What amazing knowledge I gained!

Here is what our League members had to say about attending the Association of Junior Leagues International's Organizational Development Insititute (ODI) Conferences this year:

Laura Nodolf

I attended the Governing for Excellence track wherein AJLI laid out their plan to create and maintain more sustainable Leagues. This included learning about a new form of governance wherein the League would have two Boards. One board would focus on strategic planning and one board would focus on the daily management of the League. This plan is already implemented by many other Leagues across the nation.

Tonya Hancock

ODI was a wonderful opportunity to work with and learn from our organizations' leading experts.  The membership track focused on member recruitment, retention and the importance of our sustaining members. I had the opportunity to collaborate with leagues from all over about Provisional programs and look forward to strengthening our program this next year. Thank you for this great experience. 

Charity Rohlfs

Hearing Florence Shapiro, the daughter of Holocaust survivors and former mayor of Plano, challenge all of the ODI attendees to action was one of the highlights for me. I appreciated all of the relevant topics presented that advisory planning will research this coming year.  Additionally, I enjoyed meeting so many women from across North America all working toward bettering their communities. If you are ever asked to go to ODI, go!

Monica Tucker

At the ODI conference in Kansas City, MO I attended the governance track.  What amazing knowledge I gained!  My main focus was learning how the Nominating Committee should run.  During the four sessions, I was taught as to how to gain candidates for each of the Board position, the application and questions that each candidate should be required to answer, the importance of confidentiality, how to professionally inform those who were slated and those who were not, and the importance of retaining some members of the committee to the next year for background knowledge usage.  I am very thankful to have been chosen to attend ODI.

Pictured in ODI 3: L to R: Charity Rohlfs, Ellen Wheeler, Laura Nodolf and Tonya Hancock

This article first appeared in The Junior League of Midland, Inc.'s monthly publication, "Tumbleweed." Read the entire issue here->