Looking Back and Forward
“And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” T.S. Eliot.
What an honour and privilege it has been to serve CFUW St. Catharines as President these past two years. Our club is graced by so many fun and fearless women, and it’s been a joy to get to know more of you during the meetings and events. While it is impossible to share all that I have learned from working with others to move our dear club’s missions forward, allow me to offer a few impressions.
Fundraising
Members, always generously supporting our mission of fundraising for education and helping local women and children with their time and financial support, magnified those efforts and found some new ways to help. Some examples are buying tickets to new fundraisers, matching donations, donating their own art and handcrafts, providing experiences to share, and opportunities to learn a new art or craft.
Membership and Retention
Through the collaborations of long-term and newer members, the meetings have been a more engaging and accessible experience for all. We must have set a record for guest attendance at our kick-off meeting in September (Women in Wine panel) and it seems that many more are inviting their friends out to meetings and parties. You’ve been sharing more of yourselves whether through interest groups, on special short-term projects, and in small groups’ efforts out in the community (this year’s new and special vigil to remember the young women of the Polytechnique tragedy comes to mind). The Meet-A-Member short interviews at some of our meetings gave us a better awareness of who is in our club.
With our community efforts, and the club meetings and fundraising events that were opened to guests and the public, and the promotions of those bright spots for our club, we’ve raised our profile in the community yet again. Those strengthened and new partnerships at the city level and with other clubs and businesses will hopefully be platforms from which to further boost our club’s impact and membership.
Leadership
I will never forget the bright minds and boundless energy of our club’s executive and other dedicated leaders and volunteers. As a strong and actively engaged club, we have so much to be proud of. And we have so much more to look forward to! What’s to come under Terry Rotella’s brilliant leadership will be spectacular!