Welcome!

Our Mission

Exciting News to Report!

Dear Members --

​

On May 4, 2022, June Schiller, Nancy Larsson and Ellen Smith met with Susan Lampkin and Kay Harrison of Allied Arts Guild. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the status of our Auxiliaries and explore any possible benefits if the two
Auxiliaries were to join forces. It was thought
that since Palo Alto Auxiliary has always
identified with Allied Arts, this would be the
Auxiliary best positioned to explore a merger.

It was very enlightening to discover that Allied
Arts is really several businesses with property
management and tenants handled with pro-
fessional assistance, private events venue handled by a professional employee, and the Artisan (Gift) Shop operated by volunteers. Other volunteer activities are staffing special patio and other giftware-centric sale days plus additional fundraising events. We also learned that their dues are the same as ours, $75 per year, but they also require an additional $100 from all active members to underwrite fundraising efforts. It appears that they have about the same number of members as we have and about the same number who do most of the current work.

​

We shared with them the activities we currently support: Restaurants with Heart, Harvest Faire, Cocktails in the Garden, Nutcracker Tea -- but I'm sure that is something they shared with their members as well.

​

At this point, we agreed that this needs to be discussed with our membership to get a feeling of whether it is feasible or not. Once we have a direction the Auxiliaries wish to move, we will either continue to discuss how such a merger would happen or we will cease the discussions and remain two distinct Auxiliaries.

​

Were we to decide to pursue this further, we would encourage members of both Auxiliaries to become more active in each of the projects to better understand what would be expected of all of us. There is a requirement that members work in the Gift Shop a certain number of hours which would be discussed further if we move in that direction.

​

We understand that this is not something that will happen quickly, if at all, but we are faced every year with difficulty finding members to serve as officers and who will help with the various projects.
It doesn't seem likely we can continue struggling for many more years. We need to explore our future with open eyes and the reality that times are different.

​

Any suggestions are always welcome. Please send your suggestions to June at jschiller.2@comcast.net and Ellen at ellensmith94022@gmail.com.

​

Thank you,

​

Ellen Smith and June Schiller

Co-Chairs

Palo Alto Auxiliary for the Stanford Children's Hospital