May 2024 News from Zonta Club of Harrisburg-Hershey

President's Message

Greetings Fellow Zontians and Friends!

How did we wind up in May already? This year flew by so quickly! Actually, the past four years seem to have flown by rather quickly! I wanted to thank each member of the Zonta Club of Harrisburg and Hershey for their continued support, service, and dedication to our club. We had an amazing year (actually an amazing 4 years)!!

Why am I referencing the last 4 years? I have been so humbly honored and privileged to have been the President of the Zonta Club of Harrisburg and Hershey for the last four years. My presidency began with COVID in May of 2020. I remember thinking, how are we going to be able to continue to function as a club and advocate for woman and children while not being able to physically meet in person and physically partake in service and fundraising projects? Having experience and using Zoom for a few years with my Mary Kay business prior to COVID, I naturally thought this would be a solution to get us “through” the shutdown of life. While there was a learning curve at first for many folks with using Zoom, I can honestly say, we are all now pros now with the application!

Prior to my election as the president of the ZCHH, there were over 15 different committees. My goal was to streamline the committees down to about 5 committees with those committees having subcommittees. Each member was asked to serve on at least one committee. Each committee was asked to meet on a monthly basis via Zoom, report on committee updates at our monthly membership meetings, and submit an article to the monthly newsletter. This proved to be quite effective as we seemed to embrace more projects as well as know what was going on in all areas of the club.

A huge undertaking was to create a 501(c)4 for our club allowing for advocacy. This process was very timely and took about 2 years to complete. Many meetings were held, calls made to the IRS, etc! After achieving our 501(c)4, we then had to create bylaws, processes, and procedures including board members, banking, etc. This project was a huge WIN-WIN and I can’t thank Deb, Sue, Alice and Jemry enough for their efforts in achieving this goal!

A few other awesome things during the past four years: we updated the membership application and application process for new members; created a mentor program; created a membership portal on web page; posted on FB; added a donate button to FB; created bios of members; teamed up with like-minded organizations for projects; set up library displays in local libraries; collected needed items for Shalom House, PPH, Diaper Bank, Golden Z projects, etc; boxes of Sunshine; IFP luncheons; awarded scholarships; revamped our grant process to include one or two other non-profits along with our partner grant recipient; personally met with State Representatives and State Senators as well as their staff members to better align our club for advocating; social media campaigns in the spring and fall; organized and executed amazing rallies; participated in other rallies at the State Capitol; Zonta Says No billboards; educational advocacy training meeting; amazing speakers for our membership meetings; No Show Gala fundraiser; tote bag fundraiser; wreath sale fundraiser; Boscov’s Coupon fundraiser; Apple Festival fundraisers (although cancelled the year of COVID); BINGO fundraiser (so fun!); investing $5,000 in a CD; leg work and creation for the 501c4; appeal letter fundraiser; and so much more!!

We also changed our newsletter platform for a more dynamic newsletter. Alice K. worked very diligently to get us to a higher/better platform beginning in the fall of 2023. Hope you are enjoying the newsletters and the new website!

A procedure subcommittee was also created to define and update some older written and non-written “policies.” This committee still has some work to do but has made some headway in defining one or two processes.

A Financial Planning subcommittee was created within the Finance Committee to explore the opportunity to invest excess funds, processes and policies for gifting.

At our May in-person meeting, we will enjoy celebrating the fruits of our labor of this past year. We will award 2 grants to local non-profit organizations and hear from a recipient of the Amelia Earhart Fellowship (PSU student). This celebration is only possible because of the dedication of each member, you! Thank you!

Looking forward to seeing you all at our May in person meeting at the Giant Community Center in Camp Hill. We will be inducting new board members, will have the scholarship winner in attendance with us, will be presenting grant funds to our 2023-2024 partners, and spending casual time catching up with one another.

I am looking forward to seeing each of you at our Membership Meeting on May 9, 2024. Please RSVP to Deb Crum at [email protected] by May 6th.

Again, thank you all for your support and dedication to our club in promoting the empowerment and rights of women throughout the world through service and advocacy.

Cheers, Amy