Editor: Michele Altman

March 2010

2009

–

2010 Officers

President: Wendy AdamsVice President: Maryanne FechterSecretary: Kari WalckTreasurer: Deborah Seufert

Committees

Membership ChairLinda Augustino - RaffertyNewsletter Chair & Historian

Michele AltmanWebsite ChairpersonKari WalckPublicitySue ArmeniaPrograms and ProfessionalDevelopment Chairperson:Nancy AskinsCorporate Sponsor/Recruitment:Karen MockStrategic Planning Chair:Amy ChristiesonHospitality Chairperson:Ruth GallingerCo-Chair: Marilyn MorrealeCo-Chair:Cathie NeiswongerGroups CoordinatorCandra ThomasonChinese Auction Chair:KathyKline June Celebration Co-Chairs:Kari Walck andDanielle Bevacqua

March is Women’s History Month!

Not too long ago

, the topic of women’s history was largely missing fr

omgeneral public consciousness; now we have a month of our own!For information and the history of

Women’s History M

onth go to:http://womenshistorymonth.gov/

Speaking of Women’s History, c

ongratulations to ABWA members,

Linda Rafferty

and

Georgia Brannan

! They will be honored by The

Niagara County Federation of Republican

Women at their annual “Woman of the Year”

luncheon which takes place on March 20

! If you would like to honor them by attending, please see the invitation on page 10 for moredetails.We have a special contribution to our newsletter this month by member,

GeorgiaBrannan

;

One Moment in Time….an American Business Women Association Story. Find it

on pages 17

–

18.A huge thank you to new member,

Pamela Connolly,

for volunteering to help me gatherinformation for the newsletter. It will be a tremendous help! Look for more information onlocal educational and employment opportunities and resources.

Kari Walck

is asking members to send their updated information for the website. Pleaseforward new addresses, phone numbers, jobs, etc. to Kari at

yankeekari@live.com.

Thank you,Michele AltmanNewsletter Chair and Historian

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

President’s Message

2-3 Member Spotlight 16Local ABWA News 4-9 Member Contribution 17-18News and Happenings 10-15 National ABWA News 19

Mission: To bring together businesswomen of diverse occupations and to provide opportunities for them to help themselves and others grow personally and professionally through leadership, education, networking support and national recognition

March 2010 EditionPage 2

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all! I know this month a lot of our memberswill be on vacation with their families into early April, celebrating Easter. Iwish you the best of times with your friends and family and God Bless. Tocatch you up with me personally, I've been feeling ok and the baby is now 2 lbsand healthy- 3 months to go. It's a boy! My husband Jim and I are excited forthe arrival of out new little one! We're getting his bedroom all set and I have acouple of showers coming up in April and May to help me prepare for hisarrival. Wish me luck I am going to need it!This has been such a successful year so far! I'm so proud and excited for thework we as a chapter have done to become more organized, bettercommunicate through promoting the chapter in news articles, photo's andcollaborating with other organizations. Our strategic plan is under way withthe launch of the membership pilot program to take us into the new year, when we will roll out to all the othercommittees. You will see in Aug/Sept a slating process that will allow you to ask each chair about her committeeand sign up that night to help! You will have materials at your finger tips for your committee to be successful andreach your intended goals. Membership, programs and publicity will be our big focus into next year forrecruitment. We will have open positions we can recruit for and you will see new membership promotions. Weneed more members to reach out goals and be successful! We're on our way!Our Chinese auction committee is hard at work and they sent you out tickets to sell and a donation letter to hand to businesses upon receiving the donation. We need everyone's help to be successful; your goal should be to sell your10 tickets to everyone you know and collect at least 4 gift baskets or items with retail value over $50. Please give usyour time to give to a great cause, The NAACC kids summer program and ABWA Education and Programming.Did you know we have 50 members? We are growing, and would like you to tell us about yourself. Please reachout to Kari Walk, Secretary and Website chair. She is updating our member directory on our website so you cansearch for a member and see where she works. Please send Kari any new information out your mailing address,email, phone number and business information if it has changed in the last year. If you are a new member send Karieverything so she can add you please:yankeekari@live.com Also, for $60 for the year, you can advertise in our newsletter. Our newsletter goes out to over 250 people locally who are keeping tabs on us and want to know aboutour members. Sometimes it takes your information to be in front of people for several months before they reachout to you!! Contact Newsletter chair, Michele Altman mitchie764@roadrunner.com for more information. Our scholarship committee met the last week in Feb and we selected our winner. This person's information wassent online to national, we are awaiting national approval. We will announce the winner hopefully at March'sgeneral meeting.Nancy Askins, our programs and Professional Development Chair has already started to begin the process for the fallto select our speakers. A new survey will be out to members sometime in April or May as we need to submit ourproposal to Niagara University Continuing Education sometime at the end of June/July to have our information intheir booklet and on the website. Please be on the lookout for this survey to take part in selecting our next round of outstanding speakers. If you have anyone you would like to recommend for speaking in the fall, please email Nancyat

npacqm@roadrunner.com.

March 2010 EditionPage 3

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

(

continued

)

Karen Mock and student member Amanda Utz have been working diligently on our new 2010 Membership brochure.

We received a quote from Beau Designs in Lewiston who we’ve selected to do the work, with a partial

newsletter advertising trade. We should have everything ready by the beginning of April to start handing out tomembers to recruit new members!Our website now accepts credit card and PayPal payments for everything except the monthly dinners! You can also buy Chinese auction tickets ahead! Thank you Karen Renzi, Kari Walck and Deb Seufert with your help in gettingthis set up for us! Welcome to the 21st century people!!!!We are still looking for one member to attend our spring conference in Annapolis, MD. Date is May 14-15 at theSheraton Annapolis. Maryanne Fechter has agreed to drive, if someone wants to go with her. We will pay for yourregistration cost, but you will need to pay for food and hotel. I would set aside at least $400-500 to attend. If you

are a committee head or considering officer next year you don’t want to miss this terrific opportunity to

meet someof the most talented women in the nation and attend some great classes! Please email me for more informationASAP wastridge@verizon.net Last but not least, Amy Christieson, Karen Renzi and I will be working on our best practices to submit to nationalthis year, due in June. We have fulfilled all the requirements and we are looking forward to obtaining thisprestigious award. Niagara you make us proud! I'd just like to say without your continued support and belief in our board and committee heads this could not be possible. Thank you so much everyone for getting us one step further,helping one woman at a time!!!Sincerely,Wendy

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