CDM Minutes - December 9, 2006

Our annual Holiday Party and Year End Celebration was a great success! The meeting was held on Saturday, December 9th and featured our annual gift giving extravaganza! Since the theme for the evening was a holiday party everyone dressed very festive for the occasion!

Dinner was pot luck. Many thanks goes out to all who participated and brought food, Tammie, Mary Beth, Laura and all of the others. Many gifts were exchanged and everyone who participated went home with a lovely addition to their wardrobe. There were purses, watches, gift certificates and much more. There was no business meeting.

CDM Minutes - November 11, 2006

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 by the Chapter President, Cynthia. The meeting a was great success with approximately 30 girls attending, several of them being new to our group.

After the general business meeting (run by Cynthia) Linda started the evenings program with a brief statement about what she has to be thankful for when it comes to crossdressing. The theme was "I'm thankful that I am a crossdresser because". What followed (I was told) was a lively discussion from all members. Many of us have lived with gender issues all of our lives and we believe that by sharing serious issues and stories of our own experiences cast in a positive light it will benefit all of us.

The food for the evening was catered by Boston Market with all attending members pitching in to cover the cost. Linda, Donna and Pat volunteered to go and pick the food up. Boy was Juan at Boston Market surprised when the three of us walked in! On top of that all of their pies were frozen so it was off to a grocery store to buy the deserts. (What's a Thanksgiving dinner without pumpkin pie?) No one in the store (with the exception of the checkout girl) even took note of us as far as we could tell. And Donna mentioned later that if we had not spoke even she might not have given us a second glance. The food was delicious.

The chapter would like to offer a special thanks to Heather who, even though she could not stay for dinner, still bought all of the drinks and pitched in a large sum on top of that. Heather, you are such a great member of our chapter and our many thanks go out to you for helping out.

We'd also like to thank Kathy who provided us with a huge pot of home made, hot apple cider that was unbelievably good. Maybe we can get her to share her recipe with us. Kathy has also been working hard on creating a sorority shield (logo) for our chapter that we can eventually use on a banner, stationary, etc. She created both a plaque (pictured) and a paddle. If any of you are familiar with sorority (or fraternity) life you'll know what these are about. Next we'll have to write the Chi Delta Mu sorority song! Thanks for all of your hard work Kathy!

The table centerpiece was provided by Linda as was the dinner music. The evening ended late, many members staying until after 11:00.

CDM Minutes - October 14, 2006

The (short) meeting was called to order at 7:30 by the Chapter President, Cynthia. The Vice President's hair brush was yet again used as the gavel.

Club Business, News, Announcements and Events:
No major announcements this month.

New Members:
We had two visitors this month, one from southern Jersey and another all othe way up from South Carolina! We are always glad when out of town sisters get the chance to visit with us! We love to roll out the red carpet and make them feel right at home.

Party!!!
This month was our Annual Halloween party! The chapter provided the food and drinks for this months meeting and Melissa brought cupcakes (thanks Melissa, you're so sweet!). Most of our chapter members dressed up in female Halloween costumes (Cynthia had said merely dressing as a woman did not count as a costume this year!) and many were very creative. We all voted for our favorites which was difficult since all of the girls had such great costumes! Votes were tallied and Rita took third prize for her costume (Cruella DeVil). Our VP Linda took second prize (Alice in Genderland). Josette took first prize for her witch costume which she designed herself. Our Josette is now working as an apprentice for a seamstress! Congrats to Josette! You can see some pictures of our party by clicking here:
CDM Annual 2006 Halloween Pictures!

Josette announced that she and her seamstress will be glad to do alterations for some of us girls whose clothes no longer fit. Her employer would be happy to have the extra business as us girls can bring her lots of clothes for alterations. You can contact her directly for more information.

Melissa asked all the girls for donations for her daughter’s Girl Scout organization that is doing charity work.

CDM Minutes - September 9, 2006

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 by the Chapter President, Cynthia. The Vice President's hair brush was once again used as the gavel.

Club Business, News, Announcements and Events:
Several of our chapter members are continuing with outings to various clubs and resturants on a weekly basis. So much in fact that Josette has been officialy named our Social Director. We will be posting more about that later but in the meanwhile if you'd like more information regarding our next outing please contact her at jpandlynn@optonline.net. Way to go Josette!

The Annual Gay Life Expo will be held at the Jacob Javits Convention on Novemeber 11th. If any members of the chapter would be interested in running a table at the convention contact Cynthia.

Kathy has signed us up at cafepress.com so any member can purchase a t-shirt, polo shirt, etc. with our sority greek letters (Chi Delta Mu) on it! What a great idea Kathy. Look for more information about this soon.

Sigma Nu Rho will be having their Monthly meeting on October 28th. Pat promises a Halloween party as well so if you haven't had enough fun wearing your costume then please, make plans to attend! Speaking of Pat we would all like to give her our thanks for picking up the entire cost of the pizza for our meeting. Thanks Pat! That was extremely nice of you to do!

New Members:
There were quite a few interviews this month for new members and we had four new girls show up at the meeting!  All of us at CDM would like to welcome Laura, Stacy, Anna and Nadeen! As our membership continues to grow our ability to help each other in fellowship increases.

Other News:
Diane from Romantic Fantasies, a long time supporter of our chapter, has started a new web site geared toward our community. It can be found at crossdressusa.com

Cynthia brought up a new book that may be of interest to our members. It's named "Casa Susanna". From Publishers Weekly: "The gatherings depicted within these pages initially appear to be the bridge parties of slightly bored, if typical, mid-century housewives; on closer inspection, it becomes apparent that these women-drinking, playing scrabble, smoking, knitting and mugging for the camera-are actually atypical mid-century men. The photos, presented sans accompanying text, are some of the 400 similar images Swope found at a New York flea market. Comprised of candid snapshots and posed portraits taken during the '50s and '60s at an upstate New York Victorian home dubbed "Casa Susanna" by its cross-dressing frequenters, the book includes photos of the ladies having tea, relaxing in the backyard and preening for pageants and holiday parties. As a social document, this collection of photos provides readers with direct access to the ladies as they seize upon and amplify their era's stereotypes of the womanly ideal. Equally intriguing as a record of atomic-age housewares, conservative housewife duds and the blushing interiors of a bygone era, the photos richly communicate the sense of solidarity among this cloistered group in pre-sexual revolution America."

You can see it at Amazon.com here: http://www.amazon.com/Casa-Susanna-Michel-Hurst/dp/1576872416

CDM Minutes - June 10, 2006

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 by the Chapter President, Cynthia. (Vice President Linda was unable to attend due to a prior commitment.)

Club Business, News, Announcements and Events:
Cynthia, Josette and a few other girls marched in Pride Day at Asbury Park on June 4. Asbury Park is rebuilding and is indeed a crossdressing-friendly place. All at Pride Day had a good time marching (the more experienced ones in low heels). Cynthia announced that there will be two more Pride Days.  One will be in New York City (the last Sunday in June) and one will be in Jersey City (in August).  Bring out your flats and join Cynthia at these Pride Days.

Cynthia and Sharla attended a Renaissance meeting on June 3 to meet with some of the members there. They both reported that they had a great time. 

Cynthia received a copy of the Las Vegas newsletter (called Gamma) from Nora in Las Vegas. Some of you may remember Nora as Linda when she lived in NJ.

It was also announced that on Lifetime television (June 19) there will be a made for TV movie dealing with transgender themes. The name of the movie is “A Girl Like Me.”

A girl named Angela contacted CDM recently. She will be visiting from Texas in the near future and asked if there were any CDM girls that could show her around while she is in NJ. She is very shy and has little to no experience going out enfemme. Josette offered to take her out while she is here. Anyone else from CDM is welcome to join in. They are going to Colosseum in Sayreville, NJ on June 13.

Francis (who is doing interviews of CDM members for her play) was supposed to finish her interviews at June’s meeting but had to leave NJ abruptly that day. She will be back in September to finish conducting the interviews.

Cynthia announced there will be no offical chapter meetings in July or August. However, she has graciously offered to welcome CDM members to her house to change and then either hang out there or to go out together somewhere. Many members have decided to do this in July and August. Thus CDM lives on during the summer months! Great news for many of us!

Linda wanted everyone to know that the CDM web site is getting around 100 hits per day, which is encouraging for getting our message out to others. She also asked each and every member to submit a biography (and maybe a picture) if they already have not done so.

Cynthia announced that in September, Chi Delta Mu will mark its 25th year anniversary.

Two committees were formed. The first one is a committee for the Formal Dinner/Dance to come up with ideas and an acceptable date. This is headed by Kathy and Donna. Kathy has already put together a wonderful list of ideas for this event. The second one is for Social outings (things to do and places to go in the real world outside of CDM). This is headed by Steffie, Melissa and Josette. These three have become the social butterflies of CDM, emulating our fearless leader Cynthia. All three have been going out more and more, even to mainstream places. So far, all of us have been treated very well by most of the people we meet. At some of the clubs, other people there have asked if we were coming back the following week! Encouraging news for transgendered people! 

In September, a woman will be coming to CDM to give Deportment lessons to all girls interested. This will better help us to emulate GG’s in things like walking, sitting, talking and other lady functions.

The meeting was then adjourned so all the girls could eat. The dinner was prepared by Steffie with some help from Melissa. The meal consisted of turkey, ham, filling, green bean casserole and scalloped potatoes with blueberry and pecan pies for dessert. Tammie supplied the drinks. Rumor has it dress sizes continued to increase at meal’s end (like last month).

Other news:
At the end of the night we heard from Josette. She said that she recently as asked to leave an establishment  because of the way she was dressed. Josette did no take this lying down. She, with the help of a transgender organization, got the owner ‘s attention by having this going to mediation. If the owner does not comply by letting Josette back in, the owner can lose his liquor license and possibly be sued. This is discrimination and the law will not allow anyone’s rights to be violated.  The take-home lesson: tansgendered people can go anywhere they desire as long as they act appropriately (i.e., like any other person in society). No one can their rights violated. We are all human beings and have as much a right as anyone else to go to any public establishment we choose as long as we treat others with courtesy and respect; we also, in turn, deserve the same treatment back.

CDM Minutes - May 13, 2006

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 by the Chapter President, Cynthia. The banging of the ceremonial hairbrush was once again used to get everyone's attention.

Club Business, News, Announcements and Events:
There is will definitely be a meeting in June. There will only be a July and August meeting if it is cost effective. This will be determined at the June meeting.

As everyone knows last month’s dinner dance had to be unfortunately cancelled. There were a total of 36 girls that pre-ordered tickets. The chapter needed to sell 60 tickets just to break even. Linda was sure we could have made up the other 24 tickets at the door (like in the past) but since this was not a 100% certain the dance had to be cancelled. Next year we will set limits on the number of tickets sold at the door and raise the price of the tickets dramatically a few weeks before the dance to avoid this problem happening again.

Visitors:
We had two visitors from the Los Angeles area Tri Ess chapter (Lisa and Darla) who attended our meeting while on their vacation. As we have said in the past any member of any Tri Ess chapter is more than welcome to visit when they are in the metro New York area. Just contact one of the officers for more information. It was great trading chapter stories with both of them and we hope one day soon to see them again!

We had a last minute, first time visitor at our meeting. Wilma certainly came on the right night as we were running our swap meet. She arrived in male garb and by the end of the evening had picked up a skirt, blouse, shoes and a wig. At one point Lisa even helped her with her makeup! I know many of the girls made her feel right at home. So a big welcome goes out to Wilma!

Finally there was Francis Wallace who was here conducting interviews (audio only) for her research for a play she is writing about transgender people. Many CDM members signed up to be interviewed by Francis and for those who missed out she will also be conducting interviews at the June meeting. If anyone is interested in participating in her project but cannot make next month’s meeting, please e-mail Cynthia or Linda for further information.

Other news:
Our dinner for the evening was a Cajun Feast provided by our very own Josette! Thank you Josette for preparing the food for this month’s meeting! Your Cajun cooking was superb. Josette prepared the meal at her home (and Steffie/Melissa helped her out a little) and all three girls brought it to the meeting.

Some of our dress sizes may have increased after eating the meal! And thanks also goes out to Linda for providing the drinks for the evening. Way to go girls! (Remember, you can sign up to help provide the food by contacting Linda. Click here to go to the food sign up page.)

At this meeting we also had our clothes swap meet. All members were asked to bring in any clothes that did not fit (or they had grown tired of) to see if any of the other girls wanted them. There was a lot of trading going on and many of the girls walked away with some new outfits.

Cynthia also brought up the fact that some of the more out and about members of our chapter should take the opportunity to go out with other members of the group. It was proposed that on some of the weekends that we do not meet we could plan small get togethers to go to a show, dinner or a movie. Some of the members are already doing just that. If anyone is interested in one of the chapters excursions out into the real world please contact one of the officers. Hopefully soon we will set up a calendar of regular events, but for the time being these outings will be scheduled as they come up.

We had some discussions about some general items of interest: There were some interesting items in the Bergen Record. The first one was an advertisement for the interviews (support group) for Francis’ play. The second item was a listing on clothing stores, prices and locations: very valuable information for us girls. The third thing was news about a facial recognition site (i.e., Separated at Birth). On the internet you can now send a picture of yourself and within seconds you will receive back a photo of a famous person who you most closely resemble.

Cynthia said that on the previous Wednesday (three nights before), she, Josette and a couple of other girls went to Lucky Stiffs (it was TG night). Everyone had a great time and there was even a best legs contest, however Cynthia or Josette did not win! Obviously the contest was fixed as both of these girls have some great legs!

Before adjourning, Steffie asked about any current or future spousal support group projects connected with CDM. This can be very important as many of our married chapter members can tell you. Cynthia and Sharla (who are married) said they would be glad to meet with and talk to any member and his wife (as couple to couple). It is important for our wives to get other wives’ perspectives on how to cope with their husband being a crossdresser. The same can apply to girlfriends, fiancés or other family members.

And finally, on a more serious note, Cynthia brought up the fact that there have been some recent negative comments from a current member about the chapter. The current officers are working fervently to build CDM’s membership back up and so far their efforts are beginning to bear fruit. Comments such as the chapter “dieing” provide no useful benefit and we really do not need to hear negative comments such as this again in the future. One only needs to look at our past few meetings and the number of new members and you would come to the conclusion that this chapter is anything but dieing. Cynthia asked that members please refrain from such comments in the future. Everyone in the group also needs to be proactive when it comes to our chapter and get involved. Put back into our community as much as you gain from it. We should also not dwell on the past but look toward the future. And it is a bright future! If we do this, we will be fine. Cynthia and the other officers are determined not to let CDM ever slide back to such low membership again!

So once again we had a very exciting and active evening. Most of the girls did not even leave until well after 11:30. We also had many great, behind the scenes conversations about upcoming events/meetings for our 25th year celebration this fall. I hope everyone is looking forward to seeing this chapter continue to grow and prosper in the months and years to come!

CDM Minutes - March 11, 2006

The meeting was brought to order and run by the Chapter President, Cynthia at 7:30.

Club Business, News, Announcements and Events:
There is no formal meeting in April because of our annual dinner/dance. The dinner dance is scheduled this year for April 8th. We will be having a 50/50 at the dance, as well as many other surprises. Please get your money in as soon as possible so we can reserve your spot!

Our Vice President, Linda, asked for all current members to help out with the web site by requesting that they please submit biographies and pictures for the members’ bio page.

Some of the girls went to DressBarn and DressBarn Woman shortly after announcements were made to do some shopping. The excursion lasted about an hour and a half.  It definitely made for a fun evening and enhanced our wardrobes!  Linda took some pictures of some of the girls shopping.

The May meeting will be our swap meet/auction. All members are asked to please bring in any clothes that do not fit (or they have grown tired of) to see if any of the other girls want them.  Whatever is not swapped will be donated to charity. Check back for more information and start looking through your old clothes. Some of the officers have even agreed to dress up and model the worst of the worst!

Our group is finding new places to advertise like in You Are Not Alone, VickiRene, Femme Fever and even on WPLJ radio. Hopefully this will help to boost membership.

A request was made to all members to tell others (friends, online, etc.) about our CDM group in an effort to further increase membership.

Pat briefly spoke about her South Jersey group, Sigma Nu Rho (SNR); Pat is the President of SNR which, like CDM, is also seeking new members. Their meeting is always the 4th Saturday of each month. They are also planning their annual picnic which will be at a church in Washington Crossing the last Saturday in June. The picnic is open to all in the community.

Due to economics, it has become harder for the chapter to pay for food for the meetings. In the past the burden of the food has fallen to only a select few members and this has to stop. Linda mentioned this fact and gave a big show of appreciation to everyone in the past (Gerri, Theresa, Cynthia and all of the others) who have shouldered this cost. A request was made by Linda for other members to start helping out with the food (i.e., designated member(s) bring food each month or even one of us girls preparing something to bring to the meeting for the other girls to enjoy). Look for a Monthly Food Committe sign up sheet here on our web site soon.

Right now it is up in the air on whether there will be a June meeting.  There will definitely not be any meetings in July or August unless our membership increases.

New Members:
There were quite a few interviews this month for new members.  We had eight new girls show up at the meeting!  Great job goes out to all of the girls for taking those first steps!  A huge welcome to the following eight (if any misspellings, please let me know):

George, Josette, Elana, Donna, Cheryl, Dianne, Tonya, Sylvia

In addition two of the new girls came with their wives. It's so wonderful to see couples sharing their husbands crossdressing together and by doing so letting their relationship with each other grow even stronger. That's one of the reasons we exist as a chapter. If enough wives attend future meetings perhaps we can start a wives support group once again. Ladies, let's talk!

Announcements:
None this month.

CDM Minutes - February 11, 2006

The meeting was cancelled due to record snowfall. We'll see you at the March meeting!

CDM Minutes - January 14, 2006

The meeting was brought to order by the chapter president, Cynthia.

Club Business and News:
It was announced at the meeting that the chapter has a new Vice President now. Linda has accepted the position and as you know has already been hard at work updating the CDM web site.

The dinner dance is scheduled this year for April 8th. Please get your money in as soon as you can so we can reserve your spot!

Inside Edition with Debra Norville has contacted CDM looking for a crossdresser and his wife that would not mind being interviewed and filmed for a story they are working on. For more information contact Cynthia.

Linda asked for some help with the web site by asking current members to submit biographies and pictures for the members bio page.

Our February meeting will be our annual trip to a local Dress Barn and Dress Barn Woman. We’ll be heading over to the store around 7:30 so please, if you want to participate, be to the meeting before then.

Cynthia mentioned that she was going to try to contact a store in the same strip mall that Dress Barn is in that sells gowns to see if they would have any problem with us shopping there as well.

The March meeting will probably be our swap meet/auction. Check back for more information and start looking through your old clothes!

New Members:
We had three new girls show up at the meeting! Great job taking those first steps. (I’m sorry that I was unable to record their names, I’ll see if I can get them at the February meeting. - Linda)

Announcements:
Our president, Cynthia, lost a drag contest held in the city to a GG (genetic girl). The organizers of the show evidently had no problem with a GG entering the competition.

Gerri announced that her daughter is about to graduate from grad school. All of the members of CDM offer our congratulations Gerri!

Other News:
It might be added that Cynthia had a “Blonde moment” at the meeting by mentioning that a new member would be showing up “in a couple of days”. When it was pointed out that no one else would be here “in a couple of days” Cynthia changed her story to be “in a couple of hours”. (That’s OK Cynthia, we all have our blonde moments now and then - Linda)

Snail-Mail :
CHI DELTA MU
P. O. Box 1
River Edge, NJ 07661-0001

Fe-Mail us for membership & general info at: Chi Delta Mu Information

Cynthia Majors - Chapter President - E-mail Cynthia
Linda Mills - Chapter Vice President - E-mail Linda
Sharla DeLawter - Chapter Treasurer
Laura Sheehan - Chapter Secretary

WebMistress: Linda Mills and Molly Brown
Our site has been open since January 1, 1998!

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