Looking Forward – Goals from the President

A few words from the current Women Communicators of Austin President, Lisa Maxwell

Well, I’m finally taking my turn as president. I have served on the board or as a volunteer for WCA and its previous incarnations since we were talking about how to do broadcast faxes. And although the technology has changed in that time, what I personally gain from my involvement in WCA has not: connections and growth. Some of my very best friendships have come from WCA, not to mention one of my favorite jobs, and a ton of great networking. And I’ve grown personally and professionally by taking on volunteer projects with WCA that have been simultaneously enlightening, stressful and very rewarding.

Our organization accomplishes a lot given that we are completely volunteer-run. It is one of our biggest challenges each year to handle the administrative turnover when the board term expires and the new board starts. We also lose a ton of organizational knowledge over time. My personal goal for the year is to work toward improving our processes so that WCA is well positioned for its very bright future. We had a great first year operating independently as WCA, and with that independence, we have many more options about how to grow and what to do moving forward.

This year, we restructured the board of directors, creating a more vertical organization and reducing the number of board members by almost half. Board members are building committees and off-loading some of the day-to-day operations of the organization to those committee members. Over time, this should a.) allow the board to function more strategically and b.) drive member engagement by involving more people in getting the business of WCA handled.

We also have a strategic planning task force starting work on what will be a longer-term branding project. You’ll see a member survey coming in the fall and I encourage you to please answer the survey and be thoughtful with your responses. WCA is your organization and we really want to know what will make it as special to you as it has been to me for more than two decades.

We’re working on building an intranet for our board and volunteers to use, will be celebrating our 85^th Anniversary this year and are also looking into more opportunities for engagement with our community and other nonprofit organizations, and with all that, we are still working to deliver you a fantastic year of our regularly scheduled programs and events. That’s a ton of stuff to do!

Our board of directors is a creative, knowledgeable and super-fun group and we definitely need help if we’re going to accomplish all we have set out to do. I encourage each of you to visit the Get Involved page of the website and volunteer.