Founder Region Annual Conference

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Retrospective on 2005 Conference from Governor Cathy's column May 12, 2005 ...

Our Founder Region 2005 Conference ended on Sunday, May 8, 2005, and what a success it was!! I get excited every time I think about it.

Friday began with a panel discussion on "Heads Up on Women's Issues" hosted by the Legislative Advocacy Committee. The women who spoke on the panel were a cardiac physician, a cancer survivor, and a long term insurance agent.

The information was so powerful and so real that I'm sure many of us (myself included) went home thinking about their physical well being and long term planning. Thank you to the Legislative Advocacy Committee for presenting the members with such valuable information.

After lunch on Friday, we met our Making a Difference for Women Awardee, Professor Lauren Coodley. She has just recently written two books, one focuses on the Napa Valley and the contributions of ordinary women to the history of Napa. A contribution to Breast Cancer Action was made on behalf of Professor Coodley.

Dawn Marie Lemonds, Project Liaison for Project Independence- Women Survivor’s of War gave us an update on our quadrennial project. We read stories from several women, and it brought tears to our eyes.

Friday afternoon ended with clubs “Sharing our Success”. Everyone was able to take home ideas on fundraising and fun activities.

On Friday evening, we met the winners of our Fellowship awards, what an amazing group of women. $40,000.00 was awarded to five women in their last year of their doctoral studies.

On Saturday, we conducted the business of the region; awarded our Violet Richardson Service to Youth Award to Soroptimist International of East Bay, and awarded Healdsburg with the Julia "Bess" Combs Extension Award for chartering the Windsor Club.

Soroptimist International of Rio Vista, with a net increase of eight members, was awarded the Julia "Bess" Combs Membership Increase Award . Del Nickerson and Adele Nye conducted workshops on "Protocol and "Diagnosing your Club".

We honored our Past Governor’s and recognized our first time attendees. Six of our Past Governors were with us during the entire conference, and there were 120 first time attendees!!

The District Directors honored those clubs that “Reached for the Stars” and they were presented with a patch.

Our guest speaker, Deborah Santana was absolutely spellbinding. She is a member of S.I. Marin County and she spoke about her book "Space Between the Stars" and her reason for writing it. After speaking, she signed her book for the members that had purchased one. (All 175 books were purchased!) You could hear a pin drop as she spoke. How lucky we were to have her!!

What a great time we had Saturday night! Everyone seemed to love the karaoke, members dressed as madames, cowboys, biker chicks, construction workers, and policemen to name a few. Members were allowed to sing and "strut" their talent, and boy is there a lot of talent in Founder Region. What fun we had!!

On Sunday, we celebrated Mother's Day by remembering the members who passed away during the last year, awarding Violet Richardson, Women's Opportunity, and "S" Club Awards, and ending with our basket raffle. As usual, our members were in tears listening to the women's stories. The Women's Opportunity Awardees were given a total of $24,500.00!!!

At the end of the day, Chair Dion gave us the final totals: 64 out of 68 clubs attended with a grand total of 522 attendees!!

My thanks to so many people for making our 29th Annual Founder Region Conference a smashing success!! But I would like to thank each and every one of you that attended. You are the ones that made it happen and I thank you so much!!

"Together We Can"
     
            Governor Cathy