Category: Letter from the President

The past year was full of ups, downs, and sideways. I often find stepping into a new year brings a breath of fresh air. As I reflect on 2022, I found myself smiling, thinking of all that our Chapter has accomplished and given back to our community. The past year was filled with wonderful events, meetings, and real connections made.

As our November guest speaker Larry Krauter taught us, I’ve taken on a new meaning of the term bleasure: business, and leisure. The idea of mixing business trips and events with leisure sounds like something we all need more of, especially as we enjoy the holidays this season with family and friends.

I’m not sure about you, but the last meeting had me energized right from the beginning, with a wonderful inspiration by Elizabeth Arnold from Avista. She spoke so eloquently about perseverance and the continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition.

If I’ve learned one thing over the past few years, it’s this: when life slows down, I feel a greater pull to fill my time with priorities that genuinely mean something to me. Am I spending time and energy on emotionally draining things or restoring my zest and compassion for life?

It feels surreal to me that this is my final President’s Message. I started to re-read my earlier letters, and what emerged was a common denominator. The natural guess would be EWI – what business we were attending to, important reminders, organizational necessities, and other timely updates. Everything that you would expect. And you would be right.

I’ve just returned home from an impromptu 24-hour visit to Seattle. It was a blur of a day with my husband’s family, but a rare visit by two nephews gave us (nearly 25 of us) an informal reason to come together and spend time. 

While unusually wet and rainy this year in the Inland NW, during the 4th of July holiday weekend, people across America gathered to eat, drink, laugh, celebrate and enjoy their freedom; unselfishly provided to us by a countless number of brave souls, past and present. As I sat down to write this article, my memories drifted to the friends and family that have served this country gallantly, including both of my grandfathers, my father-in-law, my brother-in-law, and my own father. I thought about the word “freedom” – what it means to me, to my family and to this community.

I don’t know about most of you, but lately, I find myself more often than not saying, “I can’t believe it’s June already! Where has the first half of this year gone?” In conversations, it feels like we are all being pulled in so many directions. Between our personal and professional lives, we’ve had our head down (maybe to avoid all of the rain this spring), relentlessly pushing forward just to keep up. I know I have.

May is a special month. For Spokane, a sense of normalcy covered the town as Bloomsday returned in-person, renewing nostalgic feelings of community. In the days following, we celebrated teachers for the profound impact they have had on young lives.

Birth. Death. Celebration. Remembrance. Anniversary.

It may not come as a surprise, but in the dictionary, the word anniversary translates to “the date on which an event took place in a previous year.” Of course, that’s true, but in my opinion, it’s an awfully dry explanation for a much more powerful meaning.

If last month’s amazing scholarship banquet taught me anything it is that investing in people—young people as well as people young at heart—is always the right thing to do. And that’s what EWI does. We invest not only in students who are setting the world on fire, but we are actively investing in each other and in this great community.

February is the month of love! Plato classified the love of friends and equals as Philia, and that describes our chapter so beautifully. Many start their EWI journey for strictly business reasons, and they stay in EWI because of the close relationships that they form. I, for one, am so grateful for the experience I’ve gained through EWI, but even more grateful for the people I have met.

2021 is here! We have all been ready for 2020 to end. I have so much hope for the upcoming year. While we all know that it will take some time for things to get back to “normal,” I have no doubt that 2021 will be better. But, for some of our member firms and representatives, the economic realities of today are very challenging. Now, more than ever, we need to live out our EWI mission of bringing together key individuals from diverse businesses for the purpose of: promoting member firms, enhancing personal and professional development, and encouraging community involvement.

As we come to the close of 2020, I am reminded of the fragility of life, health, and economic stability. I am also encouraged by the resiliency of human beings and our capacity for hope. Our Chapter representatives have experienced a lot of loss this year. It is comforting to know that belonging to an organization like EWI is a positive and important factor in our resiliency. We are social creatures, and being a part of a community like EWI is good for our mental health, in addition to being good for business. Even introverts like me benefit greatly by having strong connections and through focusing on helping others.