Presidents Annual Club Report2014-2015

Altrusa International of Dallas, Texas, Inc.Deborah Hecht, President

This time last year I stood before you and asked you to work together living the Principles of Altrusa and fulfilling the Responsibilities of Altrusans. Tonight I stand here humbled and grateful by all you have accomplished and how completely you honored Altrusas principles and responsibilities.

I know this year we did some things differently. Our year started differently when we had all of our planning meetings in one full day of Planning Day. We also changed our meeting format to business on the first meeting of the month and program on the second meeting. Both of these changes allowed us to be more efficient and respectful of everyones time. I appreciate your willingness to accept change and try something different.

Before we begin to look back on our year, Id like to start by thanking all of you for all the contributions you made to make this year successful. We are all so different and bring different skills, ideas, procedures, and strengths to our organization. By pulling all these differences together and working toward common goals we were able to achieve our goals and make a difference in our community.

And oh how our community was served this year. Thank you so much to Gillian, Karen, and Phyllis who created a service committee atmosphere where hands on service would be paramount. Our small Club of 29 members served the community 1649 hours as Altrusans. This is two and half times last years service hours with less members. One of the goals for this year was for each service project to offer the opportunity for 100% participation. With every project we notified all members and gave each the opportunity to get on board. Our service hours per member at 56.9 shows how often the call was answered. Thank you to each and every one of you who helped to meet the needs of our community.

I had asked this year for our service projects to be more than simple donations, with the obvious exception of scholarships and person to person. I am thrilled to remind you that all of our projects included some element of hands on service and actual service hours. This is further evidenced in our 96% plus participation rate, which represents all except one member. Lets take a look at our service projects this past year.

With 542.6 total service hours and 93% paricipation, Mosaic Family Services was the most involved service project our Club has done in many years. As our Club year began, Mosaic was moving into their new facility. This created many opportunities for us to help. We started by providing and serving a meal for their move in day. We all have moved at some point in our lives and we know how exhausting it can be. By cooking and serving a meal on moving day we afforded the staff and residents a respite from the hard work and allowed us all to enjoy one anothers company.

We followed this by creating Good night/Sleep tight bags for the child residents at Mosaic. The first night at a shelter is a scary place for a child. Our goal was to provide these sweet youngsters with some comfort items upon arrival to the shelter. We filled gently used pillowcases with Teddies we were able to get donated from Build-a-Bear, fleece blankets we cut and knotted together, toothbrushes, books, coloring books, and crayons we made into fun kid friendly shapes. The feedback we received from the shelter was amazing. The children were so happy to have items of their very own and many found great comfort in the soft and cuddly items we provided. The 50 bags we created should provide for about a year and a half of the child intakes at Mosaic House. When we made the blankets at our Club meeting we had Shauna join us because she had seen our Facebook posts about the project. We were thrilled to meet the goal of inviting guests to join us in service and especially happy when our guest became an Altrusan. Also joining us at that meeting were members of the Downtown Dallas Club and a board member from the Mosaic board. Because the bears were donated, we were able to do this project for approximately $250 dollars. Thank you so much to all of you who participated in this project, you truly made a difference for children who needed kindness.

In December we found out there was a new resident at Mosaic who bravely made the decision to leave her abuser late in her pregnancy. This woman had no items for her baby. Sabra jumped right into this project and arranged a baby shower for her. With the money we had left in the Mosaic budget plus gifts from our members who attended and gifts from Mosaic board members who also attended we were able to give her all the items she needed to bring her son home from the hospital. Not only did we give her necessary items, we showed her that that the community cares about her personally and she did indeed have a village to help her raise her son. All of us who attended the shower were moved by the experience and the gratitude expressed.At the same time we worked on our Mosaic Spice Pantry. Ninety-nine percent of the residents at Mosaic are foreign nationals. They come from all over the world and are used to many different tastes and spice palettes. Most of the food received is bland basics. Our Club spent about $120 buying bulk spices from all over the world from a wish list provided by Mosaic. Gillian generously purchased small mason jars and labeled them all. On the same day we packed the Goodnight bags, we also filled jars with spices. The women at Mosaic were thrilled to be able to cook meals that taste like home. Because we bought the spices in bulk, they should last more than two years and serve approximately 250 clients.

This project was more physically demanding than our typical work so we have many Altrousers to thank including Carolyns husband Jack, Loris Rich, and my husband Eric. I want to share a special thanks to Lori who did so much to make this project happen. Lori spent a good deal of her winter break time working on this project alongside Rich. Thank you also to Gillian who created and installed the signage at the resource room. Thank you so much to Meg who used her Container Store discount to purchase all the Elfa for the room and made it possible for us to be able to afford this project. Finally, thank you to all of you who were on your knees installing flooring, painting, organizing books, installing the workstations or helping to serve food at our Resource Room Grand Opening Cookout. This is a project you should all be incredibly proud of. We have created a space that will serve residents of Mosaic House for years to come. This room will make it a little easier for them to begin the work of getting their lives back and leaving their lives of slavery and abuse behind. It is also a space where we can continue to volunteer in the future helping the Mosaic clients with the documentation they need to do and to search for jobs.

These projects alone would have been a huge contribution to Mosaic, but we didnt stop there. In November we won a grant from the International Foundation to create the Altrusa Resource Room at Mosaic Family Services. This was a huge, labor-intensive project for which we have many to thank. To convert the former storage space into the incredible workspace we tiled the floor, painted the walls, hung curtains, installed a cooling/heating unit, installed Elfa workstations and shelves, set up computers and a printer, got many books including ESL books donated and set up and purchased office supplies to last a couple of years. In addition to the funding from the grant, we had the heater/cooler donated by Phyllis, the printer donated by Lori, my office donated the office chairs, Half Price Books donated many of the books along with book donations from a lot of our Club members.Lastly, in April, our newest Altrusan Shauna organized English as a second Language Bingo at Mosaic House. Not only was this a fun night for both Altrusans and the clients at Mosaic, it also met our goal of allowing club members to initiate their own mini no money projects. Not only did Shauna organize this project, but she also invited two potential Altrusans to join. Hopefully these guests will become Altrusans in the future. Thank you Shauna for taking the lead and making the evening happen.

Another one of our service goals was to do a Make a Difference Day project on the specified Saturday. This year we created 50 Halloween Safety bags for the children at DCAC. Sabra led this project and purchased reflective Halloween bags to fill with reflective stickers, whistles, glow sticks, candy, flashlights, crayons, and Halloween safety coloring pages and stories. Our group gathered on MADD Saturday at Whole Foods to assemble the bags with the hope of attracting attention to our project and sharing information about Altrusa. Thank you so much to Sabra who organized and purchased the items for the projects and to Karen who got DCAC involved and delivered the packages there.

The Altrusa Resource RoomNear the end of the Club year we had extra money in the budget earmarked for DCAC and Karen organized the purchase of books and coloring books to be donated for the waiting room of DCAC. These items are always needed there and they were very appreciative of the donation.

This year Phyllis led us back to working with Our Friends Place. They asked us to create bath caddies for new residents. We individually purchased full sized personal care items and filled the caddies at the Club meeting when Sue Hesseltine was our guest speaker. Additionally, because we know that interacting with those we serve is incredibly impactful, we also visited Our Friends Place and taught a life skills class. There, we worked with all the residents to create an easy to make dinner. After dinner, Lori taught them how to make jewelry. She brought all sorts of beads and an assortment of tools. While the young women worked on making their pieces, we had an opportunity to simply talk with them. It was a great chance to make a difference by being present. Sometimes, just being there, makes a difference. Thank you so much to Lori for her preparation and work to make the class so successful. The feedback from Sue is the young women really enjoyed their time with us and we are invited back to work with them again.

Before the Club year began, Sandra applied for and won a grant from our International Foundation to create the Early Readers Club at the Dr. Martin Luther King Learning Center. In the past we had done work with MLK to stock their uniform closet but this year we found another way to help. Our work at MLK this past year honored our focus on literacy. In an economically disadvantaged school like MLK it is very uncommon for children to have books of their own. This year, we supplied each and every child in the first grade with a book of his or her own. We wanted them to feel that reading is special and fun so we created the Early Readers Club. To kick off the MLK ERC we came to the school with the books and logo tee-shirts for each child. We had a gathering of the entire first grade and had a bit of a party with refreshments and fun discussion of the book. The children seemed genuinely excited to be receiving their books an many started reading them the moment they got them in their hands. A special thanks to Sandra for applying for the grant and organizing the project. Thank you so much to Gillian who created the tee-shirt club logo and made all the tee-shirts at a deeply discounted price. Thank you to also to those who attended the kick-off at MLK in December. Again, being there, being present, really shows our community we are willing to give more than just money, we are happy to give our time.Scholarship night was a very special Club meeting. This year, we honored seven deserving students with money to further their educations. Our scholarships memorialize past Dallas Altrusans Dr. Nina Fay Calhoun, Leita Marsh, and Edith DeBusk and this year, thanks to Meg each scholarship recipient received a package with information about the Altrusan for which their scholarship was named. Additionally in the package was information about Altrusa and how to join, and a certificate for the award. Thank you Meg for the extra time you spent to make the scholarships special.For the tenth year, our Club participated in the Christmas tree decoration at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. We used our reading tree ornaments we made several years ago and really enjoyed our time there. This year we had two guests join us at the tree trimming, one of whom is now an Altrusan. In addition to the tree trimming we also made a monetary donation to TSRHC for their dyslexia unit. For many years we have contributed to the dyslexia program and we have been instrumental in the purchase of the smart board they use in the program. On the day we visited the hospital we were given a demonstration of the board and given an opportunity to work with it. Thank you Sharron for organizing our efforts at TSRHC and bringing our Club to the project.

Lastly, we continued to collect pop-top tabs to donate to Ronald McDonald House of Dallas. Thank you Dee for organizing this project and managing the collection and donation.

Two years ago, when the devastating fertilizer explosion happened in West, Texas, our own Gillian knew we needed to do something to help. She proposed it to Governor Beth Blair who then applied for the Governors Disaster Relief Grant through our International Foundation. District Nine held the funds and the Dallas Club added funds as well. The funds were designated for the rebuilding of the middle school Library in West and we presented them at our fundraising luncheon in March. Our funds will be used to purchase e-readers for the library when it is completed. Additionally, in September, to honor literacy month, we made bookmarks with encouraging phrases for the children. Our plan is to continue to help West and Jan Hungate, the assistant superintendent of schools, has assured us that in the not too distant future there will be lots of opportunities for hands on service. Thank you Gillian for keeping us on track with this very important and meaningful project. We will continue to look forward to our relationship with West.

This is a truly amazing assortment of work. I encourage you all to take a moment and think of the impact we have made on our community this year. Our small Club has touched many many lives in a positive way and each and every one of you should feel proud of what we have accomplished. You have given of your hearts and worked with your hands. You have touched lives not just economically, but personally as well. You have shown those with less that you care. You have not only been good, you have been good for something. Thank you for the pride of accomplishment you have brought to our Club this year!

Our organization is based on service but it takes many other components to support that service and you have exceled in these areas as well. We can only do our work when our membership is strong. This year our Membership Development chairs Anne, Frances, and La Tonya worked to not only recruit new members but also to create an atmosphere making our current members feel involved and happy. We started our membership retention with the Friendship Basket that was passed around the first few months of our Club year. This basket encouraged our membership to reach out to another member just because or just to say hello. The selection was random so it really got people to call members they may not ordinarily talk to outside of meetings or projects.

Each month the Membership Development Committee also organized the Fun of the Month event. These were a variety of activities including several different museum visits, Bar None, a fashion auction, and our holiday party. This again gave our Altrusans an opportunity to spend time together outside of the work of Altrusa. Thank you to Anne, Frances, and La Tonya for making the extra efforts.Our Communications committee was lead brilliantly by Carolyn, Susie, and Guadalupe. This Club year, I asked the Communications Committee to achieve specific and measurable goals and they achieved every single one.

This Club year, we had a newsletter on the first of every single month, as per our goal. Thank you so much Guadalupe for producing such a beautiful publication. The Communique was sent to members electronically only to keep our communications green, also a goal. We shared our newsletter via Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, the International webpage, and we emailed it to our District Board and International Board. Recruitment was not ignored. From April to April, the way International measures membership, we brought in four members, Stephanie Mitchell, Mignona Cote, Lori Smith, and Shauna Gantt. Our goal was to bring in five new members with a net gain of two. Unfortunately, we fell one short on new members, yet we showed great improvement over the past few years. We found our newest members, Lori and Shauna via social media and work on our service projects. Congratulations to our Membership Development Committee, along with our Communications Committee for working in tandem to achieve results. Thank you for your efforts!

Susie was charged with creating our yearbook and roster book. Both publications were delivered on a timely basis and were filled with all the important information we need. Susie started requesting member information very early in the year and sent members the draft copy to ensure accuracy. We were fortunate to have such great looking books delivered very early in the Club year. Thank you Susie for your work to make us look so good.

Carolyn ensured our webpage remained up to date the entire year. She had our officer information and service project information up during the first month of the year and changed items as they became important. Our webpage became a place for non Altrusans to find out about us and for Altrusans to share information. During the year we also uploaded documents to the International webpage so that by signing in anyone in our Club could access share them.

Our newest members, both teachers, created our display board for conference. Photos were collected in a file throughout the year and notes were kept about what we did. As per the goal, our display board was used at Club events in addition to conference. It tells the story of what we accomplished this year and Shauna and Lori should be commended for their great work.

We not only used Facebook but we also started developing a Twitter following. When the year began we had less than 20 followers on our Twitter account. By the end of the Club year we had over 360 followers. We tweeted about the projects we were working on as well meeting information.

I think the greatest compliment to the work of the Communications committee came from Ellen Heffner. Ellen had other commitments that kept her from being able to attend meetings earlier in the year. Ellen shared with me that through our communications, she still felt connected with the Club and felt like she knew what was going on. That was the aim for the committee this year and I thank all of you who contributed. Your work exceeded all expectations.

Lastly, none of our work is possible without funding. This year Betty, Dee, Sharron, and led the Ways and Means Committee. The year, we had three fundraising projects; Grease Sing-a-Long movie at the Lakewood Theater, Nut Sales, and Womens History Month Luncheon.

The movie event was a new project this year and met some of the goals set forth for the Ways and Means Committee. I had asked our fundraising to be efficient and that the funds raised be commiserate with the time spent on the project. The movie was a fairly simple event to put together, it required less time than some of our other past projects. It was a fun event and it got our name out into the community, another goal. The theater publicized it on their website and with posters and it was easy and fun to promote using social media. We earned $1152 at the movie event and it was only our first year. It is a project we can hopefully build on for the future. Sharron Vance took the lead on this project and did an outstanding job. It was all new terrain and it went off without a hitch. Thank you Sharron.This year we brought back the old favorite of nut sales at the holiday season. Betty Lawson led the charge and almost singlehandedly sold $1645 net profit in nuts. This simple project can easily be duplicated in future years and perhaps we can even create labels to affix to the packaging next year and promote our Club and organization at the same time. Thank you Betty for your continued efforts.

Lastly, this year we had the Third Annual Womens History Month Luncheon at the Prestonwood Country Club. Between the ticket sales, silent auction sales, and donations we netted $3213. We were able to combine this with a service opportunity and had the honor of presenting Jan Hungate of West ISD, our keynote speaker, with a check combined from District and our Club. The Ways and Means Committee worked tirelessly to make the event happen. Thank you to Dee who led this project. Also thank you to Karen and Sandra who organized the silent auction and to Anne for providing the decorations.

For those of you who like numbers, here are a few astounding numbers which will clarify how hard we worked this year. Our total service hours were 4720. Our service hours outside of Altrusa were 1251. Our service to Club hours and organization were 1820. This breaks down to 162.7 hours per member. These are amazing numbers and a true testament to how hard you all worked this year. Time is such a valuable thing. You cant make more and its definitely a limited resource. You, Dallas Altrusans, gave of yours so generously. Thank you for every single moment you shared to make our Club, our community, our organization, and our world a better place.

There are many more bits of gratitude Id like to express. Thank you to the Finances Committee who did so many things, mostly behind the scenes this past year. The committee revamped our financial policy to bring it up to date. Additionally, Phyllis and Meg worked for hours and hours with the IRS when the IRS inadvertently removed our tax exempt status from our foundation. Phyllis and Meg, I know it was frustrating work and I am so grateful to you for handling it. Thank you also for always getting the financials to me to be emailed prior to the business meeting. I know the timing on some months was very tight, so I especially appreciate your efforts.

Thank you to Gillian who took such accurate minutes this year and always got them out in time to be approved at the next business meeting. Thank you also to Jan and sometimes Carolyn who filled in for her brilliantly when she couldnt be at a meeting.

Speaking of JanI am so lucky to have had Jan as Vice President. Jan managed the ordering of the food for each meeting and the arrangement of the seating. Jan worked with me on so many things and I am so grateful for her and her dedication to Altrusa. I am lucky to have worked with Jan, but even luckier to call her friend.

Thank you so much to Susie who stepped in as Parliamentarian when Beth was no longer able to attend. Not only did Susie help at meetings, she also was quick to answer questions whenever I asked. I am grateful for your knowledge and guidance Susie.

Thank you Sabra for your guidance as Immediate Past President. I now know why that position exists. Your experience and willingness to help guide is greatly appreciated.

Sharron, I am very grateful you allowed me to hand the torch to you while I traveled through Asia in April. I knew the Club was left in capable hands. Thank you for carrying our banner at conference and for managing my responsibilities while I was gone.

Thank you to Valeta for chairing the Friendship Fund this year. I knew you were the perfect candidate for the job and I appreciate the time you spent taking care of it. Luckily, none of us needed it this year, but its great to know its there and well managed if one of us finds ourselves in a dire situation.

Lastly, a very special thank you to my dear friend Carolyn. Carolyn did so much to help me this past year there is hardly enough time mention it all. Carolyn was my rock. When I didnt know something, Carolyn helped me. When I was upset or annoyed by something, Carolyn talked me down off the ledge. When I debated on how to handle an issue, Carolyn reviewed the pros and cons with me. After my surgery, when I couldnt walk or drive for over 4 months, Carolyn picked me up at home, loaded my scooter into her car and got me to meetings. Had it not been for Carolyn, I may have had to step down from the position of President, but she made it possible for me to get to where I needed to be. I am so grateful to Carolyn. You my friend, are a model Altrusan, and I hope my continued work as an Altrusan properly honors what you have demonstrated for me.

Written by Mamie L. Bass in 1921 one Altrusan principle still speaks to me the loudest. Altrusa believes it is not enough to be good; Altrusans must be good for something. Each member must be doing the piece of work that is hers in a way that puts her in the front ranks of accomplishment. I believe we have all lived this principle this past Club year and should hold our heads high. We have searched for and found the best in character, in business, and in citizenship.

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