D9 Conference Report: Women Leadership

There was something special and inspiring to be at the Zonta International District 9 conference among women of like minds when word came of the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to three women.

Even before the announcement, there had been a strong endorsement for Zontians to view “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” a documentary film on the Liberian women who brought an end to the civil war there.  Two of the three women Nobel peace winners are involved in the Liberia recovery.  For more information about the film link here.  For information on the Nobel peace prize winners go here.

Standing: Weiland, Neumiller, Hastings. Sitting: Spencer, Foissette

From Hawaii, there were 5 participants at the D9 Conference: Area Director (and Hilo Club member) Mele Spencer, former district Governor Karen Foissette (now a Honolulu Club member), Linda Weiland, president of Honolulu Club, Edie Ignacio Neumiller of Kauai Club and myself. Mele, by the way, has been elected to the D9 nominating committee.  She is well-regarded in D9 Circles.

Our Hawaii group is determined to set up at least-quarterly Club presidents videoconference meetings with Mele.

Snippets from the Conference:

• Membership remains the biggest issue for Zonta International.
• What younger members want:  More service projects; service projects that can be completed quickly; social media; exposure of projects on social media.
• Whatever a Club does should be evaluated against our mission—Advancing the status of women.  That doesn’t mean you can’t take on other efforts for community, particularly children, but those should be in addition to, not in place of projects directed at women.
• We need to use technology to enhance participation in meetings at all levels.  You don’t always need to be physically present.

Lois Frankel, Ph.D., Corporate Coaching International, was a keynote speaker. She is author of Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office; Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich; See Jane Lead and other books. Her website: www.drloisfrankel.com Highlights from her talk:

A woman leader must be a leader for your time. The times are changing. “We still think of powerful women as an anomaly.”–she quoted Margaret Atwood

Women lead all the time, Frankel said, they just don’t call themselves leaders. She asked the audience why that’s so.  Reasons that were called out;

• We don’t what to be seen as arrogant
• Push back from other women
• We were not raised to it

Dr. Frankel said “command and control” leadership no longer exists. It will sabotage you. There is a feminization of leadership going on across the globe.

“We’ve reached turning point,” she said. But the numbers don’t show it. Right now, only 9 of 190 countries are run by women, and women make up about 13 % of legislative bodies. (It has been estimated elsewhere that it takes 30% of women in a legislative body before the female impact matters.)

“We (women) have track record,” Dr. Frankel said, we are just too modest to put it out there. We need to elevate ourselves. (Aside: I thought of this when Nobel laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, in an interview with the New York Times, said she is prepared because she’s been preparing both inside the country and out. She was confident, rather than modest.)

Dr. Frankel said our EQ–emotional intelligence—is more important than  IQ.  Emotional intelligence involves self awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. The new brand of leadership is collaborative, networked, personal, teaching, fosters others to speak up, is flexible and reaches out.

Dr. Frankel outlined eight ways to help women be effective leaders:

1. Articulate your vision.
2. Develop your strategy.
3. Resist perfectionism.
4. Choose the hill you are willing to die on. (Pick your battles.)
5. Get to the point. (First thing should be most important that you say.)
6. Practice 7:1 rule.  Seven positive to one negative feedback.
7. Manage meetings effectively.
8. Build leadership brand. (That means defining it and selling it.)

I’ll make every effort to post more D9 Conference information as time allows.
Cheers,
Barbara Hastings

655 Pencils & More for Africa

Two suitcases filled with school supplies for children in Africa have been packed up and sent to Honolulu today.

Hilo Zontians bought or collected:
655 pencils
28 packs colored markers
23 rules/protractors
45 pens
230 erasers
4 boxes colored pencils
paperclips
65 boxes crayons
45 pencil sharpeners
7 flutophones
17 scissors
10 bookbags
miscellaneous items

They will be delivered to Nancy Pace, MD, who spoke to our Club in June.  Nancy does medical mission and other work in various world tough spots.  She said for some of the children, it will be their very first pencil.  We will keep you posted on  details of exactly where the supplies go in Africa.

Jane M. Klausman Scholarship 2011

Anna Hidano, Zonta International Club of Hilo Klausman Scholar

The Zonta Club of Hilo has awarded the $1,000 Jane M. Klausman Women in Business scholarship to Anna Hidano, a senior at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA. She is majoring in Economics with a minor in Asian Studies and expects to receive her BA in May of 2012. Ms. Hidano was born in Hilo, HI and is a graduate of Hilo High School where she was Student Association President. She was recognized by the Business Education Partnership (BEP), earning three BEP awards during her participation in the program. She also won first place awards in the 2007 and 2008 High School Market Place Competition, a statewide competition. At Saint Joseph’s University she is an At Large representative for the student senate. She will be president of the economic club and has been accepted in Omicron Delta Epsilon, the school’s economic honor society. In addition she is secretary of the Asian Student Association. She has a goal to pursue a graduate degree in an international business field. She would like to return to Hawaii to work, live and raise a family. She believes that she can play a positive role in the local community.

Zonta Communication Survey

We are interested in improving our methods of communication with our Hilo Zonta Club.
A survey was passed around at the last meeting. If you didn’t take the survey, please contact Tonya at 747-9264 so we can get your opinion.

Mahalo and I hope you are creating a great day!

5 New Inductees at June Meeting

Excerpts of President’s Report 06/13/2011

Hastings inducts Robin Messenheimer, Elaine Christian, Alison Lee, Tonya Ozone and Ida Ferris.

Barbara A. Hastings

First, I wish to tell you that it is indeed an honor for me to preside over this group.  The mission of Zonta—to me—is the most important mission in the universe today.  I believe it is the vehicle to solving most of the world’s ills.  We can start in our own backyards.

I pulled a small group together to go over our last strategic plan, and selected these objectives to be a primary focus for at least the first year of this biennium.

1. Foster a positive image of Zonta in our community and a better understanding among current members and prospects.  Iʻm sure that you, like me, talk to friends about Zonta and they just donʻt know anything about it. Yet weʻre nearly 100 years old.  Some secrets should not be kept!
2. Membership retention at 90%.  Our membership committee and immediate past president did an excellent job. With the induction tonight, we have 40 members.  We began the 2010-11 year with 35 members.  Onward!
3. Well-informed membership that participates.
4. Combine service and advocacy at the local level.

I want to thank Tonya Ozone, one of our newest members, who’s agreed to take on public relations tasks of keeping our website and blog updated and helping us keep in touch with each other.  Tonya has prepared a brief questionnaire to find out the best ways to communicate with our membership. We will be hounding each of you until we have all responses.

We will put a lot of emphasis on the Legislative Action and Advocacy Committee—which Zonta International has made one of the three required standing committees, along with Membership and Service.  I’m happy to announce that Pat O’Toole has agreed to chair, and will be ably assisted (and it was how I got her to say yes, by Kathleen Nielsen.)   If you have any interest in this group, contact Pat or me.

Julie Tulang has agreed to continue as Service chair, and to support the concept of small acts of service — little things money-wise or time wise, that two or three of us can do in the name of Zonta.

Karolyn Lundkvist, our new UN committee chair, will give us a 2-minute update at each meeting on status of women and girls in the world.  If you run across some important news, please forward it to Karolyn. We’ll be posting her reports on our blog so if you miss a meeting, you won’t miss the update.

With concurrence of a majority of the board, we’ve nominated Mele Spencer, our area director, as a candidate for the nominating committee for District 9.

Jane M. Klausman Scholarship:Iʻve been asked to announce that Anna Hidano was selected. Thanks to Pat O’Toole and Debbie Shigehara who handled the review and selection. Hidano attended Hilo High School.  She was in the Business Education Partnership program.  She earned first place finishes in 2007 and 2008 High School Market Plan Competition, a statewide competition.  In college she is studying economics  with a double minor in business and Asian studies.  Her goal is to pursue graduate education in an international business field.    She says that eventually she would like to return to Hawaii to live, work and raise a family.

Lastly, Iʻd like to thank each and every one of you IN ADVANCE for saying yes. Saying yes to giving some of your time—we will try to keep it very reasonable—to helping change the lives of women and girls in our world.

April: Officer Elections; Victim Awareness

At its regular monthly meeting, Zonta Club of Hilo elected a slate of officers for the next biennium which begins June 1.

Barbara A. Hastings was elected president; Janice Higashi, first vice president; Sheila Evans, secretary; Jan Haraguchi-Abundo and Karolyn Lundkvist, directors.  Ellen Aoki,  second vp and director Bev McCall remain on the board.  Bonnie Geiger will fill the unexpired treasurer post.

Terri Lum, Kathleen Nielsen, Lisa Faulkner Inouye and Phyllis Shinno at April meeting. Lum and Inouye spoke on victim awareness.

As part of National Child Abuse Awareness Month, National Crime Victim Rights Week and Sexual Assault Awareness Month,  Zonta Club of Hilo hear from
Lisa Faulkner Inouye who spoke about the development of the County of Hawai’i Office of the Prosecuting Attorney’s federally funded project to develop a “Comprehensive Strategy for Juvenile Justice.”  Over 100 persons from across the Island convened to help develop this community-driven plan.

One of the outcomes of this effort was the determination of Four Priority Risk Factors faced by Hawai’i County youth:  Availability of Drugs, Family Management, Family Conflict, and Early and Persistent Anti-Social Behavior.  These Risk Factors are the focus of community efforts to reduce juvenile delinquency in Hawai’i County, and remain the guideposts for the Prosecutor’s Office involvement in prevention and education activities.

The group also heard form Terri Lum, Director of the East Hawaii Children’s Justice Center addressed the history and development of Children’s Justice Centers across the nation and in Hawaii, and the need for a safe place for child victims of sexual assault, severe physical violence and child witnesses to crime to be able to talk about what happened.

She described the Center’s operations and the community and agency involvement that helps to keep the Center going, and the sad fact that sexual assaults continue to occur, that children are often victims of someone they know, and that there continues to be a need for places like the CJC.

The next meeting is May 9, 5 p.m. fellowship; 5:30 meeting starts.  Installation of officers; Guest Speaker, noted Honolulu volunteer and medical missionary, Nancy Pace, M.D.

Note: On April 23, Zonta Club of Hilo will do its annual Weinberg Friends project, supporting Neighborhood Place of Puna.

Zontians support elementary science

In an effort to promote study of science in youngsters, particularly girls, Zonta Club of Hilo sponsored BrushBot Family Focus Night Wednesday (Oct. 27) at Waiakeawaena Elementary School.

Zontians Eleanor Hirano, Dawn Pung, Amy Iwamoto, Irene Nagao, Barbara Hastings and Bev McCall were on hand to watch the kids do experiments to find the center of gravity and to build toothbrush robots.  McCall is also principal of Waiakeawaena.

Zonta Hilo Hears about Heifer International

When women around the world have control of income, it tends to be used for the family,” said Wendy Peskin, who worked as a fundraiser for Heifer International. When men have economic control “it’s not that way.”

Heifer International works mostly with women in rural areas, often where men are absent.  Its mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty

 

Peskin talks about international self reliance.

 

and to care for the earth. Beginning with heifers more than 60 years ago, the group has branched out to many types of animals and been providing families with a source of food and training, rather than short-term relief. Millions of people in 128 countries have benefits from these gifts that promote self reliance.

“Pass on the gift,” Peskin said, is a cornerstone of the Heifer program.  “If you get a cow, the first calf must be raised and passed on,” she said.  Generations and generations of animals have been passed along, “that has an enormous multiplying effect.”

It also has the effect of giving a poor person the dignity to pass on athe gift to someone else, she said.

Heifer International does not send people into the countries to handle the training and gifts.  “They hire people in the area,” Peskin said.  When a village woman exhibits leadership skills, Heifer is likely to train her as a para-veterinarian so she can serve her community.

Peskin said when a woman has an income, its likely she will no longer uffer at the hands of an abusive husband. Often, she said, the woman’s initiative creates meaningful work for her husband in tending the food crops sustained by the gift animal.

Part of the Heifer training, she added, is centered around issues of gender.  Frequently men are victims of their cultural milieu.  During gender workshops, the men and women detail their day’s activities.  The men are often surprised by what the women do.

Heifer also promotes sending girls to school through a “girl child education fund.”

Go to heifer.org to see how you can help with a gift as small as $10.

Zonta Club of Hilo Inducts New Members

 

Nagao, McCall and Aoki

 

Bev McCall, elementary school principal, pictured here with Irene Nagao and Ellen Aoki, was inducted into the Zonta Club of Hilo at the October program meeting.  At the September meeting, Jan Haraguchi-Abundo, a sales promotion officer, was inducted.

The inductions are part of Zonta Club of Hiloʻs membership drive.

Watch Ted.com video on “Century’s Greatest Injustice”

Ladies:

Ted.com offers the following video: 18 minutes.  Sheryl WuDunn who, with her husband Nicholas Kristof, (both journalists) wrote Half the Sky. The Ted.com presentation is called: “Our Century’s Greatest Injustice.”

Click here to view the Ted.com presentation

Some notes I gleaned from the presentation:

Between 60 and 100 million missing females in the world. Demographers have shown, missing in current population. In the last half century more girls “discriminated to death” than all the people killed on all the battlefields in the 20^th century.

One of best ways to fight discrimination and poverty – bring girls into the workforce and/or educate them. Educated women – have fewer children.  Educated men, only a slight reduction.

Women and girls aren’t part of the problem.  They are the solution.

Sex trafficking – at peak of slave trade 1780s   80,000 slaves from Africa to new world. Today 800,000 (10 times) are trafficked across international borders (doesn’t include those within borders.)  $40,000 in today’s money – a slave’s worth back then. Today, you can buy a girl trafficked for a few hundred dollars.

Maternal mortality – 1 woman dies every 1.5 minutes in childbirth around the world.  Poor rural females, mostly.

Others – devastating  injuries; most devastating,  obstetric fistula, tearing that leaves woman incontinent, and often left to die.  (Zonta International has a project in this area.)

Larry Summers, when he was chief economist at World Bank, said, “the highest return on investment in the developing world is in girls education.”

Little bits of help can be transformative.

Please take the time to view this 18-minute, excellent presentation.

Barbara Hastings

Zonta International Accepting Scholarship Nominations

Zonta International’s Young Women in Public Affairs Awards recognize young women for demonstrated leadership skills and commitment to leadership in public policy, government and volunteer organizations. The 2011 District YWPA recipients will receive US$1,000; five international recipients will be selected from the district recipients to receive additional awards of US$3,000 each.

There have been a few changes to the eligibility criteria for the 2011 Young Women in Public Affairs Award. Those changes our outlined below.

• Applicants must be 16 to 19 years old.
• Applicants must be living or studying in a Zonta district or region at the time of application.
• Applicants must also demonstrate evidence of the following:
• Experience in local or student government
• Knowledge of Zonta International and its programs

• Advocating on behalf of Zonta International’s mission to advance the status of women worldwide.

Applications for the 2011 Young Women in Public Affairs Award are now available on the Zonta International website. Please note that the application has been revised and make sure that all applicants use the 2011 version.