May, 2008

Dear fellow WFRW Members,

I am so glad to see sunshine out my window as I prepare this letter of the web site. I am ready to feel the warm sunshine on my back as I work in my yard.

I wanted to take this opportunity to report to you on our Spring Board of Directors Meeting held in April in Arlington.

I want to thank all of those who were able to attend even with the weather being nasty. To those of you who could not make it, I want you to know that you were missed.

We had a wonderful presentation by Mary Jane Aurdal at her District Director and President Workshop. It was interesting and well received. Patsy Excell lead a discussion group on the duties of the Treasurer and Juliana McMahan led a group for the Secretaries. These workshops and discussion groups are there to help you make your clubs the best that they can be.

We had a great dinner with a very interesting speaker, Mr. Jerry Stewart. He used history and some very good audio-visual props to make his points about what we can and must do to save our nation. I found it very informative and of great interest. He mentioned that he was not a speaker but a story teller, and what a great story teller he was.

We woke up Saturday morning to snow and cold weather, but we carried on. The Board of Directors had a very full agenda. After the invocation given by Pat Stowe of the West Skagit Club and the Pledge of Allegiance by Americanism Chair and past WFRW President Susan McKee, we went right to work and approved the minutes of our Fall Board Meeting.

Following this we had the reports from the officers of the WFRW. Eileen Sobjack, 1st Vice President in charge of programs spoke of preparing brief descriptions of the officers’ jobs for the nominating committee. She also reminded us that we need a Convention Chair and that she hoped all clubs were busy in helping with campaigns. Mary Jane Aurdal, 2nd Vice President and District Director Coordinator gave her report about the activities many of the clubs are doing. Many of you are VERY busy! And, of course, I gave my report.

Under new business we then had the report from our Audit Committee Chair Patsy Excell. She reported that the committee had inspected the books for 2007 and that the books balance with the bank. We expect the Audit Committee's recommendations will be implemented. As Budget Committee chair as well, Patsy reported on the budget. 

As Catherine Torkelson had resigned, we then held an election for WFRW Treasurer. Please join me in thanking Catherine for her service to the WFRW and in congratulating Patsy Excell on her election.

Another important item on the agenda was election of the Nominating Committee. This committee will be gathering names for a slate of officers to lead the Federation for 2009-2010. Those elected were:

• Eastern District: Vangee Harrison

• King District: Susan McKee, who was then elected Chair by the committee
• North Central District: Sue Slaugenhaupt
• North Puget Sound District: Billye Brooks-Sebastiani
• Northwest District: Jean Quinlivan
• South Puget Sound District: Dani Anderson

We have a great number of very qualified Republican women in our Federation.  I know that the Nominating Committee will do a fantastic job of finding those who are willing and able to take on the challenges of leading this great Federation.

We had a wonderful presentation by Mary Jane Aurdal on re-districting. We now have 11 WFRW Districts instead of 9, which will be good for the clubs and the District Directors. We have been trying to do this for some time and it was neat to see it get done.

We did three by-law changes. We changed Article lV to reflect the dues change voted on last fall at the NFRW Convention. We also voted to change Article VIII on our quorum and to allow voting between meetings by mail, phone, fax or e-mail. 

The Board passed four resolutions. We marked the passing of three important Washington Republicans by honoring former Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn, former Congressman Jack Metcalf, and Senator Ellen Craswell, who had been our party's nominee for governor in 1996. The fourth resolution was the WFRW's Endorsement of Senator John McCain for President of the United States.

Ladies, please put November 7 & 8 on your calendar. This is the date of our Fall meeting of the Board of Directors and the Biennial WFRW Convention. It is very important that as many as can attend this meeting as this is where you will be voting in our leaders for the next two years. I look forward to seeing all of you there. The Board's first choice for a meeting location is Yakima -- and WFRW 1st Vice President Eileen Sobjack has already started her phone calls to make arrangements. You will be receiving further details as the time nears.

Mary Jane, 2nd Congressional District Co-Chair for McCain, then spoke to us in support of John McCain. She reminded all of us of the many reasons we should be supporting Senator McCain.

We concluded our meeting with a great lunch and a very interesting speaker. It was our very own Juliana McMahan. She did an outstanding job of speaking to us on why we should be Republicans.

Ladies, I again, want to thank each and every one of you for all the wonderful things you do as members of this Federation. I believe hat we have a very talented women within our Federation. I believe, with all my heart, this is one of the most important elections that we will ever vote in. We need to encourage our family, friends and neighbors to take the opportunity to study and then cast their vote. This political process that we have is one of the things the founders of this great nation died for and that later wars have been fought for. I believe that each one of us has a duty to vote and it is something that we must not take as a matter of course.

                                                                                                  With all best wishes,