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

Art Harvest Patron Party

The Art Harvest Patron Party was held last night at the home of Deborah Kynes (who I heard is running for Mayor of Dunedin in the March election). Over 50 patrons attended, and enjoyed delectables from Island Way Grill (thank you Frank Chivas) and wine from Zen Zen Wines (thank you Michael Seltzer). It was a wonderful event and a JLCD tradition, and a great way to have show support and have some fun before Art Harvest.

Thinking of Art Harvest, we still have shifts available, and it's less than a week away.

Thank you to all the Art Harvest Patrons for your support.

Disney is not the only organization that makes Dreams Come True

The Junior League of Clearwater-Dunedin is continuing to make dreams come true for foster children in Pinellas and Pasco Counties. On Sunday, September 28th, over 60 young ladies descended upon the League's upscale thrift store, The Scot Shop, to choose a formal dress, shoes and accessories for their upcoming homecomings, holiday formals and prom 2009. The 'Princess for a Day' event was also held in May of this year and outfitted nearly 75 young ladies with formal dresses as well as 17 young men with tuxes for prom.

Thank you to the 14 JLCD members who helped make this a dream come true!

Provisional Meet and Greet

On Wednesday night, I attended the Provisional "Meet and Greet" at Sea Sea Riders in Dunedin. It was a great way to meet new faces. Joanna led a short meeting that focused on the preparations for the provisional project, holiday gifts for foster children. Last year, JLCD provided over 300 gifts for area foster children. I know the provisional will do a wonderful job again this year!

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.

SPAC --What is it anyways?

I often receive many questions regarding the JLCD SPAC committee sich as "What the heck do they do?" and "Why do we have one?"

SPAC is an acronym for State Public Affairs Committee, and JLCD participates in the State of Florida SPAC. "The Junior Leagues of Florida State Public Affairs Committee is the advocacy arm of the Junior Leagues of Florida for over 30 years, monitoring the state legislative process and addressing issues of political importance to the members.

The Junior Leagues of Florida have weighed in on various topics, including bicycle helmets for children under 16, the Environmental Growth Management Act of 1995, the '911' Emergency Medical System, child abuse, domestic violence, juvenile justice, and education.

The State of Florida boasts 24 Junior Leagues, with combined membership of over 15,000 women. Each Florida Junior League that chooses to participate in the advocacy process sends delegates to state meetings and conferences throughout the year to research and debate the issues of the day."

Our SPAC committee members give JLCD input and help design the legislative platform for the State SPAC. Members of SPAC attend and participate in state-wide SPAC meetings and represent JLCD in Tallahassee. Our current representatives are Karen Gaumer and Colleen Flynn. Karen is pictured here at a State Task Force meeting.

You can find more information and view the State SPAC's annual report at the State of Florida SPAC Website.

Art Harvest Commitments

Yes, it is August and Art Harvest is less than 3 months away!

Last night, Bruce and I had the pleasure of loading artist slides into the carousels for the artist selection process this weekend. Artists for AH are selected by professional jurors, not by Junior League members. There to help last night, were Michelle Anger, Jennifer Sullivan, Stacey Shy, Meg Lokey, Sarah Pickett, Gwin Londgrigan, Jill Holcombe and Joanna Rosse. Jill and Joanna came to help to fulfill their requirements, as both of them are heading to NYC for the Marathon!!!!

If you know you are not going to be here for Art Harvest (so you can't work your shift), please contact the committee before AH so they can find you fulfill your shift prior to Art Harvest. Please remember that this is currently our largest fundraiser, so we really do need "all hands on deck".

Pick up your Book Now!

"Three Little Words" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter have arrived. Ashley will be our guest speaker at the first General Meeting on September 8, 2008 at Mease Dunedin Hospital.

Copies are available prior to the General Meeting at HQ next week on Monday and Thursday and then the next few weeks on Monday through Thursday from Becky between 9am-12:00pm for $10.

Please take time to read this before our meeting! I am sure you see a different perspective, and will have lots of questions!

Here is Ashley's brief bio and her website is http://www.rhodes-courter.com/.

Ashley Rhodes-Courter was born in North Carolina in 1985 and entered foster care in 1989. Over the next 9 years, she lived in 14 placements before being adopted at age 12 by Phil and Gay Courter of Crystal River, Florida.

Ashley graduated with honors from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. She was the recipient of Eckerd's Trustee's Scholarship, their most prestigious full-tuition award. She has won several other national and local scholarships. She completed a double major in communications and drama with a double minor in political science and psychology. She spent her January term, 2006 in South Africa working with a children's literacy project.

In the community, she has a job in marketing, and works with the Heart Gallery of Pasco & Pinellas and also does on-camera work. Ashley was the 2004 Youth Advocate of the Year for the North American Council on Adoptable Children and won the Child Welfare League of America "Kids to Kids" National Service Grand Prize. In 2004, she and her family jointly won the Angels in Adoption from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute and was nominated by Congresswoman, Ginny Brown-Waite.

On June 1, 2003, the New York Times Magazine published her grand prize winning essay, "Three Little Words". She expanded her essay into a memoir (also called "Three Little Words") which was published by Simon & Schuster.

In 2007, she was one of 20 college students selected for the USA Today All-USA Academic Team. She also was one of the four GOLDEN BR!CK Award winners for outstanding advocacy by Do Something, and was named one of GLAMOUR Magazine's Top Ten College Women.

Ashley has been featured on Montel Williams, Good Morning America, $.99 Cool Ranch Doritos bags, and other national and local television shows. She is currently maintaining a full calendar of speeches and workshops all across the country. She has a passion to tell her story and share hope with other foster children and encourage adoption and permanency.

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!

By-Laws & Policies and Procedures

Last night, Gwin Londrigan, Jennifer McGrail, Laura Redmond and I met for several hours creating our proposed Policies and Procedures to supplement our newly adopted by-laws (found on-line in the member's only section of the website). The committee has been working diligently to bring the proposed Policies and Proceudures to the Board of Directors and then to the General Membership for approval.

Since all of these documents seem a little complicated, I thought I would take a moment or two to describe what these documents are really all about-So, here goes.....

JLCD, like other organizations, are governed by several official documents! (paraphased from http://www.associationforum.com/)

Articles of Incorporation: An organization's articles of incorporation can be thought of as the organization's contract with the state. The articles generally identify the organization's name, legal purpose and the disposition of its assets upon dissolution.

Bylaws: The bylaws will necessarily be more specific than the articles, but may not contravene what is outlined in the articles of incorporation or conflict with the law of the state. Bylaws should not overly restrict the organization 's operations.

Policies and Procedures: Further levels of specificity should be contained in a policy and procedure manual detailing the rules governing the association 's operations. Membership processes, administrative rules, financial policies, parliamentary procedures and the like generally should be outlined in policies.

Hope this makes this "clear as mud", to use a phrase often quoted my by Grandmother:)

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.

Back to School Shopping

The ANGELS committee and other JLCD members enjoyed a much needed shopping trip to Wal-Mart in Oldsmar in preparation for the Back to School Fair at Clothes to Kids last night. Who doesn't like to shop???

Shopping members included Sharon Gilberg, Kristine Hann, Christine Battista, Emily Graves, Gail Christiansen, Nola Johnson and Patti Rivera.


The Back to School Fair will take place on July 26 from 8:30am - 3:00pm. We will help children select school clothes (I think 5 outfits), and give backpacks filled to the brim with school supplies. We are still in need of volunteers on July 26. Shifts are available from 8:30 -11:00am and 11:00am-3:00pm. Remember, we now have a Community Membership Requirement, so this is a great opportunity to fulfill that and give one-to-one.



For more information regarding, Clothes to Kids, here is the link to their website: http://www.clothestokids.org/



I hope you all can come out an lend a much needed helping hand!

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