Back to Basics Retreat for New Board

In December, Northwest Forest Republican Women of northwest Harris County, Texas, provided a "Back to Basics Retreat" for  the incoming Board of Directors. (2021 officers and committee chairs).  Because clubs have so much business at the first of the club year, having a board retreat gives the incoming board all the basics of being a federated club, from the state federation to the national federation plus the operations of the local club.

The Retreat was held 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. with lunch provided. Folders with agenda, general information, and individual job descriptions were handed out along with incentive Leadership mugs and club pens. The purpose of the Retreat was to train, educate, and motivate members of the incoming board to better prepare them for the first meeting in January 2021.

The presentations were: "The Form and Function of a Federated Club" (Sylvia Manley), "The Importance of Club Communications" (Jo Konen), and "How County Government Works" (Kay Shillock). Blow-up charts of the organizational structure of the Texas Federation of Republican Women and the National Federation of Republican Women were on a large easel. Board members were able to see where their club fits with both the state and national federations.

The best part of the Retreat was everyone getting to know each other better as well as understand their jobs and how it all works together to make a successful club.

Presenters were incoming President Sylvia Manley, former TFRW District Director; Jo Konen, past Chair of the NFRW Leadership Development Committee, TFRW; former officer, Deputy President, Publicity Chair; and Kay Shillock, former assistant to a Harris County judge.  All are past presidents of Northwest Forest RW and the Greater Houston Council of Federated Republican Women and past presenters at the Greater Houston Council Nuts "N" Bolts workshop.