Regular Meeting Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Starts at 10:30 AM via the Zoom app. See you online!
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Assistance League of Hawaii - April 2021 |
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Transforming Lives - Strengthening Community |
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Thank you to member volunteer Teri Fritz for hosting one of the Strategic Planning sessions at her swank rental in Honolulu last month. More about Strategic Planning below. |
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Assistance League of Hawaii
Hits 50th Year Anniversary Milestone
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Fifty years ago on April 28th, ladies from National Assistance League came to a lunch held at the Kahala Hilton to make us an official Assistance League chapter. That was back in 1971. It is now 2021 and 50 years later, we are still serving our keiki and community! What an accomplishment! We will be celebrating this milestone at the Thrift Shop during the last week in April. Stay tuned for upcoming events!
As our fiscal year winds down (May 31), keep in mind that our Thrift Store is a year-round operation. Our programs rely on the funds generated there. If you can spare two or three hours a week to help either upstairs or downstairs, we would greatly appreciate it. We are now open Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
We do have a member meeting coming up on April 14th, where you will be voting for next year’s Slate of Candidates for the 2021-2022 Board. I hope you can attend, but if not, we will have email voting available for members so their voices will be heard.
Positions on the board change and so do some of the chairmen in charge of programs, If you are ready to step into a more committed role, I welcome hearing from you. There are several volunteer positions available for next year starting in August.
Thanks again for helping Assistance League of Hawaii hit the Big 5-0!
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National Mandating Enhanced Security & Requiring Strong New Passwords |
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There have been increasing trends of nonprofits falling victim to cyberattacks. The average cost of incidents in the United States is high and is not generally covered by standard cybersecurity insurance. These threats have increased with the transition to remote work environments due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a result, National Assistance League is requiring that collection of personally identifiable information through websites must have enhanced protection. To that end, the Assistance League of Hawaii's Website Privacy Policy was updated and approved by the Board of Directors at the March 3, 2021 meeting. It is posted on the Website as a link from the website footer.
The national office of Assistance League is mandating that all members create and use strong passwords. The deadline for you to update your Assistance League of Hawaii website password is May 15, 2021. Members are being prompted by the website when they login to the Members section for a password update. Follow the prompts on the page.
We are encouraging our members to change to a strong password as quickly as possible.
Two basic rules for a strong password:
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Length: A strong password should contain a minimum of twelve (12) characters.
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Strong Password Complexity: Safe passwords should have a combination of numbers, symbols (special characters), lower case letters and uppercase alphabetic characters.
The secret to creating a hard-to-crack password that’s unique and easy to remember is to focus on making it memorable and making it hard to guess. Seems simple enough, right? By learning a few simple skills, you can easily create a strong and memorable password with
minimal effort. Plus, creating them can actually be fun and your payoff in increased safety is huge.
Using a phrase that incorporates a shortcut code or acronym makes it easy to remember. The following examples are phrases that could mean something to you. For example, the “all for one and one for all” can be written as all41&14all.
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It could be a phrase about money for a banking site, and so on. 2BorNot2B_That-IsThe? (To be or not to be, that is the question - from Shakespeare)
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L8r_L8rNot2day (Later, later, not today - from the kid's rhyme)
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Our techie Mel uses model numbers of cameras, cars and other tech stuff that he owns. For example: SRT101-AE1-sr7!
Website users with roles other than Subscriber will be automatically logged out after 24 hours of no activity.
Users will be locked out for 10 minutes after repeated unsuccessful Login or Forget Password attempts. That is now in effect.
All members who want to access the website at the member login page will be required to update their passwords to alpha-numeric ones like the examples above. Do not use the example passwords.
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An Annual Evaluation Filled
With Optimism For Our Future!
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Mahalo to all who attended our Evaluation Meeting on March 10, 2021.There were lots of firsts for this meeting. It was the first time we met during a pandemic and it was the first time our meeting was conducted using the Zoom format with four break-out sessions. Thank you to Teri Fritz for holding one of the break-out sessions in her home (following current socially-distanced procedures).
The meeting was very well-attended. Thanks to Zoom, 37 members were able to attend (including 4 members from out of state), and 7 members sent in their responses to the questions via email. Members demonstrated a great interest in the continued success of Assistance League of Hawaii, and wanted to be sure their voices were heard.
Instead of the usual questions related to updating or changing our strategies and action plans, we celebrated how we have worked together as a community of volunteers during the past year. We all shared success stories about how we have continued to get the job done with creativity, enthusiasm, teamwork and adjustments to address the needs of the community we serve during the time of COVID-19.
An evaluation summary report will be shared with all of you. This summary will highlight some of the "aha" moments that came out of this year's evaluation. One commonality shared by most participants is that where there is a pandemic, there is a way! Our volunteers really stepped up and found ways to continue to be of service - whether it was working at the shop, from their homes, doing online shopping, social media, or in other unique ways!
It was an evaluation filled with lots of optimism and positive thoughts for the future! There is a real appreciation for people all working together toward common goals that involve doing for others!
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We Care Volunteers Process Layettes
and Malama Bears for Community
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Eighty Malama Bears were delivered to the counselor for Child & Youth Behavioral at Daniel K. Inouye Elementary School by member volunteers Pat Dixon and me.
I was there at a packing party for 236 boys and girls layettes packaged at Mary Kay Junk’s home in Kailua. Thanks to our member volunteers Peggy Monell, Mary Monohon, Helen Taufa'asau and Mary Kay Junk.
The Malama Bears were delivered to mothers of newborns at Castle Hospital by Peggy Monell, Kaiser Hospital by Johanna Leiato and Kapi'olani Medical Center by Carol Jones.
550 Malama Bears are scheduled to be delivered to the Thrift Shop and be placed in Bert’s Room the first week of April. The Malama Bears will be packaged plastic bags (20 Bears to a bag) in April, date to be determined. An email will be sent to Assistance League of Hawaii members that would like to help with the packing. The Malama Bears will be distributed to the main Fire Station, Shriners Hospital and local Hospice Centers, Legacy of Life and other hospitals on Oahu.
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You are all invited to continue your membership in Assistance League of Hawaii for the 2021-2022 fiscal year by paying your dues of $70 by May 15. You can send a check made payable to “Assistance League of Hawaii” to 1505 Young Street / Honolulu, HI 96826 / Attention: Treasurer. Please keep your cancelled check or check carbon for your records, as your dues are tax deductible. You can also drop by the Thrift Shop with your dues, and ask that it be placed in the Treasurer’s mail file.
If you need to be reimbursed for any Assistance League expenses, please submit your receipts and reimbursement form to me no later than May 15.
Thanks to many of our member volunteers and loyal customers, our Thrift Shop has been humming along, generating funding for our service programs. As Hawaii gets back to “normal”, we will be able resume or expand our services even further. We continue to be in sound financial shape, allowing us to continue our good work for families in Hawaii
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The Proposed Budget for 2021-2022 will be presented to the Board of Directors for approval and then to the membership for review this month. A vote to approve the Budget will be taken at the May Membership Meeting. |
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Operation School Bell Still Making An Impact |
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It's been more than a year now since Operation School Bell had a live, in-store event, due to all of the many closures and social distancing requirements brought on by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
We truly miss meeting the children and their families at the Walmart and Target store shopping events.
That all said, Operation School Bell volunteers have been quietly working behind the scenes helping our school children whenever possible. Kierra Vae'ena, of Jarrett Middle School's Parent Community Networking Community recently sent us a copy of a form letter that they are sending to parents and guardians of their students, prominently mentioning Assistance League of Hawaii.
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Ladies in Hats for Fashion Fun! |
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Our Ladies in Hats feature member volunteers multitasking as not only models of our merchandise but bringing an abundance of laughter to our tasks.
Laurelyn Berger has been quietly donating thousands of her hats. Here is one modeled by Teri Fritz (top left) and Laurelyn (top right). Helen Taufa'asau (bottom left) found the perfect hat in our thrift shop for her beach days. Peggy Monell (lower right) modeled the perfect blue hat to match her blue eyes and her Assistance League of Hawaii blue shirt. Hats and many more apparel items are available at the Thrift Shop, now open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
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Thrift Shop to Open on Thursdays Plus
Several Changes You Need to Know
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This month you will see several changes coming to the Thrift Shop. The steering committee met on Wednesday, March 17, and approved the following changes:
The Thrift Shop will be open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm and Saturdays, 9:30 am to 3:00 pm starting April 1.
The dressing room will remain closed until further notice. Donations will be accepted on open days, including Thursdays. We will no longer accept children’s toys. That section in the shop will be added to linens.
The “Door Monitor” position will continue as needed.
Retraining of upstairs and downstairs volunteers and members will be implemented ASAP, so that everyone understands and follows all policies and procedures.
We will be adding a “Last Chance Rack” (all items sold for $2.00 with a red tag)
Plans for the celebration of our 50th Anniversary are in the making.
In addition, procedures and “gentle reminders” for downstairs volunteers will be reviewed and updated.
Things appear to be returning to some form of normalcy. Mahalo to all of you who worked so hard and often during the past few months. We have witnessed a “team effort” in seeing that the Thrift Shop functioned smoothly. Sales were good with friendliness and fun always present. We will miss our efficient “Snow Birds,” so we may have to step up our efforts.
Important: Self-Dealing Policy Update
To prevent self-dealing, all members must follow these procedures:
1. Items will be priced with the next open day’s date to assure that the public has first access to all merchandise.
Example: Items priced on Tuesday will have Thursday’s date on the price tags. Members may purchase those items after closing on that Thursday.
2. Members may purchase items dated prior to the current day’s date at any time.
3. Untagged (undated) items at regular or sale price may only be purchased or put aside by members at the end of the business day.
4. On days the store is closed:
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Members may purchase items with previous days' dates only.
- Clothing with no tags may be purchased from the existing inventory on the sales floor.
5. Members may never purchase items that are still in the upstairs inventory.
*Failure of our Members to follow these procedures can cause Assistance League of Hawaii to lose our nonprofit status. This policy applies to Community Volunteers also.
The updated policy is effective April 1, 2021
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April 2021 Thrift Shop Calendar
Please Note New Thrift Shop Hours on Saturdays
Our Regular Membership Meeting is on
Wednesday, April 14 | Starts 10:30 AM
This is a virtual meeting using the Zoom conferencing app.
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Your Monthly Service Hours
Thank you for your diligence in submitting your service hours every month. It is very important for National Assistance League use and to demonstrate the good work that we do to our donors. Please send your hours to me at the end of every month so I can enter them onto the spreadsheet. Only the total is necessary. For those of you who worked during the summer and forgot to give them to me, please include those. Let me know if you need assistance in submitting the hours.
Thank you, Vicki Fay - Telephone (808) 282-0878. Your hours can also be sent by email to: vandwfay@mac.com
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Amazon.com donates 0.5% of qualifying AmazonSmile purchases to the charitable organization of your choice. Why not choose Assistance League of Hawaii? Here’s how it works:
2) Sign in with your Amazon.com credentials (Amazon Prime can be used too.)
3) Select Assistance League of Hawaii as the charitable organization.
4) Start shopping!
5) You can add a bookmark for smile.amazon.com to make it easier to return again to shop at AmazonSmile.
Once you have Assistance League of Hawaii registered with your Amazon Smile account, every time you shop at Amazon that .5% of your purchases help us! Mahalo.
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Telephone (808)946-1505 • Email: althrift281@gmail.com
Newsletter Editor: Melvin Ah Ching assistanceleaguehimarketing@gmail.com
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