D&T Goes Virtual and Thrives

Whitney LaRoche

With 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 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 of last year when we held 34 trainings. Two years ago, we had seven trainings with 60 or more women in attendance. We had two trainings that surpassed that threshold last year. In the first half of this JLW year, we had already held 11 trainings that surpassed that threshold! Last year our highest attended training had 86 women, two years ago it was 92 women, and this year thus far it was 260 women.”

It is truly remarkable how quickly the D&T Committee has been able to adapt and tackle a new plan during these challenging times. Ultimately, many have appreciated and benefited from their tremendous efforts to continuously seek out content and plan out each month’s trainings in advance.

Although these trainings were executed with minimal issues, the efforts to achieve these seemingly polished presentations have not gone without obstacles for those tasked with carrying them out behind the scenes. Before pivoting to virtual training opportunities, recording attendance was a much easier task. Members would checkin with committee volunteers as they arrived. Since pivoting, members from the D&T committee have been tasked with recording members’ attendance via Zoom. As one can imagine, with an increase in participants, as well as the difficulty of tracking and monitoring participants via Zoom (i.e. using different usernames, joining and leaving Zoom at differing times, etc.), recording attendance has truly become a daunting assignment.

D&T Chair Hales has also had to send out Zoom information in advance of each training and solicit feedback following each training, meaning many more emails to be sent than in previous years. These women have truly thought through the logistics to sustain successful virtual trainings (even if they choose to continue to offer virtual options after the pandemic), but no one is perfect, so please remember the hard work and devotion to bringing interesting and relevant content when you attend these trainings. If you have not had an opportunity to attend a virtual D&T training, you are missing out on the great information the D&T Committee has cultivated and shared since pivoting to the virtual format. Many have found it easy to listen in and multitask with their busy schedules. So next time you see an interesting topic, sign up, tune in, and enjoy great content and speakers brought to you by our very own D&T Committee.

The D&T Committee leadership team consists of (from order of top left to bottom right): Ann Rodgers (Vice Chair, Community Engagement), Natalie Hales (Chair), Sarah Beccio (Vice Chair, League Essentials), Randi Williams (Rising Chair), Angeline Schreiber (Vice Chair, Logistics and Data), and Alex Washington (Vice Chair, Leadership)