Today we’d like to introduce you to Barbara McCloskey.
Hi Barbara, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I joined the Denville-Rockaway Junior Woman’s Club 39 years ago. I was interested in volunteering and was lucky to be a stay at home mom and had time to volunteer.
I quickly found that I totally enjoyed working with other women to raise funds, and find a variety of ways to support families in need. We developed close friendships, many that I still have today.
After 10 years in the Junior Woman’s Club, I shifted to the Woman’s Club of the Denville-Rockaway area.
Both clubs worked closely with the local social service agencies, and over the years, established partnerships with local businesses, who supported us with collection sites so we could reach out to the public for donations. We also raised money for scholarships, and performed community service projects in town.
Over time, I found I was interested in getting more involved then just my local club and started volunteering for district positions.
The club is a member of the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs, founded in 1894 and with a headquarters in New Brunswick.
As the years went by, I joined the Board of Directors and in 2018 started my six year vice president journey until I became state president in 2024. It is a two year term, and besides overseeing a part time staff, and a board of directors, the federation has 160 clubs and 6,000 members across the state,
Over the past two years, I have visited 60 clubs, attending anniversaries, speaking to members and held many workshops.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has mostly been a smooth road, there were really not struggles, but as the years went by, I went back to work and with my children getting involved in sports and other activities, I had to limit some of the time that I could volunteer.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Although I worked for the Land Conservancy of NJ for 18 years, I was also able to continue spending time volunteering for the Woman’s Club.
My position allowed me to get experience working with volunteers, presenting programs to corporations on what the Land Conservancy did to preserve land in NJ, and as part of our Partners for Parks program, I took volunteer corporate employees out on stewardship projects. In addition, managed their community garden with 145 plots and 70 families for seven years.
This experience really prepared me for the federation presidency, which I was able to step into after I retired from the Land Conservancy.
I am proud that I could use my corporate experience to enable me to be an effective leader, and also oversee a headquarters building, with a part time staff, as well as making decisions that affected an organization with 6,000 women.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
I did have a mentor in the Woman’s Club of Denville, who encouraged me to step into a leadership role and that my new ideas and projects were good for the future of the club.
My manager at the Land Conservancy also encouraged and supported me when I took on my first board of directors position at the federation.
As president, you rely on your board to encourage and support your decisions. I am very lucky to have a great team and we work together to make changes and try to upgrade our procedures and encourage new people to take on leadership roles.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://njsfwc.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/njsfwc
