This group will meet monthly and I'll offer 2 different meeting times, before work, and an evening meeting. We'll be kicking this off in February.
Morning meeting - Tuesday February 19th 6:45 am - 7:30 am
Meet at B Java Coffee and Tea, 5510 Lafayette Road (corner of Lafayette and 56th ) on the Northwest side
Evening Meeting - Tuesday February 26th - 7:00 pm
Meet at D'Vine a Wine Bar, 5252 East 82nd (corner of 82nd and Allisonville Rd) on the Northeast side
Our first discussion topic will be on mentoring. As a guide for the discussion I recommend reading the following article from Fast Company Magazine ==> http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/97/open_playbook.html
Questions for our discusssion:
- Do you have a mentor?
- If yes, how did you identify your mentor?
- If no, what are the barriers that are preventing you from finding a mentor?
- Are you mentoring someone else?
- What do you think are the most important factors to having a meaningful mentoring relationship?
- What do you think are the benefits of having a mentor or being a mentor?
- What are the pitfalls?
Now I realize that I'll never find a meeting time that's good for everyone, hence this blog. I hope that you will participate whether you can make it to one of the meetings in person or not. I promise to summarize the discussions and post them here so that everyone can participate in the discussions - even if only virtually. I hope we can get the discussion going prior to our meetings so please feel free to post your comments at any time.
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I miss being actively involved with Women & Hi Tech! So, I've started having discussions about how to get involved again and do something to add value to the organization. Those discussions ultimately led me to try and get a discussion group going.
For those of you who don't know me, I was there at the very beginning of Women & Hi Tech. We had monthly meetings and divided these meetings between professional development programs and "working meeting" where we worked on various projects and proposals. However it was the networking and discussions that occurred before, after, and even during the meetings that I remember most. We spent a lot of time talking about why an organization like Women & Hi Tech was needed. We were able to share our experiences and challenges we faced as women in male dominated fields. I hope that these discussions and even this blog can recapture that feeling again. I'm looking forward to meeting more of you and learning from you.
More to come!
1 comment:
Joyce -
This is a great idea - thanks for doing this. I think I have more mentors now in my career then I did when I was starting. Maybe we have egos attached to asking for help - I know I do. Isn't it Covey that talks about three levels of maturity - dependence (babies / children), independence (my college daughter... some days!) and interdependence. Good mentoring takes a belief in interdependence.
Lou Russell www.russellmartin.com
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