Junior League: 100th Year, Grand Celebration in the Works, Part II

Yesterday, Maureen Strasheim, president of the Junior League of St. Louis talked about becoming a member; going through the training and all in Part I. Today, the interview continues:

Patch: What is the structure of your board of directors and how is the decision making done?

MS: “We just this year authorized a separation of our governance from our management.  We have six vice presidents and a president and each runs a different area: programs, fund development, training and internal operations. Within those committees are a variety of committees with chairs.

Currently, we have 18 board members, and we meet once a month.

We’ve been focused on the management side with day to day issues and haven’t spent as much time as we’ve wanted on vision, strategic planning, that kind of thing.

Everyone on the board has multiple roles.

Most of these leagues go back many, many years. Traditionally, we’ve had day time meetings, but today so many women are working and our structure has been based on that model.

The Association of Junior Leagues International (the umbrella organization of all leagues) has engaged groups to work on a new model.

Governance is a key issue and membership trends and community impact and we (St. Louis) were selected to work on  the governance track.”

Patch: Typically, where might your members come from?

MS: “We find members from all over the place. We have a strong mix of members from various age groups. Many women, just coming out of college are busy establishing their careers, they don’t have as much time, but they still want to be involved.

Another group are a little more established in their careers and have a little more flexibility with what to do with their time. Other women have their children full time in school and have more time available.

There is no typical Junior League women. We have very professional women who want to be at home and we have stay-at-home moms who want to serve. We cover all age ranges. We get all different ideas that way.

We have members from across the country who transfer in (to St. Louis). They want to connect with other women right away.”

Patch: How does the Junior League maintain its position in the community?

MS: “Mainly we want to promote volunteerism. Our Strong Woman initiative targets a small group of women who really need help.

Our Family Theatre program introduces children to the fine arts.”

Patch: “What is the Modus of the Junior League?

MS: “We have a pattern of doing projects for a certain number of years then we turn them over to another agency.

The Junior League started Girls, Inc. Head Start is a program that was started here in St. Louis. We organized the volunteer component when the Koman Race for the Cure first came to St. Louis.

That way we can stay fresh and determine what is the next need in the community and turn these projects back to other organizations.

Our singing programs are near and dear to our hearts. We have We have a day-time group the League Larks and a night time group, named the Nightingales. These groups typically go out at perform at low-income nursing homes and day care facilities. They perform patriotic songs that particularly appeal to those kinds of facilities.”

Patch: How many general members do you have?

MS: “We have around 300 active members who have completed their training requirements. We have our sustaining members, those who are active 10 years or so. They want to support the league but don’t have to be on committees. There are about 250 of them.

Our biggest fundraiser are the sale of Cinnamon rolls and they are done by the sustainers. We sell them at Straubs and Spicers and we sell them at our office. the Smoke House and Frank’s Market. 90 percent of our sales come from our members.

We just finished our Kitchen Tour, that is our third year. We have six homes that were on that tour this year.”

Patch: Your 100th year is coming up. How will you celebrate that?

MS: It is going to be great. In May, we will host the international annual meeting at the Renaissance Grand Hotel. That will be about 800 women from 280 leagues. We will conduct the day-time tours and provide the hospitality. We are planning a kickoff luncheon in February. The fifth Kitchen Tour will be part of that and we will focus on some kind of summer event and then conclude with a gala.

It’s wonderful that all kinds of women from all over the area service our group. We even have two members who have reached emeritus status (lifetime of service) and no longer have to pay their dues.”