Volume 2, Issue 2

April, 2012

¡Jóvenes Adelante!A.C.

Welcome To Our New Board Members

Jóvenes Adelante extends a warm welcome to our new Board

members voted into office in February of 2012. With the

March board meeting our new Fundraising VP was also desig-

nated. The new board members are already hard at work ad-

dressing policy, business and member needs for the organiza-

tion.

Treasurer SUSI BEERE

Susi is a three-time editor of Atención (San Miguel’s English-

language weekly) and current member of the Biblioteca Pub-

lica's Board of Directors, the second largest bilingual library in

Mexico. She has been an active participant in San Miguel

charitable and educational projects since 1971. Susi has been

a previous board member but is newly elected to this position.

Vice President (Administration) ENAID SAVAGE

Enaid was previously President of her corporate consulting

firm with a clientele of Fortune 100 companies. Her corporate

management experience has included marketing, public/

governmental relations and line operations. Her volunteer ser-

vices have included seats on numerous boards of non-profit

organizations serving industry, community and the arts and

worked with the Jóvenes group in Guanajuato at its inception.

She has a passion for the education and development of young

people and international travel.

Vice President (Marketing) CARMEN SALMERÓN

Carmen Salmeron is a Mexican national, who grew up in Illi-

nois, thus completely bilingual and bi-cultural. She has long

and deep family ties rooted in San Miguel de Allende, that go

back for a number of generations. She has a teaching certifica-

tion in Mexico and has been an ESL teacher since 1976, a

Spanish teacher since 1992, and she also does legal translation.

In her spare time she enjoys watching movies.

Vice President (Fundraising) ANNABEL QUIROGA

Inside this issue:

New Office Space 2

1st Walk-a-thon

3

Virginia Wheelwright

Memorial Fund

3

JA Branching Out 4

Scholarship

Applications

4

Future Now! 5

¡Adelante!

Treasurer: Susi Beere

IMPORTANT DATES

- April 3 and 11 - Interviews with students by the staff/volunteers of Jóvenes Adelante.

- May 1 to 30 - Home visits to students by the staff/volunteers of Jóvenes Adelante.

- July - Final approval of new students (unless Jóveves Ade-lante has not received all the final averages, proof of admis-sion or registration.) Notifica-tion and meetings with se-lected students to sign con-tracts.

- August 5 - First beca distribu-tion

VP Administration: Enaid Savage

VP Fundraising: Annabel Quiroga

VP Marketing: Carmen Salmerón

VP JA Guanajuato: Silvia Salas

Annabel is from London in the UK. She recently

completed her MA in Educational Planning,

Economics and International Development. Her

latest volunteering experience was in Rajasthan,

India on a program run by VSO and the British

Council. When living in Buenos Aires she vol-

unteered at a Saturday homework club in one of

the city’s largest inner city slums. She values the

importance of critical self-reflection as neces-

sary in any development work. She is currently

serving as a program coordinator at the F.I.N.O.

Foundation.

Vice President (Guanajuato Group) SILVIA

SALAS Maria Silvia Salas Carreón, was born

raised and studied in Zacatecas, Zac. She re-

ceived her Bachelor degree in business admini-

stration then was subsequently employed as a

social worker in Morelia, Michoacan. She later

embarked on a 27-year long career with the

Mexican Institute of Social Security. She is now

retired, and lives in Guanajuato. Silvia likes to

read, travel, enjoy life and help others to succeed

in their goals.

With this new board, we are looking forward to

harnessing strong negotiation, policy develop-

ment and relationship building expertise to help

JA with all of its program initiatives. They will

also help JA to build strong networks and con-

nections to other NGOs.

We have a lot of work for non-board members

as well and we need all hands on deck to com-

plete the volunteer work that is needed. Please

let me know if you have time and skills that you

want to put to good use for Jóvenes Adelante. JA

looks forward to working with you the near fu-

ture.

New Board Members (continued)

Thanks to board member Kimberly Fairbanks, we are

excited to announce that our team has moved to a new

temporary office at Mesones #38. Our office phone num-

ber, 415-117-3006, will remain the same.

We spent the previous three years in the Biblioteca Pública

just a few blocks away from our new location -- our old

office served us well, but the Biblioteca Pública now has

other plans for the office space that we occupied.

The new office is actually a small temporary space, which

we will have rent-free for two months while we look for a

permanent home. So yes there are plans to move the office

again in May. We need your help in finding a permanent

rent-free home for JA. Please call our office if you have

any suggestions.

A BIG thanks to Anahi and

Paty who spent a couple of

hours packing up the old of-

fice and arranging the new

office to bring some charac-

ter to it.

Page 2 ¡Adelante!

Move to Our

Temporary Office

THE VIRGINIA WHEELWRIGHT

MEMORIAL FUND

1st ANNUAL JA WALKATHON

Walking for Bright Futures

The JA board made a decision last year to focus our fund-

raising energies on only two major events per year. One of

these events will be the first annual JA Walkathon.

The walkathon committee will be headed by Annabel

Quiroga VP of Fundraising and Fred York (Advisor).

They are currently gathering forces for planning and exe-

cution of the fundraiser with expectations for this first

year, to raise funds for our scholarship programs, to con-

nect students and donors, and to provide much needed

visibility for the work that JA is doing with local students.

The Walkathon will start with a 1.5 or 3 km non-

competitive walk/run along a designated route, followed

by a barbecue, beverages and activities, provided by our

sponsors.

Please support this charitable event by volunteering to or-

ganize, by attending, by making a gift or collecting

pledges. If you are not able to join us this year, but wish to

make a donation, your contribution is welcome and very

much appreciated. Tax receipts are issued upon request.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS for everything

from T-shirt designers to route mappers, from registration

hosts, to photographers!

If you are interested in attending the planning meeting

on Sunday 15 April at 3:00pm, just:

email Annabel Quiroga for confirmation of the meeting

location at: annabel_q@hotmail.com

Or call her at: 415-124-5066.

Page 3 ¡Adelante!

The Virginia Wheelwright Memorial fund was established

to commemorate the life and work of our dear founder.

The first donations to the fund were collected at her Me-

morial service in December of 2011, and since then we

have been getting some additional support from a variety of

sources to which we give our most heartfelt thanks.

The following contributors continue to honor our

friend Virginia:

- Farley Wheelwright (widower) Has been tireless in his

efforts to increase the level of the fund to cover a complete

scholarship

- Delia Kafka (daughter) Collecting donations from US

supporters

- John Kafka (son) Starting a face book page to expand

donation opportunities

- Betse Davies & Marge Zap (fellow founders) Collecting

donations from various sources

- Lee Carter (owner of Colors in San Miguel) Selling jew-

elry and textiles from Virginia’s estate

- Judy Holden (volunteer) organizing the April Estate sale of

“Virginia’s Creativity”.

100% of your generous contribution will go to helping a

deserving student achieve a university degree.

Thank you again for displaying the same generosity of

spirit that made Virginia such a special person.

Virginia Wheelwright's Creativity.

As a founder of Jóvenes Adelante, Virginia contributed in so many crea-tive ways to the growth and develop-ment of our exciting organization. Now even in her passing, she continues to encourage us. We will be selling all of her crafts, craft supplies, and craft tools that she collected from all over the world.

Please come to the PRIVATE PRE-SALE and choose something in her memory.

Saturday, April 14th from 11am – 2pm Chello's Apartment #23 (corner of Ancha San Antonio & Stirling Dickenson).

If you can't make it on Saturday, the sale to the public will be the next day, Sunday April 15th, same place, same time. Of course, all money will go to Jóvenes Adelante so please come and bring your friends.

Page 4 ¡Adelante!

Public workshops are held in Febru-ary to explain JA's application process and distribute forms and informa-tion to new appli-cants. The applica-tion deadline for scholarships is mid-February for funding in the following school year. This year we received 170 applications: Total from prepa: 50 Total from University: 99 Total not in school: 21 Total Men: 53 Total Women: 117 The applicant review is a monumental process which involves a special pool of volunteers. JA Student Pro-grams staff and Board members also participate in the review of applications, conduct the student inter-views, and make home visits; then Student Programs presents evaluations to the President for review and final selection. In the meantime, the Fundraising volunteers begin efforts to assure that we have available funding for the maximum number of students. They must also offer their fiscal, management, and cultural expertise to the scholarship award process. The Administrative volunteers must carefully track the movement of donations, and pledges for public ac-countability. The successful applicants receive notification by e-mail of the funding decision in August. Once they are accepted into their chosen university, the applicant signs a contract for the duration of their education period, and must keep JA apprised of their progress through our mentor/student reporting process. New scholarship recipients are required to attend the quar-terly life skills workshop on how to file reimbursement requests.

PROCESSING 2012

STUDENT APPLICATIONS

JOVENES ADELANTE BRANCHING OUT

To facilitate the accomplishment of its regular mission in areas outside of San Miguel de Allende, Jóvenes Adelante Executive Committee has begun discussions to establish a charter for JA Branches. The charter will ensure that all JA branches, outside of San Miguel de Allende, can be legally affiliated with the JA San Miguel in the spirit of our mis-sion statement. It will also establish guidelines for the for-mation, operation, monitoring, review and dissolution of additional branches. The term "branch" applies to any al-ternative JA group formed under the Jóvenes Adelante Associación Civil.

JA Guanajuato story began in 2009 when a General Inter-est Meeting was called by Amanda Ruiz (former president of JA SMA). The response was positive and while Guana-juato exceed their goal and recruited 7 students in their first year, they modified the goal to 3-5 students for sub-sequent years.

The current positions in JA Guanajuato are held by the following volunteers:

- Co presidents: Anna Adams and Silvia Salas - Secretary: Martha Lengling and volunteers - Treasurer: Linn Murphy - Finance: Linn Murphy, Marilyn Stowell, Ken Mac-Donald - Sponsor relations: Jan McClellan - Publicity: Heather Rogers and Peggy Ball - Scholarships: Anna Adams, Eduardo Rodriguez, Silvia Salas, Nina Johnson - Student relations: Anna Adams, tutors and general membership - Fundraising: Silvia Salas and general membership - English tutoring: Nina Johnson - Computers: Jeff Tashman and David Pearson - Beca Programs: Silvia Salas, Anna Adams and general membership.

Page 5 ¡Adelante!

Mesones #38

San Miguel de Allende

Guanajuato, C.P. 37700

Phone: 415-117-3006

E-mail: info@jovenesadelante.org

Visit us at:

www.jovenesadelante.org

¡Jóvenes Adelante!A.C.

Helping the Brightest light up the world.

THINKING ABOUT

VOLUNTEERING?

WE NEED YOUR

SKILLS!

JOIN THE JÓVENES

ADELANTE TEAM

TODAY! For more information about how you can

help a deserving young person achieve

their dreams contact: Stephanie Hough:

shough@jovenesadelante.org

FUTURE NOW! MOVING TOWARD 2016—Continuity Planning

Stephanie Hough, President

In thinking about where we want JA to be in the year 2016, it’s imperative that we also think about how to get there. In 2011 the JA Executive Committee began a learning process which focused on helping us make decisions about the future of the organization based on that learning. The road that we travelled was not a smooth one, but it did advance us to where we are today and we are carefully continuing on this very nec-essary path to assure the continuity of Jóvenes Adelante. Establishing Continuity is necessary in order to: · Give us better control over external forces · Help us with decision making and resource allocation · Bring everyone together in the organization so that they are on the same wavelength · Raise board members’ awareness of current issues and operations · Reawaken and motivate key people within the JA · Create a document suitable for fundraising and public relations · Increase morale within JA and develop a sense of trust and cohesion · Set the stage for JA to make a "quantum leap" to a new level of program development · Relate organizational capacity to community need. The Executive Committee is hard at work setting policies so that funders can decide whether and how to support us. We are also planning our benchmarks for determining whether our initiatives are successfully reaching their goals. Continuity planning is a very rigorous exercise, but we will keep you updated on our progress, and hope that you will add your voice about initiatives that you would like to participate in.

¡Adelante!