What an amazing weekend we had in Syracuse for the October Meeting. The weekend was full of laughing, networking, learning and education. It was so great to see so many women helping and supporting each other. Everyone was so positive and supportive. I think everyone left the meeting re-energized to move this organization to the next level.
We started the meeting off with a Halloween themed dinner on Friday. Everyone came in a costume. There were a lot of laughs seeing how creative everyone was and we learned what we all do for Halloween with a Halloween bingo game. Sue Mager won the best costume with her devil’s egg costume.
Saturday we started off with a very energetic presentation on generation differences and communication by Dr. Pauline Hoffmann, Dean of Russell J. Jandoli School of Journalism and Mass Communication at St Bonaventure from the Buffalo Niagara Chapter. She made us aware of how different generations communicate very differently and except different values from the organization. This is something we really need to be aware of when we are trying to grow our chapters. We need to learn how to appeal and speak to women of all ages.
We then went on to using social media in the organization and business. Remember in order to obtain young members we have to be where they are, which is on social media. We talked a lot about engaging posts and sparing conversation. Remember NYSW will create a Facebook page for you and you can manage it. Just ask me for one.
Saturday afternoon we spent brainstorming marketing and programming ideas and learning about how to brand NYSW. These brainstorming sessions have been well received the past few meetings and will continue in the future. Everyone got a chance to put their ideas out there and obtain ideas to help their chapter. The marketing section of the web site is being beefed up with everything we discussed during this session. We are giving you all the tools your chapter needs to start growing and promoting yourself.
Saturday dinner we tried something new. We had assigned seating so everyone got to know different members. We completed a “Clothes Line Project” all in blue and green. Each table had 3 questions they needed to talk about and write their answers down. Then we came together as a group to share those ideas. The questions were all based on where do you want to see this organization go in the future.
Thank you everyone for such a wonderful, positive, and energetic meeting! See you in April!
Attendee quotes -
I loved that whole Saturday evening. It was a great idea to assign seating so that people got the chance to get to know other members outside of their own area. I loved the sharing of ideas and suggestions.
Very informative and dynamic. The speakers were fabulous and right on with their topics.
Workshops were a real help and very valuable.