
2019 marks this year as the 243rd Independence Day.
Ann’s Book review was “The Wedding Sisters” by Jamie Brenner
Filled with unforgettable characters and deep insights, the Wedding Sisters is a heartwarming and modern take on love, marriage, and family. This is the story of three sisters who all plan high-profile weddings in the same calendar year. It is a smart, fun read that will leave you thinking about the nature of love, the spectacle of wedding planning and what's really important in life. While the hunt for the perfect white dress, and the partner to go with it, the story will draw readers in, it's the exploration of the power of families that makes "The Wedding Sisters" a modern romance that you will fall in love with. A book that is completely compelling and impossible to put down. A very easy read.
Our Social for July was hosted by Ann, a Block Party complete with games for both the adults and children, prizes, lots of good food, homemade ice cream and to end the evening, a fireworks display.
Ann then posted her recipe for “Oriental Ramen Broccoli Cole Slaw” a good summer dish.
Cyber Council News
Cyber council is voting on a by-law to change the bi-monthly meeting to quarterly meetings to August,
November, February and May. This is due to not enough business required anymore at these meetings.
The June Torch is available to read online
Program
June
"To Dream the Impossible Dream." This was song was sung by Don Quixote in the musical "Man of La Mancha" He sings,these words at the end of his life, saying that he will never give up believing that man is good and that 'right will out'. He knows that one man can make a difference, as can each of us.
Other songs I thought of were "Once Upon a Dream" from my childhood favorite Disney 1959 movie Sleeping Beauty; "All I have to do is Dream"by the Everly Brothers, 1960; "Sweet Dreams are Made of This" by the Eurythmics,1983; "Just a Dream" by Nelly, 2010; "Dreams" by The Cranberries, 2017 We can learn about love and caring when we think of the words of these popular dream songs. Another song "I Dreamed a Dream from "Les Miserables" tells of dreams that were dreamed but never came to fruition. We need to realize that when occurrences happen in our life that are out of our control we may need to adjust our dreams and not stagnate ourselves because our original dream is no longer within our grasp.
July
"The Power of the Dream" --Artificial Intelligence
What are the benefits or disadvantages of A-1 intelligence? Discuss these ethical topic:
A. Unemployment. What happens after the end of job. B.Inequality. How do we distribute the wealth created by machines? C. Humanity. How do machines affect our behavior and interactions? D.Artificial stupidity. How can we guard against mistakes? E. Racist robots. How do we eliminate AI bias? F. Security. How do we keep AI safe from adversaries? G. Evil genies. How do we protect against unintended consequences? H. Biology. How do we stay in control of a complex intelligent system? I.Robot rights. How do we define the humane treatment of AI?
Service- NA
Sunshine - Birthdays
June 3 Bobbie, Evelyn June 8, Camile June 17
Membership -NA
Socials -NA
Book Club
Some members reporting and reviewing they have read The Gown by Jennifer Robson
KK
June
It would be a wonderful dream to have OLD vibrant and interactive again. I guess that it is up to each of us to make a regular small contribution if that dream is to be achieved. Please do share one or more of those stories with us
OLD Website No cbange
Cyber Council Sharing Reports
http://www.betajournal.com/sharing_2006.htm
Click on bottom of page to get to most recent Online Cyber Council
Your Sister In OLD,
Submitted by,Evelyn—Cyber Council Representative for OL
OLB
Our May program was very informative one on your birth stone, birth month flower & zodiac sign. Most of us were familiar with our sign & stone tho some months had more than one stone but the flower was the true learning experience.
Our June program was the story of our beginning as the "What to read club", each member was invited to share her favorite book & why, why she enjoys reading etc
The June social was the TN State Conv. there were 6 OLB members & 1 son & 7 members & 2 guys in attendance from Sandy K's land chapter. the guys did their own thing while we were at conv. the hotel & food were outstanding. OLB member Carolyn won a 50/50 raffle & Sandy K won a huge pasta basket. The TN state project & International project is St Jude Children's research hosp. the Knoxville chapters sold their sorority house due to the upkeep cost associated with that. they made several donations of $10,000 ea & $229,000 to St Jude. We kept those not in attendance involved by sharing lots of pictures & stories and we all had a great time. We also had OLB FL member Carolyn with us sharing her honor of being FL State Woman of the year. What a fun time sending videos of her Queenly wave back to the chapter
Hugs from OLB,
Dianne, Madonna & Sandy K