Club News

A few days before the District 3 Conference, Judy Johnston, longtime member of the Fairfax County Club, held a wine and cheese party at her home in honor of Zonta International Director, Heddy Tangen Steffensen. Heddy is a member of the Zonta Club of Stavener, Norway. Several members of the club took advantage of the opportunity to meet and chat with Heddy, who has a warm personality and a great sense of humor, in addition to being on the current Zonta International Board. Several other members of the club who were unable to attend the party got an opportunity to meet Heddy and the District 3 Conference in Alexandria, Virginia. They were delighted to hear Heddy's stories about her international travel for Zonta.

Heddy Tangen Steffensen has been a Zontian since 1982, and has served in various capacities at local and international levels. Ms. Steffensen served on her club’s board for six years, over three different periods, including a term as club president. She also served as area director, OMC Committee Chairman, Service Committee Chairman and governor of District 13 (which includes Lithuania, Denmark, Iceland and Norway). Ms. Steffensen is serving as a member of the Zonta International Board of Directors from 2008 2010.

Ms. Steffensen is owner and general manager of Executive Partner, a leadership development and communications consulting company that helps organizations build their leadership power.In addition to her involvement with Zonta, Ms. Steffensen has served on two boards at the University of Stavanger: the Scientific Research Advisory Board and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). She is also a member of Optimas, a forum for consultants and psychologists. She is certified to evaluate emotional intelligence based on Jung’s typology and MBTI (Meyers-Brings Type Indicator).

Ms. Steffensen holds a master’s degree from University of Oslo.

The Zonta Club of Fairfax County, which participates in the Fairfax Interservice Club's Volunteer of the Year program, named Teresa Belcher as it's 2008 Volunteer of the Year. This Award was presented in August, 2009 for the work done by a volunteer int the preceding year.

Although Teresa, our Recording Secretary, has only been a member for one year, she has put her whole heart and soul into advancing our club. As Advocacy Chair, she assumed leadership of this important committee by setting up several meetings and sending the members, as well as the entire club membership, many items of interest related to advocacy, including pending state and federal legislation, asking for member comment to their own legislators. The legislation we supported was all passed, both statewide and federally. In addition, she inspired Advocacy committee members to participate in several events in the area, including the Anita Hill talk in Washington, D.C., and the Sexual Assault Awareness Month activities, notably, Metro flier day and Fairfax Hospital Outreach Day in April. In addition she chose two meetings to provide educational events... the fistula film "A Walk to Beautiful” and the Polaris Project trafficking presentation. Both of these events motivated our members to get further involved, culminating in a donation to the fistula international organization and the desire to understand more about trafficking that occurs in our own area.

Teresa is always eager to lend a hand to help advance our club and is both organized and creative in her advocacy outreach. For these reasons, Teresa Belcher was selected as Zonta’s 2008 Interservice Volunteer of the Year. The Interservice Awards ceremony, where Teresa was honored, was held on Wednesday, August 5th at 7:30 p.m. at the Old Town Hall in Fairfax City.