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Meet 2009-2010
SIA President Cathy Standiford
Cathy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and lived in several states while growing up. Her father, brother, sister and their families (including her nephews Morgan and Rusty, and niece Joslin) all live in Tucson, Arizona. Cathy left Tucson for college in California, and has lived in California ever since (she needed a little ocean to go with the sand!). She has a B.A. degree in Perspectives of Human Behavior from Whittier College, where she graduated in 1981. In addition, Cathy is a Credentialed Manager through the International City/County Management Association (ICMA).
After college, Cathy got a job at the University of California, Irvine, typing purchase order forms for the Department of Pediatrics. Pretty soon it became clear she was capable of much more, and she became a supervisor and grant writer for the genetics division of the department. Ultimately Cathy transferred back to the UCI campus as the assistant university editor–editing academic recruitment publications and the annual college catalogue of classes. While working full time, she went back to graduate school, earning a master’s degree in business and public administration (MBPA). After completing her degree Cathy got her first job working as an analyst for the City of Garden Grove, California, and her local government career was born. She worked her way up at the City of Garden Grove, eventually becoming Deputy City Manager, before leaving to become the City Manager for the City of La Palma, a much smaller city. After five years in La Palma, Cathy decided it was time to move back to a bigger city, and she was hired as the Assistant City Manager for the City of Santa Ana, the ninth largest city in the state of California. Her job is to be the “chief operating officer” for all departments and agencies—everything from building and planning to the Santa Ana Zoo. In addition, Cathy is a member of Women Leading Government, an organization devoted to providing support and activities to develop leadership among women in local government, and coach emerging professionals through the Cal-ICMA Coaching Program.
It was in graduate school that Cathy met John Standiford, one of the few other MBPA students at the time. John and Cathy have now been married for 20 years, and both of us have successful careers in the public sector. They do not have children, but they do have a great dog named Buddy. John and Cathy like to exercise together (including Saturday morning spinning classes), listen to music, and watch sports on TV. Cathy confesses that other than tennis, she was not much of sports fan before John! Now they watch auto races, baseball, basketball, and fútbol (Spanish-language soccer).
Cathy loves to knit, read, travel, and spend time with a circle of her closest Soroptimist friends. Because of their mutual interest in food and wine, they call ourselves the “Kitchen Cabinet,” and spend at least one weekend together a year—relaxing, cooking and enjoying the mountains in Lake Arrowhead, California.
Meet Cathy Standiford, SIA’s 2009-2010 president.
2. What first attracted you to the Soroptimist organization?
I joined Soroptimist because I wanted to give something back to the community that was paying my salary. At the time, several City of Garden Grove employees were members of Soroptimist International of Garden Grove, and one of them invited me to come to a meeting. I was fascinated by the many ways the club was serving the community, particularly women. It was easy to say “yes” to joining Soroptimist!
3. Why has your involvement with Soroptimist continued, and how has Soroptimist membership affected your life?
I continue to be a Soroptimist because it provides an effective way for me to make a difference for women. not only in my community but around the world. Over the last 20 years (yes, I’ve been a Soroptimist as long as I’ve been married!), my Soroptimist membership has provided me with incredible opportunities to develop skills that have helped my career, such as public speaking and project management. In addition, I have been able to meet and befriend amazing, dynamic, brilliant women from all over the world who share my passion for improving the lives of women and girls. Today, I can honestly say that all of my best friends are Soroptimists. Although Soroptimist continues to evolve, our mission and what it means to women of the world resonates with me more than ever. I cannot imagine my life without Soroptimist in it.
4. What function, in your opinion, should volunteerism play in today’s world?
I believe that our world’s problems are too big and complex for one part of civil society to solve alone. As a professional in local government, I know that the City of Santa Ana would have even greater challenges were it not for the engagement and involvement of volunteer organizations helping us address community needs. Volunteers often make the difference between good programs and services and great ones. And no amount of a volunteer’s time or effort is too small to give. Our world needs all kinds of help—from advocacy to help keeping leaders and governments accountable, to projects that move women from poverty to economic self-sufficiency.
Most people desire to be part of something bigger than themselves. Volunteerism fills that need for many of us; Soroptimist certainly fills that need in me.
5. What are younger women looking for from an organization like Soroptimist and how do you feel we are meeting this need?
Based on my professional experience mentoring women in government, and feedback I received during my recent travels to region conferences both in and outside the United States, young women are looking for a variety of things. Specifically, they want to make a difference, to interact and network with other women, and to develop their personal and professional leadership skills. Because they also may be juggling their career with starting a family and other interests, time—and flexible use of their time—is really important to them. Doing things “the way we’ve always done it” doesn’t make sense to them if there’s a newer, faster, better way to achieve the same results. Younger women are more comfortable with technology and the Internet, particularly for communication. But like the rest of us, younger women want to enjoy whatever it is they are doing and have fun.
Soroptimist clubs continue to provide women of all ages with an opportunity to be of service, to network, and to build skills—all while improving the lives of women and girls. I think that our use of technology to communicate through the Live Your Dream website, interactive features of the SIA website, the use of blogs, and our presence on social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter really helps Soroptimist connect with younger women. Eliminating meeting attendance requirements and encouraging clubs to be more flexible in how we work toward our mission also is important to attract and retain younger members. In fact, during my region visits several newer members told me, “We should be meeting less and doing more to help the women and girls we are supposed to be helping.”
Many women are really interested in supporting our mission, but are not interested in joining a club. If Soroptimist is to remain relevant as an organization, we must develop new ways for them to become involved with us, such as the Soroptimist Affiliates program. The more inclusive we are, the more pathways we offer for people to connect with our mission of improving the lives of women and girls, the more successful our organization will be.
6. Why is it important that the organization’s focus be on women and girls?
This focus is important for so many reasons. First, it is unique. There are plenty of organizations working to make the world better for different people—but few of them focus on women and girls. Second, Soroptimist’s name means “Best for Women.” Being “the best for women” is part of who we are, and it should be the driving force behind what we do. Finally, as I’ve said before, women and girls continue to be the most oppressed, disenfranchised societal group on the face of our planet. Every major societal issue—whether it is violence, injustice, sexual exploitation, poverty, lack of access to education or healthcare—affects women and girls disproportionately. As an international volunteer organization for business and professional women, Soroptimist members are in the best possible position to understand the needs of women and girls in a very personal way. If we aren’t working to improve their lives, who will?
7. What women-focused issue is particularly important to you, and why?
There are so many issues affecting women and girls, it’s hard to pick just one. But I have to say that human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and girls is the one issue that I personally feel I have to do something about. Whenever I hear stories of woman and girls who have been trapped into prostitution or exploited by our society’s demand for sex, I can’t help but remember that they are someone’s daughter, or sister or cousin. And that someone’s father, or brother, or uncle has contributed to putting them in that position. I don’t believe that we will be able to adequately address this problem until we are willing to have courageous conversations about the demand side. That means we have to start talking with the men and boys in our lives about it, and enlist their help in trying to stop it.
This issue is particularly important to me because my 13-year old niece, Joslin, is one of the most amazing young women I know. I want to do all I can to ensure that the world she grows up in treats her—and other women and girls—with the dignity, respect and justice she deserves.
8. What are the most pressing organizational issues facing SIA, and what are your ideas to address them?
The current state of the world’s economy creates some challenges for us as an organization at all levels. Just as many clubs have experienced a decline in donations, SIA’s revenues are down from prior years. Fortunately, SIA has had the benefit of wise financial advisors and sound fiscal leadership to ensure that we have enough reserves to help us in the short-term. But at a time when clubs and members want and need more resources and services from SIA, the Board and I have a financial obligation to work with Executive Director Leigh and the staff to “live within our means.” This year, we will certainly be doing that.
I think it’s also important to carefully evaluate what we are doing with the funds we receive to ensure that we are leveraging them for maximum impact. Tough economic times force us to concentrate our efforts on programs and activities that the majority of clubs participate in and find ways to make them even stronger—even if it means reducing resources for other, less popular programs. We will be undergoing a comprehensive evaluation of the Women’s Opportunity Awards program this year, and I hope we will find a way to increase its scope to improve the lives of more women, without necessarily increasing the amount of money SIA invests in funding region and federation awards. If it’s true that receiving recognition positively impacts Women’s Opportunity Awards honorees as much if not more than the money, shouldn’t we be exploring ways to increase the total number of Women’s Opportunity Award winners? I think so.
The current economy also increases the need for Soroptimists who have the ability to give more to do so through the Laurel Society and the Annual Club Campaign. I’ve issued a challenge to the Board of Directors and the Fund Development Council for each of us to generate at least $5,000 for SIA programs this year. The simple truth is that women and girls need our help more than ever—we can’t let a bad economy get in our way!
Another organizational issue for SIA is to continue to help clubs meet the expectations of prospective and new members and be an organization of business and professional women, working to improve the lives of women and girls. The federation can help create positive impressions about Soroptimist from our website and informational materials—but we don’t have any control over what happens when someone visits a Soroptimist club. Encouraging leadership development within our organization through training such as the recent Soroptimist Women’s Leadership Institute is one way to help individual members become more skilled at being who we say we are, and doing what we say we do as an organization.
9. What are your specific goals for your year as president and how will the final year of Renaissance Campaign affect your focus?
Throughout my Soroptimist membership, one thing that has been reinforced over and over is how we have the ability to transform lives through our volunteer actions, particularly when we are all working toward the same goals. Over the last five years Soroptimists have done amazing work to increase our public awareness, improve our fundraising, and expand our membership. But the foundation of our organization is the work we do to improve the lives of women and girls. That commitment to service is what led to the founding of the first Soroptimist club, and it should be our guiding force as an organization today. Regardless of how the Renaissance Campaign evolves, I know that programs to improve the lives of women and girls must be at the center of what Soroptimists do.
This year as president, I want to help other Soroptimists reconnect to that spirit of service by being a champion for women and girls locally and around the globe. I want to use the president’s blog to not only keep members informed of what’s happening with SIA, but also to raise awareness about issues affecting women and girls that Soroptimists should be doing something about. And I will work with the leaders of the other four federations to help Soroptimist International improve its ability to transform the lives of women and girls, by emphasizing the program goals of the SI Strategic Plan. Internationally, Soroptimists have the greatest ability to make an impact by moving in the same direction, even though we may choose different routes to get to our ultimate destination.
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