President’s Message
This month I want to talk about what was covered at our caucus’ Board Retreat. Our annual planning retreat was held on the evening of January 13. Thanks to Marsha Conant and Marilyn Watts for hosting us in their home. We discussed a number of issues, but foremost was the decision on a meeting location.
While everyone indicated that they enjoyed the food at Sequoia Brewery, there were issues with parking, traffic and the size of the room. Because it was a buffet, we were expected to pay the dinner price for every person in the room whether they ate or not. That is a non-negotiable policy for their restaurant. Additionally, we could not hold our meetings in November and December because they hold holiday parties. We are grateful that they were available for us in January but they are not a long-term solution to our needs.
The NWPC Fresno Board is happy to announce that we will be returning to Los Amigos for our February meeting. We hope to make Los Amigos our permanent home. We have not been able to find another location that meets our needs. We will continue to work with their management to mitigate the noise issues we have experienced in the past.
We hope to see you on February 4th at Los Amigos!
In other news: Thank you to the following people for their willingness to step-up to support the work of our caucus in 2025:
- Frances Berman will continue to put out our monthly newsletter;
- Kim Ghelerter continues to manage our website;
- Cathy Brass will be teaching us about the “women who have come before us” in the Five-Minute Bios;
- Marsha Conant will chair our Women’s Equality Day (WED) fundraising event in
August. This year WED will also celebrate the 50th Anniversary of our caucus; and - Kathy Atkins and Layne Wright Wall are handling Membership duties.
We have one Board position that has not yet been filled:
- Marsha has generously been filling some of the responsibilities of the ADMIN Vice President although these are not her duties. The ADMIN VP finds the speaker for each of our meetings, introduces the speaker, sells raffle tickets, and manages the Happy/Sad Dollars portion of our meetings. Marsha has already found our February speaker but we need someone to fill this position on a permanent basis. Marsha and Claudia Soria Delgado have both offered to help find speakers if needed. Please consider joining us on the Board.
The Board decided to establish a new committee that we hope you will consider joining:
- We want to create a “Welcome Team” that would consist of three or four members who are willing to meet and greet new members at their first few meetings. They would be available to explain the raffle; happy/sad dollars; ADMIN vs. PAC; answer any questions, etc. Generally, just make visitors and new members feel welcome.
- We are also looking for someone who will take on the responsibility of sending a note or card or making a phone call to a member who is ill, suffered a loss, etc. We want to better support one another.
And finally,
in this time of national transition let us all follow the wise advice we received from Heather Janz at our last meeting. If you or someone you know is overwhelmed or depressed by what is happening in in our country, please talk to someone for support or professional help. Let’s be there for one another and especially let’s be kind to ourselves and to those around us.
This is not the time for NWPC to give up on our goals. We need to look forward to 2026 by supporting strong women candidates for local, state and national offices. We will seek out candidates that stand up for our values. We need to keep California on the right side of our issues and make a place for those who agree with our concerns. Now, more than ever we must speak out and lead in this fight for our democracy.
In Unity and with Conviction,
Lynn
