2015-2016 League Year by President Elect, Leaf Faller

How fast the year has gone and we are already looking into the 2015-2016 League year! That seems a bit surreal. The 2015-2016 Board was chosen in December 2014 and met on February 7, 2015 to slate the 2015-2016 Leadership Team.  This fantastic team was presented to the Membership at the February 17, 2015 General Meeting.

Next year will be a very busy year. The Advisory Planning Committee is designated as the “think tank” of the League. This committee researches issues that look toward the future. One issue that Advisory Planning will be exploring is based on a recommendation from The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. (AJLI).   AJLI is encouraging Junior Leagues to adopt a more member centric approach.  This approach is to be designed to take the member’s life obligations into consideration as well as their League obligations. 

One way that AJLI has suggested to make Leagues more member centric is to address our governance strategy. Our League, through Advisory Planning, will research, participate in Modules developed by AJLI and/or utilize information from other Leagues and AJLI to develop a plan to fit our League.  This plan will look at allowing the Board to be more focused on future planning. It would potentially also create a Management Team that would have more control over the day to day operations of the League. Further, it would potentially allow for more members to be involved at a governance level.  Once a plan has been developed for our League and deemed by the Advisory Planning Committee to be ready to be presented to the Board, the Board will hear the information from the Chairman.  At this time, the Board will either act on the recommendation or send it back to the committee for further work.  Once any plan has been approved by the Board, the plan will be presented to the General Membership for consideration and discussion.  This is a big undertaking and has a lot of working parts to it. I am confident that Advisory Planning and the Board will take a thorough look at this issue before making any decisions.

Also, in order to make Advisory Planning more streamlined, the composition of the Advisory Planning Committee is revamped for the 2015-2016 year.  It will be composed of a Chairman, the President Elect, Operations Chairman, Board Members-at-Large and three committee members.  This composition should bring a fresh perspective to the League, be more member driven and not be as Board heavy.  If you are interested in shaping the future of our League and do not have a placement yet, consider being part of the Advisory Planning Committee.