June 2019 News and Updates from Philadelphia Chapter

Our chapter is approaching the summer season with exciting news. We are over 400 members and making a measurable impact in our communities from our community volunteers to our largest Giving Circle award.

As we grow, we face many challenges including the support for all the activities we provide for our members.

All our services, operations and activities are delivered to you by our many volunteer leaders. We continue to improve how we do things to make it simple and enjoyable for our leaders to manage. Some of these changes are listed below in our Steering Committee update:

Announcements :

I am very excited and pleased to welcome two members into leadership roles with the PHL Chapter Steering Committee: Mary Clifford as our Membership Chair and Dell Williams as our Steering Committee Secretary. Both Mary and Dell's biographies are on the Steering Committee Bio page. Please join us in welcoming Mary and Dell.

To help the Events Committee manage the increasing number of events, we are changing the way events payments are received. The changes will be implemented for new events starting in July, please read the Events Committee summary of change below.

Our Giving Circle announced the winner of the 2019 grant of $25,000 The grant was given to PA SeniorLAW Center. Each of the 4 runner-up organizations received $1,000 grant each. See the full details below.

Key Initiatives:

To highlight the various opportunities in TTN leadership, the Steering Committee will continue to offer our members a "Happy Hour" to explore opportunities for engagement. The events dates and place will be posted on the Events Calendar. We look forward to meet you at one of our "Happy Hour".

We will want to hear from you! What you like about TTN, how we can make our chapter more successful, how to ensure everyone is involved and achieving their goals, etc. Sometime in July, you will receive a brief survey to help us assemble the information. Please take a few minutes and respond.

Let's remember to thank all the volunteer leaders who are making a difference in our chapter. We continue to have open roles and always welcome volunteers to help manage our chapter. Please let us know if you would like to contribute to our chapter and be a part of the volunteer community that is making the Philadelphia chapter home for you.

We wish everyone a healthy and adventure filled summer. Don't forget that sun block!!

Warm Regards,

Fatima Class

Chair, TTN Philadelphia

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Giving Circle 2019 Grantee: SeniorLAW Center

On May 23rd, 60 members of the TTN Giving Circle met at a packed meeting to choose the winner of this year's $25,000 grant. After hearing presentations from the five finalist organizations we voted by a large margin to choose the PA SeniorLAW Center as our 2019 grantee. Our money will go to support the Center's Kinship Care services. Through their Families in Crisis: Keeping Grandparents and Grandchildren Together project, the Center provides direct legal and support services to low-income families, usually grandmothers, to gain custody of young children whose homes and lives have been torn apart.

In addition, each of the other four finalists will receive a grant of $1,000. They are Camp Sojourner, Nationalities Service Center, Parent Child Home Program and Uplift for Grieving Children.

Click here to see photos of the meeting.

In 2013 we awarded our first ever grant to Valley Youth House in support of youth aging out of foster care. Last year with Turning Points for Children we supported the same mission. The troubling facts we learned about foster care from these excellent organizations informed our decision to fund a program that will allow children to avoid that system and be raised instead by loving family members.

As we begin a new giving cycle we hope you will consider joining us.

For more information visit the TTN Philadelphia Chapter Giving Circle or contact Carol Cunningham ( [email protected]) .

Announcing: Change to Events Registration Process

As our chapter membership continues to grow, our volunteer leaders continue to look for ways to simplify existing processes related to event registrations.

Beginning July 1, 2019, events that require payments will require payment by credit card and the option of paying by check will no longer be available.

We believe this change will streamline the process for both the members who participate in chapter events and for our member volunteers who work to provide our chapter with a full calendar of quality events.

What TTN Means to Me

When I moved to Philadelphia 4 years ago I knew no one - Zero. My husband and I had recently retired and wanted to live in a walking city; there are precious few in this country.

I had done a career move from Manhattan to Boston years ago and found a social club there that was a lifesaver. Could something like that exist in Philadelphia? After some Googling, I found TTN. Once I studied the website, there were no competing choices. I needed to connect with people, find new friends and get some structure.

TTN has provided that precious opportunity and more. I was able to join a Special Interest Group book club - a wonderful way to learn about other views and discover great books. It was pretty loose in the beginning, but the members were dedicated and I hung in. Over time I offered to be a coordinator and we now rotate meeting at our apartments. Its such a joy to reconnect every month - meetings are rarely missed.

The Peer Group concept was a part of TTN that fascinated me. It wasn't easy finding a space but once I was in, it was worth the wait. I love the concept of topic discussions. Our group created a sign-up schedule for a year. Each one of us leads a discussion on a topic of her choice.

Other TTN benefits are certainly the variety of events! I love skimming the Events Calendar to register for events that interest me. I know for a fact that if I didn't go to some of these places with TTN, I'd just talk about them but never actually get there.

I'm very thankful for everyone who helps get us connected and organized. I'm a big fan of having things pre-planned. Time's too precious to hang around waiting for things to happen.

Martha Morgan

TTN member since 2016

Tell Us Your TTN Story

Go to any TTN event, program or activity and you are bound to be amazed by all the wonderful women - women whom you might not have met if it weren't for TTN.

YOU are one of these amazing women! You have had an amazing life, an amazing career or an amazing adventure. And we know TTN has helped make you the amazing person you are today.

Has TTN made a difference in your life? We'd love have you to share your story with our members. If you're interested is writing a short article for our newsletter, or in being interviewed for an article, please contact Tess Waldman at [email protected].

Summer and SIGs

Summer and SIGs...they go together. When the temperatures heat up, we look for ways to explore all our area has to offer and make new friends while doing it.

Four new Special Interest Groups, in our most popular categories - Art Appreciation and Food - have recently launched and are looking for new members.

Off the Beaten Track and Art Appreciation 4 are two new Arts SIGS that will visit some of the many art venues in the Delaware Valley.

Off the Beaten Track is meeting at the home of SIG Lead, Madeline Sherry, on June 12th at 4pm. Contact Madeline at [email protected] for more information.

Art Appreciation 4 will hold its organizational meeting on June 20th at 1:30pm at Risa Granick's. Risa can be reached at [email protected].

A call for members interested in trying out the great restaurants in the city has spawned 2 new restaurant groups.

The Weekend Restaurant Group will do their exploring on the weekends. More details will be decided at the organizational meeting held by Mary Cantor on Sunday, June 16th at 11am. Please contact her at [email protected] to be included.

Dinner on the 4th Friday is also ready to launch and will meet on June 28th for an organizational meeting to be hosted by Teena Rutberg. Let Teena at [email protected] know if you're interested.

Be sure to check out the SIG page on the website for the over 40 Special Interest Groups that are sure to keep you busy this Summer.

If you have an idea for a new SIG, Joanne Bowes at [email protected] will be happy to take your suggestions.

SIGs are a benefit of TTN membership.

Program Offerings

Throughout the Spring, the Programs Committee has been working with a small and dedicated group of TTN women who participated in the On Resilience Introductory Workshop in March, followed by six individual sessions which form the On Resilience Conversation Series. We're heading into our 5th session this coming week and will be able to share insights from the graduates later this Summer. Speaking for myself as one of the facilitators, not only have I learned more about my personal character strengths that play a role in developing resilience, I'm noticing week by week how I'm applying these skills and strategies in new challenging situations or conversations and deepening my capacity to be resilient. I am grateful to TTN for developing this in-depth course and look forward to being able to offer this to more TTN members in the future.

I want to point your attention to a fantastic program being offered on September 10th called What's In Your Active Aging Toolkit: An Evening with Joy Loverde. Joy is a well-known author, speaker and "Active Aging" expert and this evening promises to feed your body, mind and soul with food and wine, time for socializing, a signed copy of Joy's book "Who Will Take Care of Me When I'm Old", an Active Aging Worksheet and clear, practical and relevant suggestions for you to build your own plan for aging well. This session qualifies as Self-Care! Register here.

We'll also be offering the Women in Transition Workshop again this Fall, a program on Creativity and several others.

If you know motivational experts or speakers on topics relevant to our TTN community and want to recommend that TTN include them as part of our Programs offerings, please contact me.

Marsha Yankelev

[email protected].