Its hard to believe I was just installed as your NYS Women Inc President. Thank you to everyone for all your words of encouragement and support. I get asked all the time why NYSW when there are so many business organizations out there. The answer to this question is different for each one of us but for me – mentoring, networking, personal/professional development, friendships, are words that come to mind. It is by far the best organization I am part of.

Over the years the organization helped me develop leadership and business skills, friendships, business contacts and so many of these women mentored me as I decided to take my consulting to a new level and make a business out of it. When everyone else thought I was out of my mind to leave a State job to take a chance running my own business, the women of this organization encouraged me. I have now been in business 15 yrs. I also run a non-profit I helped found called Ed Tech of WNY which connects WNY children with technology so they can get a better education and be prepared for the workforce. I would never have thought any of this was possible 10 yrs ago.

I am very passionate about this organization and I hope you share my enthusiasm. Please consider joining in all the excitement this year and helping take this organization to the next level.             

My initiatives for the year:

1. Awareness – We will be putting a lot of effort into marketing and branding of the entire organization and the local chapters. We will be providing marketing materials to the chapters, a how to market guide, and a lot of guidance. We have already provided our members, who attended the Annual conference, with NYSW business cards. We will be hold a workshop on how to market to grow chapter at the October meeting.
   
   
2. Sponsorships – We have changed our NIKE sponsorships to NYSW sponsorships. We will be looking for companies to sponsor the entire organization and our meetings.
   
   
3. Social Media - By increasing our social media presence and using consistent hashtags (#NYSWomen, #equalpay) we will increase the awareness of NYSW. We are already getting retweeted regularly just by slightly increasing our postings. Media outlets will take notice of our organization the more we are active on Social Media.
   
   
4. Politics – We are teaming up with PowHerNY to expand our ability to lobby in NYS and provide our members with the most up to date political information. Stay informed by watching our Facebook and twitter feeds.
   
   
5. Lets Get to Know Each Other! – How well do you know members at your chapter and at other chapters? We want to work on changing that this year.

I have a gift to the organization to present. I will be donating the redesign of the web site. This redesign will allow our web site to be more appealing and responsive which means it will respond/change when it is viewed on a phone or tablet. This will help us market the organization better. Within the next month it will be live.

I look forward to helping grow NYS Women Inc in the upcoming year. I will give it 110% and I hope that everyone will join in this big adventure.