Page 27 - CALIFORNIA WOMAN - 2024 WINTER EDITION

DOWNTOWN SACRAMENTO BPW

Downtown Sacramento welcomes 2024 as we cele-
brate 105 years of supporting the working women of
the Greater Sacramento Area.
The club will continue to periodically hold joint meetings with our Twin Club, St. Andrew
(Jamaica). Last October we addressed cultural differences in the perception of Sexual Harass-
ment and on Saturday January 13 we took a cross-cultural look at Sexual Abuse including de-
fining it and support services available.

With the September meeting we were introduced to Sacramento Mayoral candidate
Dr. Flo Cofer. She shared her extensive community involvement resume and her reasons for
running as well what she hopes to accomplish as Sacramento’s Mayor.

In December the club welcomed NFBPW Military Affiliated Women Chair, Alice Gallop
West. During her very interesting presentation she introduced us to “Camouflaged Sisters,
Silent No More” an anthology of women’s military experience including Domestic Violence, Mil-
itary Sexual Trauma, Depression/PTSD/Self-worth and The Road To Healing. It includes how
they survived and made positive changes to “the system”. Alice is a contributing author and
strong advocate. Alice can be reached at Alice Gallop West militarywomen@nfbpwc.org.
th
The February program will be in preparation for Winter Board and the 64 Public Policy Con-
ference.

In the coming months Downtown Sacramento will be exploring ways to celebrate their
105th anniversary, with a hoped for in-person gathering in the fall.

Increasing membership is a priority but difficult for us because of the distribution of our
members from Oroville to Atwater and from Santa Rosa to Minden NV. Vice President Sher
Singh is working her Sacramento networks but we all know meeting colleagues face-to-face is
the best way to share benefits of BPW involvement.

Succession planning is also on our agenda. We have been recycling our leaders for quite
some time now. In hindsight, the new members we did attract (thank you Sher) were not
properly introduced to BPW – they did not stick with us to experience the many benefits of
BPW. This is on all of us. It is the responsibility of all members to reach out to new members
for a personal introduction.

The 2023 BPW year for Downtown Sacramento has been successful although challeng-
ing. With the club members working together we can finish the 2023-2024 CFBPW year with
a continued sense of accomplishment.

Submitted with gratitude to the work of our members,
Katherine Winans, President
Downtown Sacramento Business and Professional Women