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President’s Letter
By Mary Cilia
By this time, you should have received a letter from Marguerite Harkness indicating her need to step down as your President. I would like my first words to you as your new President to be to thank Marguerite for her contributions over the last 8 months and for her continued dedication to our organization. We all wish you well, Marguerite.
For those of you who don’t know me, let me give you a little background. I have been a member of NAWBO since September 2002. I joined the day after attending just one dinner meeting. I was impressed by the vibrant, knowledgeable, and very giving women who made up the organization, and knew I wanted to be a part of it. In the eight and a half years since, I have served as a Director, VP of Membership, VP of Communications, and President Elect (over the last eight months).
I am lucky to have a great group of women on the Board that have already started to help me make an easier transition. If you don’t know the women of the Board, let me introduce them as well:
- Barbara Blake, Immediate Past President – if you aren’t familiar with Barb, it is probably because you are very new to the organization. Barb served as President last year, and previously served as VP Education and as a Director. She is currently looking for candidates for the soon to be open slots on the Board, as well as leading the Corporate Partner Council
- Pam Ryan, VP of Membership and her Membership Committee are doing a great job recruiting new members into our organization. Pam coordinates our Meet-n-Greet meetings which have taken place right before the regular 3rd Tuesday dinner meetings, as well as two Membership Rally’s per year. Pam personally contacts each new member in order to introduce herself, answer questions about the organization, help to guide you through the website, and familiarize you with our schedule of events. If you are a new member and haven’t talked to Pam yet, please feel free to give her a call. And if you are an existing member, and have some questions about the new website, come to next week’s dinner meeting and Pam or one of her team will help guide you through setting up your profile (and you will be entered into a drawing for doing so).
- Liz Radivoyevitch, VP of Marketing – Liz has done a great job for us for the better part of the last two years. She, along with Helen Eichel, designed the look and schedule of these weekly eblasts and was a great help to me in putting together the new website, graphics and content.
- Jen Corso, VP Education – Jen is responsible for the events and programming. When you’ve enjoyed one of our speakers, or learned something or made a connection at one of the networking events, you can thank Jen for that. Though Jen is a relatively new member, she has been involved with NAWBO for quite a few years. But it was only when she went out on her own, and started her own law firm that she qualified for membership.
- Elaine Diederich, VP Finance – What Elaine does for the organization is not always as visible as what the other VP’s do, but it is just as important. Elaine makes sure we do things right, pay our bills, and stay in balance. Something I consider the hardest job on the Board.
- Our Directors: Judy Swimmer, Marilyn Robinson, and Cherie Lin - The Director slots are generally where someone will start when first joining the Board. Directors help the VP’s and sometimes take on special projects of their own. Judy is coming close to the end of her two-year term as Director. If you’ve found the NAWBO business cards with the event dates handy, thank Judy. She prints those for us. Cherie has been working on the Membership Committee since before she started as a Director, and Marilyn is currently working on Procedures (something that will help future transitions on the Board much easier).
This may be the only President’s Letter you receive from me, because starting in the next couple of weeks, I will be starting a President’s Blog on our new website. So instead of just hearing from me and the Board once a month, we will use the blog to keep you informed of things as they are happening. More details will follow soon, but I urge you to sign up for updates and read the postings. And the most important part, provide us with feedback. Have thoughts about what we can be doing to help make your NAWBO membership more rewarding? Be sure to let us know.
Thanks,
Mary
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