About Our Chapter

NCL, Inc., Fort Worth Cowtown Chapter is a group of mothers and daughters who have come together in a commitment to community service, leadership development and cultural experiences.
Members shall reside in or attend schools in the southern Fort Worth metropolitan area. Like all NCL, Inc. Chapters, Fort Worth Cowtown aims to foster the mother-daughter relationship by serving its communities together.

Membership in NCL strengthens the mother-daughter bond during the challenging developmental years of grades 7 through 12.  It provides mothers and daughters alike a unique opportunity to:

• serve together with local and national philanthropies
• learn and grow as individuals and reflect on the values and skills needed to become capable, courageous leaders
• develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of the differences in each other and the world by connecting with different people, communities, and cultures

The Fort Worth Cowtown Chapter is excited to kick off our inaugural year with over 150 members across 11 schools in Fort Worth. We look forward to volunteering with our philanthropy partners in the coming months and years as we continue to grow our chapter and expand our impact in Fort Worth and beyond.

NCL OVERVIEW

National Charity League first started in 1925 when Gladys Wilkinson Lawrence gathered together Patronesses from Los Angeles society to make layettes for the American Red Cross and food baskets for the hungry. They brought along their daughters, who at first would anxiously watch the clock go “tick, tock” as they waited for their mothers to finish, but with time began to help.  The “Patronesses” lovingly referred to them as “Ticktockers” and they called themselves “The Charity League.” Over time the organization developed into the NCL we know today – the largest mother-daughter philanthropy in the nation.

THE NCL EXPERIENCE

The three pillars of our six-year (7th-12th grade) NCL experience are Community Service, Leadership Development, and Cultural Experiences. Members of NCL participate in an enriching program that embraces these three pillars:

• Community Service: Mothers and daughters serve together in their communities.
• Leadership Development: Every member holds a leadership role each year to build leadership skills.
• Cultural Experiences: Programming offers members the opportunity to learn about a variety of topics.

THE TICKTOCKER EXPERIENCE

We are dedicated to providing our Ticktockers with opportunities to learn the joy of serving others, to grow aware of and respect a wide array of cultural traditions, to develop life skills, maturity, confidence and compassion, and to make friends while engaging in Chapter activities. We believe that this well-rounded experience will inspire and empower them to succeed as confident and socially aware contributors in their communities. Ticktockers are divided into classes based on their year of high school graduation.

THE PATRONESS EXPERIENCE

We are dedicated to deepening the mother-daughter bond and spending time with our daughters while watching them grow into strong, capable and compassionate women. Each Patroness will know the satisfaction of working with other talented women who value serving the community and who want their daughters to do so as well.

MEETINGS AND EVENTS

KICKOFF

The Fort Worth Cowtown Chapter will kick off each school year with an event in August, at which members who have provided exceptional service in the community during the prior service year will be recognized with awards.

MONTHLY MEETINGS

The Fort Worth Cowtown Chapter will hold monthly meetings from September through April for both Ticktockers and Patronesses, which may or may not take place together. Ticktocker meetings address topics in our Chapter’s “Core Program” and may include guest speakers or hands-on activities. Each class year of Ticktockers meets separately.

PHILANTHROPY EVENTS

Ticktockers and Patronesses must fulfill an annual philanthropy hours requirement by attending volunteer events scheduled with the Fort Worth Cowtown Chapter’s approved philanthropy partners.

SPRING TEA AND SENIOR RECOGNITION

All members are required to attend the Spring Tea and Senior Recognition in May, a tradition that dates back to NCL’s founding in the 1920s and promotes the cultural focus of etiquette.

MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS

PATRONESSES

• 15 Philanthropy Hours (with daughter)*
• 10 Leadership Hours**
• 5 Patroness Meetings
• Attend Spring Tea and Senior Recognition

TICKTOCKERS

• 15 Philanthropy Hours (with mother)*
• 10 Leadership Hours**
• 6 Ticktocker Meetings
• Attend Spring Tea and Senior Recognition

The NCL service year runs from 6/1 to 5/31 of each year, so all requirements for Patronesses and Ticktockers must be fulfilled by 5/31.

*Philanthropy Hours: Credit is given for service in NCL Fort Worth Cowtown Chapter philanthropic projects.

**Leadership Hours: Patronesses and Ticktockers earn leadership hours when their work is directly related to their role within the Fort Worth Cowtown Chapter. Examples of hours include trainings, committee meetings/work, board meetings/work, time spent coordinating an event, telephone work, etc.

Join Our Chapter

Interested in joining our chapter? Membership opportunities are dependent on chapter openings.

If you know someone in our chapter, talk to her about getting started, membership obligations and our membership drive timeline.  If you do not know someone in NCL, you are invited to complete this Membership Inquiry Form.

Membership Inquiry Form

For any questions regarding Membership, requests for transfers or assistance with connecting as a Sustainer, email us.

We can be reached at membershipfortworthcowtown@nclonline.org.

 

Community Service

We understand and serve communities in partnership with local and national nonprofits. Each NCL, Inc. chapter promotes social awareness by considering the local community’s needs and selecting appropriate non-profit organizations to support through different volunteer activities.

We work with the following philanthropies:

• Alzheimer’s Association
• American Heart Association
• American Red Cross
• Disaster Response
• Gladney Center for Adoption
• Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
• Mother’s Milk Bank
• Operation Gratitude
• Presbyterian Night Shelter
• Project Linus
• Streams and Valleys
• The Cowtown
• The Warm Place
• Trinity Habitat for Humanity

If you are interested in becoming our philanthropy partner, please email nclfortworthcowtown@nclonline.org.

Leadership Development

We build capable, courageous leaders through opportunities to learn, reflect and develop. Our leaders become successful in their education, career and communities by learning the necessary skills during their NCL experience.

Examples of skills developed include:

• Confidence
• Consensus building
• Team building
• Conflict resolution
• Event planning
• Parliamentary procedure

Our Chapter Board of Directors:

• President: Claire Midkiff
• Secretary: Meredith Garcia
• Treasurer: Christa Holbert
• Parliamentarian: Stacey Collier
• Vice President Communications: Schuyler Wiegand
• Vice President Membership: Rebekah Byrne
• Vice President Philanthropy: Paige Pritchett
• Vice President Ticktockers: Christine Spikes
• Vice President Chapter Engagement and Inclusion: Amanda Herron

If you are interested in speaking at one of our meetings, please email nclfortworthcowtown@nclonline.org.

TICKTOCKER LEADERSHIP 

Each Ticktocker class has a Board and committees. The Ticktockers are trained in parliamentary procedure and conduct their own meetings, with the support of Patronesses known as Grade Level Advisors (GLAs).  Each Ticktocker class will focus on a different area of leadership development year-after-year.

PATRONESS LEADERSHIP

Each Patroness has opportunities to serve on the Board or in a leadership position, such as a Grade Level Advisor or Chair of an event. Patronesses will also serve on committees to perform tasks and projects for the Chapter.

Cultural Experiences

We preserve National Charity League traditions and core values, while appreciating the growth that comes from connecting with different communities and cultures. We continually strive to build stronger ties with our communities and the individuals within them. It is through this understanding that we grow and develop broader worldviews that will shape and support our lives.

• Traditions – We celebrate the richness of our history through traditions that honor the past while serving the future.
• Values – We embrace values that make us strong as an organization of mother-daughter leaders.
• Community Connections – We build connections through experiences that impact our communities.
• Etiquette – We encourage and mentor kind, respectful and gracious social conduct.

Our Chapter History

The Fort Worth Cowtown Chapter was founded in 2023 based on a desire and a need: the desire of a multitude of mothers and daughters wanting to join together in giving back to the Fort Worth community and the need of a multitude of philanthropic organizations across various sectors within the Fort Worth community that rely on volunteer support. National Charity League was the perfect fit to fulfill both, and so the Fort Worth Cowtown Chapter was born.

NCL was originally started in 1925 in Los Angeles, California by Gladys Bernice Wilkinson Lawrence. Today, the Fort Worth Cowtown Chapter is one of 300 NCL chapters nationwide, the 104th Chapter in Texas, and the 3rd Chapter in Fort Worth. We join more than 200,000 NCL members and alumna across the nation supporting the needs of local communities with $86 million in philanthropic impact and 3 million philanthropy hours annually. The Fort Worth Cowtown Chapter is honored to have the opportunity to help carry forward Gladys Lawrence’s philanthropic legacy nearly a century later as mothers and daughters serving together.