As your Co-Presidents for 2019-2020, we are honored to serve you. Thank you for the confidence you have invested in us and your new Board of Directors. We pledge to keep us focused on the grassroots foundation of this League to support the fine work of all of our committees as they strive tirelessly to make Orange County and Central Florida a livable, safe, healthy, educated, and sustainable community with peace and justice for all of our citizens and visitors.
The sheer number of volunteer hours you have given and continue to give is absolutely amazing! We applaud you. Compared to the nation, Florida ranks at the bottom of civic volunteerism. But, that’s not us! The volunteer work of this League does make a difference—we defended convicted felons who have served their sentences to restore their right to vote, we have written a book about our 80-year history, we have put solar on roofs, we have defined fair districts, we have defended the Sunshine state against becoming the Gunshine state…the list goes on and there is so much more work we must do.
You have set out a bold Program of education and action for this year. We urge you to study it carefully and find all the places where your voices will resonate and your talents will serve. We are 100% volunteer—an amazing feat for an organization that became the largest single-county League in the nation with 900+ members by the end of 2018. We have defined our first Strategic Plan where we envision four horizons for continuous improvement: diversity, engagement, leadership, and infrastructure.
We predict a year of more than 1,000 members and will work toward achieving diversity that more closely mirrors our community of voters. For you, our membership, we are committed to strengthen our infrastructure to better serve this dynamic organization where new leaders and members will have a roadmap so they can hit the ground running to fulfill our mission of empowering voters and defending democracy. We will work toward Increased member engagement and retention to have more resources available to fulfill our mission and program of education and advocacy. We believe in the power of collective leadership and involvement to drive state and local policy to make Central Florida a better place, beginning with our first meeting with our new Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings on May 10.
This is us; we are you. We will give all we can to appreciate, promote, and resource your work—and then some. We ask you to give us feedback about how we can do a better job of serving you. We promise to listen intently and consider every suggestion for how it will further our mission, program, and strategic plan.
Expect great things to happen!
Sincerely, Gloria Pickar and Sandi Vidal