It's early August, it finally feels like summer, and we are at that spot in the calendar where the end is somewhere in sight but there is still plenty of summer left. At least that's what I'm telling myself! Some of us are eagerly anticipating the return of children or grandchildren from summer camp. (Anticipating the kids, yes – the laundry, not so much.) We are starting to pack for a quick getaway or a much-anticipated trip. Some others are starting to work on the college packing list. I'm doing a combination of some of the above. We are fortunate enough to have well-located family members in various summer vacation spots, and we will be visiting them. I'm also helping my daughter get ready for a semester abroad. I'm not really sure how we're going to get a semester's worth of belongings into two suitcases, but eventually I'll be waving goodbye at JFK.

All of this makes me realize that I have been thinking about transitions lately. I'm in the transition from kids at home to kids out of the house. I've heard from some of you and seen on Facebook that you are moving from babies who crawl to toddlers who, well, toddle. Not sure which one of us has it tougher, but at least I've moved to the stage where I no longer have bubble wrap on the furniture and protectors in the electrical sockets! I think as women we are constantly facing transitions and it makes us stronger. We change careers, we change diapers, we change, period. We stop questioning the outer stuff (if anyone reading this would agree to be 13 again, I don't believe you!), and we start examining the inner self.

As you may have noticed, we're also in transition at Women's Philanthropy. We are taking our new structure from an idea to reality. And we, like many philanthropies, are doing more with less. The important thing is to hold on to our essential tasks of outreach, education, and leadership training, all in the service of a successful campaign – which in turn will allow us to fulfill our core mission of helping Jews in need and creating Jewish community. We are changing our event schedule to bring more of our community of women together early in the campaign year – mark your calendars for the morning of October 23 and watch for more details! We are putting together our dates for Philanthropy 101s – if you want to learn more about Jewish philanthropy and UJC in particular, this is a great vehicle for finding out. We will offer mini-missions to our local agencies and missions to see the work of our overseas partners. I'll keep you updated as we finalize our plans and transition into our new year.

Enjoy the heat if not the humidity and your summertime transitions!