Ten of our thirteen 2021-2022 Board members at the Annual Meeting
Dear fellow alums,
Thank you to those of you who attended the Club’s Annual Meeting on June 12. We had a lively dialogue, caught up with many alums we knew and met a few we didn’t, went over Club business, confirmed our new slate of Board members, and toasted this past year and looked ahead to the next with strawberries and champagne. After some deliberation at the Annual Meeting, the Board will meet to discuss next steps for the Club’s proposed revised Bylaws and Mission Statement. Please feel free to take a look at the documents and pass along any feedback on either.
We welcomed three new members: Katie Wynen ’05 and Jean Han ’87 who will fill the co-Vice President roles, Olivia Lucas ’18, who will take on the co-Recent Alum Chair position, and welcomed back Jessica Fajardo ’12 as co-External Relationships Liaison. The rest of the board either shuffled around (say hello to Marija Vulfs ’08, our new Club President!) or stayed in their roles for the next fiscal year. We said goodbye to Emily Wen ’16 and Elena Eimert ’15, who are leaving the Bay Area to pursue graduate school and be nearer to family, respectively. We’ll miss their presence on the Board, and wish them all the best in the future! Check out bios of the 2021-2022 Board members here.
Pay Your Dues
Many thanks to our dues-paying members and those who became Lifetime Members during the 2020-2021 fiscal year. If you want to pay membership dues for the 2021-2022 year or become a Lifetime Member, please do so here: MHC Club of Northern CA Membership Dues. If you prefer to pay by check, please email us.
Lifetime Members
Speaking of Lifetime Members, we gained two more last month: one who would prefer to remain anonymous (you know who you are—thank you!) and Leslie Wellbaum ’64. After graduation, Leslie got an MAT from Yale, taught French at all levels from junior high through university for 20 years, then went to law school and spent the next 20+ years as a judicial staff attorney at the California Court of Appeal, retiring in 2008. She is a transplanted New Yorker with one son, three stepdaughters, six step-grands, and a step-great-grandson, named after her late husband, who was her MHC Speech professor! What a story, Leslie. Thanks to you both for generously supporting our Club!
Common Read
The NorCal Club will be joining the College for the 2021 Common Read. The College has chosen The New York Times bestseller The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race, a collection of essays and poems about race edited by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward. The Common Read is part of Orientation programming and the College will be hosting a virtual discussion about the book on September 9 and the NorCal Book Club will gather via Zoom sometime after that (exact date TBD). Grab a copy from a Black-owned bookstore, a favorite neighborhood independent bookseller, or the local public library, and meet us on Zoom for discussion and community.
Get in Touch
As we continue planning for our next fiscal year, please share with us what types of events, programs, and resources may best support you at this time or any which you may wish to offer. Email us or fill out this form to get started.
We’d love to showcase members of our alum community on social media. If you’re interested in sharing your story, let us know here.
We’re also still welcoming any recommendations of alums who have founded, work for, or volunteer at local Northern California organizations doing anti-racist work or fundraising and will include them in upcoming newsletters. Please send any recommendations to the Board at mountholyoke@gmail.com.
Our very best wishes,
– The Board