Report of 2005 South Area Meeting

It's hard to believe that the 2005 South Area Meeting has come and gone. Since the offices of Paula April and Vicki Miller (convention coordinators extraordinaire) were devastated by Hurricane Katrina, planning for the meeting required a lot of reconstruction and took on an air of urgency as we rushed to make sure the meeting could go pretty much as originally planned. And, voila! , it did, but in some ways it was really unusual. It was emotionally charged , We had 5 members from the Mississippi Gulf Coast Club and 2 members from the Southeast Texas Club who attended the entire meeting. They quipped that since their lives had been turned upside down, they really didn't have anything else to do – but we know that's not exactly true. All of us who still had homes and jobs were just in awe of them, their resilience and their love of Quota.

We heard a few stories about struggles – primarily about the devastation across the Gulf South and specifically about some of the agencies that are supported by our local Quota clubs. One of the most difficult experiences for some of us was to view again pictures of the places we used to call home and over which we still grieve. Finally we were in a safe place for expressing our sorrow and it just couldn't be held back. We were excited to have International President Carolyn Rice with us all the way from Australia , but poor Carolyn! She had just been on the MS Gulf Coast and must have found it especially difficult to report her experiences to people who were feeling this personally.

Of course, she was wonderful and did such a superb job of kicking off our meeting, with the assistance of International Treasurer Daryl Perrine, that people heard the messages and gave to Quota International and to the We Share Foundation $6542 via a live auction, silent auction, and QI “sales” (Quota jewelry for donations of at least $50). In addition, Past International President Lynn Stephenson collected $1260 in the 50/50 raffle and divided the house 50% between the MS Gulf Coast and Southeast Texas clubs.

On Friday afternoon, PIP Charlotte Schamadan entertained and educated us with the latest advances in hearing restoration. Then we presented our first ever SAMY awards for South Area Milestone of the Year. As with the Excellence Awards, clubs nominated projects they had undertaken during the last year in the areas of Hearing & Speech, Disadvantaged Women & Children, Recruitment, Retention, Fund Raising and Fellowship & Fun. The first place winner in each category received $50 and a certificate and the honorable mention winner received a certificate, both presented by President Rice. In a power point presentation put together by Vicki Miller, each club's submittal was acknowledged and the projects of the winners described with use of photos they submitted. It gave clubs a way to share (even if they couldn't attend the meeting) and gave our visitor from the Ukraine , who is interested in starting a Quota club, a great overview of what Quotarians do. (See list of winners in the online Newsletter.)

Leadership was the focus on Saturday morning with governor reports and an interactive session on developing leaders led by PIP Bobbie Carey. With her usual panache, International President-Elect Enid Croes-Marugg filled us in on development and growth efforts at the luncheon, and in the afternoon we offered five 50-minute workshops, of which attendees could attend three. For those who had heard enough out of Paula, Vicki, Lynn/Rosemary H., two inspiring and challenging workshops were presented by PIP Rosemary Patterson (Service) and by Carole Berke (Fundraising).

Since this meeting was planned as a mini-convention, we had a service project: books for kids up to age 10 in the Memphis City Schools Hearing Impaired Program. On Sunday morning, a young deaf boy currently in the program came to officially receive the books and three young college men who had previously attended the program, signed a song. The program was described to us through a Power Pointe presentation by its supervisor, Deborah Harris (QI of East Memphis). Then, much to everyone's surprise, it was announced that the decision had been made to give the books to the clubs devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to help with the programs they were supporting in Mississippi and Texas .

So you can see that much of the meeting was very serious but so was our fun. It all began during registration on Thursday afternoon when the West Memphis (AR) club treated us to delicious home-made treats and punch during a Meet and Greet. That night we toured Elvis' home at Graceland with dinner in the car museum. Friday night was a dessert party with a game and recipe swap followed by the live auction. Since Paula April was the auctioneer, it was a hoot – such fun that a perfect stranger stopped by to see what she was missing and ended up bidding, purchasing and saying she didn't know who we were or what we did, but that she wanted to join our club. We had a talent show on Saturday night and again laughed till we hurt.

So - the meeting went pretty much as planned – which was amazing. We must thank the Quota International staff in large part for that since they immediately came to our rescue and made meeting information available directly from their website and by forwarding my change memorandum to all South Area members. These two things were unbelievably helpful since the server with both the South Area website and our member data base had been destroyed by Katrina.

I had been concerned about adding a day, but it didn't seem to affect attendance. Although we didn't get the 100 we really needed or the 150 we hoped for, we had 79 attendees who were pretty much there for the entire event (even though we didn't give time off for shopping, etc.) and were very vocal in their appreciation of the balance between the business and the fun of Quota. I believe attendance was impacted two things: hurricanes and football. What can I say: - that those of you who didn't attend really missed a great meeting – and we really missed you.

Rosemary Hannie
South Area Director
Quota International