If you or a family member is Hamilton crazy, you’re familiar with The Room Where it Happens. The song refers to a historical closed-door dinner where Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison reach an unprecedented political compromise to move the nation’s capital in exchange for the support of Hamilton’s financial plan. Aaron Burr laments that he was not there when the deal went down, emphasizing what it means to be in the “room where it happens.”
While our recent board meeting didn’t move any capitals, I had the song periodically going through my head. As I looked around, I was grateful to be “in the room where it happened,” if for no other reason than to be surrounded by such sharp and influential women. We have a lot of activity going on inside and outside these walls as we implement our new strategic plan, so it was exciting to hear the Board report on what’s happened thus far.
The Momentum Board of Directors is assembled each summer and holds its first meeting in August. We realize that our board members’ time is precious, so we hold our meetings once a quarter for 90 minutes. The December meeting was only our second one with the current board, and already the board committees have made great progress.
A few highlights:
- The Program committee is vetting ideas for the new Early Career Program we will roll out in 2017. Think of it like a parallel program to our Executive Leadership Class, but targeted to women earlier in their careers. This is one of the most exciting components of the new strategic plan. We’ll announce the new program in March at our breakfast event during Women’s History Month.
- Our Fundraising efforts to date have yielded 13 corporate sponsors to whom we are profoundly grateful for their support of the current class. With their contributions corporate sponsors make a statement to their employees, and the community, about their support of women in leadership roles. Their contributions certainly help to keep the tuition for our class affordable to all and still allow for nationally known speakers to lead our classes.
- The Membership committee announced that Class 13 won the Alumnae membership contest (and a lunch after the holidays!) If you haven’t renewed your MAP membership, you can do that here. You can also join Momentum’s Honor Roll with a tax-deductible gift of $500 or more. Your support helps so much as we implement the new strategic plan.
- Our Alumnae committee announced another opportunity for us to get together, which is always a great thing! Our next gathering is at Railroad Park’s ice skating and holiday market. Join us, and bring family or furry friends! December 10th from 2-4 pm. Ice skating is $10. Please RSVP here so we can let the park know how many are coming.
- The Marketing and PR committee is putting together an editorial calendar, social media plan, and promotional plan for the women’s history breakfast in March. Look for Momentum in the news throughout Q1.
- The Strategic Planning committee will have their first meeting next week to lay out goals and objectives for 2017, so stay tuned for more updates on how the plan will gain momentum!
Our greatest appreciation goes out to each one of these influential ladies who give their time and their talents to Momentum. A very special thanks to Board President, Vickie Saxon, who keeps us moving in the right direction and brings loads of treats to our meetings (this month featured gourmet popcorn for everyone!)
We are all fortunate to be together “in the room where it happened.”
