January 2015

Issue: 16

Joint Service and Fundraising
Committee Meeting - January 12 at 5:30 pm

Don't miss the Joint meeting of the Service and Fundraising committees on January 12 at 5:30 pm. The meeting will be held at the offices of the Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation located at 702 County Square Drive in Ventura.

Everyone is encouraged to attend this meeting!! Your input is valuable to the upcoming fundraisers, service projects and the scholarship awards luncheon.

Questions: Call Kay Armstrong at 805-340-3937.

Gina Jaeger will Speak About the Ventura County Women's Economic Roundtable at the Jan. 28 Program Meeting

At the January 28 Ventura Soroptimist program meeting, Gina Jaeger will speak about the Ventura County Women's Economic Roundtable. The Ventura County Board of Supervisors established the Women's Economic Roundtable in 2013, with an effective start date of January 1, 2014. This advisory group focuses on the need for economic and educational opportunities for women in Ventura County. Gina was appointed to this group by Supervisor Zaragosa, and serves as the recorder for the roundtable. This group has been meeting for one year, and Gina will provide an overview of the mission and work of the group to date and what is planned in the future.

Gina Jaeger is a native of Pennsylvania. She completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration at Bloomsburg State College, and her MBA in Finance from Golden Gate University. Gina retired from the United States Navy in June of 2013 with the rank of Captain after serving 30 years as a Health Care Executive. After serving assignments all over the US and overseas, her final assignment was as Commanding Officer of Naval Health Clinic Corpus Christi, Texas, which served military beneficiaries throughout Texas. Gina now serves as the CEO of Girl Scouts of California's Central Coast, building girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place.

If you are interested in attending this meeting on January 28 at 12 noon at the Ventura Marriott Beach Hotel on Harbor Blvd in Ventura call Arlene Briggle at 796-0470 to RSVP by Monday, January 26. The cost is $15.

Live your Dream Women's Scholarship Application Due January 10

Violet Richardson Award Scholarship Application Due February 1

Applications and information about Live Your Dream (formerly called the Women's Opportunity Award) and the Violet Richardson Award are available on our website a www.soroptimistventura.org.

Live Your Dream is a scholarship awarded to a local woman who is the primary wage earner in her family to assist with meeting career/educational goals. Click here to download the application.

Live Your Dream also requires two reference forms. Click here to download the reference form.

The application deadline is January 10, 2015.

The Violet Richardson Award is a scholarship awarded to a local young woman, age 14-17, recognizing her commitment to the betterment of our community through her volunteer efforts. This scholarship is shared with the volunteer organization she has volunteered for. Click here to download the application.

The application deadline is February 1, 2015.

The minimum award to be given is $1500 per winner. Completed applications and reference forms can be emailed to siventura@soroptimist.net or mailed to Kay Armstrong at P.O. Box 6133, Ventura, CA 93006.

Life Skills Program Starting in Early February

The Life Skills program will be starting again in early February at the Salvation Amy. Please contact President Lorie at 805-443-8757 or loriebalzer@yahoo.com and let her know if you are interested in participating in the next session of Life Skills.

Life Skills is a major service project for our Ventura Club. It was developed to teach women in our community the skills which are key to a successful life. Some topics covered in the modular course include; developing goals and ways to measure success, the value of budgeting and money management, choosing a career, and how to get and keep a job. The program has been conducted at the Tender Life Maternity Home and at the Ventura Salvation Army.

Correspondence from Soroptimist International of Inverness & Nairn

Live Your Dream Campaign Fundraiser Tickets Still Available

As you know, the Women's Opportunity Award is now Live Your Dream. The basic rules are still the same and we still will have a Club award as well as Region award. We all know where the Club funds come from for this award, but the Reg

ion award is dependent on the annual donation pool for the voluntary Region Service Fund.

As we have seen, the Region award is often less than some of our Club's awards. To help remedy that situation, with the approval of Governor Dora and the Region Board, an "opportunity" campaign was launched at Fall Workshop and will run through Spring Conference 2015.

Each Club in the Region has been given 25 tickets, which will be sold for $20 each. Members are asked to buy or sell at least one ticket. The winner will be drawn at Spring Conference and need not be present to win, but must be 21 years of age or older and the prize is non-transferable. All proceeds of the campaign will fund Live Your Dream Awards. So, what is the prize?

One Week (8 days, 7 nights) at the Worldmark by Wyndham in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, September 3rd to September 10, 2015, on the 24th floor. The date is set and non-negotiable.

But wait, there's more:

The Club with the highest percentage of sales per membership will receive $1,000 for theirt 2016 LYD winners.

Share this opportunity with your friends and families! Join all the Region Clubs in making this Region-wide effort a GREAT success!

To purchase a ticket please contact Arlene Briggle at 796-0470.

Beads of Esiteti Fundraiser Ongoing

Beaded jewelry from Beads of Esiteti are still available to purchase. Please email Cyndi at damroncyndi@gmail.com

or Kay at kayaarmstrong@gmail.com for more information. With this fundraiser we receive 50% of the profits from the sale of the beaded jewelry which will go towards our scholarship fund.

Beads of Esiteti is a fair-trade social business dedicated to empowering the Maasai community of Esiteti through the selling of their traditional beadwork. Beads of Esiteti generates an income for over 275 Maasai women while creating the means for them to care for themselves. Please help us support the families and community of Esiteti while creating educational opportunities for their children and future generations. For more information go to www.beadsofesiteti.com.

Advertise in Our E-Newsletter and Help Support Our Community Service Fund

For a donation of $100 to our community service fund, we will advertise your business in our e-newsletter every month for a year. That is a $20 dollar savings over the monthly rate of of $10 per month.

Or, donate $50 to our community service fund and we will advertise your business in our e-newsletter every month for six months.

Mail your donation check to: Soroptimist, P.O.Box 6133, Ventura, CA 93066 -- Include your ad information and email contact -- or contact us at siventura@soroptimist.net. We will contact you to finalize the ad copy.

2015 Pledge &
Inspiration Schedule

January 14 Meeting:

Pledge - Arlene Briggle

Inspiration - Karen Flock

January 28 Meeting:

Pledge - Pam Pecarich

Inspiration - Karen Flock

Please email Karen Flock at kflock@sbcglobal.net if you would like to lead the pledge or inspire us at a meeting.

Upcoming

Events

Jan. 12 - Service & Fundraising

Committee Joint Meeting - 5:30 pm

702 County Square Dr.

Jan. 14 - Business Meeting - Noon

Jan. 28 - Program Meeting - Noon Gina Jaeger

April 24-26, 2015 -

Spring Conference

Long Beach

Have you

Liked us on Facebook?

Like our page on Facebook and stay in touch with Soroptimist Ventura

January Meeting Reminder

Don't miss the January Business Meeting on January 14 at Noon at the Ventura Beach Marriott Hotel.

We will be inducting two new members to our club - Kellye Patterson and Ria Bover. Please join us in welcoming them to our club!

Presidents Message

Happy New Year to all. The first half of our fiscal year was really great and I know the second half will be even better. Already we have some fantastic coming attractions. This month, at our Business meeting, we will be welcoming two new members to SI Ventura. We are so excited to have these talented ladies join our ranks and to helping us to continue pursuing our mission of improving the lives of women and girls in our community.

Some of you may have heard about the surprising and awesome gift we received from one of our former members. This very generous gift will certainly enable us to increase our scholarship award amounts and be able to provide a more substantial impact for our recipients. We are so grateful for this wonderful support.

With all this wonderful news, we still must keep in mind we have a full half year to go and much to do. Life Skills will be starting up again very soon, our awards event is fast approaching and soon we will be planning for our next fiscal year. So....onward and upward (as they say).

Lorie Balzer

President

SI Ventura 2014-2015

2015 AXXess Books are Now Available

The 2015 AXXess Books are now available for $30.

If you are interested in either selling the books or buying a book for yourself, please contact Lorie Balzer for details and more information at 805-443-8757 or email her loriebalzer@

yahoo.com

Support SI Ventura

Advertise your business here and reach over 200 people!!!

Only $10 per month.

For Information call Cindy Daly at

805-647-1554 or email her at

cmdaly@pacbell.net