February 2015 Newsletter

Area 3 Meeting and Amelia Earhart Luncheon

Submitted by Ann Hodgson, Area 3 Director, and Deb Ureel, D12 Amelia Earhart Chair

Denver II was the host club for the Area 3 Meeting this year and decided to combine the Area Meeting with the Amelia Earhart Luncheon. In the past the luncheon has been held in January and the Area Meeting in April like other Areas. At last year’s Area 3 President’s Meeting it was suggested that we should combine the two so members would have only one Saturday to commit to Area meetings. Denver II decided to take on the task of being the first club to do it!

A serendipitous result of combining the meetings was that Sharon Langenbeck, ZI Director and D12 Liaison, participated in our Area meeting. Sharon was an Amelia Earhart Fellow and past Chair of ZI’s Amelia Earhart Committee.   Her main reason for coming to Denver was to present Wings to the 3 Fellows from the University of Colorado who all attended the luncheon.

The meeting was held at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on January 24, 2015. Everyone loved the venue and enjoyed visiting the museum since admission was included.

The Area Meeting started at 10 a.m. and the Luncheon at noon. Governor Marcy O’Toole covered D12 goals for the biennium based on ZI goals and how clubs should be involved. Lieutenant Governor Renné Coppock gave us information on reasons members leave organizations and ideas on engaging and retaining members. Sharon Langenbeck spent half an hour filling us in on ZI activities and plans for the biennium. Denver II Vice President Lois Britton led a group exercise in which each person described club projects she was excited about to others at her table and then the table identified ones that might work as Area projects.

Evaluations filled out at the meeting indicated that this was a winning combination with 97% of respondents approving the combination. Attendees also felt that a shortened Area Meeting was good. A major way the meeting was shortened was by omitting verbal club reports on Service, Advocacy, Membership and Fundraising. About two thirds of the evaluations approved, although some attendees asked that more information be shared from the Presidents’ meeting on what other clubs are doing.

Denver II members on the planning committee were: Lois Britton, Deb Ureel, and Carol Leffler. Denver II President Suzanne Fasing was deeply involved. Carol Johnson handled the registration. Thanks go to all members of Denver II who helped make the event a success.

About Our Amelia Earhart Fellows

The Amelia Earhart Luncheon was a truly inspiring event! The young women we honored are amazing, smart, articulate young women. For those who may not know, Zonta International awards $10,000 fellowships each year to 35 young women world-wide who are pursuing post-graduate work in engineering or aerospace fields. Three of those fellows are pursuing doctorate degrees at the University of Colorado at Boulder and all three told us their stories.

Christine Fanchiang

• BS in Aerospace Engineering from MIT;
• Doctoral program in the Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department at U of C at Boulder with an emphasis in Bioastronautics;
• Her current research focuses on defining an operability index for human-rating space vehicles to better understand the effects of spacecraft design on crew performance.

Juliana Feldhacker

• Graduate student at U of C at Boulder and member of the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR);
• As a SMART scholar through the Department of Defense, she has interned at Air Force Space Command;
• Student intern at NASA’s Langley Research Center;
• Her current project includes working with a team to develop new graduate level curriculum in commercial spaceflight operations at CU.

Holly Borowski

• Graduate of the US Air Force Academy;
• Deputy Mission Manager and an Aircraft Maintenance Officer in the US Air Force;
• Currently working on research on how to compensate for the uncertainty involved with unmanned aircraft.

In addition to hearing from these three gifted and talented young women, we were honored to have in attendance:

Sharon Langenbeck, Ph.D., our featured speaker

• Retired in 2008 after 18 years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where she led a team of 200 mechanical engineers doing design and development of spacecraft, instruments and rovers;
• Worked on spaceflight projects, including the Wide Field/Planetary Camera for the Hubble Space Telescope, Moon Mineralogy Mapper, and Mars Science Laboratory;
• 11 years at the Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Company in structural materials;
• 1978 while pursuing her doctorate degree, awarded the Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship;
• In 1979, Sharon joined Zonta International. In 2014, Sharon was elected to Zonta International/Zonta International Foundation Director for the 2014-2016 biennium. During the 2012-2014 biennium, she was Area Director for her Zonta District. Sharon has held numerous leadership positions in her local Zonta Club during her 34 years of membership.
• In addition, Sharon served as the Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship Committee Chairman from 1992 to 2000 and from 2010 to 2014. She was also a member of the Amelia Earhart Fellowship Committee from 1988 to 1992.

Lucy Stephan, our honored guest

• AE fellow in 1948. Lucy spoke for a few minutes, with humor and insights, and delighted the audience. She also helped present the ZI pins to the fellows.

The Amelia Earhart award provides funding to help fellows invest in state-of-the-art computers to conduct their research, purchase expensive books and resource materials, and participate in specialized studies around the globe.  Amelia Earhart fellows have gone on to become astronauts, aerospace engineers, astronomers, professors, geologists, business owners, heads of companies, and even Secretary of the U.S. Air Force.

FINANCE

Greetings from the finance committee! Mark your calendars for two upcoming fundraisers.

The club’s first wine tasting event, Around the World With 30 Wines, will be held on Saturday March 28 from 5 to 7:30 pm at Saddleback Designs, 2901 Walnut, Denver.   All you wine lovers and your wine loving friends will have a chance to taste and purchase wine. The cost of this event is $25 before March 21 or $30 for late registrations. Please look for more news on this event from the wine tasting committee!

The Finance Committee is beginning planning of the 2015 golf tournament.
15: 15th annual golf tournament on the
15: on the 15th day of June
15: in 2015.

The committee is very excited about the new venue, Red Rocks Country Club, and we hope everyone is too! Please check your email for a copy of the mailing list for save-the-date cards and registration forms. Please review asap and email Carol Leffler with any changes or additions to the mailing list.

We are hoping that we can sign up more (new and precious) players with the new venue, and solicit lots of sponsors since we are now a 501(c)(3).  More news on the golf tournament later, but mark your calendars for both events.

SERVICE

Distribution of Service Funds

Requests for proposals were sent to 11 organizations. Due date is 2/28/15. Service Committee
will meet Tuesday, March 31, at 6 pm, to review and make recommendations. Club members are welcome. Please contact Mary for information. Club members will vote on distribution recommendations at the April meeting.

Empowerment/Mariposa House

Please bring non-perishable grocery items to the meeting for Empowerment’s pantry. If you would like to know when the next event at Mariposa House is scheduled, please contact Deb.

Excelsior Youth Center

On January 8, 2015, the girls at Excelsior played bingo for prizes of chocolate bars and a school supply pouch. The girls especially liked to play blackout bingo. We could have played all night but the staff needed them back in the cottage at 7:30 p.m.. As you can tell, it was a good event. Carla made some amazing brownies to go with those chocolate bars.

On February 4, 2015, the night was filled with decorating a variety of foam and paper Valentines with the girls.  After the fun activity, the girls enjoyed decorating Valentine cookies with different flavors of frosting, sprinkles and conversational candy hearts. Each month, the Excelsior staff will let some of the girls help out with passing out activity supplies and serving the snacks.  In February, Kikki helped Zonta members Suzanne, Carla and Barb.  This is always a treat for us when the girls get to help.  It’s that little bit of “community” that gets established.

Excelsior Gala

The Excelsior Gala is slated for Friday, February 20, 2015. Once again we will sell raffle tickets to benefit Excelsior girls. The prize this year is a trip to New Orleans—including airfare, hotel stay, dinner, and a spa for two.   Tickets are $50 each and three for $100. If you would like to buy tickets and are not attending, please contact Lois.   Seven members have signed up to participate in the gala and to sell tickets. We’ll report on how it went in our next newsletter.

Florence Crittenton School

Beth, Jean and Mary met with Suzanne Banning regarding the Sue Burch Scholarship and the
Baby Bucks Store. Beth will investigate a scholarship to a 2nd year student instead of a 1st year student and advise the club. Jean and Mary also visited the cafeteria, which will be renovated for the new Baby Bucks Store. Ms. Banning was requested to include the Baby Bucks Store in the Flo Crit proposal. Construction has been ongoing, but much progress was noted. The new school (in the old administration building) is scheduled to open this fall.

SafeHouse Denver

JoAnn delivered 45 Welcome Bags this week to SafeHouse for January, February, and March. Please bring sample size items of lotion, shampoo, and conditioner to the meeting. One item we have always had to purchase is dental floss. If you can purchase a few to donate, it would be much appreciated.

Teacher Grants

Grant applications were received from three teachers. Since the club allocated three $500 grants and all applicants were qualified, each of them has received a check for $500 and will speak at an upcoming meeting.

Zonta Service Recognition Awards 2014-2016

The same two categories that applied for the prior awards will apply:
1) service projects that empower women and girls in general to achieve equal rights and
to secure their access to all legal, political, economic, educational, health and professional
resources; and
2) service projects focusing on prevention of the root causes of violence against women
and girls through education.

Deadline: nomination of club service projects (up to 2) must be sent to the District Governor, by email, by December 29, 2015. District may also submit one service project by February 8, 2016. As you may know, our club submitted our Excelsior project for consideration for the prior award in the first category but was not selected at the District level. If you have any ideas about a project and/or would be willing to work on it, please be prepared to discuss at the February meeting.

ADVOCACY

Zonta members recently received a note from Michelle Medal of Zonta Foothills inviting us to the Women’s Legislative Breakfast on Tuesday, February 24^th. Denver Metro Zonta Clubs are among the sponsors of the event being held at the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple on 1370 Grant St. It begins at 7:00 a.m. and costs $20. The link to purchase tickets is http://cwlb.org. Sharon will attend and report back on the keynote address covering the challenges of the aging in Colorado.

Members, including Zonta, of the Women’s Collaborative of Colorado are working on several issues of interest to us. The Women’s Foundation of Colorado Report on Childcare is complete and the entire report can be accessed on their website at www.wfco.org/pages/content/childcare-affordability-research. As we have noted, childcare costs in Colorado are among the highest in the nation and this challenge is being studied on several fronts. Highlights of the report recommendations to date include:

• expanding the Colorado Childcare Assistance Program (CCAP) including increasing reimbursement rates to market and expanded accessibility;
• encouraging local initiatives that work (Summit County program);
• improving federal and state funding including the Childcare Development Block Grant that was approved but not funded;
• increasing tax incentives to businesses to support childcare initiatives;
• expanding tools developed by Executives Partnering in Childcare for businesses large and small;
• streamlining resources available to families and ensuring the community has access to all the information related to these programs.

More information will follow on this very important topic!

Pay equity is another challenge the Collaborative will be working on this year. It is especially important because it seems the Pay Commission will most like sunset and it will take all our efforts to keep the issue at the forefront.

Follow legislative progress through the League of Women Voters of Colorado at www.lwvcolorado.org.   This is an excellent resource for what goes on in our state.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

The committee now includes JoAnn Mattson—who has committed to putting up our newsletter each month! Yaaay, JoAnn! Thanks to Terri who has been doing this for more years than I know! Thanks, too, to Jean who keeps our online calendar up-to-date.

This month, we sent articles to online newsletters about the teachers who received our grants and to YourHub and the U of C campus newspaper and online newsletter about the Amelia Earhart fellows. These articles highlight the award winners and also inform the audience about Zonta.