SAN ANTONIO WOMEN’S
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Meeting Minutes for July 10, 2017
SAWS Offices
MEMBERS PRESENT: Sarah Becher, Dr. Yvonne Katz, Tracey Ritchie, Belinda Gavallos, Diane Polanco, Rosalind Reeder, Dr. Patti Birney, Margie Hildreth, Monica Gillooly, Amy Gonzalez, Nicole Ross, Rebecca Hughes, Jennifer Haft, Dr. Susan Blackwood, Kristen Villarreal, Dr. Sandra Neubert, and Lacey Fischer
MEMBERS ABSENT: Zina Guerra Stacey Isenberg, Cindy Taylor, Angelica Docog, Catherine Stone, Lori Johnson Leal, Gabrielle Gelo, and Yolanda Rodgers
TOPIC DISCUSSION: Welcome/Pledge
· Pledge/Mission was recited.
TOPIC DISCUSSION: Report from Secretary
· Minutes from the June BOD were distributed prior to meeting for review
· No changes to minutes
ACTION: Motion was made and seconded to approve the June BOD’s meeting minutes. Approved unanimously.
TOPIC DISCUSSION: Report from Treasurer
· Stacey was unable to attend the meeting, so Q2 financials will be reviewed in August.
ACTION: No motions or actions
TOPIC DISCUSSION: Committee Reports
Communications
· Rebecca reported that the summer mixer announcement will be sent soon. We are low on attendance right now (only 14 RSVPs), so please send the reminder to all your contacts.
· There are materials due August 4th for SWS and PowerHour communications.
· Kristen reported:
o Facebook 1,574, up 15
o Twitter is 3,312, up 15
o Instagram is 141, up 4
o LinkedIn is 558, up 1
o Share the mixer event on social media!
o Re-grammed some pictures that were hash tagged for our events
o Rebecca shared that she changed the cover picture to our mixer
· Education & Leadership
o SWS
§ Diane reported that she and Amy would be meeting today and putting a committee meeting together for the fall series
§ We should be ready for September
§ Can always use topic ideas
· Mentioned the medical themed one
· Belinda suggested a professor from Alamo Colleges that does a topic on how to take care of your car – may be a good idea of things to know for women. Will pass on contact info
· Dr. Birney suggested a speaker who does a “Thrive, don’t just survive” theme. Will get contact info and more information.
· There was an idea about security alarms – Tracey works for an alarm monitoring company, she may be able to get a contact who would be able to speak
o Interested in how to qualify an alarm company (where should they be licensed, how can you tell if they are legit, etc.)
o Leadership
§ Dr. Birney reported that the last TLD session with Leo Gomez was exception and brought everything from all the sessions together.
§ He spoke about knowing what your “bullseye” is and bringing passion, integrity and balance – there was great interaction from the group
§ Becky Spieth also spoke and gave tips & techniques that were phenomenal
§ Had a great breakthrough with one of our members who was concerned with a work issue before the session and the content really spoke to her.
§ Feedback forms went out and we got back 8 really though through surveys; you could tell they put a lot of time and effort into it. The committee will put together some recommendations based on this.
o Bloomberg
§ Monica reported that we had our 4th Bloomberg session on June 27th with 41 attendees.
§ Our speaker is a Diversity & Inclusion officer from the City and she spoke about bias and created some great discussion.
§ The next session will be July 25th about gender and generational issues.
§ The last session will be August 29th and it will be a panel discussion moderated by Monica. Still looking for panel experts. Please email Monica any contact information for women you think would be good participants.
§ Attendees can sign up for educational credits; if they want to receive them, they just have to fill out the forms prior and we will sign them.
o Mentorship
§ Monica also reported on the mentorship program that we hope to start next year. We are partnering with the Girl Scouts and hope to put this out to members in the spring.
§ The program will be available at all public schools, so participants can choose where to go.
§ They will put on a presentation for high school girls. All of membership can participate. We plan to have a training, or some sort of retreat to teach them what to do.
§ Becky Jennings is helping and will be our community partner. She presented to us 2 years about a similar program, but we were not in a position to do so. We are now trying to start this as a “Mentorship Initiative”.
· Events
o Gala
o Dr. Blackwood reported on the progress of the gala
o IBC has been very helpful in the process.
o We have a new donor form that was distributed with the meeting minutes
o Each committee head was requested to report on their basked theme today
§ Communications – media theme
§ Education – Educational adventures (museums & other fun educational places)
§ Mixers – party theme
§ Golf – not present
§ PowerHour – not present
§ Membership – spa comes to you
§ SWS – working on basket
§ There are two groups for the board members who don’t have their own committee. Dr. Katz and Dr. Blackwood have put them together as such:
· Tracey, Stacey, Jennifer, Cathy & Gabrielle will put together one basket
· Dr. Katz, Sarah, Dr. Neubert, Yolanda & Lori will put together a basket – their theme is a “Man About Town”
§ Sarah has several Walt Glass pottery pieces that are currently increasing in value to be included.
§ We have made a lot of progress on our goals with the commitments for tables and sponsors.
§ We will have a woman wounded warrior special guest, whom General Pringle will be bringing. It is Captain Christy M. Wise and she will peak on resilience. (bio distributed in meeting)
§ Nominations for the awards opened today. Please solicit your colleagues and friends to be nominators. Nominees should be women who fit our ACE criteria (advocate, connect, empower). Nominator and nominee must be able to do the video and the nominee must be able to participate in the gala. Please think about a list of 3-5 women and who you can contact to nominate them. They don’t need to worry about the categories, the nominating committee will do that.
§ We will have a digital vote to finalize the honorees in August because of the September meeting date being later.
o PowerHour
o Angelica was not able to attend but we are all set for September 14th and finalizing October and January.
o Mixer
o Ros reported that we are set for our Luau for Wednesday, July 26th 5:30 – 7:30
o For food we will do some trays, but maybe try something different than the wings, they are little messy
o Everyone needs to sign up if they can attend.
o Will also have some wine and beer
o Don’t forget to bring your school supplies to donate.
· Membership
o Distributed report
o Belinda reported that we have 5 new individual memberships, 2 are students
o Corporate memberships have a few that have lapsed; visiting tomorrow to better address the corporate needs.
o Thursday is the International Women’s roundtable, talking about someone to take Belinda’s place b/c she cannot attend. Will give more details to Sarah.
o We have more “chicks” if you need them!
Committee Involvement
o Dr. Neubert will review the new orientation process with our newest board member, Yolanda.
Charity of Choice
o Rebecca reported that our members voted and the Family Violence Prevention Services won with almost 50% of the vote.
Tri-Centennial
o Jennifer reported that the first meeting of the committee will be July 20th at 10 am; getting a write up of where we stand before the meeting
Executive Director
o Thank you for everyone’s help delivering the congrats bags to the new city council and mayor.
o We had a great bag – wine glasses, leather notebooks, purse sized notebooks, wine holders a little PG item and more!
o There was a great turnout at the event.
o We have a lot going on right now especially with our office staff Rebecca and Nicole. If you are looking for them to do something, please send all of that through Dr. Katz. All requests and communications will go through Dr. Katz so that she can prioritize them.
o Additionally, all payments and sponsorship checks are to be sent to the office. There are no exceptions to this.
Other Business
· Rebecca noted that Can We Talk is hosting the speaker we had at SWS on Human Trafficking. It will be August 29th and we have a flyer posted in the community page.
Meeting adjourned. 1:06 pm
Minutes respectfully submitted by:
Tracey Ritchie