JOANNE DISCHLER
FRIEND OF THE LAKE
2013
Joanne Dischler – 2013 Recipient of Friends of the Lake Award
Joanne was selected to be the winner of the annual award known as “Friend of the Lake.”
She served the lake in several capacities, but the first that comes to mind is that of treasurer. She brought the position to the age of technology. When she took over, the record of finances consisted of the checkbook. Joanne immediately put her background as an instructor of business and bookkeeping at Madison Area Technical College to work by formalizing the income, expenditure, budgeting and banking spreadsheets. She prepared detailed, printed reports for every board meeting and member meeting.
In addition, Joanne streamlined the membership records and was able to show the mailing address and, if they had one, the non-local address, and email address of each person that was a member. A third huge job that she tackled was getting the newsletter mailed out to all members and non-member lake residents. At the time that she took the treasurer job many printed newsletters were bouncing back because the addresses were no longer accurate. The wasted postage was a considerable expense to the association.
At this time the lake association began writing and getting awarded grants. This completely changed the amount of money that was going through the association treasury. It was decided that Crescent Lake Association should become an official non-profit organization. This meant that several forms needed to be filed and many hours of phone calls needed to be made to the IRS to understand requirements. Joanne got that done for us. Since then, our tax status has been different and tax reporting has become an annual responsibility of the treasurer. Joanne established a template for following treasurers to use for the association.
As our fireworks display was revived, Joanne hosted the crew that installed and ignited the show at her home. Her children, son and daughter-in-law, grandchildren stepchildren and more, came and lived at her home while they set up, partied, cleaned up the fireworks site and left for home. She was the grocery shopper, the cook, the cleaner and the house -mother for all of them. Wow, think about it!
Another of the other things that she did for the association is host the first annual meeting and potluck dinner at her home. For several years members volunteered their home and enlisted help from friends and neighbors getting a tent and tables and chairs set up to accommodate about 70 members. In fact, Joanne is the only person to host two of these meetings at her home. Annual meetings were, and still are, fun for the association members. This award is a way for us to thank you to her for entertaining us.
Joanne is one of the first female members of the association to become trained as a boat inspector at our landing. She showed her leadership by completing the training and signing up for several shifts a summer for several years. She did not mind being at the landing alone, (something many women do not like to do;) and she never seemed to feel intimidated if she had to question a group in detail about their AIS knowledge or practices.
Truly, Joanne was in the right place at the right time to make a difference to the association.
All in all, Joanne was a gift to all of us. Crescent Lake is indebted to her.