<p>Have been to two junior league events recently. They are interesting and possibly sometimes I may consider but am not sure. Don’t know if I’d like or be able to handle the structure while running a non-profit as its main driving force.</p>
<p>Would love to read about others’ experiences with it. Great motivational speaker today & went to an interesting lunch fashion show earlier. Not sure it’s quite my thing but it seems to be good for networking.</p>
<p>I’d be interested in hearing about it too. Junior League is one of those organizations I’ve heard of since forever without ever figuring out what they actually do. Their mission statement is very vague - something about promoting volunteerism. Okay, but beyond holding fundraisers for the Jr. League itself, what do they actually DO? And where is the Senior League? You never hear about them.</p>
<p>I am a former Junior League member (though I quit before I became a sustainer). I really enjoyed it. It really is all about volunteerism and teaching women how to be in leadership roles - done in a very organized way.</p>
<p>I believe some things have changed since I was a member. You use to have a ‘sponsor’ and letters of rec but I think they have dropped that. Your first year you are a ‘provisional member’ and generally you have to work a fair amount at the league’s in-house permanent fundraiser - at my JL it was a thrift shop we owned and you had to work 2 shifts a month and attend monthly meetings where they introduced you to different people and aspects of the community. The JL of Houston runs a ‘tea shop’, in Atlanta they had a craft shop.</p>
<p>After your provisional year, you have to pick a ‘placement’ each year - it can be in the community or a league position. I was quickly ‘tapped’ for some league leadership roles. For example, I was headquarters chair one year. Usually there are a lot of placements to choose from and there is something to fit everyone’s schedule. Also, some leagues do major fundraisers every 3 years or so. They usually require all league members to work on those fundraisers and they can be very time-consuming. All money goes back to the community.</p>
<p>My JL didn’t do a lot of social activities outside of meetings. There use to be an upper age limit and most members went sustaining at around 40-45, so the general membership tended to be on the younger side. I joined when I was 29 and most of the members of my provisional class were young mothers and very few worked, so it tended to have a more upper-middle class demographic. I’m not sure if they are seeing an older demographic these days or not.</p>
<p>I thought it was totally worth it because I got to meet a lot of women my age and got to know people in the community agencies. In our community, the junior league is very respected among community leaders. It was fun to see a large fundraiser come together. It * can * be time-consuming. We brought in those animated dinosaurs as our big fundraiser when I was a member. I was on the steering committee. We raised $300,000 over 10 week period of time. I ended up quitting when I went back to get my master’s degree and then went back to work full-time but sometimes I wish I had stuck with it.</p>
<p>Did I mention it can be time-consuming…</p>
<p>I joined the Junior League in '96 when we moved to the town we still live in. I was cleaning out closets and donating a bunch of clothes to the local thrift shop that was run by the Junior League, and I got to talking with a nice older woman who was volunteering there. I told her we had just moved to town, and she said “you should join the Junior League!”</p>
<p>It was a great way to meet people I normally wouldn’t meet otherwise. Since I work full time, it was hard to meet other moms. I knew a few who were mothers of my kid’s friends, but by volunteering, I met women with younger children, women with older children, single women, women with no kids – more of a mix. And it was so easy to talk to each other – there’s something levelling about folding used clothing or making meatloaf for the soup kitchen – no one had an agenda or was criticizing everything you said. It was a great way to make life long friendships.</p>
<p>Having said all that, there were definitely some powertripping blond girls in my area who typified every negative stereotype of the Junior League. But they exist in the larger community too – you just figure out who they are and avoid them. </p>
<p>Overall, I would definitely recommend it.</p>
<p>I’ve been a Junior League member for 6 years now. It’s a good way to help in the community, and I’ve met some amazing women. Our league has partnerships with a number of social service and cultural organizations throughout the city, and we provide them with large numbers of trained volunteers. We also give grants to nonprofits in our city - serving on the league’s grantmaking committee has been one of my favorite placements.</p>
<p>My league is one of the larger ones, and one of the things we struggle with is keeping members feeling connected when there are 1000+ active members. I’ve found that the easiest way to feel connected is to take on leadership roles (which is suprisingly easy to do). There are also numerous social events organized for league members, although I don’t do many of those.</p>
<p>The structure works for me because I have a busy life - kids, full-time job, church, etc. Being in the league gets me out in the community in a sustained way, which, to be completely honest, I probably would not do if I had to organize it on my own. In my league, you can control the time commitment somewhat - some committees require more than others.</p>
<p>I thought membership in the Junior League was limited to women under 40–and then when you’re over 40, you no longer participate in the same way. My college roommate, who is the Denver area, was a member there and I recall that she was disappointed that she couldn’t participate as fully when she turned 40. Is that the case with all Junior Leagues?</p>
<p>I think they did away with the age limit. It was originally designed for young women.</p>
<p>I joined the Junior League when my son was an infant. I loved it, I am still close friends with several women from my provisional class, I am also close with many of the women I met when I was provisional chair. </p>
<p>I am a sustainer now, we still have social events. I loved the volunteer training aspect of the League, many of us joined other organizations, I know I felt prepared to chair some pretty large fundraisers after working on Junior League projects.</p>
<p>Our League was one of the first to do away with the age limits.</p>
<p>I joined long ago. Forget how I became interested other than the fact that my mom and sister had always been quite involved. I quit before I could a sustainer.</p>
<p>I think my brought me there was that I was an at home mom with and needed to get out and do something not kid related. I really enjoyed some of the projects, but they were also very time consuming. Eventually I quit when I felt my kids needed me more. My mistake when I joined was that I had had a nanny back when I working fulltime and when I asked her why she was interested in leaving her current position, she explained her then-employer who didn’t work “made excuses” to leave the house like going to Junior League meetings.</p>
<p>The junior leaguers I have known, have been those frightfully organized and energetic women that make everyone else feel like they are slacking. Perfectly nice, just different personality than I.
I have run a few auctions myself as a chair of the PTA, but I always had impression that the junior league in our area had more of the " ladies who lunch" set and who were attorneys or politicians &/or their wives which was different background from my blue collar household.</p>
<p>Plenty of volunteer organizations to get involved with in our area- just pick your interest.</p>
<p>Just curious… are the majority of Junior Leaguers college graduates?</p>
<p>Never been a Junior Leaguer but for some reason this came into my head. “I would never belong to any organization that would have me!”</p>
<p>Many Junior Leagues (if not all by now), allow anyone to join. Originally, it was invented to give young women (hence “Junior”) leadership and fundraising training, and to raise money for good causes, and promote camaraderie. In the three leagues where I was a member (I moved around a lot), most of the women were college graduates and already had significant leadership experience outside of the League (many were working business women and lawyers, etc.), so these chapters were extremely effective at fundraising, and the leadership training was for all intents and purposes, professional.</p>
<p>The ones I met yesterday all appeared to be college grads and very articulate. Several are in publicity/marketing (understandable) and several have young children. There was quite an age range, from youngsters in their early 20s to sustainers who are 50+. The speaker was from Tennessee and talking about the 11 commandments to being WILDLY Successful Women.</p>
<p>Not sure it’s really a fit for me, but I did know several of the folks who were there, including a financial planner I had consulted some years back. Also met a women who had been in my investment group many years back. At my age >50, not sure I want to join & be with the young 20ish folks whom I would be starting with.</p>
<p>Also, not all that keen on fundraising–did it for our kids’ public school as a necessity but never something I actually enjoyed.</p>
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<p>This is a pretty accurate description and most members are college graduates. Usually they are stay-at-home moms who are actively involved in their kids schools, etc. But there are some high-power career ladies also - the woman I bought my current home was a partner in a law firm and was president of our JL chapter.</p>
<p>HImom - my guess is not many women join at your age, so you would probably be among the oldest in your provisional group. A good friend was just finishing up her league requirement to sustain when she was in her 40’s and she said she was among the oldest current members in our chapter.</p>
<p>I do think there needs to be a more active ‘senior league’ organization for women our age. We use to joke that the league kicks you out right as you find yourself with an empty-nest and more time. Seems sort of silly.</p>
<p>The sustainers tend to do their own thing - luncheons, meetings, etc. though they will occasionally put in an appearance at key meetings and of course, buy tickets for league sponsored fundraisers (which is probably what you attended, HImom). As a current member, you probably won’t interact much with sustainers and you have to put in a fair amount of time to qualify as a sustainer. Knowing all that, I can’t see myself re-joining at this age - though it is a great organization.</p>
<p>I also would not consider joining JL at 50+. I believe the original intent of JL was to train young women in voluntarism so that they would be prepared for “big league” fundraising after age 40, like for the American Cancer Society, etc. I think you will find that many older women who are active in those fundraising organizations are former Junior Leaguers.</p>
<p>Yeah, it seems like they want too much from me for what they would give me at this point in my life. May stay on the fringes with my sustainer friends instead. Keeping my nonprofit going keeps me plenty busy anyway. :)</p>
<p>The Assistance League may be more up your alley in terms of age. I have a friend who joined just a few years ago and my mother joined when she turned 40 (in those days, she would have been too old for Junior League).</p>
<p>HIMom – if you mainly want to network for business purposes, I don’t think JL is the best thing for you (given the time commitment). I think its main benefit to new members is introducing them to other women in their community and giving them “roots” if they get relocated (think corporate wife) to a new town. </p>
<p>You might find better value in offering a scholarship for area students. Its something I’ve thought of doing – you can choose to make it for something meaningful to you – community service; expertise in languages – and you’ll be able to have positive publicity that will probably make business flow your way.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>I’d like to have a copy of every JL cookbook ever written! They are the best!</p>