Combine or Not

A proposed amendment submitted by Jóna Benediktsdóttir, chair of the Golden Gift Fund (GGF) Committee, would allow the work of the Golden Gift Fund Committee to be merged with the work of the Leadership Development Committee. The proposal is available at  https://www.dkg.org/DKGMember/Resources/2022_proposed_amendments.aspx.

The tasks of the GGF Committee have been very well defined in three main areas: 

• to encourage members to apply for the leadership seminar, DKG Ignite; 
• to choose participants from the applications;  
• to develop and oversee the schedule of the seminar in collaboration with Mc Combs University in Austin. 

The Leadership Development Committee (LDC) can easily do these tasks, but combining the committees has both pros and cons. The main benefit might be that all of the Society’s leadership training would be in the hands of one committee that could create more continuity. Also, if given the task of organizing the DGK Ignite: Leaders Empowering Leaders seminar, the LDC could develop more insight into the newest trends in leadership training in general and can take advantage of this knowledge in organizing all leadership training for the Society. 

The proposed amendment would also save money as fewer committees would work for the Society. 

The main disadvantage of the merger is that fewer women will then participate in international committee work for the Society, which could increase the likelihood of more centralization and fewer views being expressed. 

The women on the GGF committee shared many points of view both for and against the proposed merger. Ultimately, the right forum for this debate will be the international convention, where all members attending can discuss the proposal and take a stand.