AJLI Winter Leadership Conference - Houston, Texas

It was my privilege to attend The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc.’s (AJLI) 2012 Winter Leadership Conference in Houston, Texas at the end of January as one of 340 delegates from 197 Junior Leagues across the Association.  Continuing with this year’s theme of transformation, the focus was on assisting Presidents Elect and Presidents Elect Elect in their personal transformation to League Presidents, the transformation of individual Leagues and the transformation of the entire AJLI.

My schedule included informative and often very lively workshops titled:  Becoming the Chief Governance Officer, Deliberating Differently as a Board, Moving Towards Greater Social and Cultural Inclusion, Creating an Effective Communications Plan, Tapping the Potential of All Members and Creating Successful President/President Elect Teams.  For a number of the sessions workshop participants were divided by league size, which allowed us to share challenges and solutions that were most applicable to our individual leagues.

Our group plenary sessions focused on our rights and responsibilities as members of AJLI, governance structure recommendations, the Junior League’s single sex policy and an update on AJLI’s continuous learning and development process.  As this process is rolled out over the next year, members will have access to professional learning tools to assist in our development as community and civic leaders.

Of course the women of the Junior League of Houston were wonderful hosts, beginning with a lovely reception in their gorgeous and Texas-sized facility.  They also treated us to two outstanding luncheon speakers in Dr. Mark Kline, an international leader in pediatric HIV/AIDS and global child health and Kathy Cloninger, Chief Executive Officer Emeritus of the Girls Scouts of the USA.  Ms. Cloninger related the journey she recently led to revitalize the Girl Scout brand as the premier leadership experience for girls.

I’d like to thank the members of the JLC for affording me this opportunity to learn and experience the power and motivation of an incredible group of women.

Lynne Christensen