June 10, 2016

UWFA spring luncheon, May 25

Hello all,

What makes a Spring Luncheon wonderful? Well, if you were at the last UWFA Spring Luncheon at the Seattle Yacht Club in May, you would say without hesitation, that that Luncheon was wonderful. It had all the usual accruements, a beautiful location, delicious food, and a great speaker and still it was more than that.

The guest list topped more than 100 guests and when you get so many distinguished looking ladies and gentleman together in their finery it makes a strong, positive impression. Everyone was happy to see their fellow members and I believe we had a record number of men in the audience too. Did you know that currently men are our fasted growing demographic in the Auxiliary? Well, all I can say is WELCOME.

Everything went so smoothly under the direction of Spring Luncheon Chair Mary Alice Crosson, who, with so much grace and charm and diplomacy,  had volunteers at the ready for everything from script sale to seating charts and the name tag table. Thank you, Mary Alice, we know that making it look so easy is really very very hard. Also a special thanks to Carmen Robbin for sponsoring us yet again at the beautiful Seattle Yacht Club.

Mary Albrecht, as Chair of Courtesy and House, also did a tremendous job, always with a smile, and we got much information and feedback from the forms everyone filled out and then of course she provided that beautiful, yet elusive potted plant for the raffle.

After lunch was served I was allowed to say a few words and I want to stress here the hard work of the 2015/16 Board of Directors and that also of the Long Range Planning Committee. Our crowning achievements, the new website at http://www.washington.edu/uwfa/ and the opportunity to have online giving through the website http://www.washington.edu/uwfa/uwfa-scholarships/ were highlighted as well as was the fact that we now have our second ever male Board member, webmaster Peter Schiess, who, with all his efforts on behalf of the UWFA has been our Man of the Year!

I also welcomed and introduced our new UWFA President for the 2016/17 academic year, Nancy Kenagy, and I couldn’t be more pleased to have her bring her tremendous leadership ability and energy to the position. She then in turn introduced the new board, and we welcomed them with a round of applause.

The speaker, David B. Williams, took us on a ride to Reshape the Seattle Landscape in words and pictures that was as breathtaking as any roller coaster ride could be. The way the city leaders of their time dealt with such “minor” obstacles such as hills and inclines in the city can only be marveled at and their tenacity to make sure that downtown would be flat and conducive to business has born fruit, not immediately, but certainly in our time.

What more can I say about such a fine event except again thank you to all who attended, and who helped in any way shape or form.

 

Thank you

Dagmar Shannon, Past President J