During the first weekend in November, the Cornell Chapter held our weekend Initiation event. Because our chapter is both a social and honors fraternity, our members are first initiated into our chapter, and then into the National Organization. Our current new members will be Nationally Initiated in the spring semester. Our chapter initiation is a weekend-long event that starts on Friday evening and concludes on Sunday morning. It includes a night-long ceremony on Friday night, social events during the day on Saturday including watching our chapter movie over dinner, and a full house clean-up on Sunday morning.

This was the second out of four seminars for the newly inducted class 13. This was the diversity seminar which focused on strengthening our diversity skills through pluralism. We attended a prayer session at a local Mosque, we ate at a Chinese restaurant, had a guest speaker from the GLBT Speakers Bureau, had the author of the freshman BBC book meet with us, we volunteered at an AIDS walk in downtown Columbus, and we had a speaker from the diversity department spend a whole day with us practicing diversity activities. The chapter benefits from this annual seminar by opening the participants eyes to the differences in the world...

The Diversity Meal was held in conjunction with the biweekly club meeting and lasted thirty minutes. The food served was Indian cuisine from Indian Kitchen Restaurant. This activity benefitted all 45 club members involved in stepping outside of their comfort zones to try new things from another real culture. The AZP chapter was involved to increase diversity within the club and benefitted by the increased diversity experiences among it's members. The Diversity Task Force Committee of three club members was responsible for planning and providing the meal with drinks and paper products included...

Five members of the chapter were invited to attend the annual fall meeting of the Ohio Agricultural Council (OAC). The OAC is open to both individuals and organizations in Ohio who are dedicated to the promotion of agriculture. During the luncheon, members interacted and met numerous industry professionals, many of whom are AZ alumni.Members had the opportunity to learn more about OAC and observe the meeting proceedings...

Six members of our chapter took a trip to the MidOhio Foodbank in Columbus, OH on Saturday, October 15^th. We helped put non-perishable food items in boxes to send out to families in our community. Our group helped box the items in assembly line fashion for about 4 hours. Our chapter does this annually as service to the community. The community service chairman organizes the outing yearly and a half day commitment was all that was required. It was a rewarding experience to give back to the community.

Every semester the Florida Chapter takes a road trip to a local campsite for our Woodser. Just to switch things up a little we reserved a campground at Kate's Fish Camp where we had a bonfire to cook hotdogs and make smores! Members gathered around the fire made by the owner of the camp. Even though the weather was not nearly as cold as it is further north members enjoyed watching the flames dance on the logs allowing us to wind down from a long week as we get ready to head into the last few weeks of the semester. Members took turns spelling things out with burning ends of sticks. Woodser is one of the most anticipated events each semester and members cannot wait to gather around a fire and socialize.

The Florida Chapter's Fall pledge class held a fundraiser at TCBY from 9-10 p.m. where they receive a certain percentage of the profits from the night. Members and pledges came out to meet up with each other and catch up on what has been going on with each since our last event. The fundraiser gave the pledges an opportunity to offset some of the pledging fees associated with AZ. Of course, what better way to do this than while eating ice cream! Members and pledges chow down on frozen yogurt and ice cream of all kinds while enjoying the company of members.

Our intramural indoor soccer team for the Fall semester is coming to a close. Tonight was the last game of our season. Though we may not have a perfect season record members enjoyed coming out on Wednesday for our games. Although the other team did not have enough players to play the game we decided to add a player to there team and have a friendly scrimmage. The scrimmage was a great way to end the season with both teams just going out there and having a blast playing a sport we all came to love over the semester...

With the Thanksgiving holiday fast approaching the Florida Chapter decided to be thankful for what we have and pass on the gift of food who are not as fortunate. Members collected cans to donate to the St. Francis House in Gainesville. The St. Francis House is there to provide emergency food, temporary shelter, transitional housing, and related support services in a safe, secure environment for people who find themselves confronted with homelessness and hunger in the Alachua County. The cans will be given to the St. Francis House where they will distribute them to people in need around the area. The event allowed our members to give back to the community and try to change someone's luck one can at a time.

It's potluck time again!!! Potluck is a tradition in the Florida Chapter where the pledges put on a themed dinner for the members. Our pledges planned it and came up with a theme of Mexican. Pledges, with the help of the officers, cooked up an entire taco bar of food and desserts for the members to feast on. The potluck benefits both members and pledges by giving us an opportunity to socialize and get to know each other better. It also gives pledges the opportunity to get their paddles signed as initiation quickly approaches! Even though potluck occurs every semester it will never get old and as we say you will see members you haven't seen in a while! It constantly shows each pledge class's personality with the changing themes and the corresponding food, decorations, and outfits/costumes.