Doll News Fall 2016 - 165

The collection continues to grow with generous gifts from our members, both ﬁnancial and in doll and dollrelated items. Our collection is ﬁrst class but it cannot survive without operating funds. It needs our member support. While we look at ways to assist our organization ﬁnancially, for example through grants, the bottom line is that we have to rely on our member base. Our Fundraising Committee is our third standing Committee. This committee has introduced a variety of fundraising initiatives including the Pay-a-Day and Adopt-a-Doll. eBay continues to provide a strong source of fundraising monies and we appreciate the donations made by our members that support this. Past President, Linda Edward, has assisted with this over the past year. The Committee has made strides in educating our membership about the need for donations to the organization. We are a legitimate 501(c)3 charity and yet many of our clubs still look outside of the UFDC and donate to other charities when they make their annual donations. Our membership has a long history of great generosity to the organization and when called upon have always answered that call. To all our members and clubs who have made donations over the past year, I sincerely thank-you on behalf of the organization. To the donors who have supported this year's convention so generously may I again say thank-you on behalf of our attendees. Due to the success ﬁnancially of last year's convention we began the year in a good ﬁscal position and we had no major issues with the building over the past year. This year we have welcomed a new editor to DOLL NEWS. I say new but this particular editor is not new in fact to the role of editor. Cynthia Musser has done an exemplary job and has brought her experience, knowledge and artistry to the position. She has re-introduced having the paper doll printed on heavier paper and has offered a wonderful variety of articles for all our members to enjoy. For the past two issues I have assumed another hat as Advertising Manager for DOLL NEWS. I would like to express my appreciation to all our advertisers who support the magazine through their ads. Many of these same advertisers can be found in the convention salesroom. To produce a magazine of the quality of our magazine requires both the contributions from our members' UFDC dues and advertising dollars. Region 10 Director, Donnell Wisniewski, has generously offered to take on the additional role of Advertising Manager going forward. This speaks to the dedication of our Executive Committee and Regional Directors. We all do what we need to do to keep things running smoothly no matter how heavy our workload is. And we do this as volunteers. Your Regional Directors have spent the past year visiting clubs and communicating with their members through their newsletters and meeting with members. Our Region 16 Director, Diane Chappell, is responsible for our MAL's and clubs outside of the United States. Distance limits travel opportunities for Diane. Diane set up a Facebook page so that our international members could have an opportunity to communicate with Diane and with each other. It is this kind of innovative thinking that our RD's bring to our organization. We continue to explore the ways that we can use technology to increase exchanging and sharing information with our members. Having our magazine available on line allows all members to receive DOLL NEWS simultaneously and this has been a great advantage when mailed copies are delayed, particularly to our international members. Our website has seen improvements but not to the degree that we know it could be. This is another area where we rely on volunteer assistance. We thank Maria Greene, our web Editor, who in spite of having her own business and full time job, continues to keep our website current. I would like to acknowledge the three other members of the Executive Committee who I have the privilege of working with on a daily basis. Loretta, Barbara and Maryll continually demonstrate their devotion to the UFDC through their diligence and dedication. We are a true team and we share the same hopes and aspirations for our organization. In closing I would like to quote from the very ﬁrst issue of DOLL NEWS published in January of 1952. Editor Janet Johl wrote: "A Federation such as ours can be a very wonderful thing! There is no limit to what it can accomplish for in "Unity there is Strength. When we recognise the power for good that our Federation is, the question will never arise again...Why Federation?" These words rung true in 1952 and they still do in 2016. Sixty-four years ago these early members could never have imagined what would be accomplished six and a half decades later. There is still so much more left to be done and nothing is impossible to us as long as we remain united in the goals set forward in our mandate to educate, preserve and conserve. Janet Gula President DOLL NEWS * UFDC.ORG 165 http://www.ufdc.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Doll News Fall 2016