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Western Society for Physical Education of College Women |
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Spring, 2003 |
Hello, all of you wonderful Society women. Here I sit at my trustworthy MAC computer poised and ready to offer you my first broad-based communication as your President. Looking back at several of the most recent presidential messages, most began with a statement about the geographical context in which the leader was writing. Not wanting to break with what seems to be a popular tradition, I too will share of bit of my context with you. The weather outside in Southern California is sunny and in the high 70's and has been so for several days. Yes, we are seemingly blessed in this region, at least on the weather front, although I do miss the more obvious change of seasons experienced while living in colder climates--along with the classic winter coats and scarves, the diversity of boots, and the long evenings in front of a fireplace. I did, however, get a little taste of cooler possibilities at the Oregon conference. And as always, it was great seeing all of you, many of whom I only see once a year, yet consider my good friends. For those who were unable to attend this past year, you missed a terrific event, and we certainly missed you. As expected, the 2002 conference, "Making a Difference" was a huge success, and I offer hearty congratulations to Sandy Cottle on a job well done as President and as overseer of the conference. I would also like to congratulate the 2001-02 Board and Planning Committee members, in particular, Nancy Zeiszler, Program Chair, and Marilyn Mowatt and Sally Ayer, Conference Managers. These individuals set the stage for a conference we are not likely to forget--sessions featuring interesting speakers, lively discussion and insightful thoughts, great social events, and lots of serious strategic planning, all in a beautiful location. Cheers to all of you!!! I would also like to thank the members of the 2002-03 Board members who are working closely with me to make this a great year for the Society. With this team of powerful women offering me their support, we are surely destined to be successful in achieving our goals. As most of you know, Strategic Planning for the future of Western Society has been at a high pitch for the past two years, and at the November conference with Lynn Gangone's capable facilitation we made some difficult decisions. Of course, one of the major continuing concerns is the loss of active members. Additionally, there is a felt need among many members that revisioning of the Society may be required in order to survive in the 21st century. In fact, before we left the conference the new Board met formally several times to discuss how to proceed with the insights we had gathered from working with Lynn and from communicating openly and honestly with each other. As a result of our discussions, we developed two focus groups, each composed of 9-10 Board members: one focusing on membership-building strategies, and the other on revisioning possibilities. The membership team, in particular Gloria Solomon, has been working on a new, trendier brochure for distribution in the near future. Other group members have been busy trying to cultivate new members via conference attendance and word of mouth. I commend them on this important work, which is so essential to our current and future organizational health. In dealing with membership issues, however, we all have a significant role to play. I therefore implore each of you, particularly those who are still working in professional settings, to encourage new female faculty to join and become active in Western Society. Encouraging graduate students membership is important too; however, as we know from experience, students often come and go with the whims of the job market, so we really need to focus our energies on recruiting faculty, coaches, and administrators to our ranks. As part of strategic planning a few years back, Gail Evans, well known for her clever ideas, proposed that we develop a Presidential Scholarship Fund to help defray some conference costs for new active members; indeed, we did. This fund has grown in size over the past few years due to the donations of many generous women. In fact, our Honorary and Emeritae members were busy at the 2002 conference raising and contributing donations for this fund, which now holds $550. If you know someone who is eligible for some of these monies, please encourage her to apply for the scholarship, or you can apply for her, by completing the application in this newsletter and sending it to me (see application guidelines immediately following this letter). Moreover, those of you who feel able to make donations to the fund will be doing a good thing for women, and hopefully the organization should those women choose to sustain their membership over the years. Despite the dark side associated with membership losses, each year shines a bright light on the Society as well; this year is no different. That is, we have already gained four new members in early 2003. They are Jennifer Altman, Diane Higgs, Tina Tamura, and Jessie Skenderian, all graduate students in various Kinesiology subdisciplines at CSULB. I am sure you will find them a bright, energetic group, and definitely "keepers" for the long term. Now, while the membership team has been busy doing their work, the revisioning team has also been active. In fact in January, under the leadership of Gail Evans, the team began communicating regarding potential revisioning/restructuring possibilities. One of the messages that came through loud and clear at the 2003 conference was the importance of regular communication among members. This is particularly important in an organization such as ours that meets only once per year. This revisioning task force has been tossing around a few ideas, among them an organizational name change, a change in the governance structure of the Society, inviting 2-3 young scholars, as well as other top-notch professionals, such as coaches and physical activity specialists, to present their work and strategies for success at our yearly conference. We have also discussed hiring a marketing specialist at some point in the future. Although we are only in the initial stages of discussion, the dialogue continues and soon will be opened up to other Board members and the entire membership. I, therefore, encourage each of you to become a member of the Society's Listserve. For the 2003 Conference, which occurs November 20-23, we return to one of our favorite spots--Asilomar. The theme is "Women on Women: Claiming Power, Space, and Community in the 21st Century." This theme clearly emphasizes the woman-centeredness that has been the hallmark of the Society and a value that consistently emerged as important from our Strategic Planning sessions. We also felt this theme particularly appropriate considering recent challenges to Title IX and the fact that all but two all-women professional kinesiology-related organizations have vanished from the scene (i.e., Western Society and SAWPASH). This year's conference will be brought to you by two of my favorite people, Alison Wrynn our Program Planner and Kim Machan, Conference Manager, as well as several other talented and creative women, that is, Rita Liberti, Ann Fran Maliszewski, Maureen Smith, and Laura Chase, a new faculty member from Pomona, who will become a new member this year. The planning team will be helped by numerous CSULB graduate students, one of whom attended this past year's conference and received the Educational Equity award--Nicole Martinez. After meeting with these women in early January, I have no doubts that we are in for a treat in November. I certainly hope you will express your support for the Society by attending the conference. If you have not attended a conference recently, this is the year to revisit your Societal roots. I can promise you the experience will be well worth your time. While the details of the upcoming conference will unfold as the year moves on, I will give you some highlights now. We will kickoff the conference on Thursday with the traditional golf experience, followed in the evening with an opening keynote presentation by Dr. Patricia Vertinsky, a renown sport historian; our Friday morning keynoter will be Dr. Mary Jo Kane, Director of the Tucker Institute for Girls and Women's Sports at the University of Minnesota and well known sport sociologist. Both of these women will discuss current sociocultural issues relevant to women in physical activity and sport (e.g., challenges to Title IX). Moreover, in attempting to address the lessons we learned from strategic planning, we have taken into account the expressed values of interdisciplinarity and intergenerational among members. For example, we will have a Conference Symposium addressing the theme of "Empowering the Female Body" in which members from diverse subdisciplines (e.g., sport psychology, biomechanics, exercise physiology, sport management, sport studies) will present their perspectives, considering both empowerment and disempowerment angles. In addressing the value of an intergenerational approach, we have designed a session in which former and current elite athletes will talk about their experiences in sport. Additionally, there will be the traditional scholarly session(s) in which members present their current research and creative work, as well as several high spirited socials tended by the funloving Kim Machan and Beez Schell; and last but not least, Dixie Grimmett will honor us with her presence and words of wisdom at the Saturday night banquet. You certainly do not want to miss any of these exciting activities! In closing, I wish you a productive and enjoyable year and look forward to seeing you in November. If you cannot attend the conference, your support of the Society via sustaining or reestablishing your membership is most appreciated. Jackie Hudson reminded me this past November that when she and I joined the Society, both of us in 1994, we had a long chat at the Saturday night banquet--our first of many. She tells me that I said the following to her: "Jackie, I think this is an organization in which we could grow old together." I was struck by that recollection. As I stated in my Presidential acceptance speech, I am not a conference aficionada. That I would make such a strong statement about Western Society--at my first conference with such limited exposure--is reflective of what I believe to be the valuable essence of this organization--most predominantly, that the women who comprise the group nurture and celebrate the female spirit, as well as the mind and body. At the time, I surely must have intuited that I was among kindred souls. I trust that each of you will play a part, and mind you, there are no small parts to be played, in making our Society as robust as it was in earlier days. It is through regaining our vitality and prominence that we will enhance women's ability to claim power, space, and community in the 21st century. Although we clearly have a "tough road to hoe" in attaining our goal of revitalization, I am convinced that goal attainment is possible--that is, if we care enough and if we work together. I thank you for the opportunity to test my leadership skills during these challenging times; please know that I am doing my best to rise to the occasion!! Best regards, Your President, Sharon R. Guthrie |
Fall, 2002 |
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Spring, 2002 |
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Fall, 2001 |
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Spring, 2001 |
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