Bonjour à tous, Once again, on behalf of the entire Board of Directors, I am proud to share with you WICE's accomplishments over the past year as well as our plans for the future. But before we do that, I want to make a special volunteer shout out. Special Volunteer Shout Out!
WICE has accomplished a great deal over the past two years, and in each monthly newsletter we recognize volunteers who have made a real difference in achieving these accomplishments. Now I would like to use this special venue to recognize someone who the Board and I believe has been absolutely critical to WICE's success: our Vice President, Jay van Wagenen.
In the summer of 2022, when WICE was on the verge of dissolution, Jay was one of the original WICE members who developed and submitted a proposal to keep the association going. Once that proposal was accepted and a new board was formed, she became an absolute force of nature in planning, organizing, and accomplishing the many things that needed to be done to turn things around. And she's been at it ever since. In addition to being WICE's Vice President, Jay is also the director of our language program, which is one of the broadest and most comprehensive in Paris. And she's been just as productive on the language front as she has been on the board. Under her leadership, the language program has added several new, innovative offerings, all of which have proven to be very popular and have attracted many members. But that's not all. With a strong background in advertising, Jay served as acting director of our marketing department during an extended period when the position was vacant. Among other things, she led the design and development of our new website and graphic identity, and she played a key role in the marketing efforts for our recent Paris Writers Workshop. These things alone would entitle Jay to special recognition. But she also fulfills an untitled role that puts her in a category of her own. If you have ever been in charge of an organization, you know that one of the most important resources you can have is a good thought partner: someone who will always take the time to listen to your ideas, consider them, and then give you honest feedback. I can say without hesitation that Jay is one of the best thought partners I've had in my entire professional life. It's something that no one else ever sees, but I can assure you it has made all the difference in the world to the turnaround and success of WICE. Well done, Jay, and thank you from all of us for all the hard work you've done and the untold time you have devoted to help make the new WICE succeed as it has. Historical OverviewWe've gained quite a few new members in the past year, and so—for the benefit of these new WICE members—I'd like to start with a review of our recent history before getting into the details. In the late spring and early summer of 2022, WICE was preparing to dissolve. COVID had taken the wind out of our sails, and both membership and revenue had declined to the point that we had to give up our office, lay off our staff, prepare to give away our remaining assets, and call it the end of an era. Several WICE members proposed that a new board be formed to give the organization another chance. The proposal was accepted, and in July 2022 a brand new board took the reins and began charting a new course. The first year—from the summer of 2022 to the summer of 2023—could be characterized as being in crisis mode . With no documentation and very little corporate knowledge to guide them, the new board basically fumbled along in the dark, focusing on keeping our member-facing activities going while trying to figure out how to make all the moving parts—finance, programs, marketing, etc.—work together. The second year —from the summer of 2023 to the present year—was much better. We had reestablished our financial health, and we started experimenting with new offerings. We had a much better understanding of how everything should work, and our overall characterization could be thought of as stabilization mode . Now, as we enter our third year , we are preparing to hand over the reins to the next generation of WICE leaders. Next summer I, as president, and several other current board members are required, by statut, to step down. We are therefore committed to ensuring that the next President and new Board members will find a turnkey operation that requires little or no special effort to understand and operate. We can characterize the coming year, then, as preparing for transition mode , and we will talk about this more, below. And with that brief overview of the past few years, I'll move on to discuss WICE's current state, starting with membership. The WICE MembershipWICE has about 387 members, but the membership breaks out into a number of different categories. Here are several graphics to illustrate how our membership can be thought of (please keep in mind that because members come and go, these figure are all approximate). Figure 1 shows the gender breakout of our members. We have about 292 women, and about 95 men. Figure 2 shows how our members identify in terms of nationality. Americans are the dominant demographic here (179), followed by the French (102), followed by members from English-speaking countries (79), and then a smattering from here and there elsewhere in the world. Figure 3 shows WICE age groups. We clearly tend towards an older demographic, with about 65% of our members (252) in the age category 60 or above. Gender
Figure 1 Nationalities
Figure 2 Age Groups
Figure 3 Global
Figure 4 France
Figure 5 Paris
Figure 6 How WICE is OrganizedSo how are these 387 people organized in WICE? In very general terms, there are about 337 paying members and the approximately 50 volunteers who work to make WICE happen. But that's not the whole story. The volunteers are divided into several different categories: The Board of Directors, Team Leaders, and Team Members. Figure 7 describes the Board of Directors and its composition, and it shows the six teams that comprise WICE. Figure 8 shows how most of the volunteers are distributed among the six teams. Each team has a Team Leader, indicated by the number "1" under the team box, and Team Members (the number below the "1"). As you can see, our Programs Team is by far the largest, with about 20 volunteers. Figure 9 shows why the Programs Team has so many volunteers: it's because this is the team that plans, organizes and conducts all the member-facing activities that the rest of the WICE members interact with. The Board and Volunteer Teams
Figure 7 Volunteer Teams Composition
Figure 8 Programs
Figure 9 With that as an overview and insight into what WICE is and what we do, let's talk about this past year and some of the things we've accomplished. The Year in ReviewWhen we talk about member-facing accomplishments or plans, we're referring to things that you, the members, experience directly: our member activities. These are basically the things that people join WICE for. When we talk about board-facing accomplishments or plans, we're referring to things that affect WICE governance, management, finances, etc. We will start with our member-facing accomplishments over the past year:
And we had some significant board-facing accomplishments this past year as well:
All it was a very good year, and we're very proud of what we were able to accomplish. The Year AheadLooking ahead, we can again think of next year's goals as both member-facing and board-facing. Member-facing Goals Our member-facing goals are pretty straightforward: we want to continue doing the things that have been successful, and to build on them. To that end, we are considering the following:
Added to our current activities line up, these ought to make the coming year a year to remember. Board-facing Goals Board-facing goals are another story. As I mentioned above, several other WICE board members and I are required, by statut, to step down next year (we can remain on the board, just not in our current positions). Our board-facing goals, therefore, are goals designed to make the transition to the next generation of WICE leaders as easy and seamless as possible. We want to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the behind-the-scenes workings in WICE in order to make the management of WICE a truly satisfying part-time and fun proposition. Some of our key board-facing goals are:
There are a few other board-facing goals, but these are the big ones—and the ones that involve money—and we look at their successful achievement as paving the path for the next generation of WICE leaders to smoothly and seamlessly take over. Farewells and WelcomesUnfortunately, we are bidding sad farewells to two highly esteemed board members: Ellen Feldman and Nicki Tillinghast. Ellen was one of the original WICE members who helped craft the proposal to keep WICE going, and she's served admirably on the board since then (in addition to publishing WICE Direct and teaching film courses in the language program). And Nicki has been our superb board Secretary for the past year, bringing a much-appreciated level of professionalism to the seemingly small—but vitally important—task of organizing and documenting the workings of the Board of Directors. At the same time, we are welcoming two new members to the board. Elisabeth Iriart is a native French woman who will be representing our sizable French membership on the board, and Susan Townson—originally from New Zealand by way of 20 years in England—will be our new Secretary as well as a representative for our non-American members from other English-speaking countries.Wrap UpIt's an indescribable feeling to look back over the year and think about all the interesting WICE members I've met, all the fantastic volunteers I've worked with, and all the remarkable things we've accomplished. And especially to look at how far we've come since the summer of 2022. This has seriously been one of the most rewarding things I've done in my life, and I am very much looking forward to the next year with all of you. Rick Jones, President |
WICE 2024 Annual Report |
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