Wisdom of Many

• Giving your chapter members information to enhance their education that can help them get where they want to be is a great service – and something they might not get anywhere else.
• Assume nothing when it comes to selecting/planning critical informational sessions to help support women’s development. Where you “think” people are – is not necessarily anywhere near where many of them are.
• If something isn’t relevant to potential attendees, they won’t attend or be part of a session. People put themselves where they need to be.

“Informational” for this purpose refers to offering knowledge to enhance or support one’s career. Other events impart knowledge that can help advance one’s career and we have classified them as “educational”. E.g. a session on gender communication would be educational. A session on health would be informational.

• Consider it a valued service to offer informational sessions.
  Although some might consider a session on how to dress, eat, act at a cocktail party or even keep yourself healthy. Something that is not considered a high priority to offer for women/men to learn, but the fact is a lot of people attend these types of sessions thus indicating it is important to them! Sessions on Personal Etiquette or even an “Extreme Makeover”(as offered in the DFW Chapter) are highly valued and good indicators of the needs in chapters.

• Absolutely include sessions on the importance of health.
  Due to the high stress level in this industry, and the toll that stress and the 24/7 and high-travel schedule takes on the person and the family, it is vital to look at the whole person in offering career-related sessions. The national average for single moms is 28% of all mothers. One WLI research study indicated the single mother average for those from the industry participating in this study is somewhere around 40%. This fact alone can be a red flag for the demands of this industry. Consider how you can help your members navigate the job demands with the personal demands of family and friends so as to support family life (and sanity!).

Examples - WLI Events: Informational