Newcomers of San Antonio

Outstanding Member of the Month

Outstanding Member of the Month

To recognize those who go above and beyond to welcome our newest members, I have created this column. To nominate a current member you’ve seen do so recently, please email a submission to: Cindymitchellrichards@outlook.com and describe how they have gone above and beyond to welcome our newest member(s).

This month, please join me in recognizing

Erin Schaefer

Outstanding Member of the Month

From the first time I met Erin, she did not seem like a new member, but one who welcomes the new members. She is a storyteller and wants to hear your story as well. She is a natural leader and reaches out to help when needed and has already hosted and co-hosted several coffees. You are invited to attend our coffee at her home this month! She often helps welcome newbies at our monthly luncheons and becomes a fast friend at any activity. Most recently, Erin agreed to help us find members to chair the various positions on our 2022-2023 board by sitting on the nominating committee. Well, not only did she give us several names to consider, but she is now slated for two of our board positions and has said she would be willing to help on others! We love to see this enthusiasm in our membership and is what makes Erin Schaefer our May Outstanding Member of the Month!

Outstanding Member of the Month

To recognize those who go above and beyond to welcome our newest members, I have created this column. To nominate a current member you’ve seen do so recently, please email a submission to: Cindymitchellrichards@outlook.com and describe how they have gone above and beyond to welcome our newest member(s).

This month, please join me in recognizing

Mary Jane Chisholm as Outstanding Member of the Month

Mary Jane has been a member of Newcomers of San Antonio since 2009. We know her as the steady rock we can call on to host a coffee, help on a committee, and inform us of those needing a helping hand. This past month, she has offered Fiesta parade tickets to those wanting to attend as groups or families or individuals! What a great way for all our members to enjoy Fiesta after COVID has robbed us since the 2020 lockdown. How exciting it is to anticipate all the Fiesta activities and collect the medals as new (or even not-so-new) arrivals to this great city of San Antonio! Mary Jane has been busy taking our orders and mailing out our tickets. See the April Newsletter article for how you can get tickets too. Buying from Mary Jane helps the San Antonio Lions Club do their charitable work. This labor of love makes Mary Jane our Outstanding Member of the Month!

Outstanding Member of the Month

To recognize those who go above and beyond to welcome our newest members, I have created this column. To nominate a current member you’ve seen do so recently, please email submission to: Cindymitchellrichards@outlook.com and describe how they have gone above and beyond to welcome our newest member(s).

This month, please join me in recognizing

Carlota Mandes as Outstanding Member of the Month

Like many of our newest members, we first met Carlota on the Pickleball courts. She heard about Newcomers through Wili and as a recently retired woman, desired to make friends and stay active in the uncertain times of the pandemic. Fortunately, our By-laws change had just passed to allow her to join. She quickly became involved in our events and activities making fast friends. She saw the need and offered to lead a new Line Dancing Interest Group. This is such a fun and growing group!! Carlota is a friend to all and especially kind to the new member who doesn’t know a soul. If you attend a coffee for the first time, you will be friends with Carlota before it’s over! Carlota is truly an asset to Newcomers and why she is our March Outstanding Member of the Month!

Outstanding Members of the Month

Outstanding Member of the Month


To recognize those who go above and beyond to welcome our newest members, I have created this column. To nominate a current member you’ve seen do so recently, please email submission to: Cindymitchellrichards@outlook.com and describe how they have gone above and beyond to welcome our newest member(s).


This month, please join me in recognizing Your 2021-2022 Board as Outstanding Members of the Month

Carol Palazzo, Jill Partridge, Christine Martin, Cindy Herda, Kay Hedeen, Margaret Kidd, Sharon Gehr, Lucy Robinson, Michelle Plazek, Alene Lindley, Sandy Garrett, Sue Ellen Smith, Susi Baylis-Powell and Suzy Van Alstyne

The award will look a bit different this month because 14 ladies making up your 2021-2022 Board of Directors are our honorees! They all volunteered to do the work to pull off our extraordinary 40th Anniversary Luncheon and judging by all the emails and texts I received, many of you agree they went above and beyond!! To give you a short summary of their duties: the Luncheon chairs had to secure a venue that would agree to do it for our budget and were willing when not knowing if only 30 would attend (like November’s lunch) but would be able to serve 100 just in case our pe-covid Christmas Luncheon numbers prevailed. (We had 99 reservations!!) Similarly, we had to pre-order our “Bloom Where you are Planted” favor charms before knowing the exact total. Sue Ellen also ran around to every store imaginable to find 100 poppers with paper crowns inside and the Opportunity Drawings chairs shopped for weeks, curated prize baskets and decorated all the tables to create 40 drawing gifts! Corsages were ordered for the 20 past presidents, gifts for the key-note speaker, a photographer hired, program designed, place-cards and seating arranged for our honored guests, memorial table set up and several had the daunting task of locating our 38 past presidents to not only invite them but to get a summary of their presidency in words and photos. You can see that compilation on our new history tab at https://www.newcomersofsanantonio.org/history/

I call that going above and beyond which makes your 2021-2022 Board, our January Outstanding Members of the Month!!

Be sure to see the photos from this celebratory luncheon.

Outstanding Member of the Month

This month, please join me in recognizing Brenda Davis as Outstanding Member of the Month

Brenda Davis joined Newcomers in 1982 and has continued her membership for 39 years!! She is our LONGEST ACTIVE MEMBER and deserves great honor, especially at this special 40th Anniversary Celebration time. She tells of dinner clubs and book clubs from way back then that still meet to this day!! She describes how the members created an off-shoot group called ACT TWO for those to join after their three-year membership expired, as were the by-laws in the beginning. Brenda is still friends with many past and present Newcomers of San Antonio members. I hope we get the chance to sit down and hear her stories one day!

One such story is about her close friend and past president Paulette Reynolds (who sadly died in an accident) who was a very friendly person always wearing a smile. But when Paulette had to move away, she couldn’t find friends like she had in Brenda and Newcomers of San Antonio so Paulette moved back! Now that’s a great advertisement for joining our group!!

Recently, Brenda connected us with founder Elaine Van Buren enabling us to invite Elaine to be our Keynote Speaker at the Anniversary Luncheon. She has been very helpful in connecting us with past leaders who have been hard to locate. You’ll typically see Brenda at luncheons and a few interest groups, but what makes her extraordinary is her support and dedication for 39 years to this amazing group we all love which makes Brenda Davis, our December 2021 Outstanding Member of the Month!!

To recognize those who go above and beyond to welcome our newest members, I have created this column. To nominate a current member you’ve seen do so recently, please email submission to Cindy Richards and describe how they have gone above and beyond to welcome our newest member(s).

Outstanding Member of the Month

This month, please join me in recognizing Carol Palazzo as the Outstanding Member of the Month.

Carol Palazzo joined Newcomers in the midst of lockdown due to COVID-19 and once we started meeting again, it took all the courage she could muster up to even attend a coffee. But, Carol wanted to make friends so she pushed herself to attend. Today, Carol is our 1st VP of Membership and leads Lunch Bunch and Genealogy interest groups! But, because she knows how hard it was for her to take that first step, Carol actively reaches out to our new members in various ways. She first looks to see if new members have started getting involved and will call or send emails to check in on them and personally invite them to our upcoming events. Carol often asks if any new members would like to sit at her table at the luncheons and deliberately set up Lunch Bunch as a great opportunity for any member to meet friends over lunch. Carol is the one who suggested that we plan a big celebration to mark our 40th Anniversary of Newcomers. She wants to honor our Founders and past presidents who have kept this wonderful Newcomers Club going for 40 years as well as celebrate what our future holds with all these new members joining now!! Carol is also concerned with those who need a helping hand and would like us to form a committee to do so. (Please see her if you care to be on this Helping Hands Committee) She has been doing all this while enduring much pain with a mending broken elbow, surgery, many doctor appointments and trying her best to keep that whole arm immobile. I call that going above and beyond which makes Carol Palazzo, our November Outstanding Member of the Month!!