Delft MaMa wishes you all a Happy New Year 2019! As we close the old year, it’s always good to look back and reflect, to be able to continue to build on past successes and work on our weaknesses. For the first post of 2019, we asked DMM Chairwoman Marie Kummerlowe to give a year in review of Delft MaMa in 2018 and what we hope to expect going forward in 2019. It’s a long post, so grab your favorite beverage and get yourselves comfortable. Happy reading!
In 2019, Delft MaMa will mark its twelfth anniversary. Our goal has always been to foster a happy and healthy community of international families who are well integrated to life in Delft and the Netherlands. We will continue to offer our wide range of activities and services for the international community in Delft.
A year in review: 2018
Leadership changes
As some of you may know, Delft MaMa has undergone some changes in our Board composition since January 2018. We would like to give thanks to the Board Members who have stepped down this year for their service – Eva Amaral, Zsofia Patil, and Ildiko Wooning. We will also be recruiting new Board members; more information in the next section.
Our volunteers
We would like to thank all our wonderful volunteers for their contribution to Delft MaMa in 2018. Over 45 volunteers contributed to the organization in a variety of capacities! Volunteers helped mentor moms in our Soft Landing in Delft Program, coordinate our playgroups, baby yoga classes, manage special events, host our Mom’s Night Outs, serve on the Board and keep our communications platforms and website running.
Events and activities
Our traditional schedule of monthly and weekly events – Bumps & Babies and Toddler playgroup, Moms Night Out, book club – all ran throughout 2018. Delft MaMa also hosted some special activities.
In May, the third edition of the Delft MaMa Charity Walk took place in Delftse Hout. Delft MaMa families walked for three km starting at Waterspeeltuin and ending at the lakefront. Along the way, kids had activities to complete and parents chatted. All had the chance to observe the beautiful Delftse Hout and enjoy the nature around! Participants enjoyed fun activities together and a yummy picnic.
In July, families met again in the Delftse Hout for our annual picnic. It was a special edition as Uzbek rice pilav (plov) was served for late lunch instead of the usual barbecue. The cooking process itself was interesting, so a few people gathered around a huge wok to watch how it was done. The friendly cook provided some explanation about the food and happily answered our questions.
In October, our spook-tactular Halloween Party delighted parents and children alike, and, in December, our annual High Tea gathering was successfully held. Attendees enjoyed each other’s company and also supported a good cause, fundraising for Maya’s GoFundMe campaign.
Finances
Thanks to your help, through our 2018 Donations Campaign in the fall, we raised 490 euros, just ten euros short of our goal. We still welcome new donations, though, given our annual running costs, activity costs and possible notarial costs for changing the bylaws.
In 2018, we also initiated the process to have Delft MaMa qualify for the ANBI (public benefit organization) status. We submitted our ANBI application in the fall and are currently awaiting the application’s status. For this process, we may eventually need to change our bylaws in 2019.
Communications channels
In 2018, a new dedicated communications volunteer joined our team and already started the process of improving the links between our members and our communications platforms. We also became media partner of Access and met with the TU Delft to try and improve our outreach. Our Facebook group reached almost 17.000 members!
Our blog, which had been on hiatus as the blog founders and editors moved on to other things, was revamped by Kate and Onica in March. New posts are uploaded every two weeks and it shows no signs of slowing down any time soon, thanks to the steady stream of writers within the Delft MaMa community!
Meeting records
All of our meeting notes are stored online. Click on the years to access meeting notes: 2019, 2018, and 2017. If you have any additional questions, please let us know at hello (at) delftmama.nl.
Looking ahead: 2019
Human resource goals
We are now looking for volunteers to join us for several key positions and activities in 2019. Please see our collaborate page for position descriptions. As of March 1, 2019, Marie will step down as Delft MaMa Chairwoman. Thus, it is crucial for the organization that a new Chairperson is found as soon as possible.
Longer term positions:
- Chairperson
- Fundraising and outreach coordinator
- Volunteer coordinator
- One newsletter team contributor
- Blog proofreaders and co-editor
- Toddler playgroup volunteers
- Website volunteers to update the website
Event coordinators:
For 2019, we would also like to have coordination of our key yearly activities accounted for early in the year. This means that we are looking for moms and dads interested in coordinating:
- The Charity Walk in the spring
- The Annual BBQ/potluck in the summer
- The Halloween Party in the fall
- Monthly Moms Night Out (sign up here)
In 2019, we look forward to our annual Charity Walk, BBQ and Halloween Party, as well as the weekly playgroups: on Thursday afternoons at the DOK or local playgrounds, and on Friday mornings in Mint Kid’s Cafe.
Events and activities
We plan to continue with our regular activities including the playgroups and parent gatherings. In a longer-term perspective, however, we are interested in offering more activities/services to the Delft MaMa community. These include renting a space for Delft MaMa activities and playgroups and coordinating projects like the 10-year mosaic that give back to the community. We also have other, more ambitious, ideas that are dependent on leadership goals and our cash-flow situation.
Our cash-flow situation
Hopefully the ANBI status will help Delft MaMa establish a more sustainable future in terms of finances by making us a more attractive organization to receive donations or other forms of support from the community. The ANBI status would allow individuals and businesses to donate to Delft MaMa and have their gift be tax deductible. However, for us to achieve our financial goals, we would also need human resource support in terms of outreach and fundraising in addition to the ANBI status.
Communications
Delft MaMa is always available to our community via several different communication channels, and there are lots of them: our webpage, Facebook page and group, newsletter, blog, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Next year, we’ll be back on Instagram and have developed a great plan to provide interesting content via this channel! The blog, revamped in March of 2018, will continue to upload new posts written by members of the Delft MaMa community. Our topics come from a steady stream of suggestions from community members.
Dedicated volunteers work hard to maintain all of these channels and ensure that the content is accessible and transparent. We would also like to update the content of our website in 2019. If you would be interested in this project, please get in touch. For any questions about communications, please contact us via e-mail at communications (at) delftmama.nl
Soft Landing in Delft (SLiDe)
In 2019, we plan to relaunch of our Soft Landing in Delft (SLiDe) program. There will be a call for new volunteer mentors, as well as increased outreach efforts with local businesses and organizations to reach more families arriving in Delft.
Closing
As we’ve seen, 2018 brought us leadership changes and an influx of new volunteers that continues to change the culture of Delft MaMa. The successful fundraising campaign in the fall of 2018 ensured that the basic activities of Delft MaMa will be funded for 2019, however, we hope that ANBI status will help us raise more funds for more ambitious activities and projects. Our communications channels have undergone some changes, including a newer version of the blog and making the meeting records more accessible.
In 2019 we need more volunteers, including for some key leadership positions, to keep our activities and organization running. We’ll see SLiDe relaunched and improved communications channels. We hope to raise more funds to help support new activities and projects.
Thank you so much for reading this post! We wish all the members of our Delft MaMa community a great 2019, and we look forward to seeing you at our events or on our numerous online platforms. We are also looking forward to welcoming new members, new volunteers, and a new Chairperson!
Note from the editor: We would like to thank Gabriela Ricci for her contributions to this post.
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