The League Pulse Archives
The Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri: women building better communities.
Sustainer Perspectives | Training for life
By: Jan Rowe, Sustaining Member
I am so grateful for my Junior League experience – it has been so much more than I ever dreamed it could be when I was proposed for membership over 25 years ago. I joined hoping to learn more about the Kansas City community and find ways in which I could improve it for those following in our footsteps. Little did I realize that I had joined a dynamic and talented group of women committed to a shared perspective of promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers who have become some of my very best lifetime friends! There’s nothing like sharing a common challenge to make a friend and share the realization that together we made a difference!
More specifically I am grateful to the Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri for playing a big part in my current employment, that of Investment Counselor for Mitchell Capital Management. In 1994 I served as Investment Committee Chair for an Investment Committee that had not previously existed. I accepted the task of creating a framework from which we could seek investment management expertise for $1 million balance that remained after settling the Roanoke Headquarters lawsuit and subsequent purchase and remodel of our current Ward Parkway Headquarters. Now that we owned a building, it was important to provide for its ability to serve our needs. Our work produced a Request for Proposal (RFP) that went to local and national investment experts and culminated in the decision to retain Mitchell Capital Management in September 1995. This was my introduction to the principals at MCM and my opportunity to watch their work first hand as a member of the Investment Committee for the next few years as I went on to serve as Director of Finance. I realized during this experience that I loved their work – from the investment strategies to the quarterly meetings to review outcomes — it was an aspect of investing I had never experienced, even with 17 years as a stock broker! In 1998 I was invited to join the firm, and I am happy to say it is one of the best decisions I have ever made – and one I am eternally grateful to JLKCMO for.
As a result, I continue to look for ways to give back – not only to my community, but also to the Junior League for the huge difference it made in the course of my career.
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