NAFE Enewsletter

Last chance to nominate a NAFE member for Women of Excellence awards! Deadline is February 28th – click here for the entry form and further details.

$99 Banners and Skyscrapers: Want to promote your business? For NAFE members, a banner or skyscraper ad in one issue of the NAFE E-Newsletter will cost you just $99.00. (Regular rate is $150.00.) Contact newsletter editor Paula Damiano to place your ad: paula.damiano@nafe.com. [Note: you must be an active NAFE member to receive this special rate.]

DEADLINE APPROACHING - Nominate an Outstanding NAFE Woman! It’s that time again… time to nominate an outstanding female executive (a friend, colleague or yourself) for the 2009 awards program. Click here for more information. There’s a link on the page to download the application form. Deadline is February 28, 2009.

Submissions will be accepted via US Mail or by fax. As always, nominations will be accepted in five categories:

Woman of Achievement - A woman who has attained a high rank at her company and has utilized her position, stature, and expertise to break down gender bias and effect positive change for women
Outstanding Entrepreneur - A woman entrepreneur who not only strives to build a great company, but also contributes to the success of other entrepreneurs
Mentorship Award - An individual who serves as an example of hard work and effective management and provides assistance to help advance other women
Community Service - An individual who is changing the face of neighborhoods through initiatives to provide services that benefit women
Rising Star - An up-and-coming female executive with less than 15 years at a company or an entrepreneur in business for less than 5 years

Conference for the Audio Challenged. Deaf Women United (DWU) and Deaf Women of Oregon and Washington (DWOW) invite all Deaf, Deaf-Blind, Hard of Hearing and Late Deafened Women to the 12th Biennial Deaf Women United Conference -- “Honoring Our Deaf Women Pioneers” -- at Red Lion Janzten Beach Hotel (Portland, OR) on July 22-26, 2009.

C.A.R.E. Event on March 5. Looking for a great way to celebrate International Women's Day? Why not help end global women's poverty with CARE International, which has put together a great contest -- with prizes -- for NAFE networks. Plus you'll participate in an exciting live broadcast and film event in theaters around the country. On the evening of March 5, CARE is hosting an unprecedented one-night event featuring "A Powerful Noise," an acclaimed documentary that takes you inside the lives of three women to witness their daily challenges and significant victories over poverty and oppression. Simply e-mail CARE at groups@care.org to let them know about your plans to participate in the event - include which theatre you are going to and how many members and supporters will be joining you.

Startup Nation: Two Business Competitions. The first annual 2009 StartupNation Leading Moms in Business competition will rank the top 200 mom-run businesses across America, as determined by popular vote. You might also want to enter their Elevator Pitch Competition. Good prizes, great exposure. Or enter them both – good luck!

NAFE Discount on Whirlpool Products. Through a special arrangement with Whirlpool, NAFE members can reap big savings on Whirlpool appliances, accessories and other Whirlpool items. You and your family can purchase up to 12 products a year under the VIPLINK program and get substantial savings on everyday retail pricing. Go to the NAFE website to sign up for the discount program – just click on the Whirlpool banner at the top of the NAFE home page.

NAFE network leader Pamela Duncan of Professional Woman Network announces a one-day National Book Tour Women's Conference on June 20th in Atlanta, GA. Pamela says, "Learn proven techniques to deal with stress, increase self- esteem, and build confidence. Visit our book signing platform and networking reception, while you enjoy complimentary wine." Click here for more details.

Carol Evans is a NAFE member – and founder of Working Mother Media, the parent organization of NAFE. Carol recently received the Martin Luther King award from Wal-Mart's UNITY group, honoring those who have shown a strong commitment to diversity. Carol has now received a new honor: the Work Life Leadership Council’s Media Award. She will accept the award at the organization’s 2009 Work Life Conference in New Orleans in March. (See calendar listing below.)

Robbie Motter has a new blog. After several blogs on the NAFE website, she’s branching out to another forum. Click here to see what Robbie is doing. She says, “If you like my blog, then please share it with others, My goal is to share SHOW UP and ASK stories.“

NAFE/For You member Karen Hobs, who is also a CLS graduate of American Seminar Leaders certification class, teaches a class called Blogging for $$$. If you’d like more information on the class, email Karen at skhobs@aol.com for upcoming dates,

Monique Hayward is a NAFE member and owner of Dessert Noir Café & Bar in Beaverton, Oregon. She has just released her debut book, Divas Doing Business: What the Guidebooks Don’t Tell You About Being a Woman Entrepreneur. This book arms women with candid, valuable, timely, and relevant insight and know-how from daring, enterprising women who have traveled the road before them, to help them achieve their dream of business ownership.

5 Tips to Creating a Professional Plan

Maria Marsala is a strategic business coach/consultant, informational speaker, author and former Wall Street trader. Since 1998, her company, Elevating Your Business, has helped thousands of CEOs/presidents, professionals, and management teams to achieve the business results they desire in the most efficient, cost-effective way possible. Will you be next? Get your free business tips at www.ElevatingYourBusiness.com.

So where do you start all planning processes? What steps should you take to turn your dreams of a life, career or business and make it happen? When do you know when to change what you’ve dreamed up to something better? Start here.

1. ASSESS WHERE YOU ARE & WHERE YOU WANT TO BE
You've heard it said many times, if you don't know where you are or where you want to go, you may end up living someone else's life. There are many free assessments on the web that you can complete that will help you assess your career or business. And if you want, create a Dream or Vision board to help you see into the future.

2. SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS
Create a performance management process, dashboard, “whatever” to monitor your objectives and action plans. Make it work for you by creating it on paper, or in Excel, or use an online system or a mixture of those. Whatever will help you accomplish this task, do. That’s about 3 more hours or work to set yourself up for success.

3. GET YOUR REAR IN GEAR
Take what you created and start “to doing” it. Then write down what you're doing to create a process you'll follow and tweak as you go along. Don’t be afraid to change or add things as you go along.

4. MONITOR YOUR RESULTS
Before you close down for the weekend, update your monitoring system. This is where you can relate your successes to your actions, and monitoring is usually motivating. For those times when you realize that something you’re doing isn’t working right, you go back to what you created and tweak it so that it is motivating the next time around.

5. GET YOURSELF ACCOUNTABITY
Keeping yourself accountable to yourself and someone other than yourself is the final and important point. Accountability sessions come in many forms; in person, via email or teleclass are the most popular. Meet weekly (or at least monthly) with your team, board of advisors, mastermind team, or coach!

What are YOUR views on the upcoming presidential election, the possibility of our first female VP, etc.? Let the world know what you really think. Connect with others; learn and share. Have YOU blogged today? Visit the NAFE blog page today.

Read Carol Evans (NAFE/Working Mother Media) and her blog on Carol Bartz , Yahoo’s new female CEO, here.

Are You Taking Full Advantage of Your Membership?
Click HERE to view the complete list.

For a complete list of events, see our online Calendar!

Riverside, CA
February 28, 2009
The For You Networks (NAFE affiliates in southern California) invite you to celebrate their 7th Annual Have A Heart Awards Luncheon at Benedict Castle in Riverside, CA, on February 28th. The Have a Heart event features a great lunch, awards, entertainment, door prizes and a top luncheon speaker. This event also serves the community as each year the attendees donate toiletries and layette items to a local shelter. At last year's event, over $1,200 worth of items were donated to the shelter in Corona, CA. For more information, contact network founder and NAFE regional coordinator Robbie Motter:RMotter@aol.com.

Anchorage, AK
March 4, 2009
Heading north? Attend the monthly luncheon Positive Think Tank in Anchorage, where you can share news or discuss what you’ve recently learned or heard. Organizer Sharon Kelly says, “We like to keep ahead of the Business Curve in Alaska.” Click here for more information.

New Orleans, LA
March 10-11, 2009
The theme of this year’s Conference Board 2009 Work Life Conference is Collaborations for Change: Innovations in Challenging Times. The two-day event, which takes place at the Omni Royal Orleans, offers an opportunity to hear from and interact with members of the Obama administration, Tulane University President Scott Cowen, and leaders at IBM, Prudential, Marriott and other top American companies. As a special friend of Working Mother, you are eligible for a deeply discounted registration fee of $995—a savings of up to $1000! To register at the discounted rate, call The Conference Board customer service at 212-339-0345 and mention code DA1. A detailed agenda is available at: www.conference-board.org/worklife.

New York, NY
March 18, 2009
The winners of the 2009 NAFE Top Companies for Executive Women will be honored at a Gala Awards Luncheon at the legendary Cipriani’s venue in Manhattan. This is it - the highest-ranking female executives from America's top corporations: all in one room, all at one event.

Go to the NAFE website to view our ever-expanding Calendar of Events for opportunities around the country. The new Search function makes the Calendar even more useful and accessible.
Use the Event Submission Form online to let us know about events in your area. Events submitted for the website will also be considered for the NAFE E-Newsletter - twice the exposure for one listing!