Happy Holidays, from Club President Rita B. Allen

The Boston Club • December 26, 2019

Happy Holidays!

As we come to the end of 2019, let’s take a moment to reflect on the accomplishments The Boston Club made throughout the past year – none of which would have been possible without the commitment and engagement of our members, as well as the dedication and hard work of our staff. It is with deep gratitude I offer a recap of few highlights:

We welcomed 76 new members to the Club representing diverse backgrounds from a variety of industries, profiles and demographics. 24% of our new members are women of color.
In addition, we partnered with 52 corporate partners and sponsors to support programming, networking and development for the Club.
Once again, we celebrated two successful Salutes , Community and Corporate , with prestigious speakers and distribution of our research on gender diversity on corporate and nonprofit boards.
In total, we produced 39 programs (live and virtual) for our members and the community at large covering a wide range of topics including privilege, diversifying funding streams in nonprofits, getting ‘board-ready,’ women in biotechnology and philanthropy, and inclusive leadership, just to name a few.
We continued to collaborate around programming, advocacy and networking with many external partner organizations and started the process of initiating several others.
We rolled out a new website for the Club with a refreshed look and substantive content.
The popularity of affinity groups continues with a total of 21 currently active affinity groups , including the introduction of 5 new ones this year.
Last, and certainly not least, our peer-to-peer mentoring program is thriving with 15 pairs in the 2018-2019 year and 19 pairs in the current 2019-2020 year.

Recently we concluded a member survey to better inform us of your needs as we begin to plan the year ahead. A record 34% of members responded to the survey – thank you! Your opinion really matters! We’ll be sharing the survey results with you, both in the Dashboard and in changes you’ll see throughout the coming year.

As we begin a new year, there is so much energy and potential ahead! I will continue to say this is a pivotal time for the Club and we are enthusiastic to lead the changes that are needed to sustain the Club and to advance women’s leadership. Next week, I’ll share some of the plans for 2020.

In the meantime, I hope your holidays are warm and wonderful!
Rita