Home∣Articles by: SMayuga

Author: SMayuga

Shot@Life and GFWC

Shot@Life truly enjoyed the 2015 GFWC Annual Convention which took place from June 12-15 in Memphis, Tennessee. We can’t believe that it has already been a month!

There is a lot to be learned from the inspiring group of amazing women that helped create kindergartens and public libraries in the United States. Today they are as active as ever helping to provide children worldwide with a chance a Shot@Life.

The convention was a lot of fun – from dancing in blue suede shoes at the Shot@Life Awards Banquet to sipping lime green cocktails at the GFWC Social Hour. We had a lot of fun and we learned a lot too! Therefore, I thought to share some of the content of the event with you!

We were fortunate to host many activities at the event including the following:

Champion Building Workshops: Click here to view the presentations and notes from the two workshops that we hosted on June 13.
Awards Banquet: Click here to view the slideshow (of pictures of GFWC women in action) that was displayed at the event.
Post-event photos: To view a slideshow from the photos taken from the Awards Banquet with our Elvis Tribute Singer, click here.
Awards Winners: Shot@Life recognizes and awards GFWC women for their fundraising efforts. Click here for the September 2014 – September 2015 list of award winners as of June 1. We are making it easier to win in 2016! Click here to learn about the new 2015-2016 Lifesaver Award program with GFWC.

Shot@Life would like to extend extra special thanks to the GFWC Champions of Shot@Life and to all of those who participated in the 2014-2015 Awards Program. We truly appreciate your efforts!

If you would like to learn more about how you can fundraise for Shot@Life, please contact as at info@shot@life.org or visit www.shotatlife.org.

We look forward to having even more fun next year at the 2016 GFWC Annual Convention in Baltimore. I am already planning my outfit for the lime green fashion show!

With best wishes,
Alan Kissick

Invite Your Friends to LIKE GFWC’s Facebook Page!

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

Clubwomen are always there to help, so let’s help spread the word about our organization! An easy (and free) way to spread the word is through social media. Use the power of Facebook to share our story!

GFWC’s Facebook page hit 5,000 LIKES last week. Let’s double that by Convention in Memphis (June 12-15)!

How do I ask people to “LIKE” our page?

Here are a few easy steps.

1 – Go to the GFWC Facebook Page (or any group page that you have already “liked”). And see the highlighted area that says “Invite friends to like this page.”

2 – Click on the “invite friends” and a pop up will appear with a list of your friends.

3- Click on the “INVITE” tab and you are finished! You can select the friends on your list that are GFWC members, or people that you know support your club and all that you do. They will receive a notice in their notification “world” that you invited them to like a page. You will also be able to see which of your friend have already “liked” the page.

Share your love of GFWC with all of your friends!

Welcome to the New GFWC.org!

Do not adjust your eyes. You’re not dreaming. Welcome to the new GFWC website!

More than just making things bigger and brighter, we wanted this new site to be a user-friendly experience that contains all the useful information clubs and members expect from GFWC. It was important for to address the needs of our members in building this new site, while appealing to visitors who are just stumbling upon GFWC for the first time. Gone are the occasional labyrinthine pages and less-than-stellar search function. Some great new additions include, this blog, featured members, a GFWC News section, video content, and more.

This site may have just launched, but it’s important to know that we’re far from done. No website is ever 100% complete, and we are determined to make sure GFWC.org continues to be a valuable resource and informational platform.

We would not have this beautiful new site to show you without a lot of help along the way. This project began in earnest in November 2013, but the idea for a new website goes back years further. As we’ve progressed, we’ve had clubwomen, staff, the Executive Committee and outside web developers offer their critique, insight and suggestions to make sure we got this right. The site itself could not exist without the great work of the team from American Technology Services, which has been a great partner every step of the way in the design, development and launch of the site.

So here it is. The new GFWC.org. There’s a lot to get used to, so take your time. Look around. Explore. This is GFWC’s new home on the web. It’s your home too.

Advocacy and GFWC

By Becky Weber, GFWC Legislation and Public Policy Chairman

GFWC Friends this is a first for me.

I’ve been asked to write a blog for our NEW GFWC website! As GFWC Legislation/Public Policy chairman, I hope I can pass on my love and enthusiasm for legislation. I know most of you know about our rich history in advocating and legislation and it is my hope that we as an organization get back to our roots.

GFWC has given us the absolute easiest tool there is to help in our advocacy efforts. The LEGISLATIVE ACTION CENTER is right at our fingertips. Once you sign up for the LAC, whenever there is a current national and legislative issue important to GFWC, we are alerted and can take action immediately. With just a few clicks of the computer mouse we can contact our legislators, the Vice President and even the President! We can also research current legislation and read about GFWC’s stance on national issues.

One of GFWC’s greatest strengths is networking. So I’m asking all of you to contact me with any national legislation questions and information via email: mweber@mtco.com. Working together, we can get GFWC back to our advocacy and legislative roots!

If you haven’t already done so, sign up for the Legislative Action Center by clicking the image below and begin exploring this powerful and easy to use advocacy tool.

How Are We Communicating?

By Wendy Carriker, Communications and Public Relations Chairman

We know GFWC members are on social media, and making their presence known through various platforms. We can do more. Let’s take a moment and look at who we are reaching, who we want to reach, and all the questions that revolve around that engagement.

Without thinking about these things in advance, how do we make the most of our newsletter articles, Facebook posts, press releases, and even our tweets?

In this fast-paced world, research shows that the most effective posts, no matter the medium, are short and sweet. With social media, verbs, and action words get more attention than nouns in most cases. Think about what catches your own interest.

Our members want to learn. They want to learn about the issues we are engaged in. They want to learn how to better their communities, and in turn, our nation. Write with importance and relevance.

There is a very real aspect in social media of competing for attention. You have to cut through the chatter to be heard. How often should you post or tweet for the most attention? While that depends on your level of engagement on Facebook, Twitter, etc., you can count the lifespan of a post or tweet being two to three hours. In Facebook’s case, let your posts breathe. Schedule them using one of the many social media schedulers if at all possible (HootSuite or Buffer, for example). Otherwise one to two posts a day should give you the most exposure for your time. Twitter is a slightly different animal. You may tweet much more regularly by engaging and re-tweeting other users on a certain topic, but when providing information, seeing a succession of tweets from one user in your feed can be annoying. Some members only look at social media during lunch breaks, or in the evenings, while others may be online all day. So when you post is also important.

Again, keep your posts short and sweet. While Twitter allows for 140 characters, usually 100 characters can get more attention. Less is always more. And to get even more attention, ask people to follow, share, re-tweet, or to re-post. This happens naturally if your message is of interest. Post photos when possible. It’s true-a picture is worth a thousand words.

Use your local newspaper whenever possible, and remember to put GFWC in front of your club’s name. That connects us all, and makes our organization searchable in Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc. Many people still think that women’s clubs are social clubs. Pictures change that perception. Pictures also show our impact and makes your story newsworthy.

Lastly, share! Share the good news, share other clubs posts and stories. It could lead to fresh new ideas, or even a partnership on a great new project!