Our annual holiday parties at Sam Rosen Elementary in Fort Worth and Webb Elementary in Arlington are fast approaching. The chapter always gets great support from our members and partners in putting together these events.

Here’s the schedule:

• Dec 6 (morning) Party Prep at Sam Rosen
• Dec 7 (all day) Party at Sam Rosen
• Dec 13 (morning) Party Prep at Webb
• Dec 14 (all day) Party at Webb

We would really appreciate your support this year. Kathie Wood is in charge of gathering cash donations. Rita Dexter is coordinating the collection of tooth brushes and tooth paste. Vince Heimann is coordinating the donation of coats.

If you are interested in volunteering, Raymond Shands is scheduling voluteers for Sam Rosen and Sheleah Hughes is scheduling volunteers for Webb.

All volunteers for Webb must be approved in advance by the Arlington ISD. Click here for a copy of the volunteer form. The form has 3 pages, and the 3rd page is all that is required to be filled out. Please fill out the form and forward it to Sheleah Hughes. Her fax number is 817-273-5990. Turnaround time on the approvals is about two weeks so please get them in soon. You may also want to plan in advance for substitute volunteers by having them fill out the form as well.

Lastly, check the comments to this post for any subsequent information from the committees.

If you weren’t at Tuesday night’s well-attended chapter meeting at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, you may not know:

• Theater Arlington’s Standing Room Only has a great Minnie Pearl impersonator (thanks, Raymond, for setting it up!),
• CUNA Mutual’s Little Man put down his umbrella for a rifle during WWII (thanks, Margaret, for sharing CUNA Mutual’s history with us!),
• And if you ever need an auctioneer and Pamela’s available, she’s got skills!

The cake auction raised $800 for the Texas Credit Union Foundation, and the entire meeting was a great way to celebrate International Credit Union Day.

If you’re a Fort Worth Chapter member, we hope you’ll enjoy your new website. We’re not finished yet, but we think this is a good starting point.

First, you may recognize the format of this homepage as a blog. As far as we can tell, the Fort Worth Chapter is the first CU chapter – at both the state and local levels – with a blog. If you’re unfamiliar with blogging (don’t worry if you’re not – this is cutting-edge stuff), some CU-related blogs include CUES Skybox, Open Source CU, and Verity Credit Union.

This site’s going to grow into much more than what you see now. In the upcoming months, we’re going to be adding:

• A more robust calendar tool (complete with meeting notices and reservations)
• Fort Worth Chapter Directory
• Preferred Partner Directory
• Chapter Officer Directory
• Scholarship Application

Let us know what you think so far. Feedback (yes, even negative feedback) is definitely encouraged, as are any questions and ideas for improvement.