In absence of a Program Director this year Marty and I agreed to do the Holiday Party, which is also one of our 4 official branch meetings.  We had several goals; social time where members truly mixed, recognizing our Named Branch Gift Honorees and talking about Funds, inclusion, philanthropy, entertainment and the meeting.  We could not have done it without our committee of Danielle Metzinger, Kathy Papst and Gloria Yost as well as reservations by Dawn Arnone Boyd, Angela Scarlett, Sharon Norris, Deborah Dunn and e-blasts by Shari Beck.  We thoroughly enjoyed our working meetings and getting to know more of you.

To facilitate our members “mixing it up” at the Holiday Party, an AAUW game was introduced.  We discovered our members are really competitive as 25 members were able to obtain signatures from 20 others who met one of the criteria.  We learned who has lived out of the country for more than a year (Sue Bordner, Kathy Papst, Marilyn Orrick, Hedda Smithson, Jane Cooley, and Anne Rhodes), who speaks another language (Donna Holmes, Vivian Counts, and Hedda Smithson), who owns a copy of Vanishing Victorians (Sandi Schoenman, Ruth Ann Hines, Linda Sparks, and Kathy Asay), and much more.   Carol Hayes, the first to finish, was the main prize winner.  Everyone had a good time, 12 ladies took home prizes and hopefully many talked to new people in the process.

Fortunately all four of our honorees were able to attend!  Kathleen Asay, Marilyn Orrick, Hedda Smithson and Gloria Yost combined have more than 150 years of active membership.  Hearing about and listening to the ladies informs us why they are true role models.

We were truly delighted that our CSUS branch leaders were able to attend as well as the new group from Consumnes River College. Entertainment was by American River College music major students led by Professor Susan Hamre.

We partnered with one of our scholarship winners, Christina Ibarra, to collect books for Love-Talk-Read.  We collected 504 books and they are going to 2 great organizations.  The first group is CCHAT, The Children’s Choice for Hearing and Talking.  They provide a unique auditory/oral program whose mission is to teach children who are deaf and hard of hearing to listen and develop spoken language.  The second group is La Familia Counseling Center, Inc.  Serving Sacramento County for more than 40 years their mission is to improve the quality of life for at-risk youth and families of diverse backgrounds by offering multicultural counseling, support and outreach services and programs to help families to overcome adversity, to become empowered and succeed in their lives.

Thank you everyone for a wonderful and successful meeting and event!