The 2023 Annual Meeting and Gala in Nashville was a great success and so much fun! We had a record 67 attendees and guests! We enjoyed barbecue at Jack’s; a docent-led tour of the historic Ryman Theatre; and, line dancing and dinner at the Wildhorse Saloon. Nashville’s hotel’s proximity allowed the attendees to walk to all of the entertainment and venues during the Getaway.
The guest speaker prior to the annual meeting was Sara Beth Myers, Deputy General Counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center and founder of AWAKE, Advocates for Women And Kids Equality. We elected the 2023-2025 board and announced the winners of FAUSA’s two $5,000 Annual Grants. It was such a close race this year! At one point we had a four-way tie for second place! The winners are A’gin Healthy Sexuality and Body Sovereignty - Braided Curriculum Project, Tewa Women United (which was our guest speaker at the Santa Fe Annual Meeting last year); and Family Sponsorship, Refugee Assistance Alliance out of Miami. Congratulations to both recipients! If your preferred charity did not win this year, please try again next year. The previous board voted to increase our contribution for FAWCO’s Target 5 project, which puts us a little over $9000 towards Awesome Blossoms, which is the highest tier for contributions.
Our entertainment for the Gala was Tatiana 'Tajci' Cameron, an award-winning music artist, a world-class entertainer and songwriter, and a Eurovision Song Contest finalist. During the live auction we had a demonstration from samurai Tim MacNeil, which was a big hit! We raised a record amount of $36,065 from the silent and live auction and also the quilt sales. The quilt drawing winner was a very excited Janet Darrow. The board is committed to continue to be good stewards of the generosity of the members.
Special thanks to Murray Frick for once again being our fun and entertaining auctioneer. A big thanks to Nan de Laubadere for donating the beautiful quilt. And thanks to Rick Chizmadia for creating another great video to remind us of the fun we have when we are together. A big thank you to the Getaway team for putting together another fun FAUSA weekend: Liz Janson, Kathy Limbaugh, Linda Harvan, Rick Chizmadia, and Suzanne MacNeil. And finally thank you Jennifer Padfield for publishing our annual report again this year.
