April Showers Bring May Flowers

      Rainbows always bring smiles, turned heads and pointing fingers, as someone spots the colorful promise of a brighter day across the sky.  May Spring 2010 offer you a bright future, a sunny day and enough rain to make more rainbows. 
    We can celebrate a renewal of our Society as it blooms into a future with technology blazing across the Web site like bluebonnets along the Texas hiways or cherry blossoms throughout Virginia and D.C.
     A new look at http://www.dkg.org/ and a social network, just for members. We are in for some adventures, challenges and excitement. I know you will celebrate with us as we unveil new technology the first week in April.

Meet Challenges, Add International Flare

Working at International Headquarters in Austin, Texas, offers different challenges regularly. No hum drum job with the same ol’ thing! From answering members’ varied questions to interpreting information from the membership database, the Membership Services Administrator will find fresh challenges regularly. Attending state conventions, offering training during regional conferences and supporting programs for international conventions present more opportunities and challenges. You could thrive on this!

In addition to managing the Society’s database, updating information, providing information and using the information, this administrator will also be responsible for the content and day-to-day management of the Society Network. Go To Meeting and its many services for international committees and state organizations also are included in this department. In the morning you could be talking to someone in New Hampshire and in the afternoon it’s a member in Germany. Members will help you grow in the many ways!

Membership and all of its related services are very important aspects of our organization—our purposes are testament to that. How we are able to provide services to our members hinges on many aspects, including our committee structure. As we look at restructuring our committees this summer, the Membership Services Administrator will work with several groups to provide the best service we can. International committees afford a truly international view of our Society. You would love this!

We are looking at using today’s electronic systems and social networks, one-on-one personal connections, chapter programs that appeal to members of all ages and educational levels, training opportunities for chapters and state organizations, and specific membership support requested by state organizations. You could help us advance the Society?

And living in Austin is fun. It’s the capital. It’s a university town. It’s a music festival and special event place. We like the climate, the sunshine, the hill country. You will too!  http://www.austintexas.org/visitors/about_austin/

Working at headquarters allows you to become part of a team supporting our Society’s goals, our mission, our vision. It’s important work and you could do it!

Go to the home page http://www.deltakappagamma.net and download the application information. Submit your application by April 20. The time for you to step forward and step up is now!

How can it add up so fast?

Each year another convention planner discovers the anatomy of a meal price. She selects a reasonably priced meal from the “approved” catering list. (The approved catering list means that the convention center or hotel will let that group serve food at your convention site.) The convention planner feels good that even though prices have risen since the last event and this location is noted for higher prices, she has found a great lunch. “The chicken ala hotel salad is only $25 and includes coffee, tea, rolls, butter and a light dessert,” she smiles. She reports to her committee and they, too, are pleased.

Then the convention registration form must be created. She is asked about tax and gratuity and other fees. She assumes, “Tips are like gratuity. People know that.” She adds the mandatory 22% gratuity/service fee, thinking that she usually tips 20% or less. She frowns when she realizes that the meal price will now be $30.50. She asks and is informed that the state and city taxes are figured on the entire price, including the gratuity/service fee. She multiplies the $30.50 times the 9.26% local taxes. Her total is now $33.32.
Her committee members murmur, “Looks different when you add it all in at once. At the restaurant we just think about the menu price, not after adding dessert, coffee, tax and tips.”
They are now faced with what to charge members for the meal. They are being very frugal and are worried that 32 cents times 2,000 people ($ 640) would mean no decorations for the event if they try to absorb the odd cents. She asks the chapter working on the decorations. They say that creating anything for 200 tables add up, even if they donate all the work and some of the supplies. They cannot "absorb" another $640. Her committee notes that registration costs are usually rounded with no cents for ease of tracking registrations and having a little extra for favors or decorations or assorted other function charges. She sighs.
Her $25 lunch is reasonable, but it will look much different when it appears on the registration form as $34. She asks the editor if she can list the salad, meal, dessert, gratuity/service fee and tax separately. When the laughter ceases and the editor explains that the registration form has several meals listed and must fit on one page, she understands. Now she hopes members do the same.

          FYI: As I signed my credit card receipt for dinner recently, I realized my quick dinner had doubled...soup, appetizer, beverage and tax had taken my $11.95 entre to $22.14 and I still had to add a nice tip!

Our Holidays Differ

From one country to another, from one religion to another, from one person to another ... This holiday season brings out the best in most of us as we try to share our most emotional beliefs. As a Christian, I celebrate the holiday with family traditions from our church heritage. What is interesting to me is that many of my Christian friends don't celebrate in the same way...no toasting, no singing... Just different traditions.

Other friends are not Christian by faith, but they put up with me and I try to honor their beliefs and practices when invited to join in their celebrations. What I do notice is the love and warmth we all seem to share, no matter what our religion or our cultural backgrounds may be.

Imposing my celebrations and beliefs on others is no more natural for me than others forcing their religion or cultural habits on my holiday. It's nice to be in a community of friends who coexist with variations and differences--race, culture, religion, politics... and we still can respect and love one another. May your season of choice be a happy one. May the Chinese Year of the Tiger be fiercely successful for you.

Whole Lot o' Business Goin' On!

We just finished a week with the Constitution Revision Team. Starting at 7:30 or 8 a.m. and working until 11:30 p.m. (or longer in bedroom meetings), we pulled together the input from at least four years for committee structure, two years for Constitution and Standing Rules suggestions/recommendations, and a full history of previous recommendations. Teamwork helped cull duplication. Double checking and much work prior to the meeting helped reorganize items into a planned sequence or placement. The team worked on updating wording, researching history of practices, linking like itesm, and numerous other details.The work will continue as rough drafts are read, re-read and scrutinized by the team, registered parliamentarian Ardith Inman, and the Society's attorney. The Revision Planning Group will meet electronically Dec. 3. (Heidi Chadwick (CA) and I pose by State Orgnization tree at HQ--it has ornaments sent from most of the Society's state organizations.)

The Leadership Development Committee met recently and began planning great presentations for chapter and state organization presidents in Spokane, WA. The Expansion Committee will meet next month. International President Dr. Carolyn Rants, Expansion Committee Chair Mary Lee Makinen, Latin American Representative Mury Palerm-Ferri, and Panama Organizer Jeannette Zuniga are representing the Society for the installation of Panama as our 17th country. The ceremonies will be Friday, Nov. 27, in Panama City, Panama.

Dr. Rants, Linda Eller, Phyllis Hickey and I drove to Houston to attend the Texas Women's Conference and gather additional ideas for topics, speakers, formats, etc. for conventions and conferences. Suzi Orman was among the outstanding speakers we heard. We shared information from the various sessions we attended, and (of course) we bought books! [Then the valet lost my car key and spent an hour trying to find the car and/or key before telling us the real problem! The key arrived the day after I had new keys reprogramed for the car.]

Linda Eller is working with the marketing firm to update our web site design. You will be so excited when it is unveiled early in 2010. The Social Network software and bridges and links and programming are being completed also. (Yes, it has many pieces to complete!) We hope to begin "populating" and testing soon. Be sure to congratulate Linda on her first issue of the NEWS (Nov/Dec).

More than half of our state organizations are taking advantage of the GoToMeeting special pricing. Virginia Pearson is walking state officers and international committee members through the process as requested.

Dr. Rants, Phyllis Hickey and I visited Spokane, WA, to meet with the International Convention Steering Committee and tie down more details for the convention in July 2010. Great ideas and more to come. We plan to have registration, tour and hotel information posted on the web site for everyone in January. Check the home page for how to become a vendor at the convention.

We've sent materials to all chapter and state organization presidents for annual and biennial reports. The ISF Committee will meet electronically Dec. 1.

Answering email and phone calls is a little backed up for me right now, but I'm working my way through them. Still must have convention speaker contracts with numerous details for arrangements and assorted day-to-day business. We are advancing the Society!

Finally Found Photos to Post

Thank you, Birgit! Europe Regional Director Birgit Svensson gives me a special crystal bear during Europe Regional Conference Banquet in Oslo, Norway.

Nebraska President Pat Monson and I enjoy Northwest leadership development for incoming state organization presidents, which was full of sparkles in Portland, OR.