Silicon Valley Women in HR...& Friends Mailing and Event Announcement

Dear Friends,

How's your summer? Having fun?

I start my posts with a few personal notes and then delve into upcoming events. You can skip down to event announcements, but I encourage you to read this important update about our group.

Our team of volunteers met in January, and we decided to hold formal meetings once every two months, and for those in-between months, we encourage you to plan coffee, lunch, dinner or an event on your own! You can use our LinkedIn group to publicize your event. This will give you some latitude in location and timing, and that should help more of us come out and meet each other.

Please join our group on LinkedIn so you’ll be updated on announcements and posts.

I've been cleaning out some of my accumulated paperwork. You know how it is when you go to a lot of workshops, webinars, seminars and conferences? It's compounded when one creates training materials and workshops as I do, and I had clipped a lot of articles to review or on which to base training. I also shredded old invoices (I keep electronic copies) and was surprised by the number of companies I had forgotten. So many of those companies went under or were acquired, but a couple of them went on to big things. It's interesting to think about these companies, and I always wonder what did them in. Sometimes it is so clearly evident that a college freshman would see the problems, but other things can be far more complicated and nuanced.

I have to say it's fairly liberating to get rid of the paperwork and clean out my filing cabinets, and it feels like there's a real load off of my mind. I'm sure professional organizers have many studies about the benefits. I dedicated myself to discard at least 10 items/day, and sometimes it's much more, other times I'm stretching to reach my goal. It's a wonderful summertime project.

Our July 15 Community Event

This event is open to all, and the topic is “3 Big Mistakes that Lead Professionals to being Unappreciated, Under-utilized and Unmotivated in the Workplace” with our guest speaker Clara Chorley. Please RSVP if you're attending. If anything comes up at the last minute and I need to reach attendees, I can't do it unless you have registered. Additionally, we will need to escort you inside the building so being on time is essential for this event. You can read about our event here and if you’re attending, please register.

Thank You for Our Last Event

Our Planners and Volunteers were Amy McGhie, Diane Cusano and Ginny Conboy. The topic was “The Affordable Care Act and its Impact On HR: Critical Things Every HR Professional Needs to Know" with Jenny Vonderwerth, SPHR-CA,CIP.  A download is available and you can find other downloads from many of our speakers by clicking here.

Not only do I hope to see you at our next event, I do hope you’ll take advantage of this opportunity to plan some extra networking events. I would love to attend some!

All the best,

Marcia

Marcia Stein, SHRM-CP, PHR

Author: "Strained Relations: Help for Struggling Parents of Troubled Teens" and "Recruiters on Recruiting"

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Silicon Valley Women in HR...& Friends Mailing and Event Announcement

Dear Friends,

Happy May!

I start my posts with a few personal notes and then delve into upcoming events. You can skip down to event announcements, but I encourage you to read this important update about our group.

We are making some changes in our meetings!

Our team of volunteers met in January, and we decided to hold formal meetings once every two months, and for those in-between months, we encourage you to plan coffee, lunch, dinner or an event on your own! You can use our LinkedIn group to publicize your event. This will give you some latitude in location and timing, and that should help more of us come out and meet each other.

Please join our group on LinkedIn so you’ll be updated on announcements and posts.

My husband joined a new company and is thrilled with his technical challenges, the team, their professionalism, organization and friendliness. They have an organization where communication is strong and employees are valued. This is the first time in years I’ve heard so many compliments regarding their HR team, benefits and Onboarding. We often hear complaints about Human Resources, even over issues that are not in our control, so this is very refreshing!

In his job search, he had the same comments and frustrations as most job seekers. The resume goes into the “black hole” without as much as an automated response. Long interview cycles with delays in-between and no updates. No professional close after interviewing. It’s so easy to make a call or at least send a note, and it’s the right thing to do.

It was a great reminder of how much these touches mean to candidates and how much it therefore means to the company’s reputation.

Our May 20 Community Event

This event is open to all, and the topic is “The Affordable Care Act and its Impact On HR: Critical Things Every HR Professional Needs to Know” with our guest speaker and long-time volunteer, Jenny Vonderwerth, SPHR-CA,CIP. You can read about it here and if you’re attending, please register.

Thank You for Our Last Event

Our Planners and Volunteers were Pamela Addie, Valerie Hamberry and Vinnie Warren. The topic was “Executive Coaching Toolkit: 3 Practical Coaching Tools You Can Use to Develop Leaders” with Rita Graziano, MA.  A download is available and you can find other downloads from many of our speakers by clicking here.

Not only do I hope to see you at our next event, I do hope you’ll take advantage of this opportunity to plan some extra networking events. I would love to attend some!

All the best,

Marcia

Marcia Stein, PHR

Author: "Strained Relations: Help for Struggling Parents of Troubled Teens" and "Recruiters on Recruiting"

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Silicon Valley Women in HR...& Friends Mailing and Event Announcement

Dear Friends,

How are you? I hope you are healthy and enjoying this winter.

I start my posts with a few personal notes and then delve into upcoming events. You can skip down to event announcements, but I encourage you to read an important update about our group.

We are making some changes in our meetings!

Our team of volunteers met in January, and we decided to hold formal meetings once every two months, and for those in-between months, we encourage you to plan coffee, lunch, dinner or an event on your own! You can use our LinkedIn group to publicize your event. This will give you some latitude in location and timing, and that should help more of us come out and meet each other.

Please join our group on LinkedIn so you’ll be updated on announcements and posts.

I redesigned one of our pages so now you can view our calendar with speakers and topics along with the event registration. You can click here to view the link.

We had a good turnout and fantastic comments about our last speaker, Angela Szymusiak and her topic, “Life After the Annual Review ~ Adobe’s Move to Check-In.” When you enjoy a speaker, one of the best things you can do is link to that person on LinkedIn and write a recommendation, and if you know of another place that person should speak, spread the news!

Although I had planned the January meeting, I was pretty sick and couldn’t attend. Thanks to Christine Young, everything went smoothly. Thanks so much, Christine!  

Our March 18 Community Event

This event is open to all, and the topic is “Executive Coaching Toolkit: 3 Practical Coaching Tools You Can Use to Develop Leaders.” Our guest speaker is Rita Graziano, MA. You can read about it here and if you’re attending, please register.

Not only do I hope to see you next month, I do hope you’ll take advantage of this opportunity to plan some extra networking events. I would love to attend some!

All the best,

Marcia

Marcia Stein, PHR

Author: "Strained Relations: Help for Struggling Parents of Troubled Teens" and "Recruiters on Recruiting"

Blog 

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Silicon Valley Women in HR...& Friends Mailing and Event Announcement

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year! I hope you’ll have a healthy and happy year, and that your work challenges will be fulfilling and provide you with the personal and professional growth you desire.

I start my posts with a few personal notes and then delve into upcoming events. You can skip down to event announcements if you like, but you’d miss out on a personal story and observation. I hope you read it! There are links to three books at the bottom of the page.

If you missed it, I have formally closed our Forum. It served a great purpose and many people found jobs and attended events as a result, but most of us are in the LinkedIn group and announcements can be managed there. I wrote about this closure for quite some time but it was still hard to take down!

At our holiday party, I had the chance to speak with a small group and learned something important from one of our young members. I don’t know how old she is, but the subject was enlightening: had we read the book “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead” by Sheryl Sandberg?

I have to be honest and say I was almost dismissive because the topic and discussions I’d heard surrounding the book were very old news to me. Although I have been very impressed by the discussion and the groups that were formed to help women learn to “lean in,” I wondered what was the big deal. Wasn’t this something we already understood?

I was wrong. The feminism I learned about years ago has been taken for granted by many, so when this book arrived, it did stir a lot of discussion and enlightenment.

Here’s a true story about my family. Decades ago when Dad died (he was 45 and I was almost 13 with two older sisters) Mama applied for life insurance. The agent came over to tell her the application was denied. The insurance company had determined that Mama was not the head of the household. I remember her asking that if she wasn’t head of the household, who was? What would happen if she died?

I didn’t know the name for it, but I became a feminist that day. Who was anyone to deny Mama any rights? Who was anyone to deny any person any sort of rights?

Now let’s put this into historical context. This was the 1960’s and swirling around us were the Civil Rights Movement, Women’s Lib [“Liberation”] and later Gay Rights.

What I learned from this recent conversation was that people can “gain” rights, in other words, get the rights they should have had all along, and later have to remind people again and again what those rights are and why they are important and precious.

In case you missed my last note sent around the holidays, I sent a Year-End Thank You to our Volunteers, Speakers and Hosts. Without all of these wonderful people, where would we be? We’d be an online presence and you would not have had the opportunity to hear these speakers, ask questions, meet peers and have an enjoyable evening out. You can find that post by clicking here.

     This email covers the following topics:

     1.      Volunteer Planning Event 1/14 1/28
     2.      Our First Event of the Year
     3.      Location Survey for 2015

1.      Volunteer Planning Event 1/14 1/28

Would you like to volunteer for 2015? I’d love it! We’re meeting Wednesday, January 28 in Mountain View. I apologize for the changed date. Please see details and the form here. It’s a chance to work with other people in our group and give back to our community.

2.      Our First Event of 2015 

Our first event will be held Tuesday, January 20, and will feature Angela Szymusiak of Adobe. Her topic is "Life After the Annual Review ~ Adobe’s Move to Check-in.” The invitation and response form are here.

3.      Location Survey for 2015

We’re a free group and need a free space to meet. Attendance varies from 14-50 and our meetings are in the evening, usually the 3^rd Wednesday. Ideally, this would be between San Jose and Palo Alto near 101. If you have an idea, please click here.

Meeting each other in person and forming relationships is so important for professional growth, resources, networking for the future, and meeting new friends. I hope you have the opportunity to come to some events this year.

Have a very Happy and Healthy 2015!

All the best,

Marcia

Marcia Stein, PHR - www.linkedin.com/in/marciastein
Author: "Strained Relations: Help for Struggling Parents of Troubled Teens" and "Recruiters on Recruiting"
Blog: http://helpingparentsofteens.blogspot.com/ 

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