I’m A Clubwoman

Great Lakes Part 2…Hats, Gloves, and Bags

by karen on 10/16/09 at 12:12 pm

I hope you all know about the GFWC campaign of Hats, Gloves, and Bags…usually we put on work hats, garden gloves, and carry big, big trash bags to clean up something or plant something.  So in the spirit of that, the crew running the Great Lakes Regional Conference had us all dress up in semi-formal gowns and don our hats and gloves.  Only this time, it was a little more traditional, and most wore lovely stylish hats and white or lace gloves.  We carried charming little hand-bags and had a wonderful dinner with the Grand Rapids Sweet Adelines singing for entertainment.  It was really fun to see all the ladies in their finest!

This conference was one of the very best I’ve ever attended.  The entertainment was superb…the meals were scrumptious and presented beautifully, the workshops were very worthwhile, with lots of new ideas brought forward.

Sunday’s inspirational speaker, Sister Susan Keller, had us all laughing and crying with her humor and touching stories of surviving Cancer four times.  She says the big C isn’t Cancer, it’s Christ in her life!  I found it interesting to hear how the Sisters of today are all ministers in some way…working hard to help people in need.  Sr. Susan is a humorist who performs for groups like ours, and yet also ministers to women in shelters and does other work.  One of her writings can be found in the book Chicken Soup for the Survivor’s Soul.

Sandra Pecha and Sr. Susan Keller

Our membership workshop on Saturday afternoon turned out to be a great brainstorming session.  Some good ideas I heard to build new membership were make a club brochure and make bookmarks with your club information that you place at the library.  My club has a book sale every summer, and we’re going to put those bookmarks in the books we sell.  We really stressed the need for every club to have an informative brochure.  The Board in Illinois has designed a template for Illinois clubs that we’ve placed on our website for our state to download.  Hopefully, it will spark the brochure creativity in our clubs!  We need to stress that every time we interact with the public, we need to tell them who we are.

I hope you are taking the opportunity to attend your district, state, and region conferences and conventions.  First of all they are really fun, you make new friends from all over your area, and you learn an awful lot that can apply in your job, your life, and your club.  We are a very professional group of women that are really good for each other!  As a matter of fact, we’re really good for our communities and our country.

Int. President Dr. Rose Ditto

Int. Pres. Elect Carlene Garner

Great Lakes Pres. Sandra Pecha

2010 Great Lakes Pres. Debbie Bach