Presidents History – Pam Flake
356 Members as of May 2013:  164 Actives and 192 Sustainers

Highlights for the year include:

Community Impact Council

The CI council launched two new programs: Empowering Women and Helping Hands.  We signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the partners to create a three year plan for the programs.  This first year was considered successful by all partners.

Helping Hands:  The goal of this project is to develop a middle school workshop program that will have the following outcomes:

• Increase confidence in Center of Help program participants.
• Expand student exposure
• Provide positive role models

The scope of the Helping Hands project is to develop workshops for the Center of Help students in a hands-on, fun and interactive manner. The three-year goals for this program are:

• Year 1: Develop workshops and field trips in areas agreed by both parties.
• Year 2: Expand program participation and student exposure.
• Year 3: Identify community partners for the program. Provide training to the community partners during the workshops, so that the Helping Hands program will continue after year three without JLA assistance.

Empowering Women:

The goal of this project is to develop a life skills workshop program that will have the following outcomes:

• Increase confidence in Sarah’s House guests through increasing their knowledge of daily living skills.
• Improve family life for guests by providing resources in organization and planning.
• Creating positive change for guests by teaching daily skills.

The scope of this Empowering Women project is to develop monthly life skill trainings for the Sarah’s House residents in a hands-on, fun and interactive manner. The three-year goals for this program are:

• Year 1: Develop (4) four workshops in areas agreed by both parties including, but not limited to, employment skills, family budget, food, transportation, home set-up, physical health, clothing, social entertainment and family communication. These four workshops will be implemented in the fall and repeated in the spring.
• Year 2: Develop and implement (8) eight workshops in the areas described above.
• Year 3: Identify community partners for each workshop. Provide training to each community partner during the workshops, so that the Empowering Women program will continue after year three without JLA assistance.

COPR:

COPR executed DIAD and KITK events as selected from community applications.  These events included:

• Teachers’ Lounge makeover at J. Albert Adams Academy.
• Created health and exercise space at Chrysalis House.
• KITK event at the Lighthouse Shelter
• Save the Bay event with Volunteer Arundel.
• Provided meals for the homeless at Lighthouse Shelter.

Financial Resources Council

• Registered 156 participants for Fun Run – net income of ~ $7,150.
• Continued a positive working relationship with the Annapolis mall with our Gift Wrap fundraiser with net income of ~$11,000.
• Our two award winning Cookbooks, Of Tide and Thyme and A Time to Entertain provided additional income of ~$6,250.
• Promoted Annual campaign to solicit member donations.  35% of our active members donated and 22% of our sustaining members donated to provide fund of ~$21,000.
• Participated in Anne Arundel Community Foundations inaugural “Great Give” program resulting in an additional $235 funds donated
• Offered an additional Gala event at Fado Irish Pub which was a Cash Bash theme.
• Hosted a Monte Carlo Night black tie Gala event.  Secured banquet space at Loewe’s hotel for Gala with Monte Carlo Night theme.  Total net income of the two Gala fundraisers was ~$12,500
• Motion passed by membership to increase annual dues by $20 and reduce cookbook obligation to one book of member’s choice.

Communications Council

• Hosted General Monthly Meetings using our new community space within the Lubrano office complex.
• Held February area meetings; main discussion was the need for a membership dues increase and was facilitated by various board members
• Hosted several happy hours & other social events for league members
• Continued to use social media such as Facebook to post and share content regularly
• Started a JLA Blog to share more timely information with members

Membership Council

• 34 Provisional members were voted in as Active members at the April General Membership Meeting
• Had members attend over 400 hours of various training focused on various aspects of leadership
• JLA President and President-Elect attended the Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI) conferences which provide a wide range of training opportunities and workshops as well as networking opportunities with other Leagues.
• Conducted “Take 10 for Training” at each monthly General Membership Meeting. Topics included, Voter Responsibility, Creating Your Teachable Point of View and Association of Junior Leagues, International (AJLI) internal web based training.
• Conducted three training discussion opportunities:
  • Movie and Conversation (Miss Representation) about how women are portrayed on our society
  • Coffee & Conversation  on Emergency Preparedness (in the wake of Hurricane Sandy)
  • Hispanic Cultural Event  & Dinner focused on the Hispanic culture in Anne Arundel County and the Center of Help
• Two members attended AJLI’s Organizational Development Institute conference focused on leadership in membership and community impact.
• Training was provided to all board and committee chairs
• Three members attended a conference with a focus on “Difficult Conversations”