SPOTLIGHT ON OUR MEMBERS
“A LOT OF JOY”: ELIZABETH KEYS CONTINUES TO LEAD Maggie Jo Buchanan
G
iven the demands of the position, no one could blame an outgoing Junior League of Washington (JLW) President for wanting to take it a bit easy at the end of their year of leadership. But Elizabeth Keys, JLW’s 2016-2017 President and sustainer superstar, told me she knew she “still had something important to give.” Keys now leads a Junior League affinity group with the Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI) known as POLL – or Presidents of Large Leagues. AJLI’s affinity groups are self-starting, self-managing, and self-governing associations that are formed based on League size and/or location. In addition, there is one group that is for women of color. POLL Leagues are those with 400 or more members. The purpose of the affinity group is to bring together Leagues with similar sizes, demographics, and focus issues so that they can share information and common concerns. This ensures that each League maximizes community impact, and provides a collective voice for members. Keys describes the importance of POLL succinctly: If the country’s largest Leagues aren’t thriving, given the proportion of Junior League members they make up, that means that Junior League as a whole isn’t thriving. “Even if just one large League closes, that is a measurable percentage of membership,” Keys explained. Keys planned the POLL Forum, a gathering of outgoing presidents of large Leagues, which was held in February 2022 in Washington, DC. Nineteen Junior League Presidents, POLL leadership, AJLI Chief Executive Officer Patsy Doerr, and AJLI Board President Bett Williams joined for three days, highlighted by a welcome reception at JLW Headquarters and a tour and happy hour overlooking Washington, DC, at the Tossed & Found site. For most of the women in attendance, it was their first time meeting their fellow presidents in person and was an opportunity for both networking and bonding. For Keys, a woman’s year as a Junior League president “is super intense–and then it just stops.” The forum helps outgoing presidents in attendance figure out “what comes next.” Keys notes the work of a large League president involves managing a significant budget, providing strategic vision, and overseeing the execution of a variety of major POLL Forum attendees
36
2021 - 2022
events. Essentially, everything that goes into running a large nonprofit organization! How the outgoing presidents build that experience into their lives moving forward – and as Keys’s notes, the different “passions” that each president may have discovered along the way – will be individual to each woman. It’s a discussion Keys is well-equipped to help lead. While she didn’t set out to become president when she joined JLW, she describes the position as being the “best placement I ever had” and where she found “a lot of joy.” Even before becoming president, Keys’ JLW resume was already impressive. Her former placements include (but are not limited to!) serving as the Director of the Membership Development Council, Development & Training Committee Chair, Publications Committee Chair, and JLW Treasurer. In the year immediately following her JLW presidency, Keys chaired the Loughborough House Committee and has stayed active in the Sustainer Committee as well. Notably, in addition to her current service on POLL, Keys is also on AJLI’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) League Members Workgroup. As a member of the workgroup, Keys helps to advance an organizational culture that values diversity, equity, and inclusion. JLW’s tagline for the year Keys was president was Connecting the Dots: Members and Mission. Given the breadth of Keys’ Junior League experience before becoming president, it was already a fitting theme for JLW to have had under her leadership. But now, given the impact Keys continues to have on Leagues and Junior League members across the country, the theme is perhaps even more apt. •
