How it all began...
October of 2008, Jennifer Koeppl, Danielle Picard and Beth Davis decided to put a women's social networking group together that would meet the first Thursday of every month.
They began at Red and White with each of them inviting a couple of people.
As the group began to grow, they started to rotate where they met as ore and more establishments wanted to have a group of women descend upon them for drinks and appetizers.
For the next several months they invited people through gossip, emails and social media.
March 2009 Mary Clare Wojik volunteered to create an evite, she used an RSVP system and began to create a list of attendees.
Mid 2010 Mary Clare stepped down as the evite person and Jennifer Koeppl took over and established a connection for us all on Linkedin. Mary Clare was president of EWGA and Dawn Nowakowski was past president of Women in Management. We knew people in Mid-Day Women’s Alliance and other organizations would be interested in posting our First Thursday meeting times and places.
Shannon Attreed with Exterior Custom Solutions took over the social media in 2011 and Dawn Nowakowski helped find the venues for each month.
In 2015, after 7 years, Beth is stepping down from organizing the events. In 2017, Ann Thielman took over the events.
We have no bi-laws or formal organization. The socially casual intent affords us just a few "rules" :
They began at Red and White with each of them inviting a couple of people.
As the group began to grow, they started to rotate where they met as ore and more establishments wanted to have a group of women descend upon them for drinks and appetizers.
For the next several months they invited people through gossip, emails and social media.
March 2009 Mary Clare Wojik volunteered to create an evite, she used an RSVP system and began to create a list of attendees.
Mid 2010 Mary Clare stepped down as the evite person and Jennifer Koeppl took over and established a connection for us all on Linkedin. Mary Clare was president of EWGA and Dawn Nowakowski was past president of Women in Management. We knew people in Mid-Day Women’s Alliance and other organizations would be interested in posting our First Thursday meeting times and places.
Shannon Attreed with Exterior Custom Solutions took over the social media in 2011 and Dawn Nowakowski helped find the venues for each month.
In 2015, after 7 years, Beth is stepping down from organizing the events. In 2017, Ann Thielman took over the events.
We have no bi-laws or formal organization. The socially casual intent affords us just a few "rules" :
- come-and-go from 5 - 7 pm
- no dues
- pay on your own for beverages and food
- some locations provide complimentary appetizers
- there are no business sponsorship unless it is the anniversary party in October
- business establishments, if appropriate for our group, can host an event at their location providing wine and appetizers or dessert (contact us for suggestions)
The attendee list is not for sale, and networking is encouraged and you can pass out materials but we do not stop the event to introduce people or let people talk about their businesses to the group at large unless it is the anniversary and they are a food sponsor. This is purely social networking with the hopes that if you meet one or two interesting people that you would like to get to know better, you can follow up with a later meeting time for coffee, lunch or cocktails on your own.