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Healdsburg Healing Arts New |
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Volume 9, Issue 2
October 2009 |
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The Mission of the American Business Women's Association:
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.
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Calendar of Events
RSVP for our next meeting
October 20, 6:30 pm
Dinner Meeting
Johnny Garlic's, Windsor
November 17, 6:30 pm
Dinner Meeting
Johnny Garlic's, Windsor
December 15, 6:00 pm
Holiday Party
Camellia Inn, Healdsburg
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Board of Directors
President:
Alicia Mutch
Vice President, Hospitality:
Judith Light
Secretary:
Audrey Gondoli
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Message from the President
 Our second dinner meeting of the new ABWA year is rapidly approaching, and this month's newsletter is looking pretty chock-full of information about everything we're up to. I feel like the momentum and participation within our group is increasing, and I was very happy to hear the feedback we received about our September meeting. I continue to be excited about the Women's Global Leadership Initiative, and I wrote a summary of my experience at their Introductory Seminar for you to read. Also, Diana Blakeley has expressed an interest in starting up an optional weekly lunch meeting for ABWA members to swap ideas, offer feedback, and share business strategies with each other. Her announcement is in the Member News section. Also, Jen Stark has once again offered to head the committee for the Inspiring Women's Scholarship Fundraiser, and the planning for that event in April is already underway. Oh yes, and we agreed at last month's meeting to hold a holiday clothing drive for our local battered women's shelter. We will be accepting donations at our November meeting, so please hold onto your donations until then. So much to do, so little time! Thank you all for your participation and enthusiasm.
See you soon! -Alicia Mutch
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Membership Drive
Our chapter is sponsoring a membership drive competition from now until November 30. The members who bring the most guests to our October and November meetings will each receive a $50 visa gift card. Members need to bring at least two guests to qualify to win, and ties will be resolved by holding a drawing at each meeting to determine the winner. Of course, the best way to win is to just bring more guests than anyone else, and then you don't need to worry about competing in a drawing. The member who sponsors the most new members joining our organization from September 1 through November 30 will receive a prize at our Holiday Party on December 15.
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Next Meeting: October 20
Our next dinner meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 20 at Johnny Garlic's in Windsor. The address is 8988 Brooks Road South, and it's located just south of the Safeway shopping center near the downtown Windsor exit from 101. We will be networking from 6:30 to 7:00, and our dinner meeting begins at 7:00. All members and guests are welcome. If you would like, you may bring a bottle of wine with you to share with the group. Drinks are also available for purchase from the bar. The price of the dinner meeting is $ 25 for members and $ 30 for guests. You may select your dinner entree when you check in at the meeting. To RSVP for the dinner meeting, please visit our website. RSVPs must be received by the day before our meeting for us to guarantee you a meal. We love early RSVPs!Please be prepared to pay your local dues for the year at our meeting. Local dues are $60, and you can pay your dues along with your dinner meeting fee. If you can't make it to the meeting, you can mail your dues check to:
ABWA, P.O. Box 164, Healdsburg, CA 95448 |
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Speaker & Topic of the Month
Automatic Marketing Techniques For Increasing Sales
At our October dinner meeting, Internet business owner and entrepreneur Jim Sansi will be covering several key marketing strategies any business can use to help find and bring in new customers and boost sales without spending a fortune. Jim will cover techniques you can easily implement for your business to gather customer contact information and build a customer list, how to completely automate the follow up process and start a constant contact program with your current and future customers with techniques like a printed or emailed newsletter. Jim has created several Internet web sites utilizing these same techniques to bring in new customers and clients on auto-pilot. Jim is also the author of several information products including titles on " How to Bring in Web Site Traffic with Articles," "Discover Costa Rica," a vacation travel guide and "How To Create a DVD at Home."
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What You Missed Last Month
Financial Fitness - The Importance of Accurate Financial Statements for Your Business, by Cindi Brown The two most common financial statements that a business should maintain are the Balance Sheet and the Income Statement. The Balance Sheet is also referred to as a statement of financial condition. It's a snapshot of the health of the company as it summarizes the assets, liabilities and the company equity at a given point in time. The Income Statement is also referred to as the Profit & Loss Statement (P&L). It reports the company's income, expenses and profits over a given period of time. Financial Statements may be used for a variety of reasons such as: - Owners require Financial Statements to make important business decisions that affect its continued operations.
- Financial Institutions require Financial Statements to decide whether to grant a company with fresh working capital or extend long term loans for significant expenditures.
- Prospective investors make use of Financial Statements to assess the viability of investing in a business.
- Vendors who extend credit to a business require financial statements to assess the creditworthiness of the business.
- Landlords & property managers also review the financials to ensure that the business has sufficient cash flow to pay their lease or rent payment.
It is very important to maintain an accurate Chart of Accounts within your General Ledger to ensure that all income & expenses are categorized properly. The most popular and easy to use accounting software is QuickBooks. If any of the ABWA members would like a financial review, I would be happy to consult with them to support our women owned businesses in our community. Cindi Brown Vice President North Coast Bank (707) 431-2111 office (707) 292-2684 cell
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Hospitality Report from Judith
Thank you to all the first meeting of the season attendees for responding to the questionnaire about the venue, Windor's Johnny Garlic's, food, service, etc. With only one exception, the responses were favorable with some excellent suggestions. I am looking into other venues for the future should the membership choose a different course of action.
Lucy Lewand has offered Camellia Inn in Healdsburg on Tuesday, December 15th as the venue for our annual Holiday Dinner Party. While details are being discussed, we will have the ever popular ornament exchange. Ten dollars is the suggested maximum for the value of the ornament in the ornament exchange. A sign up will be available at the October and November meetings as numbers for this event are limited.
See you October 20th at Johnny Garlic's in Windsor. Respectfully Submitted, Judith Light Vice President, Hospitality |
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What's Up with the National Fee Increase?
Yes, that's right, it happened again. The National ABWA organization has raised our national dues to $90 for the year, up $15 from last year. Where is this $15 going? The $15 fee increase goes to support the Women's Instructional Network(WIN), an online resource that National has provided for us so that members can access continuing professional development education. The $15 fee gets you 5 free educational modules, and you can explore them at your own pace. Some of the titles of the modules include: "Building a Collaborative Team Environment," "Giving and Receiving Feedback," "Working with Your Supply Chain," "Facilitating Team Interaction," and "Team Problem Solving." There are 15 to choose from right now, as well as streaming briefs and videos. They are designed to enhance the professional development focus of our chapter on topics that we might not cover at our dinner meetings. I invite all of you to check out and explore the Women's Instructional Network before the October meeting. Since we all get 5 free modules, why not explore at least one module before the next meeting? I will be asking for feedback from the group as to how we like the new system, and it really helps if we've actually tried it out before we give feedback and complain about the $15 fee increase. We will be discussing how useful we feel the new system is for our members, as well as our options if we all collectively decide that we don't want to participate in WIN.
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Mentoring Opportunities
I attended the introductory seminar for the Women's Global Leadership Initiative on September 26th, and was very impressed with the turnout, enthusiasm and business plan for the group. My vision for the collaboration between our two organizations is to provide mentorship opportunities for our members, so that we can continue to enhance the leadership and professional skills of our members. The mentorship training provided by WGLI will be a series of 3 seminars scheduled three to four months apart interwoven with community projects. The first seminar will focus on leadership as a personal project; the second seminar will focus on women as change agents and help them to build project management skills; and the third seminar will focus on training women in leadership roles, specifically in developing their negotiating skills and enhancing their ability to collaborate and build consensus in the community. The WGLI is developing relationships with the Santa Rosa Junior College, Sonoma State, and Empire College so that students at each school have an opportunity to fill out an application and to have a mentor assigned to them. Coincidentally, all three schools are the ones that we provide scholarships to (we just added Empire College this year), and I see the possibility of offering all of our scholarship recipients not just the gift of money but the gift of continuing success and mentorship in their careers. The WGLI will have a mentorship orientation meeting on Tuesday, December 1st. I signed up on the spot to be trained as a mentor. It sounds fun and incredibly rewarding. Meanwhile, the organization is set to officially launch in late February. For more information about the organization, and to volunteer as a mentor, contact Diana Ruiz. |
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Member News and Announcements
Announcement from Diana Blakeley:
If any of you are interested in meeting in a smaller group setting for lunch or breakfast or at my office in Windsor (coffee shop next door) to share ideas, discuss business strategies, get feedback etc. please contact me at 707-433-8725 or via e-mail.
Announcements from Judith Light:
MoonSong and MoonDancer will have sales booths at the October 17th Wellness Fair in Sebastopol.
Prices on MoonSong products and MoonDancer costumes and jewelry will be greatly reduced at the show.
Come see the MoonDancer troupe perform at 11:30, 2:30 and 4:30.
Where: Masonic Lodge, Sebastopol.
When: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, October 17th
Judith Light
www.moonsong.com
www.moondancerbellydance.com
Announcement from Chris Parr-Feldman:
Parr Productions
"Putting your name on everything."
50% off holiday cards until October 15.
See everything on line and order!
www.parrproductions.cceasy.com
Or contact me for a catalog.
-Chris
Announcement from Lori Moore:
Healdsburg's Wine Country Christmas presents a Strolling Dine Around. This second annual event will be held on December 9 & 10, 16 & 17. Healdsburg invites you to enjoy a "Three Hour Dining Experience" featuring some of our finest restaurants. Each host is conveniently located near the historic Healdsburg Plaza. Eighteen of Healdsburg finest restaurants are participating. Pick 4 from the list and stroll around to each. Seating is limited for this popular event. Brochure will be available by October 20th.
Go to www.healdsburg.com/holidays and print out your reservation form.
For more information, call Lori at 479-7488.
Announcement from Star Dewar:
Pet portraits in Windsor and Healdsburg coming soon! Star Dewar of Star Shots Photography has been invited back to Garrett Hardware stores on Saturday, October 16th (Windsor) and two days in Healdsburg, October 31st and November 1st. Times are from 10 until 5. Sign up for a time slot or take your chances and drop in. Bring the pets, children, significant others and Halloween Costumes! Sitting and 5x7 costs $15.00. Enlargements, mugs, note cards, etc available for pre-Christmas delivery.
707-539-8974
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Wine Country Chapter #6504
American Business Women's Association
P.O. Box 164, Healdsburg, CA 95448
www.wineabwa.org
We appreciate your feedback! Please send comments, suggestions, submissions, and rants to Alicia Mutch. Please keep member news submissions to 50 words or less.
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