At the Circle of Sisters ceremony Sunday night, the new Panhellenic Council Executive Board received a warm welcome to their 2011 term.
Sorority women gathered in Meyerson Hall to watch the 2010 board turn over leadership at the annual event. Sorority members showed their love for both new and old board members with signs and cheers from the audience.
Former Panhel President and College senior Darby Nelson described the evening as “bittersweet.”
Nonetheless, “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t ready to hand the board over,” College Senior and former Vice President of Strategic Initiatives Molly Mitchell added.
Former Executive Vice President and College senior Brooke Patkin started off the evening by thanking the outgoing council for their year of outstanding service before the transition to the 2011 board began.
“I do,” resounded each of the new board members in turn, accepting the duties of their new posts from their predecessors. Old members also handed over tokens symbolic of their Panhel responsibilities.
“Each of the items is supposed to represent a duty of the position,” Nelson said. “I passed down a gavel, which is pretty presidential.”
Other tokens include a plume for the Scribe and a framed picture for the Vice President of Public Relations.
“They’re more signifiers of the job ahead,” Patkin said.
Moving forward, former board members have nothing but faith in the new Panhel Executive Board.
“They’re in an even better place than we were coming in,” Mitchell said.
Incoming Panhellenic President and College junior Rachel Abeles closed the ceremony. In her speech she said that she is looking forward to the friendships and sisterly bonds sure to be formed among the new sorority members in the audience. She also expressed excitement for the colonization of Penn’s eighth sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha, whose recruitment officially begins this week.
Nelson stated that Abeles “has a good grasp on things.”
“I’m very confident turning it over to [Abeles],” Nelson said.
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