Highlights of the Business Professional Women/FL Convention
There were approximately (41) attendees at the 103 Rd Annual State Convention held at the Hyatt Regency Sarasota from June 5 to 7. The theme of the conference was “Building Bridges.” There were some wonderful speakers at the Convention- Liz Alpert, Mayor of the City of Sarasota, Ron Turner, Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections, Human Trafficking Dawn Sakes, MSW Executive Director More Too Life. Kristin Rink from Votta Coaching and Consulting leads us through an interesting team building exercise. On Thursday, Jennifer Rominiecki, Executive Officer of Selby Gardens spoke to our group during lunch.
Chandra Tracy, Business Manager of BPW/FL, gave us an overview of the new website now with Wild Apricot. You can use your email but will need to set up a new password. Hit “forgot password.”
There was a Roundtable discussion regarding Successes and Opportunities for LO’s.
I turned in our Dolly/Daisy Duke bra for the fundraiser for the Breast Cancer Fund. We did not win first, or 2nd place, but the members loved our entry thanks to Teresa Karaffa. The ladies from the Tallahassee Scholarship house are going to display our masterpiece. A large part of BPW/FL is the Education Foundation. There was an election of officers for this part of BPW/FL. There are (2) Scholarship houses that the Foundation supports: Florida Atlantic University BPW House with 17 residents and Tallahassee BPW House. With 20 residents. BPW/FL has provided kitchen and household items and good bags. Since the residence are only responsible for their food, a cooking class was offered for all residence. FAU also participated.
For our July BPWEV meeting, we are trying something different. If you bring a friend to the meeting, we will have a 2 for 1 special. We will pay for your guests’ dinner. If you decide to bring a friend, please let me or Cynthia Fredericks know so we can make the reservation to have an accurate count.
Happy 4th of July to all our members,
Your President,
Sue Hogrefe