Meeting Date: 4.11.06
In Attendance: Anne, Dawn, Elizabeth, Ellen, Giselle, Judi, Kathi, Maria, Raychel
-"I Spy"... Raychel talked about two interesting topics. The first was a program called Vocation Vacation (www.vocationvacation.com) where professionals take a "vacation" from their current career and spend a short period of time doing their "dream job". Great for people who are just curious, want to try something new or are actually considering a career change.
The other topic that Raychel brought up was advertising on Google. It is something that she is just starting with and she gave us some general info. about how to go about learning more. Calling 1 800 2 GOOGLE is the place to start. She said the reps are super helpful and can give you all of the options available from advertising to buying search words, etc... Hopefully by the next meeting Raychel will have some feedback on whether or not she is happy with the service.
-Project Cafe.... Thank you all so much for the great information and advice for my project. So much of it was really useful and Dave & I have already started putting it to use. It was great to hear everyone's perspective and different ideas on how to use our space. The next Project Cafe will focus on Elizabeth and her "project" will be posted on the blog sometime before the next meeting.
-General...
-After the last meeting a few of us lingered and casually discussed the group in general and our feelings about how it was going. After three meetings, there was definitely some feedback and points that were brought up about how to make the group better and more productive. Judi & I thought that maybe for the next meeting everyone could jot down their thoughts, opinions, ideas, and feedback regarding the group. Is it meeting your expectations, if not why and how can we achieve that? The goal is that everyone leaves the meetings feeling like it was worth their hour and a half. So, please have your ideas and feedback prepared to give to us (we won't discuss it at the next meeting). We will look them over and see if there is some consensus about the group in general. (please feel free to make it anonymous) Then, perhaps we can talk about certain topics that are of concern at the following meeting.
-Please remember to use the blog as a tool when you would like to communicate something to the group. Numerous emails going back & forth becomes inefficient and possibly bothersome. If you are having problems using the blog, please contact Elizabeth.
-It seemed like after the last meeting, we ran short on time (as usual) and there was no time for general questions. We were thinking that it would be nice to have 15-20 min for people to ask general questions (ie: do you use QuickBooks?, how do you get your health insurance?, etc...) So, we were hoping that everyone would be open to making the meeting 2 hours rather than 1 1/2. We realize everyone is busy and usually rushing off to an appt. or something, but we thought the meetings could be more productive if we had that extra 30 min. Please let us know if you are willing to do that.
-Some of you may have noticed that our group still does not have a name. Ideas? If everyone could give it some thought and come with an idea or two for the next meeting, hopefully we will end the meeting officially named.
-The next meeting is scheduled for Tues May 9. As always, if you cannot make it, please post to the blog.
See you then..
