PRESIDENT'S LETTER - FEBRUARY, 2011

We started the New Year with a bang after a very successful Diamond and Crystal Charity ball and look forward to continuing our momentum at our General Meeting January 25th at Michael’s on East. We have over 100 reservations so far for our fashion show and fair! It promises to be another sell out event -- Terry Needell has been working overtime with Chico’s and our lovely models that will be showcasing their clothing line.

A new member coffee was hosted by Jan Wallace and we had more than 15 new members attend. What a lovely way to welcome them into our club; we currently have over 352 members with 30 new members joining this year! We have distributed the 2012 Member Directories and will be printing an addendum section to include our new members and the Special Interest Committee Chairs. We expect it to be ready for distribution in the first half of February.

Plans for the ‘Cultural Extravaganza’ are complete and the reservations are posted on our website for the February 29th event. It promises to be another sold out event, so get your reservations in early! Our annual baseball game is being finalized and will be held in March – either the Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees will be the game of choice. Our next General Meeting will be in April at Lakewood Ranch Country Club.

In early February all UPWC members will be receiving an email about our Membership Survey. We are conducting an on-line survey this year and you can click onto the survey from the email you receive. It is being administered by a third party company, so you will remain anonymous in your responses. We encourage you to respond to the survey; the results will be used to help us improve our club, plan for the coming years and to be sure we are giving our members what they want from their Women’s Club experience. So I encourage you to participate and let us know your ideas and thoughts!

We want to welcome our newest members: Susan Zysko and Patrice Kilian (Kenwood Park), Joan McDonald (Whitebridge), Nancy Schoedler (Virginia Water), Kris Pizzi (Wentworth) and Rita Heller (St. James Park).

A special shout-out to Katy Arillaga and her efforts in having University Park Women’s Club activities printed in our local publications. I especially will cherish the photo of Patti Doench showcasing her winning necklace at our Diamond & Crystal Charity ball published in the “University-Palm Lakewood Ledger”.

We are recruiting for the 2012/13 University Park Women’s Club Executive Board and Committee Chairs, so if interested please let Jan Wallace or one of our Board Members know. We are always looking for and welcome new talent to our cause!

Warmest Wishes,

Cheryl Kleiman, President