News & Notes – October 24, 2019

Light Up the Brand This MLK Day

Before the holiday season hits, start planning your club’s project for the Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) Day of Service on January 20, 2020. There are only 211 projects left to organize to meet the 1,000-project goal of the 2018–2020 Administration, but GFWC hopes to make an even bigger splash than last year. Let’s surpass the 2019 total of 789 service projects!

There are countless ways that your club could serve its community on January 20, but the 2019 Top Projects lists are a great place to start. Select your club’s programmatic interest for a list of project ideas collected from State Award and Club Creativity entries. There’s something for every interest and club size!

Finally, don’t forget to identify ways to light up the GFWC brand as you organize your MLK Day project! Any service project could potentially also serve as a membership recruitment event. Who wouldn’t want to join a club full of excited members who are proudly wearing their GFWC apparel? It’s an excellent opportunity to snap some photos to accompany a press release being sent to reporters in your club’s community! See our MLK Day Press Release Template under “P” Resources.

New Comment Feature on GFWC Blog

Start or join a conversation after reading a post on GFWC’s Blog! Each week, GFWC collects and posts Volunteers in Action stories that celebrate the accomplishments of individual members, clubs, Districts, states, or Regions across the Federation. Now you can congratulate your fellow sisters on their successes and post a comment that is relevant to the post’s topic. The GFWC blog features a variety of topics, including successful service projects and events, awards and honors, groundbreaking initiatives, community partnerships, and more.

To comment, simply scroll to the bottom of a particular post. If you’re the first to comment, click on the field that says: “Start the discussion.” There is a “reply” icon to add onto the discussion after the first comment. In either scenario, you’ll be required to enter your name and email address to authenticate and publish your post (this email address will not be shared externally).

Visit the GFWC Blog now. We look forward to seeing your comments!

Cares & Concerns

It is with sadness that GFWC announces the passing of Jody Cunningham, GFWC West Virginia Past President (2014-2016). Jody was active for 43 years in GFWC since joining Williamstown Juniors in 1976. For more information about services, visit Jody’s obituary.

Volunteers in Action

GFWC New Hampshire is featured on the GFWC’s Blog.

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

Congratulations: Literacy Grants

GFWC’s Youth Literacy grants have been in such high demand to support your programs that the original grant funding has reached its end. We will continue our search for new funding for the Literacy grants to help bolster your work, but the application process is suspended for now. Thank you to all our clubwomen who have worked to promote literacy in their communities!

Techie’s Tips: Ensure You Receive GFWC Emails

Email systems do their best to route the email that you want to your inbox and to place undesired messages in a spam folder. However, systems sometimes make mistakes and could mark News & Notes or other GFWC communications as spam, requiring you to dig through your spam folder to get important GFWC information.

Ensure your local email account settings approve gfwc@gfwc.org as a sender or “whitelist” emails received ending in “@gfwc.org.” Here are a few ways to make sure GFWC’s emails aren’t blocked.

Add Our Email Address to Your Contact List
Create a new contact for GFWC. If you add gfwc@gfwc.org to your email contact list, it will deliver any emails from that address to your inbox instead of your spam.

Unmark Our Emails as Spam
If you’ve received News & Notes or other GFWC correspondence in your spam folder, go to one of those emails and mark us as a safe sender.

Don’t miss out on important communications from GFWC; whitelist our email today! If you’ve tried the above and are not receiving GFWC emails, contact your email system’s customer service.

Veterans Day Is November 11

If your club hasn’t done so already, start planning a service project for Veterans Day on November 11. GFWC needs to organize 201 more projects for women in the military to reach the 2018–2020 Administration’s goal by June 2020.

Parliamentary Pointers: Addressing Other Members
by GFWC Parliamentarian Deen J. Meloro

In a meeting of any size, the correct way to address the presiding officer is by her title, “Madame President.”

There are a few exceptions. If a testimonial is being held for the president, or a gift being presented, calling her by her name is proper. Also in committees, the chairman’s name is generally used because committee work is done in a much more informal manner and in a smaller group.

If the president must leave the platform for any reason and the vice president takes over, the vice president is then addressed as Madame President since she is presiding. The exception to this rule is if the president has stepped away from the podium but is still in front of the room. In that case it would probably get too confusing to call the vice president “Madame President” and she is addressed as “Madame Vice President.”

The presiding officer should always refer to herself in the third person. She does not say “I.” She refers to herself as “the chair” or “the president.” For example, she may say: “This president represented the club at the District meeting,” or “The chair rules that the motion is in order.”

Both the chair and each member should not refer to each other by name during a meeting. The chair may say: “The President asks the member to further explain her report.” Other members should use the same terminology to address each other. “I ask if the member would be willing to withdraw her motion,” or “Did the member consider using the borough hall for the event ?”

When naming committee members or making nominations, of course people’s names must be used.

Logged in to Your Profile?

If you haven’t visited the GFWC Member Portal yet, try selecting “Forgot your password?” and entering the email address with which you are receiving this News & Notes. You will then receive a prompt to check your email for a temporary login code.

Your profile is how you’ll update your contact information, make all Marketplace purchases, and much more moving forward. Please ensure all aspects of your personal profile are running smoothly in the Portal and don’t hesitate to contact gfwc@gfwc.org if you have any difficulties logging in.

GFWC Marketplace: Collections Book

Looking for a way to discuss GFWC’s history with prospective members? The WHRC Collections Book is the perfect book to start that conversation anytime someone new attends a club meeting. Detailing over a century’s worth of the organization’s history, it’s a simple recruitment tool that will have your guests wanting to be a part of that history. Get your copy for $15 in the GFWC Marketplace.