SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL OF ASHLAND Dec 1* Dec 2 Dec 8* Dec 9 Nov 15* Nov 16 Dec 22 CALENDAR Business Meeting Lunch Buddy W1 Kris Diasio ADD Lunch Buddy W2 PoPs & Christmas Celebration Lunch Buddy W3 NO Soroptimist meeting Dec 25 CHRISTMAS Dec 29 NO Soroptimist meeting Jan 3, 2011 Board Meeting @ 5:30 pm BarbO s * La Casa del Pueblo Coming Events: Dec 15 Christmas Auction & Party Bring a friend Jan 14-16, 2011 NW Coaltion Against Trafficking in Portland Saturday, February 5th, 2011 AREA Meeting President Barb O Tees Off Pull out your Drivers we are in full swing. The Violet Richardson Award, Ruby Award, Women s Opportunity Award and the Graduate Fellowship award deadlines have passed or are fast approaching. Now is the time to make the tough decisions, who best to honor? Last month saw us working in the rough (road clean up and Garden Way Park) to make our small part of the world a little better. The Soroptimist Strong Girls Strong Women program is putting right along. We had our 3rd annual Community Dinner which was a wonderful evening. It is amazing to see how far these girls have come in such a short time. I see the faces of future Soroptimist in the making. Our first round of Parties has started and on December 15th we will have our second round of Party sign- ups. The FUNraising committee has been working hard to put the FUN into fundraising. Make sure you invite your friends to our Christmas party. We will be dark the last two weeks of the year and will start back up on January 5th. Take this time to renew your engines and spend time with those you love. Have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, President Barb O Reason for the Season When eggnog s generously filling Each and every Christmas mug And siblings tour miles and miles To greet you with a hug There s scarce else I ll be wishing Than this simple little prayer Of peace and calm and blessings much On Christmas Day this year.
SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL OF ASHLAND Get to know our Life Members Beverly Meads Sue has now written a bio on each of our Board Members for the past and current year, plus one for our beloved Vicki Smith. Haven t they been wonderful! They can be found in back issues of our newsletter, in case you missed any. So what next? As Treasurer, I am in touch with our Life Members, women who stay connected to Soroptimist International with a small annual dues. If you have not been a member for long, you probably do not know these women. So Sue and I visited two of our Life Members and will introduce them to you this month and next. Thereafter, we will focus on our members who have been members of Soropotimist the longest (and have not already been featured). Linda Anderson, ed. by Sue Kurth Beverly joined SIA in 1969: she served as club president in 1984-85. Twice she was the club s secretary and director. Beverly enjoyed being an active and involved member. She believed by giving, you get more out of life. She attended all the regional meetings, and once traveled to Nashville to attend a conference. Today, Beverly, a life member, is 87 years young. She continues to have a wonderful sense of humor. She has an active mind and could easily recall answers to questions pertaining to the club s activities more than two decades ago. Beverly confirmed they had classifications. She owned and ran a pre-school. In 1984 the average number attending their weekly meeting was around 60. The meetings were held at the City Council House, and lunch was catered for $3.25. The core projects continue to be the same, but the financial numbers have changed the pillow booth rental was $.25. When asked about the key projects for her term as president, Beverly admitted they had just completed the senior citizens taxi service which had taken two years. So during her term they mostly enjoyed the fruits of their labor. As she recalled everyone was exhausted with all the work needed to start the taxi service. Beverly felt the taxi service was useful and served many of the members who did not drive. If a Soroptimist needed a ride, she would call the driver to make arrangements. It cost $.25; usually it was a one-way trip. When asked about some of the club s challenges when she was member, Beverly replied, getting data in the newspaper. Some things do not change. They also had a newsletter which Beverly was responsible for. She gathered the data, typed it up, and passed the newsletter out at club. Beverly has been an Ashland resident for 50 years. The majority of her family which includes her 4 daughters; 15 grandchildren; 26 great grandchildren, and 1 great, great grandchild live in the area. PAGE 2
SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL OF ASHLAND Christmas Party & Auction is coming: December 15 th by Mel Bailey Just in case you ve been living under a rock and so have missed hearing about it... our Big! Wonderful! Fun! Christmas Party is coming up on December 15. This party deserves a big star on your calendar for three reasons: 1) it s a party (as opposed to a meeting) and who doesn t like that, 2) it s a holiday auction so a chance to pick up a gift for someone or something nice for your very own self, and 3) IT S OUR PARTY OF PARTIES SIGN-UP! (if necessary), and how much it ll cost for each person to come. We ll all sign up and pay for the parties on the 15th, then you throw the party when the time rolls around. Party ideas should also go to Kathy Mooney so she can make a sign-up sheet. We d like to talk up the parties in advance so everyone can think about what they want to sign up for, so the sooner we get your ideas, the better! These parties have had the wonderful side effect of helping us get to know each other in a casual setting which has just been great. So here s what you need to do. First of all, do plan to come we always have lots of fun at this gathering and are filled with holiday spirit. If you want, bring a nice (big or small) item for the auction it doesn t have to be a Christmas-y thing, but it certainly can be. Items in the past have ranged from cookies to table arrangements to bottles of wine. I ll be offering my raft trip again. Please let Kathy Mooney know what your auction item will be so she can make an appropriate bid sheet, but if you have a last-minute brainstorm, just bring it we ll have blank auction sheets there. And then there are the Parties to sign up for! This is how it works: either by yourself or with another member, decide what fun thing you d like to offer. Last year we had a formal tea, a summertime pool party, a bunco night, a wildflower walk, an offer of seasonal pies and other stuff I can t remember! Figure out a date (if it s an event), an event limit So do plan to come on the 15th; if you d like to bring a guest - even better (please let Mel or Yolanda know if you are bringing someone). Bring your checkbook as everything needs to be paid for that day. And get your auction and/or party ideas going! Think FUN FUN FUN! Questions? Get in touch with Mel, Yolanda, or Kathy. The Fundraising Committee. ef Party of Party Note: Please get your Party Write ups or auction item write ups to me by December 10, 2010. I am doing the bid and sign up sheets and I don't want to be doing them all on December 14th. Thanks! Kathy Mooney PAGE 3
SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL OF ASHLAND Sara s Saga Chapter 4. The ongoing story of WhoNeedsNewspapers as Sara and Paul drive across all 50 states. by Sara Brown Memorable things we ve seen: November was a month for couples, the highlight being our visit with Linda and Al Anderson. We shoe-horned them into the RV, performed highly choreographed maneuvers to get us all seated for meals, and managed the basic needs for privacy in a 31 trailer. On top of that, we had a lot of fun seeing the sites. We started by seeing a production of Henry VIII at the Folger Theatre, a particular treat for Al who is a Shakespeare historian. Linda arranged with Rep. Greg Walden for a White House tour. It rained that day, but a little rain (hey, we re Oregonians) didn t dampen our zest for seeing the East room where the president holds press conferences, the dining room and the blue, red, and green rooms. We went to the National Portrait Gallery; my favorite was a Norman Rockwell exhibit from the Spielberg and Lucas private collections. We also went to the Newseum --- 5 floors of multi-media capturing the highlights of the news for the last 100+ years. We had dinner with three different sets of old friends in the D.C. area, and then collected our pooch (Tallula) from my son s home in Delaware. After 2 weeks of living a dog s life with their chocolate lab, she wasn t sure she was ready for life on the road again, but since she s an indispensible member of our road crew, she hopped back in the truck. Then off we went to Siria, VA for Thanksgiving with a friend of Paul s with whom he worked years ago in Boston TV. I got to hear all the old stories such as the night the weather man got locked in the weather set. These friends arranged for a tour of Montpelier and a re-introduction to James and Dolley Madison. He was apparently wildly happy with her --- I suspect she baked him a lot of cup cakes. Who Needs Newspapers? report: This month we visited the Delaware State News, the Baltimore Afro American, and, today, The Roanoke Times. We called on several news organizations in D.C. and we re beginning to get noticed by them. We re eager to get the newspapers reports noticed by the industry. In December we ll be in North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida; then, a threeweek time out in Florida for the holidays. Until next month, Sara PAGE 4
SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL OF ASHLAND Soroptimist International of Ashland meets at on Wednesdays from September through June. Please contact Barbara Oldfield at 541-488-6768 for additional meeting or club details or send us an email at siashland@gmail.com. Our mailing address is: P.O.Box 544, Ashland, OR 97520. Li ve Your Drea Iris Akana Dec 5 Joy Dobson Way Dec 9 Sandry Schorovsky Dec 19 m Editor: Linda Anderson landerson77@mind.net Wendy Ray 10 yr Debbie Jones 8 yr Sara Brown 8 yr Advertising: $50 for 1 year contact Linda Anderson and provide her with your business card or other art work. A S H L A N D H O M E S R E A L E S TAT E I n c. MARILYN BAILEY BROKER 150 EAST MAIN STREET ASHLAND, OR 97520 e-mail: mbailey@mind.net (541) 482-0044 ext. 103 (800) 334-7499 FAX (541) 482-0046 RAYMOND JAMES FINANCIAL SERVICES, INC. Member FINRA/SIPC BARBARA M. OLDFIELD, ChFC FINANCIAL CONSULTANT/BRANCH MANAGER 108 E. Hersey - Suite 3 Ashland, OR 97520 barbara.oldfield@raymondjames.com www.raymondjames.com 541.488.6768 888.549.9672 Fax: 541.482.1460 PAGE 5