Dining For Women’s Inaugural Leadership Summit Spurs Movement for Growth into 2009

USA (SANEPR.com) October 30, 2008 -- Dining for Women is proving to be a fast-growing fundraising vehicle inspiring women across the country to make substantial changes in the world. To celebrate the organization’s growth thus far and to grow leadership on all levels, DFW hosted its first Women’s Leadership Summit October 17-19 in Santa Cruz, CA. The soon to be annual Summit hosted chapter leaders, members and those considering membership from eleven states including five renowned keynote speakers:

• Marsha Wallace, founder of Dining for Women who has grown the organization from 20 women in Greenville, SC to over 3000 member in 37 states since 2003.
• Sue Ray from Boston, MA, author of “And Now for the Good News,” and president and publisher of Moment Point Press;
• Linda Alepin from Los Altos, CA, founder of Global Women’s Leadership Network, Dean’s Professor of Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University and former executive for corporations including IBM;
• Sande Smith from San Francisco, CA, Director of Public Education for the Global Fund for Women, which has awarded over $67 million to more than 3,700 groups in 167 countries since 1987;
• Robbin Phillips from South Carolina, President of Brains on Fire, a national word of mouth marketing and identity company focused on helping organizations create and sustain excitement about who they are why they exist.

The Inaugural Women’s Leadership Summit kicked off Friday, October 17 with Marsha Wallace announcing the organization’s quarter of a million dollars in global contributions thus far and plans heading into 2009. This was a moment where many members united by the same passion met for the first time. Women representing very diverse chapters from Massachusetts, Virginia, Missouri, Arizona, Washington, California and more converged along a beautiful cliff side drive at the Shrine of St. Joseph Conference Center in Santa Cruz. "I was thrilled to meet women whom I’ve only known electronically for more than two years,” described Wallace. “And to experience the heart-to-heart connection that is much more difficult to feel from a distance.”

Saturday unfolded to typical coastal weather which later cleared into a beautifully sunny afternoon. At breakfast, women shopped from display tables laden with Beads for Life necklaces from Uganda and Made for Peace scarves from Rwanda Knits, all by the hands of the very women benefitting from DFW’s monetary contributions. Sitting down they discussed their children’s choices for college, what they do and what their husbands do, but as the day drew on they began to reveal their individual stories and passions for the cause that brought them each to Santa Cruz that weekend.

Several women spoke of their collective amazement that the founder, Marsha Wallace, was struck with the idea for DFW after reading an article in a 2002 issue of Real Simple Magazine discussing the popularity of women’s dinner circles. Jill Peirce co-leader of the Grand Rapids, Michigan Chapter began her circle in the spring of 2007 after seeing Marsha appear on the Today Show. “This sounded so doable,” said Peirce whose chapter membership has since doubled to 25 members. Gretchen Johnson of Greenville South Carolina described her visit to the group Matrichya in India last December through the DFW Travel Program. “We had an immediate connection of the heart. It was like we knew all of the women when we walked in the room.” Toward day’s end, Julie Kassan, chapter leader for Malibu Lake, California excitedly announced that “The Best of Malibu Lake Dining,” a book of 127 favorite recipes is set to publish in December with proceeds from the sales benefitting DFW’s global efforts.

Sue Ray opened the Summit on Saturday. After splitting the group into smaller units to discuss betterment of DFW at the chapter level, Ray revealed the secret to her business success – “It’s not about me. It’s about putting your passions to work in the world.” Cari Class, conference coordinator and Santa Cruz chapter leader summed up the session with her personal revelation, “From an American perspective, it’s amazing to me the women we are supporting have hope. We are working to shift the paradigm. When I have that type of hope shining at me, I reflect it back.”

Linda Alepin challenged the group to develop methods of growth for DFW. After the group determined “global citizenship” to be DFW’s central mission, she congratulated everyone by stating, “You are supporting organizations that are solving some of the world’s greatest problems… These are adaptive challenges... They require different ways of thinking… and believing something is possible.”

After lunch, Sande Smith discussed some of the most pressing issues facing women and families on a global scale today. Through this presentation, DFW members were offered a clear and tangible picture of the often simple solutions that individual communities and villages were able to develop through the help of funding from global support organizations. Robbin Phillips ignited the group through distinguishing the short lived lives of advertising campaigns from the long-lasting affects of movements. Phillips explained that “Most of Dining For Women’s growth is in front of us… It’s like waking up and going to work everyday and being in love.”

The day concluded in true DFW form as the women headed to the home of Cari Class for an inspirational gathering true to DFW’s mantra - changing the world one dinner at a time. “I was so pleased to meet and host the other chapter leaders from around the country in my home,” Class said of the experience. “We are truly kindred spirits who share the same vision and passion to change the world for the better. Dining for Women is creating a movement.”

Finally, Sunday morning opened to breakfast and roundtable discussions for the improvement of the organization. “Receiving input from all of the leaders about the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the organization was empowering for all of us," described Wallace of the entire experience. “The conference allowed all of us to develop and share a common vision for Dining For Women. And we were all truly reminded that the power of collective giving is tremendous. ”

• To learn more about Dining For Women, visit www.diningforwomen.org.
• To discover a chapter near you, please visit http://www.diningforwomen.org/?page_id=26/.
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