March 2016

Issue: 30

Join Soroptimists of Ventura for an Evening of Fun, Friends and Wine

Please join us on Tuesday, March 15 from 5:00 to 8:00 pm at Gone West Cellars at 5963 Olivas Park Dr. in a celebration honoring the actual date of our Soroptimist Ventura Club charter.

Contact Trevor Summerlin at 805-625-2402 if you are interested in attending this event. The cost is $13.50 per person. Additionally, you can text her at JSummer632@aol.com. Please RSVP by March 10.

Become a Sponsor!

If you would like to be a sponsor for our 85th Anniversary Celebration, or would like to donate something to our silent auction, please download the form below or contact Cyndi Damron at 805-216-4728 for more information.

Information is also available at www.soroptimistventura.org/sponsorship-opportunities/

The Program Speakers for March 23 are Norbert Tan and Anne Paul King from the Ventura College Foundation

Norbert Tan has served as the Executive Director of the Ventura College Foundation for nearly nine years. Successes include developing the Ventura College Promise program that funds first year fees for every Ventura County high school graduate; growing the scholarship program to nearly $500,000 in annual awards; and building the Textbook Lending Library to serve over 3,000 students annually. Prior to Ventura College, Norbert served as the Managing Director of Rubicon Theatre Company in Ventura, after completing the prestigious Arts Management Fellowship at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Prior to working in the non-profit field, Norbert was an international marketing and advertising professional in the new media, live entertainment, legal, and advertising industries. Norbert volunteers on numerous community boards and committees in Ventura County. Norbert earned his BS from UC Berkeley and his MBA from UCLA, with an emphasis in nonprofit management.

Norbert's peak experiences at the Ventura College Foundation include moments with a donor, with a past employee, and at the VCF's annual scholarship gala.

Anne Paul King serves as the Director of Major and Planned Giving for the Ventura College Foundation. Her recent successes at the Foundation include developing and stewarding the corporate donor relationship leading to at $1,000,000 gift to launch the Diesel Technology program at Ventura College; creating the Foundation Ambassador's program with faculty and classified staff; and securing over $1 million in planned gifts over the past year. Anne has been a fundraising professional for nearly 25 years and has raised over $22 million for both national and local organizations. The scope of her many roles has ranged from the national development consultant to 31 state affiliates at Volunteers of America to the foundling chair of the development committee for the Conejo Schools Foundation Board supporting the local Conejo Unified School District. Anne specializes in major gifts and board management.

Anne's peak experiences at the Ventura College Foundation include moments with a scholarship recipient, a legacy society member, and a corporate partner.

If you are interested in attending this meeting please call Cindy Daly at 805-701-0882 to RSVP by Monday, March 21. The cost is $15.


	Peggy Ruesink

SOLT Talk -

Important Things to Know About Committees

Committees are:

Important
Powerful
Due Our Respect

Committees are important because they do the important work of the club. They are powerful because members are creating, planning and providing the framework for us to provide service, fundraise, bring in new members and support each other. We need to respect committees for all they do.

We respect committees in many ways. We respect them by asking appropriate questions. Appropriate questions would be: Can we bring guests? What is the start time?

We need to make sure we are not asking questions that should be asked at committee meetings. Examples of those questions would be: Oh we're having it at the Pierpont, I heard that Lure has a nice room. This is a planning question which should be discussed at committee. It could be disrespectful to the committee in assuming that they have not thoroughly discussed venues. Should you have important information that the committee may not know, you should go to the committee meeting or share that information with the committee chair. Don't start talking about it at a board or general meeting. We need to respect committees by supporting them in their events. It is easy to agree that an upcoming event is nice and we should go forward. We also need to agree to attend and support.

Committees have responsibilities beyond their planning and implementation. They need to keep members informed about what is going on in committee work. That includes sharing plans for future events. Committee chairs need to give monthly reports at the board and general meetings. We do well when these reports are written. Committee chairs need to get club buy-in for events. That may mean asking for definite commitments from members.

Committees need to keep committee work in committee meetings. Too many times we get interested and start asking questions and offering opinions in board and general meetings that are discussions that should happen in committee meetings. The person leading the discussion whether that be the committee chair or president should stop the conversation and point out that it should be dealt with in committee. We cannot use our board and general meetings to brainstorm. Save that good energy for committee meetings. As a rule of thumb if your board or general meeting is running over an hour you are doing committee work!

In conclusion I would like to point out that committee work is also a time of fun and bonding and I would encourage all members to really get involved in her committee's work.

Our February Speaker, Sam Benner,
Entertained and Educated us on Marketing and Social Media

Sam

Benner joined us at our February 24 program meeting to impart his wisdom on the best ways for us, as a non-profit, to use social media.

He encouraged us to:

share our interesting projects
tell our before and after stories
interact with other groups
use Facebook for advertising
try some other social media outlets such as YouTube and Instagram.

Overall we gained some very useful information and insight on how to expand our use of social media to get our message out there and connect with more women than ever before. Thank you Sam!

The 38th Annual Camino Real Region Spring Conference May 13-15, 2016

"Dreams on Parade: Change Makes It Happen"

Please join the Soroptimist Camino Real Region on May 13-15, 2016 at the Pasadena Hilton Hotel at the annual Spring Conference. The Region Board and Spring Conference Committee have been busy creating a fabulous experience specifically for you! Spring Conference is designed to recognize the work, members, and what has been done collectively to carry out the vision and mission of Soroptimist.

We will see a return of Club photos, Women's Health Related workshops in the morning and the Leadership Academy in the afternoon. The Dreams on Parade is Friday night where each clubs creative banners are on display. Governor Elect Ginger Cole will be installed on Saturday evening with a Mardi Gras themed celebration so put on your glitz and glamour for this.

SIA Federation Director, Beverly Bucur, will be a special guest during the Conference. The speakers for Friday and Saturday lunch will inspire as well as call on you to be the catalyst for change in a positive fun way. The week-end will be filled much shopping, education, region updates and lots of celebration!

The Call to Conference, agenda and pertinent forms are available here on the Camino Real Region website for your convenience.

Why Not Use Amazon Smile for your regular Shopping Needs? Try the Subscribe and Save Service.

Subscribe and Save is a subscription service that will automatically ship the products you purchase every 1, 2, 3, or 6 months.

Amazon gives you discounts on these items + free shipping and you can cancel at any time with no penalty. Subscribe and Save also gives you 15% off purchases when you add 5 or more items to your subscription plan for any month or 5% off for less than 5.

What is AmazonSmile?

AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support your favorite charitable organization every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, you'll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to our Soroptimist International of Ventura.

How do I select a charitable organization to support when shopping on AmazonSmile?

On your first visit to AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com ), you need to select Soroptimist International of Ventura to receive donations from eligible purchases before you begin shopping. Amazon will remember your selection, and then every eligible purchase you make at smile.amazon.com will result in a donation.

How much of my purchase does Amazon donate?

The AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price from your eligible AmazonSmile purchases. The purchase price is the amount paid for the item minus any rebates and excluding shipping & handling, gift-wrapping fees, taxes, or service charges. From time to time, there may be special, limited time promotions that increase the donation amount on one or more products or services or provide for additional donations to charitable organizations.

AmazonSmile Donations to Charitable Organizations

100% of the donation amount generated from your eligible purchase on AmazonSmile will be donated. The donation amounts generated by your purchases are combined with the donation amounts from all other customers that selected the same organization, and each quarter the AmazonSmile Foundation makes donations to registered charitable organizations by electronic funds transfer. Donations are generally transferred approximately 45 days after the end of each calendar quarter.

Please tell all your family and friends to choose Soroptimist International of Ventura to support in their Amazon online purchases through the AmazonSmile program.

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.

2016 Pledge & Inspiration Schedule

March 9 Meeting:

Pledge - Cindy Daly

Inspiration - Dede Taylor

March 23 Meeting:

Pledge - Cyndi Damron

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

March 9 - Stop Human Trafficking Event
4:30 pm - Walk
6:00 pm - Panel
Ventura County Government Center

March 15 -
Wine Tasting Mixer
5:00-8:00 pm
Gone West Cellars

March 23 - Program Meeting

Ventura College Foundation

March 24 - Life Skills Committee Meeting

5:30 pm
995 Riverside St. Vta

April 16 - Scholarship Awards/85 Celebration
11:30 am - 2:30 pm

Pierpont Inn, Ventura

May 13 - 15 - Spring Conference

Pasadena

Life Skills Committee Meeting

If you are interested in helping determine the future and scope of the Life Skills program, there will be a meeting on Thursday, March 24, 5:30 pm.

The meeting will be held at Karen's office:

Housing Authority of the City of San Buenaventura

995 Riverside Street

Ventura

E-mail Cyndi Damron for details and more information damroncyndi@gmail.com

Check out our new Website

www.soroptimistventura.org

Scholarship Awards Lunch and 85th Celebration

Saturday,
April 16, 2016
11:30 am - 2:30 pm

Pierpont Inn, Ventura

Please plan on attending this special event and bring a guest or two! Help celebrate our Scholarship Awards winners, our long time members and our Club's 85th Birthday.

Tickets are $30 and are now available online at www.soroptimistventura.
eventbrite.com. Additionally, you may choose to purchase your tickets by check made out to SI Ventura and mailed to P.O.Box 6133, Ventura, CA 93006.

Menu choices include chicken, beef or vegetarian. Please provide choice when registering or purchasing tickets through eventbrite.

The silent auction will be our major fundraising effort for the year. If you would like to donate an item, or have a sponsor please contact Cyndi Damron at 216-4728 or email her at damroncyndi@gmail.com.

For more information see flyer to the left or click here.

Welcome New Member Heidi Oehmke!

At our February business meeting we inducted new member Heidi Oehmke.

Congratulations and welcome to SI Ventura. We all look forward to getting to know you better in the future!!!

Presidents

Message

Well there is certainly a lot going on!!

Coming up we will be forming our nominating committee to select potential board members for our next term. I can't believe how fast time has passed.

On March 9 we are having our annual Stop Trafficking event and on march 15 a wine tasting mixer for friends and family at Gone West Cellars. I know how busy everyone is, but I hope many of you will be able to attend both events.

In April we will gather for our 85th Anniversary celebration and scholarship awards luncheon. This will be a great time to celebrate our club and it's contributions to our city both past and present. I say a big thank you for all of you working to make this a successful event.

Finally, in May (13-15) comes Spring Conference! For those of you who have not yet attended a conference, it will be an opportunity to meet fellow Soroptimists from our region and share ideas and goals. More will follow about this event but I want to note that we will need a head count by April 18. Please consider attending this event.

I also want to thank Shirley for heading up our "welcome bag" project for Forever Found. I thank you all for your contributing to this needed service.

You are all fantastic women and we can and are doing great things together!

Kay Armstrong

President

SI Ventura 2015-2016

2016 Axxess Books are Now Available

The 2016 Axxess Books are now available for $30.

If you are interested in either selling the books or buying a book for yourself, please contact Cyndi Damron for details and more information at 805-216-4728 or email her damroncyndi@gmail.com

Heidi Oehmke 3/8

SI Ventura 3/15

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Only $10 per month.

For Information call
Cindy Daly at

805-647-1554 or
email her at

cmdaly@pacbell.net

Club Meetings

2nd & 4th Wednesday of each month
Luncheon Meeting at 12 noon
Ventura Beach Marriott Hotel, 2055 Harbor Blvd., Ventura

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