08.25.08 Meeting Notes

August 25, 2008- YWCA Fund Development Committee Meeting with the Event Planning Committee

Note to Stephanie Hendricks- Please invite Julie, Liz, Donna and Pamela to our blog so they may view it and contribute to it.

Nichole Bogen is now on the board committee and will no longer be on the Event Planning Committee.

Fund Development Related Discussion-
The YWCA recently received a $120K gift from Nebco (sp?) Fund. The parameters are that they must develop new programs and infrastructure. Some programs they will be implementing are fostering youth who are college bound, starting a nine-month leadership institute for young women, and also hiring a ½ time volunteer coordinator to recruit more volunteers and oversee their projects.

Tribute
The date for Tribute has moved to Wednesday, October 22nd. The nomination forms and letters to corporate sponsors have gone out. TierOne has signed on. Julie is working on getting an honorary chair woman for the day.

The Event Planning Committee (EPC) can brainstorm ideas on how to take this even to the next level. It has not been a fund raising event in the past, but they would like to make it one. There are several fund raising possibilities that we can look into. They also would like to see a wider variety of female and male representation.

They have had each Tribute award winner give an acceptance speech in the past. This has made the event longer than it needs to be. We can look into filming their acceptance speeches and playing them at the luncheon.

They would like to have some live music during the event, possibly a jazz ensemble, string group, or band. They are open to ideas about this.

A long list of sponsors has been contacted. (See e-mail attachment) Pamela will follow up with them unless one of us has a personal connection to one of the businesses. We will need to let her know which ones we would like to contact.

The tickets for the event will be $30 which includes a salad, bread, possibly soup, dessert and a beverage. We can discuss options on how people should pay. In advance? At the door for an increased charge? If they RSVP, but don’t show up to pay will we take the hit or follow up with them?

Last year they did a “pass the basket” around the room which raised about $3K.

Julie has contacted a speaker, Cynthia Johnson aka “Mama J”, and asked her if she is available to speak at this event. She has a strong message of empowerment and eliminating racism and is a very uplifting speaker. This would take up about 20 minutes of the luncheon.

The EPC can help with getting more nomination information out to the community and sponsorship info. We also need to think of unique ideas to make this even more cutting edge and something that everyone will want to talk about, like the martini party.

The YWCA will launch their new caremark/logo at the luncheon. (See e-mail attachment) Julie would like to see a 3D version of the new logo in the center of the tables. It was designed by an artist and it has a water-color look.

General timeline of past Tributes
Board members each have a seating chart to help guests find their seats
There is a head table where the honorary chair, special guests, others sit
They would announce awards, each person would speak (there was no time limit really)
A video about YWCA would play
The Chryslis Award was given out (sp?)
The event would last about two hours

They would like to make this year’s event one hour if possible.

Normally they have 6-8 award winners, but they would like to make it 6 this year.

Julie would like to see each Board member wearing a pin of the new logo, so they stand out and everyone knows they are with the YW.

The EPC can help create a new idea for the award that is given out, possibly a statue version of their new logo.

February’s Shoe Event- Heart and Sole
We need to confirm a date and location ASAP.

Host the event around Valentine’s Day.

Vendors can donate athletic shoes, celebrity shoes, designer shoes, shoe art, food art (food shaped like shoes).

The event will be held in the evening, alcohol will be served as well as heavy appetizers.

We need to look into the logistics of the event. How will people bid on shoes? Will they have to buy the shoe that was donated? Can they bid on a shoe and then order it in their size from the vendor?

We can also look into the possibility of sending shoes to celebrities to have them sign, or white canvas shoes to have them “design” on. YWCA has actually done something similar in the past and celebrities actually sent signed stuff back!

General Discussion
Our next meeting is planned for Wednesday, September 3rd at 11:30 a.m. at the Braeda on 48th and O Street. Please let Liz Ring know if you can or cannot make it.

Bring your notes/comments about the Martini Party and we will discuss them briefly at the beginning of the meeting so we have a good after-action review for the event report.

We will assign tasks to EPC members to kick off the planning for both the Tribute and Heart and Sole events.

Recorded by,
Stefanie Harold