Hello to all and Happy New Year! As a matter of introduction; my name is Kathy Bresnan and I have been elected as the NFWFW president for 2017. I have been an auction attending, fund supporting member of NFWFWF for over 20 years and for the last two years I have been the treasurer of our organization. I live in Manhattan where I am a practicing Certified Financial Planner and I spend most weekends at my home in Cutchogue. It is my goal that in a monthly note posted here I will be able to keep our membership abreast of what the organization is working on and accomplishing.

First, I want to convey that as a result of an amendment that has been made to our by-laws; going forward there will be better continuity of leadership and succession planning will be clearer for all. The Board has ratified a leadership structure where there is a 3 year tenure with titles of:

  • President-elect
  • President
  • Past President

Each of these roles is for ONE year for a total THREE year ‘presidential’ obligation

  • The president-elect is a sort of ‘lady in waiting’ and will be the de facto next president. Helping the current president where possible – this is a voting role.
  • Current president – is just that
  • Past president will be the previous year’s president
    • Will focus with other past presidents on fund raising • Members who have held this role may be the future of the ‘advisory committee’
    • The past president may attend any of the board meetings but is not required to do so unless requested by the current board president.
    • For one year following ‘presidency’ this is a voting role.

In 2017 these positions will be filled as follows:

  • Marj Snyder President-elect
  • Kathy Bresnan President
  • Lori Cohen Past President

We continue to award grants in a variety of ways and denominations to a diverse swath of our membership. One type of recurring grant is the ‘Lifeline’ button. Many of us have seen the commercials “help, I have fallen and I can’t get up” but really the devise is more than simply fall detection. In addition the Lifeline buttons may have location technology and access to call centers 24/7 in the event of an emergency. This type of grant helps the recipients to maintain some level of independence or engenders a feeling of not being all alone. Contact NFWFWF if you or someone you know would benefit from this type of grant.

We are working on updating our web page; two enhancements in progress are a revised calendar which you will be able to consider a resource for dates, times, and locations; and a Founders Award tab profiling our honorees to date.

Speaking of the Founders Award; this week I attended an observance of the life of Tommy Thomas our 2015 honoree. It was a wonderful homage to a woman who was among other things: an artist, an editor, a partner, a friend, an aunt, a boater, and apparently an amazing base stealer. I learned of the joy Tommy had in collecting and creating. It seems this is also a relevant opportunity to acknowledge Tommy’s generosity; in general and to NFWFWF specifically. We have benefitted from; Tommy’s sculpture donations to our annual Jan Swanson Auction always ‘top sellers’, her determination to be the winning bidder on numerous auction lots, and in death from a planned bequest of $30,000 to our Fund. It is difficult to quantify all of this, as an organization we are simply grateful.

Speaking of the Founders Award [again]; have you heard? Mary Dorman auctioneer extraordinaire has accepted the Board’s unanimous nomination as the 2017 honoree. The celebration will take place this March at Bedell Cellars.

Finally, the Board is proud of our accomplishments in 2016; we will be recounting the last year at the Annual Meeting which is scheduled for Saturday January 28, 2017 at Poquatuck Hall in Orient, 1pm. I hope to see many of you there at the gathering and look forward to meeting many of you who I do not already know.

Kathleen Bresnan
NFWFWF President

PRESIDENT’S REPORTS