AJLI
ZOOMING OUT/ZOOMING IN
LEADERS IN TRAINING By Elizabeth Lubben
Eleanor Worthy
Maya Shih
22
Spring 2015
P
art of the League’s mission includes a commitment to developing the potential of women. The Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI) provides Leagues leadership training at a cost through its Organizational Development Institute. The JLW funded eight volunteers to attend ODI sessions. Among JLW’s attendees were Holiday Shops rising co-chair Eleanor Worthy and Friends of the JLW Chair Maya Shih. After learning about the program and expressing interest in attending to their respective council directors, the Nominating Committee selected them to attend the trainings. While Worthy and Shih attended different weekends, their participation was driven by similar goals for their committees, and their experiences speak to the positive impact ODIs can have on leaders in training. Worthy’s ODI weekend took her to Grapevine, deep in the heart of Texas, where she joined 400 other delegates from 111 leagues. “As co-chair of the 2015 Holiday Shops, I was eager to attend the ODI conference to learn more about key fund development principles and best practices that I could bring back and share with JLW,” said Worthy. “I was also very interested in meeting and learning from women in leagues across the country. I had meaningful discussions with members from Fort Worth, Long Beach, Northern Virginia and Tulsa, just to name a few!” Last fall, Shih found herself in Kansas City, MO (while the KC Royals were playing in the World Series, no less!), with similar aspirations for her ODI experience. “I wanted to learn more about looking at fundraising more holistically,” Shih explains. “As the Chair of Friends of the Junior League, I had a pretty good understanding about how we raise personal donations, but I wanted to better understand how all of our fundraisers could work together and how we could expand to diversify our fund development.” Shih also noted the unique opportunity to hear from members of other leagues – 240 delegates from 87
leagues – and compare their challenges and successes to those of the JLW. “I have only ever been in the Junior League of Washington,” notes Shih, “so it was an extremely eye-opening experience to meet women from other leagues and to hear about the exciting things they were doing.”
ODI OFFERS THE CHANCE TO MEET AJLI STAFF AND TO LEARN ABOUT THE ASSOCIATION’S RESOURCES, INCLUDING WEEKLY WEBINARS, AVAILABLE ONLINE TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE JUNIOR LEAGUE. Worthy agreed. “The material was so engaging and relevant, I could not wait to share with my committee upon my return,” she said. When asked about a meaningful moment from their experiences, Worthy and Shih both referenced their track facilitators and the important advice they imparted. “Our instructor, JuWon Choi, talked about the donor development cycle and the steps necessary to raise money,” Worthy remembers. “Fundraising is really about selling the product, as the ‘ask’ portion of the cycle constitutes just 5 percent of time. I realized we are providing donors the opportunity to partner with a