January 2011 • Volume 3 • Issue 1

Next Meeting: Saturday – February 19, 2011

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Educate and Grow

Donna Broder ~ President

Welcome everyone to 2011!  I want to thank our past President, Jody Deller, for her great leadership over the last two years.  Her shoes will be hard to fill, but I promise to do my best.  Additional thanks goes to our fellow officers and committee chairs for their dedication and terrific service.  KCRW ladies are the best!

2011 is our year to “Educate and Grow”.  One mission for the year ahead is to help EDUCATE our members and community about the Republican Party and our rights as an American citizen.  With this in mind, programs will cover current issues, the election process, and lessons about our Constitution.  Our second mission is to GROW KCRW’s membership as we prepare for a busy election year in 2012.  Every individual will count as we help lead Republicans to success in November 2012.

Ladies, between KCRW club activities, Legislative Day in March, the NFRW convention in September, and TFRW convention in November, we have a busy year ahead.  So, don’t sit back and watch from the stands, we need YOU!  Come along with us … jump on board as we roll into an exciting new year!

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Information Makeover!

Jessica Nixon ~ VP, Publicity

Just in case you haven’t noticed, we have had a little makeover. The website format has changed to create more of a hub for news and information regarding issues, organizations, events and important movements. There are a few changes in our newsletter as well. We hope that these changes will help you stay in touch with KCRW and encourage you to participate when possible. As for how the changes play out…keep reading.

NEWSLETTER: The monthly newsletter will now be exclusively emailed to members and to those who have requested newsletters via the website. These will go out shortly after each monthly meeting to keep everyone abreast of our activities. This way if you miss a meeting, you won’t be totally in the dark of what is coming up next or about what was discussed at the meeting. Hopefully this will allow you to feel more connected. Also, you will notice the wealth of links and articles shared on our new sight, so the link/book of the month will no longer be a monthly feature in the newsletter. There will be new information updates regularly, so you will want to check back frequently for new things to read and follow. As always, feel free to submit any pertinent news by the 1st of each month to be included in the newsletter. This monthly newsletter will be available at meetings in hardcopy for those that are not able to receive email and you will still receive a reminder card and email for upcoming meetings.

There is still a need for printed information, so this version of our newsletter will be released quarterly (winter, spring, summer, fall editions). These will have articles that are less time sensitive and may also be kept for reference or as a tool for communicating with others about issues. These will also be good tools for drawing in prospective members…extras will be available at meetings for you to take and share with people you might want to invite to a club meeting or event.

WEBSITE: The website has had a visual makeover and as you enter the main page, you will see all of the latest KCRW news and reminders, as well as news from TFRW, the Texas GOP and other organizations. Similarly, there are now several RSS feeds available that are updated almost daily. Check out the DOD Photography RSS links for some amazing photographs. An RSS feed is simply a list of articles or blog posts from a particular website that has been formatted in a way that you can receive automatic updates. You may also subscribe to these (including the KCRW rss feed) within your email software.

And for our Facebook users, there are “share” buttons at the bottom of most articles so you can quickly share news or photos with your friends. This is highly encouraged because 2011 is the year to EDUCATE others about what we are learning within our club. There will also be a way to access and “Like” our new Facebook Page from the website. We are in the process of transferring our page to an Official Page as opposed to a Group so we can have more structure and control over the content. So be sure to “Like” our page next time you log on to Facebook! We will also soon be available to follow on Twitter for you social networking purists out there.

You will notice that along with the ability to subscribe to the Email Newsletter, there is an option to receive Notifications of new articles that are posted to our website. We will be adding our member list to this option. If you do not want to receive these updates, simply edit the settings that are associated with your email from the website or email us requesting to be removed. But don’t be anxious if you are new to the web and all of this blogging and social network “stuff”. We will have a live overview of using our website in an upcoming meeting so you don’t miss anything that is available and can learn about the things that are new to you.

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New Officers for 2011

We installed new officers for 2011 and subsequently, new Standing Committee Chairs are in place. You can find a photo of each Officer and Standing Committee Chair on their respective pages on the website. You can see a list below with a link their email addresses. Contact the Standing Committee Chairs if you would like to be involved in that committee’s activities.

OFFICERS
President
Donna Broder

1st Vice President
Programs
Barbara Jo Green

2nd Vice President
Legislation
Erleigh Wiley

3rd Vice President
Campaign Activities
Ruth Law

4th Vice President
Publicity
Jessica Nixon

PAC Treasurer
Penny Thompson

Secretary
Marilyn Rowden

STANDING COMMITTEES

Americanism
Linda Adair

Awards
Rhonda Hughey

Community Service
Penny Thompson

Hospitality
Nancy Murphy

Membership
Janas Byrnes

Parliamentarian
Jody Deller

Patrons
Jonelle Knisely

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Legislative Day March 2, 2011

Marilyn Rowden ~ Secretary

March 3 is TFRW Legislative Day in Austin, with a TFRW reception/fundraiser to be held on the evening of March 2 at the Driskill Hotel.  Anyone interested in attending needs to contact Donna as quickly as possible; deadline for registration is Jan. 31.  They want each club to provide a gift basket depicting itself to take for the fundraiser auction.  Members already expressing interest include Jody, Linda, Pam, Penny, and Donna.

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In Case You Missed It.

We had a great turn out for our January meeting. It was mainly an organizational meeting with a few words from State Representative Lance Gooden. You can access the minutes from the meeting here, and check out the photos below!

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The Pledge of Allegiance

Linda Adair ~ Americanism

“The pledge was born out of my own love of the flag and for the lofty Americanism it represents” ~ Francis Bellamy

The Pledge of Allegiance was written to express our devotion and loyalty to the United States. The meaning we all, as citizens, can believe in.

“I pledge allegiance” (I promise to be true)

“To the flag”  (the symbol of our country)

“Of the United States of America”  (states that have joined to make our country)

“And to the republic “ (A country where the people choose representatives to make laws that govern them)

“For which it stands” (the symbol for the country)

“One Nation”  (a single country)

“Under God“ (the people believe in a supreme being)

“Indivisible“ (the country cannot be split into parts)

“With Liberty and Justice”  (with freedom and fairness)

“For all”  (for every citizen of the country is)

The five words to describe this pledge – Proud to be an American.