Good evening! Karen Snow and I are honored and excited to serve as your Giving Circle Co-Presidents this year, and we are looking forward to a great year because of the efforts of many women who made the commitment to be part of the Giving Circle Board and leadership team.  So I’d like to introduce this group and then say a few things about the upcoming year.

I’ll start by thanking Peggy Morrison-Curtis for being willing to serve as President ALL BY HERSELF and for helping the Circle grow a pretty remarkable community gift in the midst of a recession that feels endless.   Peggy will remain on the Board with Holly Sloan as President Ex-Officio.  Thank you both for your leadership!

Now, I would like to introduce the officers since there are a couple of new ones in addition to Karen and me.

• Tracy Nickelsburg will continue as Nominating Officer
• Peggy Stypula will continue as our Gift Officer
• Leslie Woolley will continue as Treasurer
• Jane Knops will be our new Communications and Marketing Officer
• Maura Powell will be our new secretary and
• Pamela Larson will be our new Membership Officer.  Maura and Pamela are also both joining the Board for the first time.  Please welcome them!

We also have a few women leaving the Board who I would like to thank for all the time and talent they have so freely given over the years.  Each of these women made a significant contribution to the Giving Circle.  They are:

• Christine Brown
• Mary Myers
• Alison DeCourcey
• Mary Newhouse
• Tricia Karppi
• Ann Schulyer

And I am pleased to tell you that the following women will continue to serve on our Board as Directors at large:

• Karen Devlin
• Elsa Riveros
• Christine Labrecque, who will also continue as Chair of our Community Service Committee
• Sue Setliff
• JoAnn Maldonado
• Hallie Smith
• Helen Morris
• Margaret Rizzi
• Carri Stoltz

Karen and I are looking forward to working with all of you this year.

Without the commitment of all these women–these past, present and incoming Board members–there would be less energy and innovation around parental engagement as a strategy for helping children grow into successful and self-sufficient adults.

Now, for those of you without your hands raised a second ago, Karen and I are looking forward to working with you too, in whatever capacity makes sense for you. The Giving Circle offers some unusual opportunities to make Alexandria better in a way that is strategic and that will engage your intellect.  The biggest of these opportunities are in the workgroups that Karen described. This is going to be a fascinating project and please let Karen Snow or Peggy Stypula or me know if you are curious about this effort and want to have a role. We also need women to help plan our Fall Forum…we’re thinking about a healthy eating and nutrition theme for that, since helping parents nourish their children’s bodies helps children come to school ready to learn free from the distraction of hunger.  There are community service projects, internal Giving Circle operations needs and it’s actually not too early to start thinking about what next year’s spring event will look like.  There are a variety of things to do for nearly every level of time and energy you might have.

If you’ve been toying with the idea with increasing your Giving Circle involvement or changing your area of interest, please tell someone! Tell me, or Karen, or any Board member you saw standing up a few minutes ago, or email me at info@givingfullcircle.org. If you are worried about overcommitting yourself, (and I TOTALLY understand that concern), ask a friend to share a role with you to make it easier; that’s what Karen and I are doing. You’ll make some new friends; you’ll use some creative and problem-solving skills that you might not have much chance to use at home or at work; and you’ll be supporting parents in Alexandria who want the same opportunities and education for their children that every parent wants, but who face incredible challenges in providing them.

That’s about it for my remarks.  I have just one more comment and a request.  If you are new to the Giving Circle or if this is your first large membership event, it may feel a little bit like everyone here already knows everyone else.  I felt like that when I attended my first spring celebration, here, about four years ago.  But you know what?  It turns out that it isn’t true.  There’s no “in crowd” here.  It’s just that it’s a little too easy to stay in our comfort zones with the people we already know and unless you are a high extrovert, it may feel difficult or uncomfortable to find a way in.  So I challenge each of you to grab one more drink, then introduce yourself to two people you don’t know.   If you don’t know what to do after the introduction part, you can share stories about how you came to be part of the Giving Circle and how you think you will be involved this year.

Thank you so much for coming! Lori, thank you again for having all of us here in your beautiful garden.   Enjoy the rest of the evening!