WMA Endowment Fund Progress

On October 10 and 11, we visited Texas Women’s University to meet with representatives from the Blagg-Huey Library and the Institutional Development Office to discuss WMA’s archive and proposed endowment .

Our first meeting included Kimberly Johnson, Coordinator of Special Collections and Sherilyn Bird, Dean of Libraries and lasted several hours. We discussed several topics including types of donations, methods of cataloging, privacy concerns and access.

We also met with Patrice Frisby, of Institutional Development, to discuss the endowment process. We went over the draft agreement in detail and updated several areas. The contract is written with enough generalities to make it flexible and viable into the future.

We also took some time at Special Collections to go through seven boxes of WMA organizational files already archived as well as some personal files.

Thank you to those who voted in our recent membership vote. Response, though low, was a resounding yes vote to designate TWU as WMA’s official archive.

We have already begun to collect donations towards our initial $2,000 installment and we will probably reach that goal by the time of the WAI convention, if not sooner. WMA is looking into corporate donations and other options, especially as we look at the commitment to fund the $10,000 over the next five years.

Now that Texas Women’s University has been designated as WMA’s official archive, many members have asked how they can donate to our endowment fund. The preferred method is to send a check directly to TWU (address below). This allows the full amount to be credited to our account and they will also issue an official charitable donation receipt.  They are working on an online donation process but this is not in place yet.

Checks are to be made out to the TWU Foundation with a note saying the money is for the Women Military Aviators Endowment Fund. TWU will send each donor a charitable contribution receipt for tax purposes and notify WMA of the donation.

TWU FOUNDATION (Attn: Patrice Frisby)

P.O. Box 425618

Denton, Texas 76204-5618

Donations may also be made directly to our Treasurer. Make your check to Women Military Aviators with a note that the money is for our Endowment Fund and send to the address below (which is hidden unless you are a logged in WMA member):

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Another way to donate is via PayPal on our website through the DONATE  link. Be sure to include the note “TWU Endowment Fund” and be aware that they will charge a small usage fee to WMA.

Remember, your monetary donations to our Endowment Fund and donated items to our archives are tax-deductible.

More information will be available at our Biennial Convention, held this year at the WAI Conference March 14-16 in Nashville.

Please plan to attend the Historical Committee’s presentation immediately following our business meeting on Saturday morning. We will offer information on the endowment agreement and Kimberly Johnson, head of Special Collections at the TWU’s Blagg-Huey Library, will speak on how and what to donate, the archive process, and what our money can do for us in the way of media products, educational displays and preserving our legacy.

We are well on our way to our yearly goal of $2,000 which will have us reaching the required $10,000 in 5 years. We hope, of course, to meet the goal early and continue far beyond as the WASP have done.

Thanks to everyone who has already donated and to those of you who plan to do so!

Click here for background reading on the WMA Endowment Fund and its origin.
Margie Varuska
Marcy Atwood
WMA Historical Committee