SEPTEMBER 2020 | PLANNING FOR THE ANNUAL MEETING AND MORE!
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UPCOMING EVENT - Virtual Happy Hour! |
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In conjunction with the Grace Hopper Conference, the Club will be hosting a virtual happy hour on October 2nd at 5PM. All members are welcome, though the conversation will center on women in the technical field and the discussions that arose during the conference.
Friday, October 2, 5:00 p.m.
About Grace Hopper Conference: Created in in 1994 and inspired by the legacy of Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, the AnitaB.org flagship event Grace Hopper Celebration brings the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. https://ghc.anitab.org/
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STAY APPRISED OF MORE UPCOMING EVENTS |
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Follow us on social media to stay up to date on our [currently virtual] gatherings.
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The book club meets at 7:00 p.m., generally on the third Wednesday of each month.
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SEPTEMBER 2020
On Wednesday, September 16, ten of us enthusiastically discussed Washington Black by Esi Edugyan. We agreed that the author is a gifted storyteller with great descriptive powers who has created memorable characters and interesting relationships. We had a few cavils: Some felt that Wash’s development was choppily portrayed; there were some disagreements about the ending; we granted artistic license to some elements of magical realism but not so much a couple of convenient coincidences. Nonetheless, we all enjoyed the book.
UPCOMING IN OCTOBER 2020
On October 21st the Smith College Club of the Peninsula Book Club will meet (virtually) to discuss The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates. It’s available at Kepler’s, which is now open, but books can also be ordered online at keplers.com. Remember that we get a discount. You can also order at bookshop.org, which supports local, independent bookstores. To join us, head over to our book club page on the website and sign up! We will send you the Zoom link proactively.
UPCOMING IN NOVEMBER 2020
On November 18th we will discuss Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn West.
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RECAP OF THE VIRTUAL ANNUAL MEETING AND ELECTION |
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The virtual Annual Meeting of the Smith Club was held on Sunday, September 13, at 2PM. |
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The Smith College Club of the Peninsula Annual Meeting 2020 was fun and engaging, and we got things done! 22 members were in attendance ranging from classes of 1961 through 2016. |
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We kicked off with a quick scavenger hunt, wherein participants were challenged to find household objects and be the first person to get back to their web cams with the object in hand. Two points were awarded to the first person to show each item, and one point was awarded to each member who showed the item within 60 seconds. The big winner: Elizabeth Jensen Young '08!
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Attendees of the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Smith College Club of the Peninsula show off their toilet paper during the virtual scavenger hunt. |
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Next we went around the Zoom Room and introduced ourselves including our graduation year, house, current occupation, and a favorite memory of Smith. Some of our reminiscing was moving, some hilarious, all special and unique to the Smith campus and community. |
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Alex Frizzell, 2019-2020 president, gave us a recap of the year which included a new website and navigating the challenges that COVID-19 presented to our recruiting and social efforts.
Marylou Cronin, 2019-2020 Alumnae Admissions Coordinator, presented this year’s application, acceptance and admission numbers. This year from the Bay Area Peninsula we had 74 applicants (73 first years, 1 transfer) and 15 students who had planned to matriculate in the Fall.
With the announcement in early August that the campus would remained closed this semester, a few of those 15 students decided to defer their entrance. To support our local students and give them a chance to experience the special community feeling that Smith and Smith Alums can provide, we designed and produced a custom-made mug and tucked some goodies inside each (tea and a cookie) and sent them to each of the 15 new Smithies.
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Jean Davidson, treasurer 2019-2020, gave us the following update for the past fiscal year ending August 31, 2020:
- Total receipts $8,436, which includes $4,026 in prepaid dues/alumnae donations and $2,135 donations from the Benevity Fund
- Sixteen alumnae chose a discounted 5-year membership option
- Total expenses $3,464, which includes $1,900 donated to Smith College:
- $1,000 to the Club’s endowed scholarship fund
- $500 to the Annual Fund
- $400 to the Students Emergency Aid Fund
- Total cash remaining on hand $9,565
Nisha Thatte-Potter, membership chair 2019-2020, informed us that we currently have 49 members ranging in classes from 1940 to 2020. This is up from last year’s 41 members.
Alix Davie, VP and events chairperson 2019-2020, reviewed the wonderful events we were able to have in person in the past year, and the ones where we took the gatherings to Zoom. For the coming year the Club is planning more virtual teas and cocktail hours, continuing the virtual book club, and new virtual gatherings like scavenger hunts, paint nights, cooking and cocktail tutorials, and more. WE NEED YOUR IDEAS!
Sally Smith, book club coordinator 2019-2020, told us that the book club has not been daunted by sheltering in place, and has continued meeting regularly via Zoom since March, reading a wide variety of books. Upcoming, the club will read and discuss The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates on October 21. All are welcome! https://www.peninsulasmithclubca.org/book-club
Marylou Cronin presented the work of this year’s nominating committee, of which she was chair, successfully recruiting new members to join the board!
Jun Helzer presented this year’s voting results for the 2020-2021 executive committee and appointive positions. We had an impressive 64% rate on voting (which Alice Smith ‘61 pointed out was higher than US voter turnout in 2016) and 100% voted yes on all 5 items in the ballot. The new executive slate is as follows:
President: Alix Davie ‘08
Vice President/Program Chair: Jun Helzer ‘02
Secretary: Indira Deonandan ‘08
Treasurer: Marylou Cronin ’88
The executive committee has appointed the following members for 2020-2021:
Alumnae Admissions Coordinator: Joy Silver ‘96
Communications/Newsletter Coordinator: Amy Gardner ‘92
Membership Chair: Nisha Thatte-Potter ‘88
Student Care Packages Coordinators: Christine Hoffman ‘14 and Trang Le ‘20
Young Alumnae Coordinator: Donna Dong ‘14 and Reem Ladadwa ‘18
Webmaster: Amy Gardner ‘92
Book Awards Coordinator: Eugenia Yee ’16
Book Club Coordinator: Sally Smith ’64
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The Club would like to send out a huge thank you to departing President Alex Frizzell ‘12, Communications Chair Samantha Li ‘09, and Treasurer Jean Davidson ‘73 who are transitioning off of the board, but have made themselves available for advice and guidance as others take over their roles.
We ended the Annual Meeting with a round-table discussion of ideas for the coming year.
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SMITHIE SPOTLIGHT
This month our member spotlight falls on Alice Schaffer Smith class of '61! Alice currently lives in Palo Alto and is a long-time member of the Smith College Club of the Peninsula.
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Graduation Year: 1961
House: Morris House
Major: History
Extracurriculars: Chamber singers, chorus, campus Democrats, international students program
On-campus job: I delivered bulletin board notices all around campus. I had a bicycle, and I biked everywhere!
Fondest memories of Smith: I have two. First, during my first year I was walking past John M Greene Hall and heard music coming from within. I went in and stood at the back of the hall, listening to Beethoven's violin concerto for the first time in my life. It was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes. It was the moment that drove me to learn more about music and become a classical music aficionado. Second, during the summer between my first and second years at Smith, the chamber singers took a trip to Europe to take part in a choral competition in Manchester, England. It was my first time on an airplane. We flew from New York to Gander (Newfoundland) to Reykjavík to Ireland to Manchester where we proceeded to win first place! Then we traveled on to Athens, Greece, and were introduced to Archbishop Makarios. From there we flew in a military plane to Dubrovnik where we landed in a cow pasture! I have so many wonderful memories of that adventure.
Favorite class at Smith: My senior year I attended a seminar on naval history led by President Mendenhall in the dining room of his house!
It could only happen at Smith: We threw a house party at Morris House and hired some guys from Weslyan to come up and sing. They were fabulous! Turns out, these guys became The Highwaymen, who went on to great fame and had a number one hit with their version of Michael Row the Boat Ashore. I think we paid them $50.
Post-Smith: I worked for IBM as a systems engineer after graduating. In 1964 I got married and had two daughters in 1966 and 1967 (one of whom later graduated from Smith as well - Sarah Smith '88). I became a very active volunteer for the League of Women Voters and was inspired to get my law degree. In 1974 I enrolled at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, graduating in 1977 and passing the bar exam. I joined IBM as legal counsel in '79, then moved to England and continued to work as a lawyer for various large high tech companies. When my first grandchild was born in 2002 I returned to the US where I continued to work as a legal consultant.
In 2005 after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, I began volunteering at the local Red Cross office, and served on the board there for 6 years.
After the 2016 election, I founded National Voter Corps, an organization that fights voter suppression and mobilizes volunteers to assist voting organizations nationwide.
Beyond my work with NVC, I take a very active role in the lives of my five grandchildren, plus I am an avid reader, birdwatcher, world traveler, bridge player, singer, and I knit scarves and hats for homeless kids through a program at Channing House in Palo Alto, where I recently moved.
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