President’s Annual Report 2018 – 2019

                                                Women’s College Club of Princeton

We are now finishing our 103rd year as the Women’s College Club of Princeton.  And we are finishing this 103rd year with 92 members.

The best part of being president of the Women’s College Club is working closely with a board of wonderful women… despite the fact that the far end of the table in the Executive Dining Room can be very rambunctious, I am so grateful for this board of hard working, dedicated women who, more often than not, have two jobs that they do for this club. I am grateful for their enthusiasm, imagination, hard work, and humor.   We now meet here at Windrows and have benefited from the warmth and enthusiasm of the staff here and I would like to thank them all for that and for today’s luncheon. And I want a big shout out to Janet Reiche and Mary Frances Stahler for their hard work and patience putting this luncheon together.  I want to thank Mary Giordmaine, Eila Mackenzie, and Mary Frances Stahler, who are retiring from the board this year.  And I want to report that our former President and dear friend, Florence Began, is recovering well and quickly in Seattle, Washington.

Our treasurer, Nancy Lifland, is about to send out dues notices for next year and wants to urge one and all to return their dues and information on a timely basis so that we can get our new directory out.    Please send your check in as soon as possible. We desperately need a new and current directory.

Lynda Woods Cleary, Endowment Chair, reports that as of May 6th the total value of the Scholarship Endowment Fund is $377,560.00.

Program co-chairs Barbara Johnson and Janet Reiche started our year off with the program “Grounds for Sculpture: Looking Ahead”; followed in October by Richard Eiger’s “Postcards from a Book Publishing Career”; in November, we heard John Buck, Elaine Buck, and Beverly Mills’ wonderful “A Proud Heritage, The African American Presence in Hopewell”; and then it was holiday time and Emily Skilling and Tyler Weakland brought us “White Christmas”.  February brought us Reverend Dr. David Mulford’s “Jimmy Carter, Peanut Farmer to President”.  Professor Thomas J. Espenshare returned with “Innovations in Early Childhood Education”. Our redoubtable program chairs added a last minute and wonderful April program, “Intelligence Analysis and War Preparations in 1941″, a powerful and moving talk from Robert Ashbaugh, retired Assistant Director of the Justice Department.  In January, we gathered at the Nassau Club for catch up time and shared the occasion with Jane Ashcom, our favorite docent from the Princeton University Art Museum and Margaret Pazalla-Grandlund, Director of the College of New Jersey Art Gallery and Sarnoff Collection.

Our trips started with a visit to the College of New Jersey’s art gallery where we visited with artist in residence Marguerita Hagan and her fascinating work inspired by diatoms.  As part of that trip we visited with some of the TCNJ students who had worked with four local New Jersey artists over the summer and exhibited their work at the gallery.  In December, we saw the spectacular and huge exhibit “Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment” at the Princeton University Art Museum, followed by lunch at Prospect House on the campus.   We returned to the College of New Jersey to visit the Sarnoff Collection and we were charmed and educated by our docent Flori Pieri who joined us for lunch at Panera’s after the tour.  And on Thursday, June 6th we will go to the Princeton University Art Museum to see the exhibit “Gainsborough: A Family Exhibit” with our favorite docent Jane Ashcom followed by tea and sherry chez moi.   There is a sign-up sheet here.

This year the Scholarship Committee Co-Chairs, Alyce Conlon and Marlene Gordon and committee members Elaine Rafferty and Marilyn Shtier interviewed 23 young women and awarded a total of $30,000 dollars to 11 young women:  six from Princeton High School, three from Princeton Country Day School, and one from The Hun School and one from Stuart Country Day School.   The sources of these monies are from dues, the endowment, and donations.  Once again, Murray Peyton was there to present The Ramona Peyton Memorial Award this year to Adrienne Wang; Laura Marks presented the award in memory of her mother, Margery White to Oona DiMatteo; and Robert Hillier presented his award in memory of his mother Florence Bell Hillier to Zoe Jackson.

Publicity Chair, Beverly Kestenis placed monthly meeting announcements and names of award winners, in the following: The Trenton Times, Princeton Sun, Princeton Packet, US1, Town Topics, the Echo, Princeton Patch, and Princeton Online. Pictures of our scholarship winners were sent to the local papers.

Our Newsletter was issued eight times by email and snail mail.  Members supplied information about the Book Group, the Opera Outings, the Lunching Out group, and Trips.  The program chairs listed upcoming programs and your president offered varying degrees of wisdom.  The format with “mail chimp” was found to be unsuitable and the old format continues.

Our recording secretary, Mary Giordmaine, kept us informed of what we had said and done whether we wished to be reminded or not.

Our Hospitality Chair, Mary Frances Stahler, reports that there was no cost for the hospitality for this year.  A cold beverage was added to the menu and was well received.  There were some spectacular cakes!

Our website continues to attract a larger and larger audience under the oversight of Helen Ju, our web master who started the year with the picture of the board. A section was added that celebrated our four World War II veterans; dates and hostesses of board meetings, information about the general meetings and photos of the general meetings were posted as well as interest group information.

And now let’s vote on the slate and get on with the Princeton Festival guests.                                        ——Kathy Hutchins, May 20, 2019, Monday, Annual Luncheon Meeting.