I have tried for hours to write this column, and I keep coming back to my true feelings: "holy cow what a mess this past month has been!" ALL of our lives have been turned upside down and it feels like we are being shaken by our ankles by some big bad boogeyman. Changes are coming at us so fast, it's hard to keep up. But, I take a deep breath and say to myself .... Stay Calm, We are Soroptimist! We will get through this crisis together, because together we are unbeatable. We must spend this time looking after and supporting each other. It is vitally important that we all stay safe, socially isolate, and save lives. Reach out to your members to make sure everyone is coping. We all handle stress differently. Check in on each other and share your toilet paper stock pile!
The GWR Board of Directors is in constant contact with each other and have taken a number of steps to mitigate our risk of event cancellations, membership retention, and reviewing the financial and otherwise health of the region. We are here to support our members, so we have proposed some financial help for the upcoming dues collection for next year. See the adjacent column for more details. We are watching the recommendations of the CDC and SIA very closely. Currently, the SIA Convention is still scheduled to occur in July. SIA Board is meeting next week, so this may change. I will keep you posted. I very much want to get together with Soroptimist's from around the world, but only if it is safe to do so. We have not canceled or postponed the Leadership Training Retreat in August, or the October Fall Meetings. We are optimistic we will have come out on the other side of this pandemic by then and we can get together to celebrate our accomplishments.
Stay connected with us and join our weekly ZOOM meetings. I really look forward to seeing and talking with all of you that can attend. You can get the contact information by clicking on the "Weekly GWR Zoom meeting" link in the adjacent column.
"See" you soon!
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