masterplan
strengthening the family: Family Empowerment
Excerpt from Black Family Reunions, Finding the Rest of Me by Ione Vargus, PhD, founder of the Family Reunion Institute at Temple University.
Family Empowerment might be a serious learning tool for many reunions who’ve never even thought of how they govern and expand their reunions. This excerpt is the first of a series of three to improve reunion leadership. Also read about governance and listen to two podcasts about reunion leadership on www.reunionsmag.com/categpry/podcasts. Continuation from June 2021 issue … CHAPTER 5: with permission
Committees
A
s in most organizations, committees have emerged. The Bullock family has an executive committee of its national board. Sheila Linton explains, “Our Executive Committee got started because of the scholarship fund. We wanted to work on the issues related to that and found ourselves dealing with many other things.13 At the Bowser family’s fifth reunion, the following gave reports: the charter committee, the historical committee, the committee on committees, awards committee, and reunion site committee. Most of the functions of the committee are self-explanatory by their names, but the committee on committees had some interesting functions. The concerns of that committee were the following: 1. Dispersing information on schools and scholarships. The committee made a positive statement that it believed that it is in the best interests of the Bowser family members to promote education and training in order to develop marketable skills, whether it is through college or university education or technical training programs.
2. Voting. There were Bowsers voting when other Black people could not vote. “Furthermore,” explains the committee member, “a Bowser was a registrar for the Republican Party during the 1800s. With this kind of history, it becomes imperative that all of us register to vote in November. This is phase one of our civic responsibility as citizens of this country and as members of the Bowser family.” 3. Highlighting family members. Some ideas concerning family achievements. This archive might include a short paragraph listing achievements of family members.14 Other families may have a good and welfare committee, a type of committee quite prevalent in church and similar organizations. The purpose of this committee is to send births and anniversaries
Dr. Ione Vargus, 4th from the right in the second row, 1988 Kountze Family Reunion.
2008 Kountze Family Reunion
greeting cards, get-well cards, and expressions of sympathy. With members being far-flung, it is not easy to keep up with the news, but this committee serves a really important role in this new form of the extended family. Another family reports having a ways and means committee, which deals with financial programs; a hotel representation committee, which usually helps with publicity. More and more families now include a scholarship committee. When Wrise Booker and Vallery Kountze organized the 2003 Kountze family reunion, they established the following reunion committees: steering committee, facilities and transportation, financial affairs, communications, program development, youth development, social interaction, heritage, and scholarship. Each committee had a set of tasks clearly identified.
Charitable Activities Giving back to the community is often expressed as a desirable act at family reunions. Family members who have given to others, primarily through their good deeds, are acknowledged. Families may pass the hat or solicit funds to give to some desired organization. This is most often done on a one-time basis although the intent is to do so more often. Philanthropy is not new to African Americans although much of the money goes to the church. A study by the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy notes, however, that there are traits that distinguish African Americans philanthropic tradition from conventional notions of philanthropy. These include the foundation of the African American philanthropy as being derived from a distinctive notion of family as an inclusive and permeable institution. African Americans frequently express their giving and serving through the idiom of kinship. They consider much of their giving and serving to family, neighbors and needy strangers as general obligation rather than philanthropy. When formal contributions of time and money continued on page 22
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