Women Advancing Change in 2021 and Beyond: How Membership Outreach is Inspiring Women to Lead

Meredith Tierney Shields

The Junior League of Washington (JLW) Membership Outreach Committee, whose mission is to help JLW members feel connected to the League as well as educate members on the events of the League throughout the year, selected “Women Advancing Change” this year as its annual campaign theme. The theme, which follows a volatile year of national and global crises in 2020, was driven by the League’s 2020-2021 President, Jessica Taylor White, and served as a blueprint for the General Membership Meetings (GMMs) as well as other League initiatives this year.

Amelia Whitman Weisbuch, Membership Outreach Committee Chair, described the year’s theme as “frameworks that can help members feel empowered to make change in themselves and in their communities.” She continued that she hopes this year’s theme and GMMs demonstrated for JLW members “not only the immense and critical impact that they can have on their communities through leading change but also how leading and driving change can inspire them personally. There is a difference between simply giving and giving that inspires.”

The driving force behind this year’s theme is a belief that women are positioned, perhaps uniquely, in our communities to advance change across many dimensions. Weisbuch noted that women are often the connectors in their communities, and those who can forge connections and relationships are critical in driving lasting, impactful change. The committee recognized and wanted to leverage an important fact: inherently by wanting to join the Junior League, our members are likely to be even more focused on being community connectors. JLW members often join because they are leaders who want to make an impact on their communities and create connections across organizations, companies, communities, and even regions. Ultimately, the Membership Outreach Committee’s theme selection, Women Advancing Change, was meant to be a springboard for considering how JLW can better meet community needs, leveraging the many talents and passions of the women in our membership.

The committee’s theme was meant to play into JLW’s larger theme of “Give, Gain, Grow,” and was highly visible through the three GMMs this year.

This year’s first GMM focused on Women Advancing Change through giving and providing members with an overview of ways they can give back to their communities. Similarly, the second GMM was focused on the skills that women in the League need to gain as leaders in order to create change in the community. The third and final GMM of the year centered on the theme of growing and how the women in the League can grow themselves, personally and professionally, through change as well as how we can grow as a League.

The theme of Women Advancing Change has also inspired, in part, the development of two new programs launched by the Membership Outreach Committee. First, this year the committee launched the Delving Deeper Series, which comprised small group conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I). These conversations were held monthly through the year, and were created to offer members a forum for personal growth and discussion. The series was inspired by the Association of Junior Leagues International’s 21-day Racial Equity Challenge, which involves daily group conversations and a robust amount of pre- and postwork. The committee recognized that not all members could attend such a rigorous program given the time commitment required, so it created a more flexible option for members who couldn’t participate in the whole 21-day challenge.

Weisbuch noted that “there are pros and cons to the virtual environment this year - a pro is that we can connect people who may have otherwise not crossed paths and a con is that we are all missing being together in person; so the Delving Deeper Series and other programming is meant to bridge those two situations.”

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SIMPLY GIVING AND GIVING THAT INSPIRES.