National Association of Women in ConstructionNovember 2005
NAWIC Region 9
Region 9 Events
Membership Renewals
Membership renewals are due to the NAWIC office by October 1.
To avoid additional late charges, postmark your renewal by October 31.
Renew online- sign in>pay dues
WIC WEEK 2006
March 5-11
FORUM-2006
May 5 – 6
Hosted by Tri Cities Chapter #192
Clover Island Inn
KennewickWA
Convention-2006
September 6-9
Kansas City Marriott Downtown
Annual Planning Conference 2006
October 21
Hosted bySalem Chapter #198
Directors Message
Thank you ladies for helping to make my first APC successful, I hope everyone had a good time and went away with some new information and excitement for the upcoming year. Thank you Eugene chapter for the great event.
I want to take the opportunity to let everyone know what is happening with me. Dan and I decided to close our business after 15 years. I have taken a job with a new company Interwest Technology Systems, Inc. as the office manager. My boss has been very supportive of NAWIC to date. Dan is down in California working and I will be staying home for the duration of my term.
My goal is for a newsletter each month, so you may receive two letters in a short time. I am including in this newsletter a questionnaire from the Membership Task force and they are requesting EVERYONE to fill this out and send to back to me so I may forward it to them the deadline is December 30, 2005. I am going to ask that you return it to me by December 23rd so that I may enjoy the time that my husband will be home and not have to worry about getting this to the National chair. Remember if you don’t put in your input we don’t know what you are thinking.
Region 9
Membership News
Region 9 Membership Chair
Chris
New Members
Welcome the newest members to our Region.
Portland #54
Annette Hill-Onstott
Rose City Blueprint & Supply Co.
Joy Kyllingmark
Canby Excavating, Inc
Puget Sound #60
Vanessa Carman
Cardinal Heating & A/C
Lynn Brunner
Lydig Construction Inc
Carrie Dossick
University of WA
Eugene #77
Tiffany Nash
Kernutt Stokes Brandt & Co LLP
Spokane #143
Traci Kadoya
Lydig Construction Inc
Tri Cities #192
Jenita Wiseman
Columbia Basin Rebar, Inc
Salem #198
Marsha Thomas
Avamere Health Svcs.
Great Falls #228
Rebecca Johnson
Montana DOT
Susanne Platis
Highway Specialties Inc.
Boise #245
Janina Messenger
Washington Group International
DON’T FORGET TO EMAIL YOUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER TO PAM WRIGHT, REGION 9 DIRECTOR AT AND ALL REGION 9 CHAPTER PRESIDENTS.
NAWICCareerCenter
The new career Center is available at NAWIC on-line, and it is designed specifically for construction-related careers. The center is powered by Job target, an internet-based job board management company and was developed to connect NAWIC members with new employment opportunities and to assist recruiters in their quest to find qualified female employees. NAWIC members can post their resumes free of charge. Members and their employers will receive discounted job posting on the site. So, if you are looking for a new career or employee, visit NAWIC Online today!
Region 9 Chapter News
Portland #54
Puget Sound #60
Eugene #77
Spokane #143
Tacoma #187
Tri Cities #192
Hello from Tri-Cities #192!!! Four of our members just returned from APC in Eugene Oregon. Region 9 Director Pam Wright did a super job!!! Thank you Eugene chapter for being such great hosts. Information was great!!! Now for a little bit about what we are doing in the Tri-Cities, the home of your next Forum May 5-6, 2006!!! We are busy planning and scheming to make this the best ever Forum. We are in the process of selling bricks for our SUPPORT WALL for $20 each. Half of the money raised will go to NEF (Education Foundation) and the other half will help us defray costs for the Forum.
We just completed our first ever Construction Career Days in conjunction with the DOT. It was super with 380 high schooler’s from 6 different high schools. Tons of hands on activities were a big hit. A big THANK you to members participating and especially to the chairman, PAM WRIGHT, CIT.
At our last meeting we had a great speaker from the Crime Stoppers Unit of the Kennewick Police Department. Our next speaker will be from the Port of Benton who will fill us in on what is happening with construction in BentonCounty, etc. We are having a speaker on business insurance and bonds in January. In the meantime, we are busy recruiting new members, especially tradeswomen. Cathy Brady our membership chairman did an awesome job mailing our invitations to businesses and companies introducing NAWIC to them. Esther Hartshorn did a terrific job in decorating our room for the room crawl at APC. New member, Kristie, did a great job in putting together our display board for our Construction Career Days. We are small, but we are mightily...making a difference in our community and bettering ourselves!!!! See you soon!
Karyn Turya, ACSR, CPIW
Tri-Cities #192
Anchorage #197
Salem #198
Great Falls #228
Boise #245
Yakima #279
Coos/Douglas Counties #324
Nancy Eaton’s Mini Report on China
China was wonderful. So many great meetings, and yes, lots of fun too. You can all imagine I was in my glory being with NAWIC members for 10 days. 25 delegates and 7 guests ended up going. Tamie, Chris, and I were introduced as the "lead" of the delegation team, but all members participated in all meetings to a great extent. I would say we did NAWIC proud!! It is amazing to see the buildings they have completed in 11 months --some are 60 and 70 stories tall!!. The newBeijing airport had in excess of 32 cranes at the site (that's all we could see so there must have been more!!). Shanghaiis buzzing as well, but 4 new beltways ("ring roads they call them") are being built in Beijing at the same time, getting ready for the Olympics in 2008.Amazing!! The cultural events were fabulous...and about 20 of the 32 total made it all the way to the top of the Great Wall..., yep, Tamie, Chris, and I all made it too...10 of the 14 regions had someone attend so I am sure most of you will be seeing pictures. Tamie is gathering all pictures and putting on a disk so we can all share. A journal is being prepared by People to People in the next month or so --if anyone is interested, let me know and I'll get a copy sent to you.
President Chapman’s Australia Report
G'day Mates,
Just a quick email to let you all know that I am home safe and sound. The trip wasamazing. I had no travel problems and the flights were pretty uneventful. I arrived in Sidney on October 3rd and amazingly, was not too tired. After unpacking the essentials, I set out to see the city. I saw quite a bit that afternoon and even walked across the HarborBridge. I picked up some brochures and planned a trip to the Blue Mountains for Tuesday. During that trip I met a young lady (Wendy) from London who was traveling alone and we decided topair up for the day and had a great time. As fate would have it, she was staying right across the street from me. When I arrived back at the hotel, Shani Smith, a Past National President and current Director from New South Wales had called and wanted totake me to dinner. She picked up both me and Wendyand we had a great trip to BondiBeach and had awonderful dinner. On Wednesday Wendy and I explored the city some more. That evening Shani picked me up to meet the other two Directors from New South Wales for cocktails at the Sidney Opera House.
On Thursday I flew to Melbourne for the conference. Alex Haynes, one of the Directors from Victoria picked me up at the airport. We joined Louise Hansen, (another Director)for lunch. A little later that afternoon, AlisonHallahan (another Director) took me around Melbourne for some sightseeing. That evening I joined Maria Bobveldyk (National President), Barry (the Executive Director), Lynn(a member) and Allison for dinner.
Friday morning the conference began at 8:30 A.M. The day was filled with speakers. First was Cr Catherine Ng. Catherine is currently on the City Council and chairs the Planning and Environment Committee for the City of Melbourne. Next Valerie Francis from the University of Melbourne provided us with data regarding the number of women employed in the construction industry. Her data parallels the percentages of US women in the industry and the categories were nearly the same.
Senator Kay Patterson was also one of the morning features. She has been appointed by the Prime Minster as Minster for Family and Community Services and Minster assisting the Prime Minster on Women's issues. She was a great speaker and has the welfare of all women at heart.
Keynote speaker was Christine Nixon, Chief Police Commissioner of the State of Victoria. Christine shared her experiences of getting to the top of a male dominatedindustry. She was such a kind, soft spoken woman; it was hard to think of her as a police woman. I also saw her on"A Current Affair" on TVthe next week, so she really does get around.
Next was a panel discussion which I took part in, along with Tony Arnel, Building Commissioner Plumbing Commissioner, Lisa Okkonen, Project Manager, Commercial Business Unit, Bovis Lendlease and Brian Welch, ExecutiveDirector, Master Builders Association of Victoria. Each of us gave our view on WomenBuilding a Better Industry and took questions from the floor.
After lunch we were honored to have Janet Holmes a Court, who heads one of Australia's biggest private companies and is the country's richest woman. Janet spoke on issues surrounding her rise into a position as a prominent business woman in Australia and the challenges she overcame on the journey.
After Janet we heard from Robyn Henderson who has written several books and she did a Network or Perish workshop with very effective networking strategies.
The afternoon finished with Sandi Givens doing an interactive workshop that lead us through a series of development exercises. Next it was on to either a site walk or a walking tour. You could not have gone wrong with either one! We then had a small break in which to get ready for the Cocktail Party and NAWIC Crystal Vision Award presentation.
Now for a bit of NAWIC info -- in Australia they have states, not regions. Right now each state that has a chapter has only one chapter. This may change as they grow. There is a chapter in New South Wales (Sidney), Victoria (Melbourne) Queensland (Brisbane) and South Australia (Adeline). As they have about 850 members, these chapters are quite large, except for South Australia, which has only about 20 members, having just re-chartered. Each chapter has three National Directors. The president counts as one of the three from her state/chapter. There is a National Treasurer. The president comes from the Directors. They just talk it out and someone agrees to do it -- no campaigning. Then each chapter has a "Board of Management" with a president, treasurer, secretary anddirectors. I could not get clear on whether the chapters have a VP or not. I think some do, some don't, but all recognize the need for one and succession planning.
I need to clear up one itemfrom before, when I said that the president counted as one of the three directors from her state/chapter, I meant the National President, not the state/chapter president. Sorry if that was confusing.
Each state/chapter has their own awards dinner each year and a Crystal Vision Award winner. This year they had their first National Crystal Vision Award. The nominees were the past state winners. The founder of NAWIC Australia, Paula Gerber was there and gave her reflections on ten years of NAWIC. Instead of a banquet, there was a Cocktail Party. In addition to the Crystal Vision Award, three members were honored as life members. One of the recipients was Carol Brubaker, formerly of Region 7.
One of the projects that NAWIC Australia has been working on has been "Girls Take Aim." This involved students shadowing members and taking photos of them at work. Ibelieve this was a photojournalism type project. The photos were on display during the cocktail event. It was a win-win for both the students, members and our industry.
After the Crystal Vision Cocktail Party, dinner was in order, along with getting out of those heels. Maria, Lynn, Carol and I had a quiet dinner back at the hotel. (Oh yes, the cocktail event was about three blocks from the hotel and it was raining! No worries, mate, I just happened to bring along my red NAWIC umbrellathat Region 6 gave me.)
The next morning (Saturday) was the Annual General Meeting. This is the same as our Pre-Convention board meeting. It is for the Directors and Officers. They conduct business at other times by conference call. Since this was their first National Meeting, it was a little different having a meeting in conjunction with a conference like this. They call the meeting they normally have the "face to face". I was invited to sit in on this and the official part of it was quite short. Of course, the discussions were pretty long and detailed. They are doing some expansion planning and their ideas and plans were very similar to ours. Following the AGM, their was a Presidents & Treasurers (state/chapter) workshop. This was very interesting; each chapter does not maintain funds in a checking account. National holds all funds. Each chapter prepares a budget and each event they hold is expected to make money or at least not lose money. They started out with each chapter doing their own and several years ago combined everyone to one account and it seems to be working for them.
The meetings ended just past two. Although I tried hard, I did not get to go to PhilipIsland because all the tours were booked. I took a long walk around the hotel area and came upon the Hard Rock Cafe and happily went in for some American food. After that I read some and started packing to leave on Sunday morning.
Sunday Allison came and picked me up for the airport and I was off to Brisbane. Carol Brubaker had graciously offered to have me stay with her during my time in Brisbane. She picked me up and we went back to her house where I quickly changed into something cooler. It had been very cool in Melbourne but as Brisbane is much farther north, it was Hot! Yes - south is cold and north is hot. Cyclones spin counter clockwise, toilet water spins "backwards", temperature is in Celsius, (try setting the thermostat)you buy gas by the liter, (price, $1.20.9 per liter) there are no one dollar bills(they have one and two dollar coins) and of course, they drive on the wrong side of the road. Now you know why it's the land "down under". Also, when we aregetting ready for bed, it is the next morning there. Oh, one more thing, the power is all 220 volts. Now I know more than I want to about adapters and converters.
Carol and I wentfor a late lunch and to their equivalent of the Home Depot store. It was very interesting to see the products and prices there. We went grocery shopping and that was a culture shock too. We stopped by the gas (petrol) station and then back home.A light dinner and I was ready to turn in early.
Carol took Monday off and planned a hike for us. I know those of you who know me well are shocked! Well, hike we did and you would have been proud of me. I had warned her I did not want to climb rocks or do anything particularly risky. We went to the NoosaState Park and hiked/walked to Hells Gates. It was about an hour, up and along side of the Coral Sea. Once we were there, the view was incredible! And, just for us, it seemed, there were actual whales out in the distance. They were blowing water out of their spouts and jumping up out of the water. Carol said it was the most whales she had ever seen there. I think they were just showing off for company. We had a great seaside lunch of fish and chips. On the way back to town we stopped at the Big Pineapple, an outlet for, yeah, pineapples.
Tuesday Carol went back to work and Maria sent a coworker to take me out to see Brisbane. Shane was a delight and just about as Australian as a person could be. I saw much of the city and was dropped off just in time for the Brisbane chapter "Board of Management" lunch meeting. (Same as our Board of Directors meeting.) The meeting was scheduled for 12:00-2:00 so sandwiches and juice had been brought in. The meeting went very well and ended on time. They spent a lot of time on non-renewing members and ways to get sponsors -- sound familiar?