Any Junior Leaguers Out There?

MomLive
Sun, 14 Aug 2011 10:35:39 +0000

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Did I mention it can be time-consuming…