BWA: July Newsletter

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July 2020 Vol 4 Issue 10

President's Message

Happy Summer, Ladies!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Fourth of July weekend. What a great opportunity for us to reflect on the many sacrifices of those that came before us. Let us not forget that every generation has had its challenges, made sacrifices, and come together for our great country. Our sacrifices today will be recognized and appreciated by those that come after us.

I think we can all agree…” what a long, strange trip it’s been.” Like the lyrics to the famous Grateful Dead song, “Truckin’” so eloquently expresses, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

Arrows of neon and flashing marquees out on Main Street
Chicago, New York, Detroit and it’s all on the same street
Your typical city involved in a typical daydream
Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings

Sometimes the lights all shinin’ on me
Other times, I can barely see
Lately, it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it’s been

With that in mind, we are planning our coming year with caution and flexibility. While we would like to hold in-person meetings, we recognize that is not prudent in light of recent developments. Therefore, we will be holding our monthly membership meetings via Zoom for the time being. If anyone has difficulty accessing or using that platform, please reach out to BWA Administrator, Debbi Hartman. She does a fabulous job of assisting our members!

As a thank you for your continued support, we are adding a July membership meeting on Monday, July 13 via Zoom and a judicial forum in August also via Zoom. Details on those events to follow.

I am extremely excited about the year ahead. Your Board of Directors has been working hard behind the scenes to implement changes we think you will like – some of which you’ll hear about at the meeting on July 13 - and charting a path for BWA’s new direction. While we honor our past – and look forward to celebrating 30 years of BWA this year! – we recognize that we must change in order to meet our goals. I hope that everyone will contribute to what I expect will be a very instrumental year in BWA’s history.

I want to say a special thank you to Patricia (“Pat”) Zeiler, our President this past year, and the outgoing Board of Directors. It is never an easy task to lead an organization, and Pat encountered her share of challenges this year. She kept us moving forward and will continue to share her talents with us as Immediate Past President. We were fortunate to secure a commitment from the majority of our Board of Directors for their continued service in the coming year, and I look forward to working with them. I also look forward to increased member involvement and engagement. If you would like to become more involved, please let me know. Many hands make light work!

With warm regards,
Vivian Fazio
President

Meeting Information

Success is a journey that has many directions to it
Join us on our journey and how to bridge it into success

Monday, July 13th
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Zoom

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether be a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Member News

KRISTEN GOSS, ESQ.
Vice President Membership, Broward Women’s Alliance Board of Directors

Kristen Goss will be joining Leadership Broward’s Class XXXIX for 2020-2021. Kristen views this opportunity as a blessing, and she is sincerely appreciative of her fellow BWA colleagues who were instrumental during her application process. A special shout out to BWA members Jillian Krueger Printz (LB XVII) and Maureen Dinnen.

Kristen serves as the Founder and Managing Partner of KWG Family Legal and Mediation Services, LLC. She is a Marital and Family Law Attorney, Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator, and Certified Guardian Ad Litem.

She is a native of Broward County, and when she is not acting in her attorney/mediator capacity, she enjoys serving our community. She is actively involved in several organizations in Broward County. including serving on the board of Kids Demonstrating Worth, Inc., a non-profit organization focused on mentoring foster youth in Broward County, United Way of Broward County, the T.J. Reddick Foundation, the Broward County Bar Association, and the Broward Black Chamber. In her spare time, Kristen enjoys watching Lifetime, a good Netflix movie, values spending time with her husband of 12 years, and mothering her two young daughters.

MAUREEN DINNEN
Scholarship Chair and At-Large Member, Broward Women’s Alliance Board of Directors

Several of our Broward Women's Alliance 2020 Scholarship winners have communicated their gratitude for being awarded their scholarships. We have also heard from applicants who did not win this year that they appreciated the process and intend to re-apply in the future. On a personal note...thank you to our raffle supporters for the wonderful martini set gift I won in June. It was delightful and put to good use, believe me!

Below is an update from one of our current scholarship award recipients, Desiree Casanova. This is the second year she has received a scholarship from the BWA Foundation. She is to be commended for her perseverance: she applied for the scholarship twice before she received it. She maintains a 4.0 GPA while working full-time.

DESIREE CASANOVA
Broward Women’s Alliance Foundation Scholarship Recipient

During quarantine I have been fortunate to continue working at the City of Coconut Creek. We have created virtual meetings for our live meetings and been working diligently to serve our residents remotely with fewer staff in the office during this pandemic.

I continue to pursue my Masters in Public Administration degree (MPA) at Nova Southeastern University and have completed my capstone course this summer. This course is one of the final courses for the MPA program and integrates the information from several previous courses in the program. For this class, students identify an existing program or service gap in a non-profit or public organization and propose to create a new unit or sub-unit to address the program and/or service gap. In proposing the new unit or sub-unit, students are required to justify the need to create it by specifying human capital, financial resources, program assessments, and the approval process for the new unit or sub-unit to be created. My topic was the creation of an American with Disabilities Act (ADA) sub-unit within the City Clerk Department. The completion of this course required that I submit a minimum of 100- pages of documentation. As it turned out, to support my project, I submitted 124 pages, lol, as well as a Zoom presentation to explain and support my proposal.

I now have one month to relax and enjoy a nice break. I will continue work on my MPA degree in August and will take Introduction to Non-Profit as well as Public Budget in the Public Sector and then two additional courses in the winter semester.

I want to thank BWA once again for their support. You have my wish to stay safe and healthy.

VIVIAN FAZIO, ESQ.
President, Broward Women’s Alliance Board of Directors

I don’t know if it’s exciting, lol, but I attended the first-ever virtual Florida Bar Convention. Though in quarantine, the subcommittees of the Civil Procedure Rules Committee, which I serve on, have been incredibly active, holding telephone and video conferences to continue the important work of reviewing, considering and where appropriate, revising, the rules of civil procedure, which all lawyers practicing in the civil courts of Florida must follow. The subcommittees recently presented their work to the full Civil Procedure Rules Committee at its previously scheduled meeting during the Florida Bar Convention via Zoom, and committee members voted virtually to accept or decline the proposed changes.

PATRICIA ZEILER
Executive Director, History Fort Lauderdale & Past President, Broward Women's Alliance Board of Directors

Congratulations to Pat Zeiler who had an article she wrote on behalf of History Fort Lauderdale (formerly the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society) appear in the Sunday, July 5^th edition of the Miami Herald.

In the article, Pat pledges that History Fort Lauderdale will join other museums and institutions to continue to accurately tell stories of the region’s racial past: From the annihilation of the indigenous people of our county to the lynching of Rubin Stacy in 1935, to the racial persecution and contributions of our Black pioneers and Caribbean immigrants who settled here.

To read more on how History Fort Lauderdale, under Pat’s leadership, is meeting this challenge, click HERE to see the entire article.

DEBBI HARTMAN
Broward Women’s Alliance Executive Administrator

The Board of Directors is forming a new committee to review, revise and update the BWA website. The committee currently consists of myself, Pam Moskowitz, Diana Plucienkowski, and Elisa Stone.

THIS IS YOUR INVITATION TO JOIN THE COMMITTEE. We need member input on how useful and intuitive the site is, the ease of navigation and the site content that only our members can give us.

Please let me know if you are interested in joining. We will only meet virtually.

Just email me at browardwomensalliance@gmail.com if you are able to serve on the committee. We really need your input. Thank you!!!!!