Letter from Our President

Happy Holidays Ladies!

I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving with family and friends! We are squarely in the swirl of the Holiday Season and the club’s calendar of events is teeming with fun activities for ladies and couples alike. Aside from our interest groups’ holiday activities, we have the Club’s Holiday Party (spouses, partners and guests welcomed) on December 13, our Holiday All-Club & Luncheon (members and guests welcomed) on December 20 and The Philanthropy Group’s Gingerbread and Cheer event (members, children and guests welcomed) on December 15. Register soon as capacity is limited.

Kudo Corner

Thank you to Dynne and her crew who manned the Women’s Club table at the Tree Lighting on Sunday December 1^st. Our light up necklaces were a hit with kids and adults alike. In addition, thanks to Cindy Smith who brought us our Author Event with Anita McBride and Bambi Landew who hosted. Also, a shout out to Kary and Ken Ryan who hosted the Harvest Cocktail Party and Sara Overman who orchestrated it. 

By-Law Changes

As I have mentioned in my past letters, we have a few cleanups in our by-laws that you will be seeing soon. Some of the changes are to reflect current club operating processes but others are more forward looking. I thought I would offer some perspective as to why the forward-looking changes are necessary. Those changes concern our membership criteria and the other is the Philanthropy Board Member. These changes will be presented for your vote in the early spring and will be effective for the next club year. 

Membership Criteria

Currently, our membership criteria include ladies who reside in the Langley School Pyramid and in the Lowes Island Estates which spans Fairfax and Loudon Counties. Lowes Island proper residents are not eligible for membership currently. As many of you may be aware, there is an effort underway to revise all of Fairfax County school districts. If you are unaware, I suggest you check out this website for more information,  https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/maps/2024-2026-boundary-review. We are concerned that redistricting will have a direct and significant impact our membership criteria. As such, we will be proposing the following criteria for your approval. 

1. All ladies currently in good standing will remain members regardless of their address. 
2. New members will need to reside in the following zip codes- 22066 or 22102 to be eligible for membership
3. We will introduce a nomination process for ladies who reside outside of membership eligible zip codes with some caveats. 
   1. The prospective member should reside in an area tangential to the new membership area. 
   2. The prospective member must be nominated by a current member in good standing and additionally supported by a second member in good standing.
   3. The prospective member will be required to complete an application for membership which demonstrates how they are active in the local community.
   4. The application will be reviewed by the Membership VP and approved by a vote of the Board. 

Many of our activities are open to member guests, so it is not critical that those who attend many of our events are club members. 

Philanthropy VP 

As you are aware our 501c(3) is the Scholarship Fund, however from time to time we have sponsored events for the benefit of other not for profits in the area. Due to IRS rules regarding Social Clubs (which we are) and the significant resource drain on our Treasurer, over the past couple of years we have moved to hosting events where the ticket price reflects our cost with donation opportunity to go directly to the not for profit. We believe these events are important, however, we believe it would be more efficient if these activities were orchestrated through an interest group rather than through the board. The same events may take place as determined by the interest group and would be open to the full club. Moreover, we believe the Philanthropy IG would serve as a clearing house of information for donations and volunteer opportunities for local not for profits. 

All-Club Event VP

To ensure we have the same number of board member we will replace the Philanthropy VP with a new VP- All Club Event VP. That board member will be responsible for overseeing and executing all club activities such as cocktail parties and outings and adventures. As we are a social club, we believe these activities are an important offering to our members. While we have tried other arrangements, the Hospitality and Program VPs have significant responsibilities and are unable to provide the guidance and support to oversee additional events. 

The remainer of the changes are directly tied to club operations and are generally not impactful to those in the club, however they are meaningful to board members and their responsibilities. The changes in the bylaws will be presented so that you will be able to review the current language of the bylaw, the proposed change and the rationale behind the change. In closing, I beg you to review these changes and to vote as we need a quorum to move forward. I suspect these changes will be published in late January or early February. 

Nomination Process for the 2024-2025 Club Year

I cannot believe that we are starting to plan for next year! Our Nomination Committee is headed by Ruth Smyers (the former President), the Membership VP, Cindy Smith and the interest group lead, Katie Kachel. The committee will also have at least two club members who are not on the current board. Their role is to develop a slate of board members for the coming year. If you have interest in serving on the nomination committee or have interest in serving on the Board, please do not hesitate to reach out to any of the ladies listed above. We need your help to make sure our club thrives. I promise it will be a rewarding experience!

As you may have read in my email blast earlier in November, long time club member and former President Tina Mather, lost her husband after a long illness. Please keep her in your thoughts.  

In closing, I wish you all the joy and magic of the Holiday Season and hope to see you at one of our holiday events. 

You grateful President, 

Cory Clarke