ABOUT OUR LEAGUE
D&T GOES VIRTUAL AND THRIVES
W
ith the COVID-19 pandemic interrupting many of the Junior League of Washington (JLW) committees’ plans for the 2020-2021 League year, the Development and Training (D&T) committee was quick to adjust and devise new action plans which led to an increase in both development and training opportunities for members and event attendance. Pivoting to virtual development and training was no easy task but proved to be beneficial to the JLW community in a multitude of ways. Utilizing Zoom’s platform to connect virtually, the D&T committee was able to expand and offer a variety of trainings. Since speakers were able to host events from the comfort of their own homes, the D&T committee was able to engage speakers from various locations on many different topics. Some of these included: • “Invest Like a Woman: Everything You Need to Know About Investing Beyond Your 401K,” • “Leading Effective Teams Remotely,” • “How to be an Ally: Tools for Leaders to Actively Support Underrepresented Communities in the Workplace and Beyond,” • “Food Security Challenges in the Global Pandemic,” and • “The Virtual Classroom: How to Keep Students (and Adults!) Engaged While Learning from Home.” Previously, D&T events were limited to the maximum capacity allowed in the Loughborough Room at Headquarters and in-person attendance was required. Since pivoting to virtual training, JLW has been able to host Zoom trainings with a maximum capacity of 500 people, which resulted in a huge increase in attendance. Natalie
20
Spring 2021
Whitney LaRoche
Hales, Chair of the D&T Committee, shared “We had 1,661 women join D&T events during our first five months when we held 21 trainings! That’s 503 more women than had previously joined us during the entirety The D&T Committee leadership team consists of (from order of top left of last year when we to bottom right): Ann Rodgers (Vice Chair, Community Engagement), held 34 trainings. Natalie Hales (Chair), Sarah Beccio (Vice Chair, League Essentials), Two years ago, we Randi Williams (Rising Chair), Angeline Schreiber (Vice Chair, Logishad seven trainings tics and Data), and Alex Washington (Vice Chair, Leadership) with 60 or more women in attendance. We had two trainings that surpassed that tracking and monitoring participants via threshold last year. In the first half of this Zoom (i.e. using different usernames, JLW year, we had already held 11 trainings joining and leaving Zoom at differing that surpassed that threshold! Last year our times, etc.), recording attendance has truly highest attended training had 86 women, two become a daunting assignment. years ago it was 92 women, and this year thus D&T Chair Hales has also had to send far it was 260 women.” out Zoom information in advance of each It is truly remarkable how quickly the training and solicit feedback following D&T Committee has been able to adapt and each training, meaning many more emails tackle a new plan during these challenging to be sent than in previous years. These times. Ultimately, many have appreciated women have truly thought through the and benefited from their tremendous efforts logistics to sustain successful virtual trainto continuously seek out content and plan ings (even if they choose to continue to out each month’s trainings in advance. offer virtual options after the pandemic), Although these trainings were executed but no one is perfect, so please remember with minimal issues, the efforts to achieve the hard work and devotion to bringing these seemingly polished presentations interesting and relevant content when you have not gone without obstacles for those attend these trainings. tasked with carrying them out behind the If you have not had an opportunity to scenes. Before pivoting to virtual training attend a virtual D&T training, you are missopportunities, recording attendance was a ing out on the great information the D&T much easier task. Members would checkCommittee has cultivated and shared since in with committee volunteers as they pivoting to the virtual format. Many have arrived. Since pivoting, members from the found it easy to listen in and multitask with D&T committee have been tasked with their busy schedules. So next time you see an recording members’ attendance via Zoom. interesting topic, sign up, tune in, and enjoy As one can imagine, with an increase in great content and speakers brought to you by participants, as well as the difficulty of our very own D&T Committee.
