October 2017 Pillar Post

Pillar Posts ~ From Sierra Pacific Region Chairs

October  2017

(Please read as correspondence at your next business meeting & email to your club’s Committee Chairs.)

FUNDRAISING PILLAR POST by Barbara Giambastini, SPR Chair

Each year clubs make Founders Pennies donations to celebrate the founding of Soroptimist and to support federation programs.

The tradition of Founders Pennies began in 1943.  Clubs collected one penny for each year of Soroptimist’s existence and used the money to help re-establish clubs in Europe that had disbanded as of result of pre-World War II political conditions and the war itself.  Today Founders Pennies are used to fund the SIA Dream programs that improve the lives of women and girls in local communities and throughout the world.  Founders Pennies represent approximately 10% of the total contributed to fund federation programs

MEMBERSHIP PILLAR POST by Amory Elizondo, SPR Chair

Tip of the Month: The NO GUILT Soroptimist Club

While recruiting new members, you’ll often hear women saying they don’t know whether they will have the time to commit to Soroptimist. Across the federation, many leaders have promoted a club philosophy that’s more positive, flexible, and better-aligned with the lifestyles of today’s active women—the No Guilt Club. A No Guilt Club accepts members at varied levels of engagement, and recognizes each member gives what she can.

October Challenge: Chose from the following and submit to Amory @ spmembership@soroptimist.net

1. Have a club Halloween Party and invite family members
2. Have a member host a club meeting sharing their business as a networking opportunity.
3. Tell me you favorite thing about your club.

**Challenge completions will be added to your Shaping the Future Award application for 2018

PROGRAM PILLAR POST by Gail Dekreon, SPR Chair

Meet the 2017 Live Your Dream Award finalists announced by Soroptimist International of the Americas. This year, Soroptimist is honored to award $10,000 to three passionate, hard-working, strong women:  Aislinn, Sara and Rochelle. These amazing women have overcome huge life challenges and are on a quest to create better lives for themselves, their families and their communities. Without  OUR generous donations, it would not be possible to continue this program. See their stories on the SIA website at https://www.soroptimist.org/awards/live-your-dream-awards-finalists.html

PUBLIC AWARENESS PILLAR POST by Kate McGuire, SPR Chair & the Public Awareness Team

An easy way to build a club mailing list is to gather email addresses at all of your events, and use that list to promote future fundraisers, mixers or activities. A fun way to start to gather the emails of those attending is to have them write their email address on the back of the event ticket, or their business card put that  in the “door prize” box. After the event, add those addresses to your email service. But, be sure to give everyone on your email list the opportunity to “opt out” if they don’t want to continue to receive your emails. You can simply add a sentence such as: If you no longer wish to receive emails from Soroptimist of (your club’s name), please email us at (your email address). And then, be sure to delete that person’s contact information from your list.