Senior Kappa Committee
Mission Statement
To retain and reclaim members of the fraternity who are 60 years of age and older as active, contributing, fully financial brothers, to encourage programs that will facilitate their involvement and enhance their well-being, we also encourage our local chapter committees to involve themselves in community service initiatives that are geared toward senior citizens in their respective service area.
​
Here is a synopsis of our accomplishments and goals:
​
-
Before 2014, the number of alumni chapters with a standing committee was not tracked by this committee. We have made steady progress since 2015 to track and report this important measure. In 2015, we found that only 28 percent of alumni chapters reported having a standing committee. We have steadily increased the percentage over the past four years and during our January 2019 reporting period, 83 percent of our alumni chapters reported having a standing Senior Kappa committee. This surpasses our goal of having 80 percent of alumni chapters for the 2018-2019 fraternal year with a standing Senior Kappa Affairs Committee. For the 2019-2020 fraternal year, we have set a goal of 90 percent of alumni chapters with a Standing Senior Kappa Affairs Committee. This is indicative of the great work being done by our Province Chairmen and the support this committee receives on the Province and National level.
​​
-
Before 2015, the age to be considered a Senior Kappa was 65 years of age or older, which was contrary to our Mission Statement. In 2016, at the Grand Board Meeting in 2016 in Mobile, Alabama, after some 15 years of petitioning the Grand Board, the Grand Board of Directors saw fit to establish the Senior Kappa threshold age to be 60 years of age and older.
​
-
We have also increased the number of Senior Kappa registrants at the Grand Chapter Meetings. During the 83rd Grand Chapter Meeting, of the 2,709 brothers registered, 930 were registered as Senior Kappa’s. This is the largest number of Senior Kappa’s to attend a Grand Chapter Meeting, so far. At the 82nd Grand Chapter Meeting, 720 of the 2,843 registered brothers were Senior Kappa’s. During the 84th Grand Chapter Meeting, of the 3,404 registered members, 1044 were Senior Kappa’s which was also one-third of the total registration.
​
-
Senior Kappa Week is an initiative that was birthed in the Southeastern Province in 2014. We asked each chapter to have at least one activity that was geared toward their Senior Kappa’s and/or senior citizens in their service area. The initiative proved so successful that the Grand Board of Directors approved Senior Kappa Week as a national initiative in 2016 to be celebrated the third week of May each year. The number of alumni chapters participating has increased steadily over the years with over 250 alumni chapters reporting having at least one initiative during Senior Kappa Week 2019.
​
-
The Senior Kappa Affairs Endowment Fund was envisioned in 2015 as a vehicle to support the activities of local alumni Senior Kappa Affairs Committees. The goal was to raise at least one million dollars and to use the interest generated to fund community service projects by local alumni chapter Senior Kappa Affairs Committees. We have reached our goal of one million dollars and counting, and as a result, 25 Senior Kappa Affairs Committees were awarded grants from a pool of $28,800 in May 2019. We will be awarding grants to local Senior Kappa Affairs Committees each year in the future.