GFWC Women's Club of Bowling Green, Founded 1920
“Not for Self, But for Others”

Officer Duties

Duties of the President

The president sets the Club’s tone and agenda.

Club Meetings and Executive Board Meetings

  • Conduct meetings of the Club and Board of Directors
  • Basic knowledge of parliamentary procedure
  • Calls meetings to order and determines if quorum is present
  • Acknowledge members when wishing to speak
  • Put to a vote all questions that come before the Club (or Board)
  • Answer relevant questions
  • Abstain from voting unless it is a ballot or to settle a tie
  • Adjourns the meeting
  • Prepares report for Annual Meeting

GFWC/OFWC Responsibilities

  • Communicate promptly and effectively
  • Attend as many district, State Federation, Region and GFWC meetings as possible and encourage other members to do the same
  • Establish and maintain a relationship with district presidents/directors and State Federation president
  • Share GFWC national and State Federation materials with members
  • Notify GFWCV and State Federation of new club officers
  • Ensure club reports and award entries meet criteria and deadlines
  • Forward club dues on time

Other Responsibilities

  • Represent the club in community organizations and meetings
  • Advance programs that will benefit members
  • Promote membership

 

Duties of the First Vice President

  • Preside over meetings when the President cannot attend
  • Serve on the membership committee
  • Attend all Board and General meetings
  • Be in charge of the donations at the meetings; gather items at the end of the meeting and see that they are taken and delivered to the charity
  • Assist the President as requested to aid in the parliamentary processes

 

Duties of the Second Vice President(s)

  • Assumes the duties of the President in the absence of the President and Vice President
  • Serves as chairperson of the Program Committee
  • Arranges for appropriate programs for the year in the Club and introduces speakers
  • Submits the program schedule to the Program Book Editor by August 1st for inclusion in the Program Book
  • Attend all Board and Membership meetings
  • Perform all other duties as may be required

 

Duties of the Recording Secretary

  • Attend both Board and Regular Club meetings
  • Take notes and compose minutes for both Board and Club meetings
  • Email minutes to Board Members
  • Keep files of all minutes
  • Keep files of correspondence and cards received by the Club

 

Duties and Responsibilities of the Treasurer

  • Collect money from members for dues, events such as spring breakfast or boutique lunches and tickets
  • In October, prepare a report for OFWC listing the names and contact information of all members. This report is completed on Excel and submitted electronically and on paper along with our OFWC/GFWC dues.
  • Write checks for bills, reimbursements, OFWC/GFWC dues, donations, etc. Keep copies of checks and bills
  • Keep track of income and expenditures by category, for example, dues, fundraisers, funds designated for Canine Companions or Heifer International
  • Confer with the Board each January regarding budget priorities for the fiscal year
  • Send donation to the Library in honor of any active member who dies (currently
    $25)
  • Monitor the Club’s account with the Toledo Community Foundation. Send donations to them from members; Process payment of our scholarships from the Foundation and any other donations that are to come from the Foundation such as that for Children’s Resource Center books; Provide quarterly balance updates to the Board
  • Balance the checkbook at least once a month
  • Prepare a monthly written report for the Board of Directors and an oral report to the full membership at the monthly meetings
  • Provide start-up cash for fundraising events
  • Provide cash for our monthly student musicians
  • Provide a year-end budget report for the CPA who prepares the Club’s federal income tax report
  • Send out dues reminder form and collate lists of volunteers for each project. Distribute those lists to the Board member responsible for the area

Committee Duties

Art Chair / Committee Duties

 

The Arts committee shall foster and support activities and projects related to the arts. The committee shall identify ways in which members can engage in the community service projects and shall coordinate membership participation in these projects.

Art is essential to the quality of life! It is designed to inspire clubwomen to engage the creative ambiance within their lives. It can include programs and projects that include music, dance, drama, theatre, and other arts-related areas, both traditional and innovative.

The key job of the art chairperson is to promote events which create a reason for clubwomen to gather outside the regular meetings which then creates an opportunity to better know each other. This also creates an environment to have discussions and brainstorm ideas to expand the outreach of the art committee.

Current examples:

  • Dinner then a local theatre production
  • Create holiday cards for distribution to the local nursing homes

Other examples:

  • Visit galleries, exhibits or music festivals
  • Volunteer as a docent at the local historical landmark or museum
  • Promote local stage, screen, TV and video festivals in the area
  • Use an artistic event to raise funds to sponsor local community art programs
  • Donate tickets for others to attend cultural events
  • Collect musical instruments to donate to school and local youth bands
  • Establish and support artists-in-residence programs and artist speakers

Every “chairperson” within the Women’s Club of Bowling Green needs the members of the club to participate in events to make them successful. All ideas for new ways to promote the volunteer spirit are welcome. Ideas for projects to give back to the community are always welcome

Special GFWC Ohio Art Contests:

  • Collage of Time – Women through Time
  • Photography – The world / Volunteers in action / A year in pictures

 

Education Committee

Women’s Club of Bowling Green Education Committee:

ESO

ESO (Epsilon Sigma Omicron) is a structured reading program open to all members – Join for $3 per each administration (which means 2 years). Full membership is achieved when 16 books are read divided among the six
GFWC Community Service Programs. Readers submit a brief report, citation, and statement of what the material is about and the reader’s personal opinion.

Annual Writing Contest

This has been an activity for over 35 years!! The contest includes grades 1-12 in all BG schools. There are 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners in prose and poetry for each grade level. Members act as judges, working in pairs. Every participant receives a certificate of participation and all original writings are returned to the entrant. An evening celebration is held for the 1st place winners. Winners receive a certificate and a small monetary gift. Members provide treats. Two bound copies of the first place winners are presented to the library. One is available for circulation in the Wood County Library’s Children’s Place and one copy is held as our archives for this activity.

Distribution of materials to schools is done in January. Entries are collected in March. Judges return materials in early April and a reception is held at the end of April.

Exceptional entries can be forwarded to Ohio’s State Writing contests Chairperson (by February 1st) for state level judging and may then be forwarded as the state’s entry, to the National GFWC Writing Contest Chair (by April 1st).

 

Scholarships

Two $1000 High School Scholarships are presented each spring to deserving senior girls at Bowling Green High School. The Women’s Club Education Committee chair makes the presentation. One Scholarship honors Beryl Parrish and the other Joan Gordon, both very active, long-time members who are now deceased.

 

Garden Group

GFWC Women’s Club of Bowling Green Garden Group

This is a special interest group of the GFWC Women’s Club of Bowling Green. You must be a club ember to join the Garden Group. There are dues for this group of an additional $17.00 per year to be paid to the Garden Group plus a $1.00 per year fee to the Garden Group on your birthday month. By paying the $17.00 dues you become also a member of the Ohio Association of Garden Clubs, (annual convention and 2 region meetings per year) and Wood County Garden Clubs (2 meetings per year – October and May).

The club has three officers. President, Vice President and Secretary-Treasurer.

At each meeting reports are given on birds, recycling, garden hints, horticulture, and 5 minutes on a different flower each month. At most meetings there is often a speaker or a tour of a garden or greenhouse.

Each month (except January, February and August) the Garden Group meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 7:00 PM. Members of the club do help at the Wood County Fair Flower Show held the first week of August.

Co-Presidents:        Jo Sipes and Evelyn Bachman

Vice President:         Linda Kuhn

Treasurer:                 Lynette Rosebrook

Secretary:                  Linda Hamilton

 

Historian Duties

GFWC Women’s Club of Bowling Green Historian Duties:

  • Clip newspaper articles and pictures of club meetings or activities
  • Collect district and state award certificates
  • Collect Board of Directors and General Club meeting minutes
  • Collect other documentation that is relevant to the club

Documentation of the Women’s Club history is on record at the Center for Archival Collections, which is on the 5th floor of Jerome Library at Bowling Green State University

Please view additional information about the GFWC Women’s History and Resource Center by visiting www.GFWC.org/WHRC. This resource center collects, preserves, interprets, and promotes the history of GFWC and women volunteers.

 

Inspiration

The job calls for securing club membners to present inspiration reading for the monthly meetings (September, October, November, December, February, March, April and May). The list of members willing to present an inspiration must be done by the end of June for the program book.

Club member must be called to be reminded that her month is coming up to present.

Chair person is to attend board meetings and general meetings.

 

Linus Project

Chairperson organizes getting together to make blankets for the project.

Chairperson is to attend board meetings and general meetings.

 

Literature Group

GFWC Women’s Club of Bowling Green Literature Group Duties

This is a special interest group of the Women’s Club of Bowling Green. You must be a member of the Women’s Club to join. Kay Heffernan is the current Chairperson.

The group meets the fourth Wednesday of the month from September until April at 1:30 PM in the homes of members, and at 12:00 noon for lunch at a restaurant in December and April. The group does not meet in January. At regular meetings, the hostess provides dessert and coffee and one of the members reviews a book. Twice a year all members read the same book and someone leads the discussion instead of reviewing a book. The group usually all read the Community Reads book in October.

Occasionally the group will present a program for the regular meeting of the Women’s Club. In the past a reader’s theatre was presented and prior to that a discussion of one of the books read by the entire group was presented. The members seemed to enjoy the presentations.

The Literature Group has been a part of the Women’s Club since the early 1990s and Beryl Parrish was the Chairperson when Kay originally joined in 1994.

 

Long Range Planning Committee Duties

The committee is composed of 5 or 6 club members. The Chairperson makes sure the committee meets at least every other month. There is a written long range plan. Committee members should review the plan on a yearly basis to make sure the club is working on the goals and keep developing future goals.

Chairperson is to attend board meetings and general meetings.

 

Membership Committee Duties

Membership Goals:

  1. Increase membership by at least 10 new members each year for 5 years.
  2. Retain all current members
  3. Reach a membership of 107 members (original membership)
  4. Celebrate the Club’s 100th year anniversary in 2020 (make plans).

Action Plan:

  1. Encourage members to invite friends to join
  2. Make new members feel special (other suggestions how?)
  3. Encourage members to be friendly and get to know each other
  4. Educate members about the GFWC and GFWC/Ohio Federation of Women’s Clubs
  5. Recognize members for their contributions to the Club
  6. Promote enthusiastic participation of club activities
  7. Give special attention to the current membership to help retain members

Distribution of Responsibilities

  1. Maintain list of members and new members and their sponsors
  2. Maintain list of Star Recruiters and mail to OFWC State President
  3. Maintain detailed list of prospects
  4. Mail membership info to OFWC quarterly
  5. Match up Special Sisters with new members
  6. Plan events for new members and Special Sisters
  7. Attend Northwest District meetings
  8. Help coordinate Annual Fall Dinner / Membership Drive
  9. Other misc. activities

 

Newsletter Duties

Editor of the newsletter will prepare a newsletter for the months of August through June. Members are to contribute news items to the editor.

Chairperson is to attend board meetings and general meetings

 

Program Book Duties

The program book is prepared during the summer after all the dues are collected so that the book editor will have the current membership information. The second Vice President (s) is to see that the program book chairperson receives the general meeting programs for the new club year. The Garden Group chairperson is to submit the schedule of future meetings. The Literature Group chairperson is to submit the schedule of future meetings.

The program book should be ready to be handed out to members at the September kickoff meeting.

Chairperson is to attend board meetings and general meetings.

 

Publicity Duties

The Chairperson is to write articles and submit to the Sentinel-Tribune announcing upcoming meetings and after meetings summaries.

The chairperson is also to see that publicity is sought for special events such as the Boutique fundraiser, other special fundraising events, Garden Group meetings, and club projects. Much of the information needed for the articles can be obtained from the minutes.

Chairperson is to attend board meetings and general meetings.

 

Social Committee Duties

Purpose:

To provide refreshments / table decorations at each month’s Women’s Club meeting (with the exception of the May meeting when only table decorations are needed).

Obtained:

Each year, when members either join or continue their membership, they fill out a form for activities in which they are interested. The Social Committee is one of those activities. Over the summer, names are sent to the Social Committee Chairperson, and prior to the publication of the Members’ Program Book, women on the sign up list are contacted and entered into the appropriate month. Two co-chairs and two committee members per month are needed.

Verified:

At least a week before the next monthly meeting, the Social Committee Chairperson gives a courtesy call to remind the monthly co-chairs that they will be serving the following month and lets them know who their committee members are. Any questions they have can be answered at that time. This is simply a courtesy because all of the women’s names are in the Program Book listed month by month.

 

Sunshine Duties

The Chairperson will send cards to members for get well, sympathy, thinking of you, etc. Club members will tell the chairperson who needs to receive a card.

Chairperson is to attend board meetings and general meetings.