Laying the Foundations for Growth
Last year, Dining for Women announced its 2020 Vision, with plans to grow our organization to 20,000 members by the year 2020. This is indeed a bold goal, and one that we believe is achievable over the five-year period. Our focus this year is on laying the foundations for our future growth, and we are off to a great start! I want to tell you about an important initiative that has recently been under way.
One of the hallmarks of DFW’s model is that we rely heavily on volunteers, and the pinnacle of this volunteer tree is our Regional Leaders. Early on, DFW established a structure that divided the U.S. into eight regions, each managed by a volunteer Regional Leader. We know that we want to keep this regional structure in place. However, we also recognize the need for some improvements that will allow us to better serve our chapters and membership, promote and manage future growth, and make the workload of our volunteers more manageable. For this reason, our Regional Leader Team took on the task of developing a plan to reorganize our regions.
This plan includes increasing the number of regions from eight to 12 and moving certain states into more geographically and culturally appropriate regions. The new regions will be Carolinas (NC and SC), Florida (FL), Rocky Mountains (CO, MT, WY), and Texokana (KS, OK, TX).
Creating more manageable regions will help maintain the personal and grassroots nature that you know and love about DFW. Leslye Heilig, Co-Leader of the Northeast region says, “In order to accommodate for the growth expected with the 2020 Vision, we need to organize our regions with new volunteer leadership and manageable geographic sizes. In the design of these new regions, we are acknowledging geographic barriers as well as cultural alignment within regions.”
As we move forward to prepare ourselves for greater growth, we aim to be a preferred volunteer organization and this new regional structure “will mean greater accessibility to leadership as well as the ability to have regional gatherings that can be attended by members from all parts of the given region,” according to Leslye Heilig.
Please see below the current and future plans for DFW regions. The new regions will be implemented as we identify volunteers to lead these smaller regions, and will be announced at that time. Until then, the current regions and Regional Leaders will remain in place.
If you have an interest in serving as a Regional Leader or have any questions about our new regions, please talk to your current Regional Leader or to Wendy Frattolin, Communications and Membership Director at wendy@togetherwomenrise.org.
In the coming months, I will update you on further initiatives that will lay the foundations for DFW to realize its 2020 Vision.
DFW Regions
Current |
Future |
Current
|
| CENTRAL – IN, KY, MI, OH, TN | CENTRAL – IN, KY, MI, OH | Anna Schoon Co-Leader position vacant |
| HEARTLAND – IA, IL, MN, MO, ND, NE, SD, WI | HEARTLAND – IA, IL, MN, MO, ND, NE, SD, WI | Barbara Harris Co-Leader position vacant |
| MID-ATLANTIC – DC, DE, MD, NC, NJ, PA, VA, WV | MID-ATLANTIC – DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA, WV | Peggy Smith Co-Leader position vacant |
| NORTHEAST – CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT | NORTHEAST – CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT | Leslye Heilig Ruth Bates |
| NORTHWEST – AK,ID, MT, OR, WA, WY | NORTHWEST – AK, ID, OR, WA | Memory Blodgett Karen McCune |
| SOUTHEAST – AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, SC | SOUTHEAST – AL, AR, GA, LA, MS, TN | Helen Borland Kira Walker |
| SOUTHWEST – AZ, KS, NM, OK, TX | SOUTHWEST – AZ, NM, NV, UT | Barbara Chatzkel Co-Leader position vacant |
| WEST – CA, CO, HI, NV, UT | WEST – CA, HI | Patty Karabotsos Linda Dougall |
| CAROLINAS – NC, SC (NEW) | Vacant | |
| FLORIDA – FL (NEW) | Vacant | |
| ROCKY MOUNTAINS – CO, MT, WY (NEW) | Vacant | |
| TEXOKANA – KS, OK, TX (NEW) | Vacant |