Celebrating Recruitment Events

This summer, the Membership Development Committee coordinated several wonderful recruitment events at the Clearwater Main Library, Jimmy's Fish House, and home of JLCD members. Thank you Kelly Borota, Diane Gobo, Jenna Franklin and Sarah Miller for opening your homes to members and prospective members.

Members and prospectives enjoyed fellowship, wonderful food and information about membership. The Membership Development Committee provided detailed information through a slide show. Thank you to everyone for making these wonderful events.

These events give us the opportunity to mingle over the summer, and share the value of being a member of the Junior League of Clearwater-Dunedin

Skating Party at Countryside Mall

Yesterday about a dozen volunteers from JLCD together with volunteers from the YMCA and Eckerd Youth Alternatives coordinated a skating party for 78 children in the foster system in Pinellas and Pasco counties. JLCD volunteers helped the kids put on their skates, skated with the kids, and provided a pizza party for the participants. This JLCD annual event is certainly a highlight to many of these children. Thank you to all who participated. I know your time and efforts put a smiles on the faces of all the children there.

Salad Supper Success

Kelly Borota, Membership VP, hosted our third and last salad supper to recruit new members to JLCD. The attendance was great last night, and several Sustainers (Pauline Deal, Sara Simmons, Stephany Dawson and Katie Cole) attended and brought prospective members along.

Even though Salad Suppers are now over, it is still not too late to ask someone to join our organization.

The provisional orientation will be August 25 at 6:30pm at Countryside Mease Hospital.

If you know someone that may be interested, please contact
Joanna Rosse or Abby Favali.

Thanks again to Kelly, Lisa and Stefanie for hosting the salad suppers and to the rest of the Membership Development Committee for their hard work!

National Kids in the Kitchen Cookbook Needs Recipes

Junior Leagues' Kids in the Kitchen has grown into a highly respected and recognized initiative to address healthy eating and childhood obesity, thanks to the efforts of Junior Leagues everywhere.

As a logical extension of KITK, AJLI is proud to announce the development of the Junior Leagues' Kids in the Kitchen cookbook to be launched next spring. The Kids in the Kitchen cookbook will be a compilation of the very best recipes and tips from Leagues everywhere.

It is your opportunity to to participate by submitting a healthy recipe for consideration.

Please navigate to the following link to access the online recipe submission page - http://www.frpbooks.com/AJLI

The deadline for submitting recipes is September 1, 2008.

Board and Chair Retreats

On the past two Saturdays, the JLCD's Board of Directors and Chairs for the 08-09 league year participated in educational trainings. We started the day with a fun ice breaker where we were surprised to learn about our favorite people and things. I personally learned that if you say "Bring it on" is your favorite movie, then you risk ridicule. It is indeed one of my favorites so I guess I deserve that:)

We were excited to have Dr. Linda Andrews-Crotwell teach us many new things. Our serious topics including learning about our individual personalities, how to communicate with others (harder than you may think), team work, conflict resolution, how to facilitate and plan meetings and league operations. Lunch, arranged by Marcy Hawk was brought in by one of our tenants, Picnics-to-Go.

Another important item we discussed was our "Member's Bill of Rights"

The Right to Be Respected
The Right to be Heard
The Right to Try, But Fail

Please remember these as we go forward in a new year!

Sweating to Make a Difference!

JLCD members participated in a "Done in a Day" (DIAD) to help build a playground in the Lake Belleview Community in Clearwater, Florida. This playground will help children in a disadvantaged community learn social skills, build self-esteem and get some exercise. The playground serves Belleair Elementary School, a Title 1 school which serves many foster children.

Marcy and Laura (Marcy's mother) Hawk, Michelle Anger, Christine Battista, Nola Johnson and Chloe Harriman came out to sweat (it was extremely hot) and perform several hours of manual labor! (If I missed you, thanks for coming and please let me know).

Councilmember Carlen Petersen was also there in her official capacity and dedicated the playground during the official ceremonies to Arturo Huerta-Cruz. Spc. Huerta-Cruz is Clearwater's fallen soldier who died serving his country in Iraq two months ago. The ceremonies were extremely emotional, and there was not a dry eye on site. His parents and other unit members were extremely thankful for the dedication in his honor, especially on Flag Day.

Thanks to everyone that participated in the first DIAD of the year. I hear Nola Johnson is working to get a formal "DIAD" application on our website. So, if you know any community organizations that would like our assistance and have projects or programs that benefit foster children, please direct them to the website~

As always, thanks again for spending your time helping to make our community a better place.

New Board Holds First Meeting

On Monday night, the JLCD Board of Directors convened for its first meeting. I am often asked, "what exactly does the Board do and what are its responsibilities?". So, I thought I would take a few minutes and explain some basics.

First, Board members have certain fiduciary responsibilities or "duties"to JLCD. Duty of Care requires that officers act reasonably in respect to the management of JLCD's affairs. Duty of Loyalty prohibits Board members from using their position to further their own interests. And, Duty of Obedience requires that Board members ensure JLCD is following By-Laws and Procedures and adheres to applicable laws.

In addition to those duties, the Board also wears two hats (both white or Junior League red in our case): a management one (oversight of committees and councils) and a governance one (like providing strategic direction, ensuring financial sustainability, etc.)

Here are ten basic responsibilities of non-profit boards from http://www.boardsource.org/ to further explain.

1. Determine the organization's mission and purpose. It is the board's responsibility to create and review a statement of mission and purpose that articulates the organization's goals, means, and primary constituents served.

2. Select the chief executive.

3. Provide proper financial oversight. The board must approve the annual budget and ensure that proper financial controls are in place.

4. Ensure adequate resources. One of the board's foremost responsibilities is to secure adequate resources for the organization to fulfill its mission.

5. Ensure legal and ethical integrity and maintain accountability. The board is ultimately responsible for ensuring adherence to legal standards and ethical norms.

6. Ensure effective organizational planning. Boards must actively participate in an overall planning process and assist in implementing and monitoring the plan's goals.

7. Recruit and orient new board members and assess board performance. All boards have a responsibility to articulate prerequisites for candidates, orient new members, and periodically and comprehensively evaluate their own performance.

8. Enhance the organization's public standing. The board should clearly articulate the organization's mission, accomplishments, and goals to the public and garner support from the community.

9. Determine, monitor, and strengthen the organization's programs and services. The board's responsibility is to determine which programs are consistent with the organization's mission and to monitor their effectiveness.

10. Support the chief executive and assess his or her performance.

Oh, and we have fun too!!! If you have any questions or want to learn more, please do not hesitate to ask, and of course, Board meeting are open in case you want to stop by!!

Foster Family Fun at the Highland YMCA

On Saturday, Diane Manuel and Sara Lake coordinated a very successful foster fun day with over 100 children and their families at the YMCA on Highland in Clearwater. The foster children enjoyed all sorts of games, a drum circle, face-painting, and of course, no event would be complete without pizza and healthy fruit. The provisional class chose to present this fun event with the extra funding from the holiday gift program.

A HUGE thanks to Diane and Sara for planning and executing this wonderful event! Thanks also to Stephanie Barsema, Jill Holcombe, Erin Authier, Marcy Hawk (and a special thanks to her Mother), Linda Griggs, Karen Gaumer, Lisa Shadroui, Leslie Hanley, Abby Favali, Joanna Rosse, Sharon Gilberg, Jen Muscato, Lambdin Freeman, Amy Connors and anyone I may have missed.

As I wasn't able to attend, please post your comments about the event.

P.S. Lambdin took these wonderful pics!

Sustainer Social

Sharon Gilberg and I attended the Sustainer Social at Louise Robinson's home last night. Louise is a very gracious hostess and it was a wonderful, well attended and fun event.

Our Sustainers sustain (for lack of a more appropriate word) the Junior League of Clearwater-Dunedin. Although we have different membership classes, (Provisional, Active, Sr. Active, non-Resident Active, Sustainer) we are all part of one organization. One Mission. One League. Thinking of, if you are a Sustainer, would you be interested in helping on a JLCD committee?

Amy, Deanna, Stacey and Sharon





Among the many sustainers in attendance was Stacey Shy, the Sustainer President. Please join me in thanking her for her dedication and for her past year's efforts. I even understand she is Co-Chairing Art Harvest as a Sustainer next year!

Stacey and Amy Connors presented the "Sustainer of the Year" award to Deanna Snedeker for her giving spirit and hard work with the Community and Wellness Committee this year.

Also present was Jackie Addis, the incoming Sustainer President. Congratulations and welcome to Jackie! I know she has lots in store for the upcoming year.

Jackie and Kandy