Cheryl F. Wilson
mastcfw@aol.com

Greetings,

AH!!! Finally, I am an Associate…. proudly wearing my JNJ Badge of Honor. I am also delighted to bring you greetings as your 2006-2007 Regional Associate Chair. My prayers and blessing go out to you all for a most successful program year. The fall brings upon us a hustle and bustle of school, meetings, and extracurricular activities for moms and their children. Through it all Moms, take a deep breathe and remember your time is never wasted when spent nurturing our children. You are training them on the importance of community service and preparing them to take their rightful place in society.

I must admit I am enjoying the freedom of not attending meetings, child care arrangements, car pooling, and planning activities. Time to “relax” is a new discovery and a joyful adventure for me. However, I can’t forget my JNJ days and hope to encourage more of the tenured moms to join me as an Associate. As an associate we can enjoy each other socially and assist the chapters in so many ways in a” mentoring role”. Joining the associates allows us to get reacquainted with each other and share our memories in a social atmosphere. But most importantly is a formal way of assisting the chapters and the organization we love.

Associates can serve as a valuable resource to the chapters by providing historical information, assisting in planning clusters, conferences and ceremonies, assisting in service projects and fund raisers. Each chapter should appoint an Associate Coordinator who will be the liaison between the chapter and the associates. This should be a mother who may have two years remaining in your chapter. Her role will be to share all regional and national associate information with the active mothers and the local chapter associates. An informational brochure explaining all levels of associate membership, a life membership application, the Each One Recommend One form and the Mothers Away from Home Form, will be on the national website @ www.jack-and-jill.org, in early October, under the Mid-Atlantic Region Section. If any active mother knows of any tenured mother who may be interested in becoming an associate please complete the “Each One Recommend One form and email the information to me at mastcfw@aol.com.

The associates’ national project is the reorganizing of the” Mothers Away from Home Program.” This program is establishing a database of active and tenured Jack and Jill Mothers to assist those students who are college students in there areas, but away from their home.You will be hearing more about the Mothers Away from Home program this year. In addition I am asking that each chapter solicit a few active mothers as well as tenured mothers who may be interested in volunteering to assist students who are away from home through our “Mothers Away From Home Program.”

May I close with this call to all the tenured mothers ….becoming an Associate allows you to continue to share in preserving the legacy of Jack and Jill while enabling us to share our talents, knowledge and experience to help others. It also affords us the opportunity to continue in the fun of Jack and Jill proudly wearing our JNJ Badge of Honor!

And that’s the latest buzz…..