January 2018 Meeting

January 2018 Meeting

Welcome!

  • Guest: Sierra with Everything With The House, a business that helps people downsize

ZWIN — Reviewing Recent Events and Changes

  • Debbi Kuller and Kathy Wood welcomed everyone and recapped our successful December meeting and service project. We filled 100 purses for Project Purse! About 25 of the purses went to the Caring Center in Lebanon, and others went to Cindy Crowe at Birds Be Free. According to the organizers, the recipients were delighted.
  • Jill King, who helped coordinate the event, said Project Purse is having an open house on January 19 from 6-8 pm. They are moving into a new space that has been gifted to them.
  • Kathy and Debbi gave an update on which members are not returning for the coming year. Lisa Price, our photographer, has decided not to return based on time commitments. We currently need a photographer to take photos at events; Lyle Browne is covering today. Joy Smallwood is leaving since she is busy traveling all over world. Sue Burks has gone due to her move, and Amy Hartwig has replaced her for Habitat for Humanity. Melissa Hill with Costco and Janet Maloney also decided not to return. So, we have a few spots open. Talk to ladies to recruit! Debbi also passed out a sign-up for volunteer positions that were open.
  • Debbi reviewed the ZWIN mission statement, as posted on the ZWIN business cards we have: “ZWIN (Zionsville Women in Network) is dedicated to supporting, inspiring and promoting women in the Zionsville Community on a professional and personal level. We will focus on education, networking, marketing, and philanthropy as we strive to be a positive influence in our community.”
  • One member asked for clarification about whether new members are required to be women in Zionsville. Yes, they must be live or work in Zionsville with one those addresses being here. When we invite guests, we should share that up front, as well as the fact that there is an application process and that we limit membership to one per business. If there is a person already in the group in a similar business area, it is up to the current member to decide whether the applicant and her business complements or competes with the member’s.

ZWIN — A New Theme for 2018

Debbi and Kathy announced that this year ZWIN has a new theme — Connectivity. Make connections; connect. Kathy has designed a project to help us understand what this means and how to emphasize it this year: Five green balloons! A message attached to each tag gave ideas.IMG_8699

  1. Have meetings outside of meetings. This could be a lunch date, a coffee, getting together before ZWIN meetings (Dawn says she does this since members are already planning to be at them together!)
  2. Improve ZWIN’s social media presence. We believe this could be much better! We have two Facebook pages, one with closed membership for just our group, and another public page that has 311 members. We can use the public page to invite women who might be interested in joining or to promote our events. Erica Carpenter posts regularly and would be happy to put your event on our page.
  3. Share referrals. This is a main function of our group – to grow our businesses by promoting and utilizing one another’s businesses when appropriate. We can extend our reach by referring friends to members on forums such as Next Door and the Zionsville Moms Group, where people are frequently requesting recommendations.
  4. Recruit new members. People asked whether we had any suggestions for particular professions to fill; we don’t maintain a specific list, but we would like to fill positions such as photography when members leave. In general, the leaders suggest reviewing the website to see whether they notice any gaps. For example, one member noticed we do not have a salon member at present. Another member asked whether we had a cap on our membership number. We don’t really have one, but we recognize that the group could get too. The leaders believe that limiting membership to Zionsville women is one effective way of keeping the size manageable. One member suggested that we have an open house where people could stop in, other than a meeting, such as a philanthropic project that we sponsor and open up to the community. Someone else suggested we contact the school PTOs to advertise. PTOs also may have a newcomers meeting and with people new to the community who would be interested in having referrals. The leaders also reminded everyone that ZWIN has a rule about having a limit of eight at-home sales businesses such as Mary Kay and cabi. Kathy also mentioned that when members leave, she asked them if they have any comments or reasons; all have said that it has to do with their time, getting away from business, etc.
  5. Increase member participation. We often have the same people volunteering. We would like everyone to reach out and try something new.

“Best of Zionsville”

The Zionsville Times Sentinel is hosting their “Best of Zionsville” contest this week. They have lots of categories that members can be nominated for, including realtor, civic organization, specialty gift, personal trainer, mortgage, RN, wellness, spa, attorney. Nominations are due Friday, so go to the paper and fill it out and drop it off at the Times Sentinel. Debbi is passing out a sheet to write your name down and category if it fits one of the ones mentioned. Kathy will post this on our Facebook page.

Members in the News

We love to see members in news! Recently we’ve seen Kate Swanson’s dog Gus, and Lyle and Katie of ZEF. Bring it anytime you see it! Also, if you are in news, take a photo of it and send to Erica so she can put it on website. We have a “ZWIN in the news” category on the website. Members can post themselves about their own businesses on the member FB group. If your business has a promotion coming up, we can put it on the public FB page.

Pinning New Member

Tracy Ridings, congrats! She is with USO Indiana, a 501 C 3 organization that connects service members with family, home, and country. They have hospitality centers in major airports and on bases. She’s also proud of their program United Reading, where they record a service member reading a book. When the member is gone, the family can enjoy their voice and virtual presence. This is touching for children who can hear their parents read. She shared a story of a family whose father died in service, but still cherished the video of him recorded through that program.

Years of Membership

Then the group played “Last man standing” to recognize years of membership. Everyone stood to start; stay standing if you’ve been a member over one year; two years; etc. ZWIN will be five years in June. This was a fun way to recognize the longest-running members. Kim Storen, Amy Connelly, Connie Fuller, Kathy, Debbi were at the first board meeting!

A New Raffle Reward System

We will have a new way of doing them this year to emphasize connectivity! If you meet with a member outside of regular meetings, then put a raffle ticket in the bucket for each person that you met with that month! Prizes – today we raffled off two of Julie’s Pivot Point books.

Spotlight Speaker Time!

Lucy Dollens, attorney with Quarles and Brady, LLP:  She knows “you’ve worked hard to create your business,” and she can help you manage business issues. She opened her office 3 years ago, and they have 24 employees here in Indy. The firm has many offices nationwide. When clients have a business issue that may have a legal component, such as a dispute regarding a customer, contract, delivery schedule, employee, or product, she helps clients work through these. She loves IMG_8720talking to clients about their businesses and helping them through difficult times. She knows hiring a lawyer can be scary, but it’s a cost of doing business. She suggests you shore up support early. She can help you position yourself well before a dispute blows up. Involving an attorney to reach out on your behalf can get someone’s attention; they react to seeing a law firm on letterhead. She can be the “bad guy” on an issue while you maintain your relationship with a customer going forward. Lucy shared a basket with fliers and cards and gifts to raffle from her firm.

 

Susan Albers, philanthropist with Outreach, Inc. and other organizations: She said she is surrounded by a bunch of women who draw an income from many businesses. Some help people save money, invest it, or pay taxes on it. Susan helps people give money away. She shared three tips for meaningful giving:

  1. Be intentional. Don’t wait for random needs to come your way. At the beginning of year, ponder what causes you care most about. Channel your time and money to a few things you intentionally select. This helps you say yes to some and no to others.IMG_8722
  2. Be wise. You want your gifts to make a difference. Charitable giving may do more harm than good. She said she could cite many examples and recommend a couple books on this for those who are interested. So, do your research before committing.
  3. Give generously. Jill King shared that with her. Susan would love to be like the Gates, able to spend time to doling out vast resources to select causes. And while most of don’t have that much, if we are in this room, we are among the richest people in the world. There’s an online calculator for “how rich am I.” Google that. It calculates where you rank. Even if you make minimum wage, $15,000, you’re in the top 11%. So, you have much to give! Remember the transformation in Scrooge of The Christmas Carol? Joy comes from giving! Susan had a raffle, too! Two winners received a $100 bill to give away with additional information from Susan.

 

Hearing from Our Board Members About Their Roles

  • Connie Fuller, Corresponding Secretary, said we use remind 101 to send text reminders about meeting times and locations, especially if there are changes. If you’re not receiving them, text her to 81010 saying @ZWIN1. Or you can go to remind.com, type in the code, and add your number.IMG_8728
  • Cindy Argentine, Recording Secretary, said that her job is to take minutes of the meetings and create blog posts from them. For a record of what happened at past meetings, check out the blog at zionsvillewin.org.
  • Kim Storen, Treasurer, said that yearly dues are due; they are $96/year. You can use Paypal if don’t want to write a check. If you ever spend money on ZWIN, she can reimburse you. Also, members who join after January can prorate their fee for the year so that they pay $8/month. Kim also does our nametags. If you need one or want to change it, let her know!
  • Becki Cronin, VP of Membership, was not present. She handles new member applications and coordinates with Erica and Kim on this.
  • Dawn Parker, IMG_8733coordinator for spotlight speakers, suggests that when it’s your turn, you should practice and time your talk so you don’t get cut off in middle. The time limit is to be fair and give everyone three minutes. If you are new and haven’t been a spotlight speaker yet, email Dawn. She’d love to know who actually wants to do one! We’re also adding a new element to highlight our members – shout-outs. Many of us have been clients of someone in the group. Shout-outs will be a way to offer a quick blurb to share about being a client of someone and having a great experience with them.
  • Jane Crawford, VP of Programming, said Maureen gave her a great binder full of information! She thanks Maureen so much. They love to get our ideas. She has an online survey monkey for us to do; several already have. She also distributed a paper survey. Our meeting next month ties into one of our connectivity themes – the topic is social media and technology, which came from our suggestions.
  • Shelley Johnson, Member care coordinator, said she gets to be the giver. When there are new babies in the group, she procures little gifts and takes them. Other times, she may need to send care. She deals with confidential info all the time, and she can keep requests confidential if necessary. If someone needs a boost, let’s lift them up.
  • Erica Carpenter, VP Promotions, had an activity for us. She told everyone to go to their phones and open the Zionsville Women in Network page on Facebook. She had us all open the public page and see what was just posted about Susan Albers sharing about giving generously. She asked us to like the post and then share it on our own social media. Then she told us about the private page for ZWIN on Facebook. She walked us through the website and all the information there on personal bios, photos, blog posts, the mission statement, photos of events, members in the news, and more. She encouraged us all to share these on social media!

Shout-Outs!

  • We had several shout-outs today! Elaine Morrison of Zionsville PT is looking forward to working with Liz Escoffery on women’s health classes. Liz assists with fertility issues while Elaine helps with pregnancy and back pain – so they make a great team. They are doing a class tomorrow and may do them again this summer!
  • Susan Finley gave a shout-out to Kathy Wood for recommending her to do the makeup for Century 21 shoots. Another thanked Dawn Parker for helping with her kids’ health. Kim Storen also thanked Dawn for helping her learn much more about food and nutrition!
  • We all want to thank Maureen Damer for four years of excellent programming, as our VP in that area!

Chamber Banquet

As a last announcement, Tracy Coussens shared that she is “the new Tracy” at the Chamber of Commerce. (Tracy Phillips is the director there.) The Chamber of Commerce is having a banquet Friday, January 26 at the Palamino Ballroom. Instead of a silent auction, they will be having a raffle for an “ultimate host package” filled with things to do unique to our community. Please contact Tracy if you’d like a ticket. She says the speaker will be good! And ZWIN is considering having a table of members there. Please let Debbi know if you’d like to join the ZWIN table! Tickets $65 for nonmembers; raffle tickets $25.

Next Meeting

Our next meeting on the social media and technology theme will be February 8, 2018 from 11:45-1:00 pm at Zionsville United Methodist Church. We’ll meet again March 8 at the same time and place. In April, we will have an evening social.

Thanks all! Take care! See you in a month!

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