The GFWC Nevis Area Women’s Club won the oldest national General Federation of Women’s Clubs for their first conference Empowering Women to Lead 2022.
The convention was held in the “windy city” of Chicago with over 1,300 women attending.
The mission to excel in this award was to host a leadership-focused conference to expose rural women to women leaders, role models and potential mentors while forming new friendships and networks.
The GFWC Community Impact Award offers GFWC Clubs financial incentive to implement projects designed to impact a specific problem in their community. The major accomplishment of GFWC, is to offer the helping hands in many ways in the communities it serves.
A club committee was formed to coordinate marketing, management, grant funding and fundraising. Research data was analyzed to understand the target audience and to set a goal of 300 attendees, including indigenous women. A registration fee was set, the project plan with timelines included location, budget expenses and revenues, marketing, speakers and partnerships.
Donations, grants from corporations and foundations and club-hosted fundraisers were held. The University of Minnesota donated a graduate student to assist with social media and attendee surveys. Local organizations volunteered to work during the conference and door prizes were donated by businesses and health systems.
In addition to the University of Minnesota, the Club also collaborated with the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, the League of Women Voters, St. Joseph Hospital Auxiliary, Leech Lake Nation, Park Rapids Community Education and several local businesses.
The outcome of these efforts were that 290 women registered to attend, 149 of those attendees completed surveys and three follow-up focus groups helped determine content for the next conference.
A partnership with the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota was formalized, improving Club member confidence in tackling more significant issues and projects and increasing community awareness of the GFWC Nevis Area Women’s Club’s projects.
Coming this fall, the second conference Empowering Women/Resilience a hopeful response to life’s challenges, will be held at the Northern Lights Casino in Walker Sept. 13.
As with the first conference, publicity is key to any endeavor. The Club has utilized its website, social media, brochures, presentations to local organizations, flyers, postcards, newspaper ads, free use of business billboards, radio public service announcements, newspaper articles, other organizations advertised the event on their websites and of course, reporters attended the event for newspaper stories and publication television coverage.
This year’s conference is designed to explore and identify resilience-building strategies, help attendees learn to regulate their emotions, stop the cycle of negative thoughts, accept change and lead a healthy lifestyle.
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