WIC Program Highlight: Monthly WIC Member Orientation and Welcome to WIC (W2W)

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Women in Consulting’s (WIC) organizational structure, WIC is an all-volunteer organization, except for the person who manages our administrative office. And the programs this amazing team collectively puts together are, well, amazing. Two shining examples of this are the Welcome to WIC (W2W) and member orientation programs developed by the membership and pro bono teams.
The Scoop
W2W is a program that actually started last year and has been refined more this year. The objective is to ensure first-time attendees feel welcomed and help them become familiar with the general meetings and overall process.

WIC’s hospitality chair oversees the program and assigns an ambassador to every new person who registers for a WIC event. Ambassadors, who are all WIC members:

• Introduce new attendees to WIC members and other meeting participants
• Sit with attendees during dinner
• Explain WIC’s benefits, as well as how to get the most out of WIC and navigate the organization (meetings, email list, etc.)
• Follow up with the new attendees after the meeting to answer any questions and get their feedback

We’re always looking for a few good ambassadors. So, if you want to get involved with WIC, this is an excellent opportunity. Contact Kathie Sherman for more information.

“People love having an ambassador meet them when they come to their first meeting. It removes any uneasiness one might have of going someplace new by yourself. You instantly have somebody who is looking out for you, has dinner with you, and most importantly starts introducing you to other members.” —Kathie Sherman, WIC Membership Director and President of TenFour Marketing

Member orientation launched this year at the February general meeting. The objective is to help:

• New and veteran members make the most of their WIC membership
• Prospective members determine if WIC is right for them

WIC’s membership director and new member chair oversee the program. During the 30-minute orientation sessions (which happen at 5:30pm, just before WIC’s general meeting on the third Thursday of every month), at least one of them:

• Reviews member benefits
• Explains how to best access the tools available to members
• Explores ways to increase your exposure within the WIC Community for optimum networking
• Covers the pro bono opportunities within WIC that help members connect even more

With Much Gratitude
The following are the people to thank the next time you see or talk to them:

• Kathie Sherman, WIC membership director and president of TenFour Marketing, oversees the membership team and all they do and was the key architect behind the member orientation program
• Raquel Garcia, WIC hospitality chair and founder of Silicon Valley Human Resources, developed and launched W2W and has managed the program each month since its inception
• Renee Daggett, WIC new member chair and president of Admin Books, helps manage member orientation and will be taking more of lead role in this area going forward
• Deborah Hoard, WIC pro bono director and CEO of Net Results, contributes to the member orientation handbook provided to orientation attendees each month
• Deborah Plumley, past WIC membership director and principal at The Plumley Group, helped launch W2W and oversaw the team 2007 – 2009

Other membership team members who help WIC in numerous ways:

• Janet Bailey, satisfaction and retention co-coordinator and speaker/coach at Mindful Time Management
• Jill Mendenhall, satisfaction and retention co-coordinator and president of Mendenhall Tax Services
• Ruth Simone, our new satisfaction and retention chair and principal at Luminare Coaching and Consulting

More Things to Come
The membership and pro bono teams aren’t the only groups working hard to make WIC the best it can be. Other teams are equally hard at work—like the Web team, who I wrote about previously, and the partnership team, who are slated to be the topic of my next “WIC Program Highlight” post.