The CA, San Francisco-2 chapter, led by Bri Kapellas and Chris King, is both “high tech” and “high touch”. This group of women – mostly in their 20s and 30s – combine busy lives with the desire to meet together for a common cause.

“As San Francisco is a transient city, making good transitions and passing on the leadership has been crucial to our chapter’s longevity,” Chris King said. “Even more so, we hold participation loosely, if people can only come a couple of times a year. It keeps them engaged if they don’t feel like they have to be at every meeting.”

Because so many people in the city are on the move, the group maintains a large roster of more than 100 members, but about 10 to 20 attend each month. Chris said staying in touch online and allowing members to contribute electronically helps maintain the chapter. She advises other chapters to use technology to their advantage.

“Create a Facebook Group and send out monthly dinner invitations on Eventbrite,” she said. “We have had many new people join because they found us through these venues. The Facebook group keeps people engaged even when they aren’t able to make it to the dinners on a regular basis. Eventbrite allows you to have participants choose what they will bring for dinner (salad, main, wine, etc.). Also, we try not to have the dinner on the same day of the week. If a member has a class or work event on say every Monday, they will never be able to make the dinner if it is always on a Monday. We try to mix it up between Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.”

Sharing the leadership duties also helps, with Bri handling the email list and invitations, and Chris handling reports, donations, hostess signups and most of the Facebook content. Both leaders reply to emails based on their availability.

Throughout its decade of service, this chapter has adapted and changed when needed, keeping it relevant and accessible to as many members as possible. “We are probably one of the younger chapters and definitely tech savvy,” Chris said. At a recent meeting, members were asked if they even owned a checkbook. Only a couple raised their hands. Electronic payment is the norm, proving that giving really does come in many forms.