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CLEVELAND SHERATON AUGUST 1974 INTRODUCING YOU TO ETA PHI BETA SORORITY, INC. is a National Business and Professional Women's Organization. It was organized in 1942 in Detroit, Michigan by eleven (11) business women who felt the need of a closer fellowship among business and professional women. The purpose of this Organization is: A. To sponsor, foster, and promote programs and activities designed to improve the standards of all business and professional women, to work for the welfare of business and professional organizations with common objectives; to aid women students desiring higher educational training in business and special educational fields; to broaden opportunities for women in business and professional occupations; to promote a congenial fellowship between business and professional women; to regulate the chapters of Eta Phi Sorority, Inc., established and sanctioned by this organization. Membership in this organization may be granted to any business and professional woman in sympathy with our purpose, who are: 1. College graduates, or 2. High school graduates, who have at least two (2) years of college credit who are approved by the majority of the Chapter membership present and voting. 3. All members shall be of good character and sound business integrity and shall be elected by majority vote of those present and voting. 4. No candidate shall be approached who would not be an asset in every respect. We contribute as well as participate in active community life of our respective communities. Some of our civic projects are: The Retarded Children NAACP Anti-Tuberculosis League Urban league The Handicapped National Council of Negro Women Sickle Cell Anemia Blind and Hard of Hearing United Negro College Fund YMCA and YWCA Golden Age Groups March of Dimes Thanksgiving Baskets and others During the month of December, we worship at Vespers (Candlelight) in our respective communities, in the Church of our choice and contribute our Christmas offering. Our aim, as an organization, is to have enough wisdom to think in the right channels, enough perception to see an opportunity, enough judgment to appraise it, and enough energy to embrace and make use of it. We are ever seeking, and keenly aware of community problems, and only by participation and involvement will our organization be known. HISTORY ETA PHI BETA SORORITY was organized September 4, 1942 in Detroit, Michigan by eleven (11) women who felt the need of a closer relationship between women in the business and professional community. It was the desire of this group of women to seek ways and means of obtaining for Negro women, the highest standards in all business and professional fields, and to implement this goal through the establishment of a Scholarship Fund and contributions to the Retarded Child Program, working cooperatively with kindred organizations and contributing to worthwhile community endeavors. The eleven women who met that September day in sisterhood to give meaning and structure to their ideas and ideals were: Merry Green Hubbard Lena Reed Ivy Burt Morris Ethel Madison Katherine Douglas Athleline Shelton Ann Porter Earline Carter Dorothy Silvers Brown Mae Edwards Curry Mattie Rankin The first elected officers were: Merry Green Hubbard, Basileus; Ann Porter, Anti-Basileus; Ethel Madison, Tamiouchous; Dorothy Sylvers Brown, Chaplain Parliamentarian; Mae Edwards Curry, Tamias; Lena Reed, Epistoleus; Earline Carter, Grammateus; Ivy Burt Morris, Guard; Mattie Rankin, Keeper of Peace, and Katherine Douglas, Historian. The officers were installed by Mrs. R. Louise Grooms, Founder-President of the Detroit Institute of Commerce, and later to become the Sorority's first honorary member. Thruogh the years of our organization it has grown. The ideals and objectives of the founders have been approved and cherished. We have turned our hands and our will to the task of giving purpose and meaning to our organization. We have reached out to perform various functions to forward the general welfare of the community. Dedication, effort and devotion have marked our sisterhood through the years. Though we have not always agreed on methods and procedure, or ways and means of achieving our goals, it is with pride that we can point to our unity in concentrating on the basic needs and objectives of a growing organization, in the spirit of our motto, "NOT FOR OURSELVES, BUT FOR OTHERS." [[image: black and white photograph of a large group of women]] 130