President's Message: 2014 Greetings to the Great Plains Region Board, In this first Rita’s wRitings of the New Year, I have pinpointed several impor

President's Message:

+Rita Shapiro 2013 Head Shot

2014 Greetings to the Great Plains Region Board,

In this first Rita’s wRitings of the New Year, I have pinpointed several important announcements. However; first of all, I hope 2014 is starting off good for all of you. I know most of us in the Great Plains Region are being challenged with the weather, challenges that are familiar to us throughout our 6 state Region.

• Our very important face to face Board business meeting and training will be this March 29-30 at the Double Tree Hotel in Skokie, IL. Please register and make your room reservations with Debbie Weiner. Her contact information is below in the copy of the invitation. Be sure to tell her your roommate and whether you want to eat dinner at the hotel with us. Our meeting will begin promptly at 7:00 pm. We are honored to have the National Chair of PRAZE facilitate for us for the weekend. On Sunday, March 30th, we are having breakfast together in the Athens room. This will give us more time in a private setting to talk and share with each other. If you are just coming for Sunday’s Board meeting and would like to eat breakfast and meet with everyone, please let Debbie know so we can give the hotel an accurate count. Meeting on Sunday begins at 9:00 am. Our luncheon will be at noon and following lunch, we will have our business meeting.

• BUILDING HADASSAH’S BLUEPRINT—IMPACT LOCALLY, IMPACT NATIONALLY is the title given to the “geographic training” I announced at the Presidents’ Conference calls. The date has changed to June 1st. The focus in the morning will be on strengthening our units, understanding on how each fits in with the Region and National Hadassah and remembering that “We are One”. There will be a “networking lunch” and then there will be breakout workshops in the afternoon. Plan to send leadership from each chapter. Invitations will be coming out soon. There will be Hadassah members attending from Great Plains, Upper Midwest, Central States, Chicago-North Shore, Detroit and Pittsburgh.

• At the National Board meeting, this month, we will vote on constitutional changes that will affect several aspects of the organization of the National Board. This will be brought before the delegates at the National Convention in July. Plan to attend the July National Convention in Las Vegas. See Flyer below.

• The Tower Completion Campaign Kick-off is official. There is a new Tower DVD, 2 equipment lists and many incentives. One incentive is “Special Recognition” at the National Convention for all units that reach 75% of their Tower Goal before July.

There will be a new piece of jewelry. It will be $100 and totally tax deductible. This should be revealed at National Convention in July or perhaps earlier. Keep watching for it. No one knows what it will be, yet.

TOWER TALK DAY. Every chapter in the country is being asked to call contributors on Sunday, September 14th. Please plan accordingly to join Hadassah women all over the country on this momentous day. Mark your calendars!

• WELCOME TO OUR NEW GREAT PLAINS REGION TOWER CHAIR: HELENE TURNER!

• EBLASTS about the on-line auction. It is up to you to get the word out about Hadassah’s first ever on-line auction. It will be on EBay’s charity site. Eblasts will be going out to Hadassah leadership, on social media and then to the entire Hadassah membership. Take a look. The art work Great Plains contributed to the auction is on our Facebook page: Great Plains Region Hadassah.

• Please read the Intranet Resource on gaming guidelines for raffles. Intranet>resources.>legal dept>gaming guidelines. Raffles cannot have cash prizes. All funds raised by a raffle need to be reported.

• If you paid a speaker or presenter $600 or more, you must send that person a 1099 form and send the government a 1096 form.

• Two meetings for our members who live in warmer climates for the winter (snowbirds) will be held this February. In Boca Raton, FL, the meeting will be on February 23rd and I have asked Laurie Sterling, Region Leadership Coordinator to represent the Region there. On February 9th, I will attend the “snowbird” meeting in Scottsdale, AZ. Our thanks to Region Board members, Carol Herzog, Natalie Silverman and Miffie Nagorsky for organizing and chairing these events.

• Our fall meeting will be in October. The date is not set yet, but I will let you know as soon as possible so you can mark your calendars.

• Be sure to visit our website: www.hadassah.org/greatplains. Pictures from the October Tri-Region Conference are on the Region and National Events Page. Please check for accuracies. We are trying to update everything as fast as the changes happen.

Our Region is moving forward with Consolidated Banking as mandated by the Hadassah National Treasurer. I have asked Sherry Abramowitz, Teree Farbstein and Lauren Morgan to be part of a task force to facilitate and complete consolidated banking for the Region. Since May 2011, when Revenue Sharing became the way chapters receive operating funds (instead of receiving dollars/member), to be compliant with National Hadassah, chapters were to send me a copy of their bank statement every quarter. Once consolidated banking is in place, sending me those copies will no longer be necessary. However, requesting funds for each quarter remains the same. Our Region goal is to have all of our chapters on consolidated banking by our March 29-30 Board meeting.

From now on Revenue Share request forms will be sent by the Region Treasurer, Sherry Abramowitz. Your replies and requests should be returned to her also. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

With fondest Hadassah regards,

SIGNATURE - RITA

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Yahrzeit Observance

Yahrzeit, a time of remembering…

On February 1, 2014, the sixty-ninth anniversary of her death, Hadassah remembers, with love and pride, our founder, Henrietta Szold.

We remember:

• That the organization she founded changed the face of medicine in Palestine – and the lives of tens of thousands of American Jewish women

• That her passionate insistence on her right to say Kaddish for her mother placed her in the vanguard of Jewish feminism

• That although she had no children of her own, she was the “mother” of thousands of Jewish children that Youth Aliyah saved from Hitler’s ovens

• That her devotion to learning and study inspired Hadassah's commitment to education and advocacy

It is fitting that this year Henrietta Szold’s yahrzeit falls on the first day of American Heart Month. Surely, no one had a greater heart than Henrietta. And, like the children of Youth Aliyah, we, too, are proud to call her “Ima.”

Each of us can honor Ms. Szold’s memory by lighting a yahrzeit candle and by making a contribution to Hadassah in her memory. Please ask your rabbi to acknowledge Henrietta Szold’s yahrzeit during the appropriate part of the Shabbat Service.

Submitted by the Jewish/Zionist Education Team of the PRAZE Division

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