Ritz Carlton New Orleans, Louisiana

PWIPM Council Meeting

Minutes

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The meeting opened at 1p.m. with a warm welcome by Chairwoman Emily Thomas. In attendance: Chairwoman Emily Thomas, Co-chairman Gena Lupini, Rhonda Elmore, Rene Kesecker, Mary Beth Kordek, Jennifer Leggett; and guests Sabra Fearon, Karen Furgiuele Percy, Karie Keown, Barbara Kunst, Laura Simpson, Tammy Johnson, Michelle Thomas, Jen Marlowe, Jill Ringold (Univar), Claude Thomas and Jonathan Peck. Ms. Thomas thanked everyone’s participation and commitment to being here, Univar’s continued support of Leadership Week and introduced Ms. Gena Lupini as the new in-coming Co-Chairwomen of the PWIPM. After each participant introduced themselves Ms. Thomas turned the business of the meeting of the meeting over to Ms. Dominique Stumpf, NPMA staff liaison to PWIPM.

Ms. Stumpf reviewedrecent PWIPM activity since its last meeting in February, in conjunction with Legislative Day 2008. Joint programming with the Minorities in Pest Management was well received and attended. State associations are still encourage to participate in local/state activates, representing PWIPM. New for the 2008-9 year, all professional women attending NPMA industry events will receive a pink Professional Women in Pest Management ribbon, opening up participationand the feeling of inclusiveness. The link to the PWIPM site will be sent out to all PWIPM members to include on their company sites. A suggestion was made to contact the American Business Women’s Association in regards to a partnership, primarily in an effort to grow awareness of the PWIPM and the scholarship. Also, new PWIPM apparel and accessories (i.e. fleece/quilted vest; scarves) will be for sale [suggested that the Bug Store more prominently display PWIPM goods], including a tote bag, personalized with PWIPM. All proceeds will go towards the PWIPM Scholarship Fund.

A review of short term key priorities was given, with focus on recruitment for the upcoming PWIPM Workshop in July. The workshop will feature a discussion on community involvement. Each participant was asked to extend the information and personal invitation to their network of professional women so that last year’s attendance of 30 be met and surpassed. While registration for both the PWIPM and the Academy is encouraged, participation in just the workshop is also fine.

Concern was expressed that there were only two scholarship applicants for the 2008 PWIPM Scholarship. As noted above, we will reach out to the BWA, state associations and also ask the members to include information on PWIPM and a direct link to the scholarship be posted on their website if feasible. Suggestion was made for businesses to include a voluntary contribution on their invoices and it was agreed that while a good suggestion there may be a lot of competing charities or industry causes already in place but certainly a company could choose to raise funds in this manner. Awareness of the scholarship in the industry seems lacking and the group will continue making strong efforts in growing its awareness.

The scholarship review sub-committee, including Ms. Emily Thomas, Ms. Gena Lupini, Ms. Laura Simpson and Ms. Rene Kesecker, were given the judging criteria and applicant materials with the mandate to evaluate by August 1st in order to notify the winner of the scholarship by August 15th. The sub-committee agreed based on two applications, the results would be determined by the week’s end while here in New Orleans.

Ms. Stumpf reviewed the educational programs hosted by PWIPM at PestWorld 2008 & other PWIPM activities at PestWorld. The PWIPM will continue its fundraising efforts, selling raffle tickets for a Tiffany’s piece of jewelry, having a booth schedule in advance of the convention to ensure PWIPM presence at the NPMA booth during exhibit hours. The idea of a silent auction, possibly on-line, was broached relative to working with suppliers (non-industry related) to offer more prizes and opportunities to win, and of course increase fundraising efforts for the scholarship. PWiPM would like to do a short presentation to the spouses/guests participating at PestWorld 2008, inviting them to learn more about and if applicable, participate in PWIPM. The council would like to see a PWIPM Annual Membership Meeting be hosted to be inclusive of all those that would like to learn more about the organization and how it can serve the professional women in the industry. Ms. Stumpf agreed that this would be a great idea and would look into the feasibility of this occurring at the annual convention but if not there, possibly another appropriate venue, i.e. the upcoming December business meeting.

As new business, the PWIPM agreed and committed to spearheading a community project, consistent with NPMA’s 75th anniversary, “75 Years of Service to the Industry and Consumer”. After much dialogue, the group agreed that the Dress for Success project would be appropriate and fitting with PWIPMs mission. Ms. Stumpf will distribute information within 2 weeks to the Council in regards to the process of rolling out this project and what it means to the group with the object of promoting it industry wide at PestWorld 2008 and community wide thereafter. Council members agreed that a phone bank to industry peers, starting with the PWIPM mailing list would be targeted as participants in this great cause. Outside of the obvious, serving a very good cause, the positive affect for PWIPM and the industry will be immeasurable.

The meeting adjourned at 3:30 p.m.

Adjournment

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