Page 31 - 1914 February - To Dragma

142 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

out of college decided to form an alumna? chapter. A number of
girls met at the home of Maude Carvill, '99, for this purpose, and
the new chapter, or association as it was called, was formed in
November, 1899, with Maude Carvill as the first president. Since
that time, our history has been one of steady growth and expansion.

For the first few years the object of the chapter was chiefly social,
although its main purpose was to keep in touch with the active chap-
ter, and to encourage a deeper interest in the college among its
members. Meetings were held once a month at the homes of dif-
ferent girls and were in charge of a committee who served a collation
at its own expense. There was not much business then, but one of
our present by-laws which dates from the earliest days of our chapter
relates to the giving of the chapter wedding present, a cast or
photograph of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and today as we
see this beautiful g i f t adorning the homes of so many of our alumna?
we seem very closely united to the earlier days of our chapter.

I n 1901 when our active chapter, with a local at Brown Uni-
versity, formed a small national fraternity under the name of Delta
Sigma, with Georgia Hodgdon, '97, as first Grand President, our
alumna: chapter continued substantially unchanged, except that we
then became an alumna? chapter of Delta Sigma. We continued to
meet once a month at the girls' homes, but owing to our rapidly
increasing numbers a nominal charge of twenty-five cents to cover
the expense of the collation was made for each girl who attended,
which charge of course was entirely apart from our annual dues.

From that time on, our meetings were particularly pleasant, and I
am sure those of us who were fortunate enough to be alumna; at
that time will never forget them. We met on the last Friday of
the month in the afternoon, some of the girls coming as early as three
o'clock with their sewing, and others arriving from time to time
until six o'clock when supper was served. A short business meeting
was usually held before supper, and everybody was expected to re-
main into the evening.

The girl at whose home the meeting was held picked her com-
mittee to help her, and in spite of the work we certainly all enjoyed
serving on those committees. I think about fifteen on an average
used to attend those meetings. A little later we changed the day
from Friday to Saturday, as it seemed to suit the convenience of more
of the girls, many of whom were teaching at a distance and could
not get home in time to attend the Friday meetings, and then the
attendance began to increase.

How proud and happy we were in the spring of 1908 when we