October 16, 2020

• Transition of TWOQC President
• Headed to the Future
• New Executive Board Positions
• Heart-Felt Thank You from Pima County Dept. of Health
• Community Connections: Canned Goods Drive for Homeless Veterans (Oct. 24); Homeless & Hospitalized Veterans; Women Warriors
• Programs & Events (updates)

It is with great sadness that I announce the resignation of our 2020 President, Diane Quinn. According to our Bylaws, the President Elect fulfills the term of the President if she is unable to complete their term. Therefore, effective immediately, I, Becky Ashin have become the President of TWOQC.

Diane has tirelessly served TWOQC for many years and she provided innovative leadership as President. As we all know, this has been a very unusual year and not being able to have our membership activities hasn’t allowed us to always easily keep you up to date. I’d like to take this opportunity to provide you with details of Diane’s leadership:

• Strategic Plan – to provide direction to TWOQC and establish focus to our Vision and Mission
• Updating our Bylaws, job descriptions and budget planning
• Leading development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to ease transitions between Board and Committee Chair changes
• Guiding TWOQC through the pandemic by facilitating Zoom meetings of the Board and Committees and communications to our members
• Establishing two taskforces to review our charity fundraising strategies and implementing GroupWorks for our membership

My hope is to encourage our members to live our Vision and Mission.

VISION – The Women of Quail Creek will be a fun, welcoming and inclusive organization that is known for its responsiveness to the needs of its members and community.

MISSION – We are a Community of Women dedicated to Learning, Giving and Engaging.

My goal as your new President is to listen, learn and provide you with an organization that you enjoy!

The Executive Board appreciates your input to our surveys and we’re making changes. We are working on getting small group activities scheduled. To do so, we are implementing the use of GroupWorks. You will be receiving an invitation to join TWOQC GroupWorks platform in the next few weeks. Using GroupWorks we can easily promote activities to you and you can sign up online. This is easy to use but we’ll be providing lots of support and training for anyone who needs it.

We have also had a great group of women working on a Fundraising Task Force this summer. A special thank you to Tessie Hagerich and Carin Kaiser who co-coordinated this effort. Their report and recommendations have been approved by the Board. We will be combining all fundraising activities under the Charity Fundraising Director.  Instead of constant solicitation from our members, we will now focus on one or two exciting and fun fundraising activities. Anyone who loves putting on parties, events, auctions or tournaments should be on the Fundraising Committee that is being created!

It is difficult to meet everyone’s desires and change isn’t easy. To manage an organization as large as TWOQC, requires structure, planning and re-evaluation.

One of our greatest struggles is to engage our membership in leadership positions since most of us are enjoying retirement, have already served or don’t know how to get involved. We have made a few changes to our Executive Board structure and we need our members to volunteer. We will no longer have a Past President position but have added two new Board positions, a Charity Fundraising Director and a Community Relations Director. If you would be interested in either of these positions, please contact our Nomination Committee Chair, Deborah Bryant at nominations@womenqc.com.

TWOQC continue to give of their time and talents. We received a wonderful note from Cecilia Nguyen from the Pima Health Department.

“It is absolutely incredible that the Women of Quail Creek took on the #PimaLove Notes Project and collectively delivered over 600 notes! I am so very grateful to you and all of the members of The Women of Quail Creek for taking on the initiative to participate in the project and make such a powerful impact for those in our community. Undoubtedly, your contributions to the #PimaLove Notes Project touched many lives and brought smiles to many faces. Please pass along my gratitude to all those who helped contribute to the #PimaLove Notes, it is deeply appreciated that you all donated so much of your time and efforts to the cause.”

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! The Canned Goods Drive for Homeless Veterans is slated for Oct. 24.

A contactless non-perishable foods and paper products drive will take place on Saturday, October 24 from 10 a.m. – noon. Drop-off locations will be at the following member’s homes:

Diane Quinn – 2276 E Skywalker Way              Karen Baker – 475 N Keyes Road
Pat Neel – 2306 E. Spurwind Lane                    Peggy McGee – 1908 E Longspur Place

Homeless veterans who remain on the streets will be the primary recipients of the food drive, so canned foods with pull tops are requested. Canned goods that require a can opener will be given to veterans in housing.

Requested items are fruit, soups, tuna or chicken cans or packets, peanut butter, crackers, Vienna sausages, beef jerky, chili, Spam, and oatmeal and Ramen noodles in a cup. Unopened paper products needed are toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, disposable cups, plates and utensils.

Those wishing to make monetary donations can make checks out to VA Voluntary Services with “Homeless Program TWOQC” in the memo line and mail them directly to the VA at: Southern Arizona VA Health Care System · 3601 S 6^th Avenue (9-135), Tucson AZ 85723.

Homeless & Hospitalized Veterans

The VA is once again accepting donations of gently used clothing for men.  Especially needed are men slacks in size 34, long-sleeved shirts in all sizes, shoes, fall and winter weight sweater, jackets, hats, gloves, backpacks, new socks and boxer shorts (sizes medium and large). Travel and full-size unopened toiletries and dental products are also needed. All donations may be dropped at the Peggy McGee’s at 1908 E Longspur Place on Thursday, October 29 only.

Women Warriors

Women Warriors is dedicated to helping homeless and unemployed honorably discharged female veterans. They are moving into a new building and need plastic, wooden, and skirt hangers, a microwave, coffeemaker and small refrigerator. If you can help, please contact Peggy at programs@womenqc.com to learn when her next trip to Tucson is scheduled. The organization will accept winter weight clothing beginning on November 2.

(♦) public event

• Oct. 26 – Membership Gathering CANCELLED
• Nov. 6 – 9-11AM Membership’s Drive-Thru Event NEW
• Nov.  – TBA
• Dec. 8 – Holiday Luncheon CANCELLED

FMM CONTRIBUTORS: Peggy M. (Programs); Pat N. (Community Connections). PUBLISHING TEAM: President, 1st Vice President, and Webmaster.