News & Notes – January 31, 2019

The Cooperative Giving Project with Soles4Souls

One of the GFWC 2018–2020 Seven Grand Initiatives is to donate 1,000 pairs of used shoes, and registering with Soles4Souls is one way that your club can participate. Soles4Souls creates sustainable jobs by distributing shoes around the world.

GFWC has joined the ranks of non-profits that Soles4Souls works with to distribute free shoes to people in need and during times of disaster. Soles4Souls’ micro-enterprise model also gives people living in deep poverty in developing nations the opportunity to sustain a small business by selling the shoes.

One pair of donated shoes could provide five meals in developing nations, so every pair counts! Register your club through the Soles4Souls website today.

Your club will be assigned a Soles4Souls representative within three business days,
but while you wait to hear from her/him:

1. Keep the “Thank You” webpage open that displays immediately after the registration is processed and download the marketing toolkit. If you close it accidentally, your assigned representative can resend it.
2. Determine if there is a drop-off location within driving distance. If not, a Soles4Souls representative will be in touch to plan logistics.
3. Contact Stephanie Hathaway at stephanieh@soles4souls.org if you have not heard from your assigned representative within three business days.

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Turning Point Suffragist Memorial: Time is Running Out!

Has your State, Region, or club gotten on board to support the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial?

In 1914, Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, invited GFWC to endorse and engage in the suffrage movement. Invitation accepted! Federation foremothers were critical in winning passage of the 19th Amendment giving American women the vote. The single, necessary vote in 1920 in the Tennessee legislature (the final state needed to ratify) was made by the son of a GFWC member who urged him to vote for passage; her influence changed his vote!

The Turning Point Suffragist Memorial Association has through the end of 2019 to raise an additional $350,000 of the $2 million price tag for the national memorial to honor these women. The memorial dedication date is August 26, 2020, to mark the centennial of the 19th Amendment’s certification. A minimum donation of $1,000 entitles the club’s name to be inscribed on the Memorial’s Donor Wall in perpetuity; pledges are available. All donations are listed on the website. Individuals are encouraged to donate at any level and should consider $20 for the 2020 campaign. Thank you, GFWC State Federations, regions, and clubs that have already donated!

Send any inquiries to Executive Director of the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial Association Pat Wirth, or call her at 703-201-3171.

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Cares & Concerns

We are incredibly sad to announce the passing of Pierson Phillips, a featured speaker at the 2018 GFWC Annual Convention in St. Louis. He touched many lives and was a brave advocate for ending the stigma around mental illness, particularly for young people. The Pierson Phillips Scholarship Fund was created in his memory and you can send donations to Community America Credit Union, 3100 MO-291, Independence, MO 64057.

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State President Project: New Mexico, Alisa Estrada

Brighter Futures for Our Children, the 2018–2020 New Mexico State President’s Project, strives to give every child the opportunity to live a happy and successful life. Alisa Estrada has seen firsthand through raising her own kids and caring for other ones just how essential a child’s education and home life is to future success.

Alisa believes that reading gives children the power to do anything, so championing the Dr. Seuss Grand Initiative was an obvious choice. GFWC New Mexico is focused on collecting Dr. Seuss books for local schools, libraries, shelters, etc. To encourage some friendly competition, there will be a monetary prize for the club that collects the most Dr. Seuss books. Clubwomen are also encouraged to read to students on Read Across America Day on March 2 (Dr. Seuss’ birthday). Nearly 100 books have been collected to date!

Promoting child safety and wellness is the other concentration area for the 2018–2020 New Mexico State President Project. A group of clubwomen are going to the New Mexico State Capitol to support Miranda’s Law and Children’s Advocacy Day in February. For a village in Madagascar, GFWC New Mexico collected toothbrushes, toiletries, toothpaste, clothing, and more for the women that a Peace Corps volunteer delivered in December. The village has no running water or electricity and hygiene is a real concern. In addition, a group of GFWC New Mexico members are participating in a walkathon for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and supporting Prevent Child Abuse America through advocacy and other targeted efforts.

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Techie’s Tips: Don’t Lose Your Work on Fillable PDFs

Have you ever spent time typing out responses on a fillable PDF only to lose everything you just wrote? GFWC offers fillable PDF forms for your convenience, but they must be properly saved. Whether you want to finish filling out a PDF later or want to have a copy of what you wrote for your records, save your PDF with these simple steps:

1.       Fill out the form.

2.       Select “File” and then “Save as” from the menu.

3.       Rename your document and select “Save.”

4.       Select “Save” anytime you add content.

This will create a new file that you can always come back to. Once it’s ready to go, you can attach it to an email and send it with ease!

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Curator’s Corner

As we continue to digitize our International Past Presidents scrapbook collection we would like to address the issue of scrapbook preservation. Scrapbooks are a wonderful way to inspire nostalgia and document both the significant and everyday aspects of our past. However, scrapbooks can also pose hefty preservation challenges. Here are some preservation tips and ideas on how to build a durable and archival-worthy scrapbook to protect your treasured memories:

• Ensure that your scrapbook, whether new or old, is stored in a cool, dry, and dark room. Exposure to humidity, heat, and sunlight all damage paper, photographs, and adhesives.
• Scrapbooks should be stored laying down in order to support their binding and ensure that no objects slip off the page.
• When compiling a scrapbook avoid using scotch tape, glue, or metal clips. If possible, always tack down materials with reversible attachment methods, such as photo corners or plastic clips. Archival-friendly glues are also available if necessary.
• Avoid putting large format materials, such as full newspaper pages or programs, into your scrapbooks as they do not survive well when they are bent and tucked within the book.
• When handling historic scrapbooks with large format materials be sure to carefully unfold them. Turn the pages gently to avoid breakage. If the book will not lay flat, do not force it.
• Do not make copies of your scrapbooks! Forcing them to lay flat on a scanner ultimately causes more damage. If your scrapbook is damaged and you would like to preserve it, create a digital copy and be sure to properly store the original.

For more information on the preservation of historic scrapbooks, we recommend visiting the Library of Congress. To browse the most recent additions to GFWC’s International Past Presidents scrapbook collection please visit our collections website and type in the search term “SCRAP.”

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Volunteers in Action

The GFWC Grundy Center Woman’s Club (Iowa), GFWC Rhinelander Woman’s Club (Wisconsin), GFWC Manistique (Michigan), Woman’s Club of Point Pleasant (New Jersey), Woman’s Club of Loudon (Virginia), Shafter Woman’s Club (California), GFWC Auburn Junior Woman’s Club (Massachusetts), Batesville Junior Woman’s League (Mississippi), GFWC Service Guild of Covington (Georgia), GFWC Seward Woman’s Club (Nebraska), GFWC High Springs New Century Woman’s Club’s (Florida), GFWC Tellico Village (Tennessee), Dequincy Study Club (Louisiana), GFWC Greater West Palm Beach Women’s Club (Florida), and GFWC Erwin Monday Club (Tennessee) are featured on GFWC’s Blog for their Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service projects.

Have a success story to tell? Email pr@gfwc.org.

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Go Forward with Confidence

GFWC’s Success for Survivors Scholarship helps a select number of survivors as they pursue secondary education. But you have an opportunity to take it farther! Partner with an alumnae organization of a local college to create the “Go Forward With Confidence” Scholarship (GFWC Scholarship for short) to change the lives of even more survivors of domestic violence and abuse.

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Join GFWC for Our Annual Women’s History Month Event

Our Women’s History Month Event on March 7 from 4:00-6:00 p.m. is one you won’t want to miss! RSVP to AConstad@gfwc.org by February 14 to hear Marci Reaven, Vice President of the History Exhibits at the New York Historical Society, speak about the role that woman’s clubs played in preserving the Hudson River’s Palisades region.

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Parliamentary Pointers: Hints for Secretaries

by GFWC Parliamentarian Deen J. Meloro, RP

Your club has put a lot of faith in you by electing you as club secretary because it will be you who writes the club’s history.

You already know that you only write what was done, never what was said. For example, you would write, “A motion to participate in the town picnic was made by Amy Smith. The members adopted the motion.” You do not need to write that it was seconded, because if it was discussed, it is understood that it was seconded. You do not need to write that Sally, Joan, and Courtney argued against the motion because of the cost involved. Just that the motion was made and adopted. If the motion had not been approved, you would have written, “The motion was not adopted.” If no one seconded the motion, then it wouldn’t be mentioned at all.

Never use the phrase “last meeting” because that sounds like the club will never meet again or that the club has folded; use “previous meeting.” Also, “unfinished business” is the preferred language, not “old business.”

A formal motion to accept the minutes can be made but is not necessary. The presiding officer will ask, “Are there any corrections to the minutes?” (The phrase is not “corrections or additions.” Additions are corrections.) If there are corrections, and everyone agrees, the secretary makes those corrections. When there are no more corrections, or if there weren’t any, the presiding officer can say: “If there are no corrections (or no additional corrections) to the minutes, the minutes are approved as corrected, or read, or circulated,” whatever applies.

Frequently, a member will move to “dispense with the reading of the minutes of the previous meeting.” This is not a request to omit their reading altogether. If, for whatever reason, members do not want the minutes handled in the usual way, a majority vote can maintain that. However, at some future time the minutes must be read and be approved as read or corrected.

Before the minutes can be placed in a Minutes Book or saved in whatever manner the group has developed, the corrections must be either written in or the minutes retyped. Minutes are not official until the members have offered their corrections, and the other members have agreed.

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GFWC Marketplace: GFWC Bracelet

With Valentine’s Day coming up, a GFWC bracelet is the perfect gift to treat yourself or a clubwoman in your life! This stainless steel adjustable bracelet is a stylish way to show your love for GFWC! Get yours for $15 in the GFWC Marketplace.

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