Dear Sigma Beta Beta Houston Chapter members,
Well, we’re at the halfway mark for WHO 2020 Year of the Nurse and the Midwife. Little did we know this year would be full of Covid-19, including the psychological, physical, social and economic impacts of Covid. Racial inequities are also heavily impacting us, hopefully resulting in deep personal soul-searching to address equity for all, as we put our hearts, hands and feet into actions that promote kindness, justice, right behavior and equal opportunities for all mankind.
So, you may be asking, what is new with our SIGMA Beta Beta-Houston Chapter. Needless to say, we’ve jumped on to the ‘virtual’ wagon! As soon as we could predict that the future was going to be….well… ‘unpredictable’, we started exploring virtual modalities and embraced our new ‘very best friend’ → ZOOM. Our April 24th Induction Ceremony hosted up to 180 participants at one time during the ZOOM ceremony. A huge welcome to student and community inductees totaling 52.
Soon to join our new ZOOM environment, was the first virtual Beta Beta Houston monthly Book Club session on April 29th with ‘Coronary’ by Stephen Klaidman, followed by our May 27th ZOOM session with ‘The Girls at 17 Swann Street’ (anorexia and Bulemia) by Yara Zgheib. Members who couldn't attend 'in person' in the past, are now attending virtually. June 24th’s session will be about ‘The Poison Squad’ by Deborah Blum. This is a fascinating book about food and beverage content in the 20th and 21st century and efforts by advocates such as Harvey Wiley to protect Americans from what we eat and drink. Even if you haven’t read the book, it would be well worth your time to join us June 24th at 5:30PM. We even are having attendees join us from outside of Texas since we’ve gone virtual.
Unfortunately, we were unable to offer the May 7th program on ‘Operation Nightingale Army Nurses in the Vietnam War’; however, we didn’t want to lose this excellent topic/speaker and will just move it into 2021. All Beta Beta leadership meetings have been held virtually since March, including our transition Board meeting earlier this month. A huge thank you to all members who participated in voting for new officers.
Welcome new 2020-2022 officers:
Leslie Nelson – Vice-President/Programs, who extended for a second term
Tania Celia – Treasurer – replacing Rebecca Aulbach
Angeles Nava – Junior Counselor – Bree Littles has taken the Senior Counselor position
Nisha Mathews – Leadership Succession committee member
Thank you, Cynthia Hickman, our Leadership Succession Chair, for setting up and facilitating a wonderful election process! Thank you, also, to Jan Cunningham (Junior and Senior Counselor) and Rebecca Aulbach (Treasurer) for your years of service in Beta Beta Houston Leadership roles.
Exciting news is that our annual General Membership meeting will be held (yes, virtually 😊) Tuesday, June 23rd from 7:30-8:30PM. PLEASE join us to meet our Chapter officers, see what we are doing, opportunities to become involved and get your questions answered.
ZOOM Link: https://zoom.us/j/92096813878 or Phone: +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
Upcoming events:
October 2nd, 2020 Founders Day Forum
Keynote: Dr. Ric Ricciardi, 2019-2021 STTI President
Breakout sessions/poster presentations
8-12:45PM (location: Virtual) 1.5 CEU’s
2020 Fall Beta Beta tentative business meeting dates: Members welcome to attend
September 15th, 2020 5:00-7:00PM
October 20th, 2020 5:00-7:00PM
November 17th, 2020 5:00-7:00PM
Feel free to contact me for additional information: jedwards3@twu.edu
Joan E. Edwards, PhD, RNC, CNS, FAAN
Beta Beta Houston President
2019-2021