May 21st, from 6:00 - 9:00 PM at  McGovern’s on the Water in Fall River, MA

A great way to make it though the current economy is to find new ways to connect people and ideas. Connecting people and ideas is also a common goal of both Women’s Club SWANS and New Commons . So they have joined together again with that goal in mind to create another fun event for women.

While the event is about connecting in person, the topic is about connecting on-line. Maureen Umehara, Director of WCSWANS, states "Similar to WCSWANS, Social Media Networking is such a great way to connect with friends and/or business associates! We are excited to join with New Commons (who offers great exercises for helping people to actively learn, connect and create new ideas) to present such a relevant subject"

The topic of the evening, presented by Michelle Girasole of the Sassy Ladies , will be “Making Connections On-line and Off-line.” In her presentation she will shed some light on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Maureen indicates,

I’ve met Michelle several times and was impressed with her warmth, knowledge and presence. As part of the Sassy Ladies, she’s able to help people learn in a fun way! As an added treat, Michelle Gonzalez of New Commons will also do an interactive exercise on our personal networks. Her exercise was so popular at our last event we invited her back!

Women of all ages and backgrounds are invited to attend this educational and fun event. Those women with businesses also have opportunities to promote them. 

Date: Thursday May 21st ;6-9pm 

Location: McGovern’s on the Water in Fall River, MA;Click here for directions

Fee: $20members/$30non-members (includes dinner and presentation/additional fee may apply).

For more info and to register go to www.wcswans.com

About Us:

The Sassy Ladies help support and teach women entrepreneurs in a sassy and fun way, through their book, "The Sassy Ladies' Toolkit for Start-up Businesses", their online communities and subscription-based Club website and emails. www.thesassyladies.com

WCSWANS is a social club and networking group for women. We help women meet other women to connect, learn some new things and just have fun! Women with or without a business can benefit from this club and their events. www.wcswans.com

New Commons is a progressive Think Tank in Providence that brings thinking into action. www.newcommons.com

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Five months ago, I attended one of the first Creative Providence community forums. The other evening, I attended the third of six studio sessions to examine specific areas of the Cultural Plan. In addition to the various formal sessions, I've had dozens of conversations with participants. Now that this project is starting to take on a life of its own, I thought I'd share some observations.

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to benefit the Starlight Children's Foundation

Event will take place on Thursday, March 26, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm 

Women's Club SWANS and New Commons are joining together to help women connect and have fun AND make a difference.  WCSWANS and New Commons are hosting a Network/Netplay Café for women to benefit Starlight Children's Foundation.  Jonelle Prilltate of Starlight indicates that,

Starlight helps seriously ill children and their families cope with their pain, fear and isolation through entertainment, education and family activities.  We are a New England non-profit but are just starting to expand our services to Rhode Island. I contacted  Maureen Umehara of WCSWANS and she agreed to help us spread the word about this great organization". 

Maureen Umehara , Director of WCSWANS, indicated "I am glad to help such a great organization that helps the emotional well-being of child patients and their families.  We already had such a fun event planned for women with New Commons and speaker Tara Crawford Roth. I thought it would make such a great addition to also help such a worthy cause! Michell and Tara readily agreed." 

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Rising sea level, the urbanization of America and the world, and rising energy prices, are major conditions impacting how we think about and how we will design our next buildings and create whole places.

Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) pulls together the diverse disciplines of builders, developers, engineers, property management companies, and professional service providers.  I thought that you would find valuable resources at this conference to help you more effectively understand and handle these environmental conditions as they impact the creation of healthy buildings and places.

In addition, for the past 34 years, this group has been home to the best talent in the northeast regarding high performing/green buildings, renewable energy, and sustainable transportation. What sets NESEA apart is its commitment to solutions, proven results, pioneering technology, and collaborative whole systems thinking.  I have worked with these good folks off-and-on since 1994 and have found them to be an exceptional resource and a remarkable professional association of practitioners.  Currently, I am working on strategy and governance with them.

Every March, NESEA puts on its Building Energy (BE) conference in Boston for over 3,000 professional practitioners.  Couple of highlights from this year's program:

• Conference theme is: Real Solutions. Real Experts. Tuesday, March 10 to Thursday, March 12, 2009 Boston MA.  Checkout: www.BuildingEnergy.nesea.org for the conference program. 

• This year's keynote talk on "Deep Energy Retrofits of Existing Buildings" will be delivered by Marc Rosenbaum, a colleague of ours since the early 90's. 

• A variety of tracks to weave the conference together.  I co-designed Whole Systems in Action, track 7, along with some of New Commons' closest NESEA colleagues:  John Abrams, Amelia Amons, Paul Lipke, Bill Reed and Jamie Wolf (see our bios here). We all plan to deliver a highly practical and interactive program.  Our aim is to raise the level of understanding and the practice of whole systems collaboration.  This one tool will help us all more effectively handle climate change and the reality that oil levels are at post-peak.    Click here to see our track content: http://buildingenergy.nesea.org/trackseven.php

I hope to see you at NESEA-BE09.  It will be worth your time!

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