Contents

November Luncheon

Program

President's Message

From the Board - VP Corporate Records

FX Program: Raquel Rodriguez

We Mean Business: Ginny Forster, Debbie Shane, Betsy Grant

Book Club

Cannon Circle

GEM: Greet, Eat, Meet

Grapevine: News and Notes about WEC Members

Great Quotes by Great Ladies

Thanksgiving Message

WEC Board of Directors

Luncheons and Board Meetings

November Luncheon

Program: The use of technology in consumer loyalty programs as a means to drive sales

Speaker; Steve Weiss, President of Venue 1, Inc. located in Davie, Florida.

His topic will be of interest to many of the businesses owned by our members. Steve is married to Nora Weiss one of our WEC members.

Venue 1 was created in 2002 with the merger of Tangent Associates, Inc. (Davie), and Frontline Solutions, Inc. (Wayne, PA). Tangent was formed in 1986 by Steve and Nora Weiss as a software development firm to specialize in the development of products for sports and entertainment facilities.

Since 1990, the company has become the designer and manufacturer of custom designed point-of-sale devices to facilitate the control of food, beverage, and merchandise sales at these facilities, now providing a “one stop” set of solutions for the operators. With products installed in over 60% of the major league facilities in the US, Venue 1 is one of the dominating factors in technological innovation for this market.

Prior to working in Venue 1 and Tangent, Steve had served in various operational and systems management positions both within the public and private sector. Steve has Doctorate and Masters degrees in Business Systems from Northwestern University, and a bachelor’s degree in Operations Research from The Johns Hopkins University. Steve and Nora have lived in Fort Lauderdale since 1975.

President’s Message

Our Prospective Member lunch was a huge success. We had more than 80 in attendance, 38 of them were guests. You all need to pat yourselves on the back for bringing such an interesting and dynamic group of women to our attention.

Nancy Fischer and her committee were so organized that even with that many people, registration was a breeze. And Marilynn Obrig was busy introducing guests to members, and handing out “WEC Highlights and applications right and left. Kudos to both of you and your committees! You made us all look great!

Vanessa Koutilidis and Patti Archibaud hosted the year’s first Cannon Circle at Vanessa’s new office, Island Chiropractic in Wilton Manors. Everyone who came received a chair massage and a reflexology session. There were lots of very relaxed members floating around. The food was outstanding and the setting with its candles and flowers was exceedingly tranquil. We all decided that after Vanessa lowered our stress levels, Patti could easily sell us all houses.

You may have noticed place cards at my table and wondered what’s up with that. I call it “my getting to know you” endeavor. Every month I check the RSVP list to see who’s coming to the luncheon. Then I select members who I haven’t sat with this year and invite them to join me for lunch. My desire is to sit with every member at least once while I am president. I consider this the best perk of being president. I look forward to spending time with each of you as the year unfolds.

Thanks again to everyone for making our Prospective Member luncheon so successful –– and FUN!

Dee

P.S. Remember Ronnie Karlin and Drazia Rubenstein (two of our southernmost members) are hosting a Cannon Circle on November 10 at Ronnie’s home in Miami Lakes. So bring your passport and head to Miami.

From the Board

Isn’t it funny that all those executives that couldn’t type learned so quickly when computers became popular? Secretaries used to be thought of as a low level position: “Take a letter, Miss Jones.” Executive assistants are more or less the modern equivalent of an experienced and skillful secretary.

Corporate Secretaries are quite a different matter, however. They are expected to take minutes of board meetings, but further, they are entrusted to keep those legal records in both profit and not-for-profit corporations. They keep the corporate seal and attest to an assortment of documents required by banks and various governmental bodies.
In Women’s Executive Club, the Corporate Secretary is also responsible for the Bylaws Committee and serves as Historian. I’m currently serving as your Corporate Secretary.

I often bring the three scrapbooks to luncheons, and I invite you to look through them. You will see that the club began in 1976 and at that time Fort Lauderdale was a much smaller city. WEC was featured in quite a few newspaper clippings! They have yellowed over time, but they are all there for you to see in the oldest scrapbook. The middle one, from about 1990 to 2000 is not too complete as we didn’t have an Historian for those years, but we did save a lot of photographs. Note the Retreat with the tiger cub and albino snake, and the fundraiser Casino Nights with us in gorgeous clothes. The newest is a colorful collection of photographs, invitations, programs, and memorabilia from 2000 through June 2004. I brought it to the October luncheon to show prospective members what a wonderful club we have!

Sometimes I bring the two binders of newsletters, too. They are a treasure trove of information about WEC in changing styles, from early typewritten ones to much smarter typeset ones with a few black and white photographs to printed copies of our current internet Updates with lots of full color photos and interactive features, that, incidentally save the club a bunch of money every year over print costs and stamps.

And, of course, I have binders of all the minutes I could round up of past years board meetings. If you would have interest in this position or any of the other Vice Presidents, I urge you to speak up! Past Presidents have the responsibility of Nominating Committees, so contact Leigh Nickel leighnickel@aol.com or President-Elect Ronnie Karlin rkarlin@globalresourcepartners.com in November or December as the slate for the 2005-6 year is finalized by February.
Sincerely, Emily Rushin

Future Executive (FX) Mentor Program

We need your involvement to make our Mentorship Program a success! Thank you in advance to everyone who has already volunteered! We want to know what “gift” you have that you are willing to share with an FX (future executive). Your “gift” may be anything in life – something work related, socially or technically oriented, etc. Would you spend some time with an FX at our WEC functions? Lunch, GEM, Book Club, Cannon Circle, etc.? Ronnie Karlin

To learn more about this program, click here.

FX participant Raquel Rodriguez Cunningham writes:

It’s been a pleasure getting to know you and the WEC organization and I was delighted when Marshia asked me to put together a little introduction about me.
I am a native of Trinidad and Tobago, two small islands off the coast of Venezuela. My family has always believed that education and the arts go hand in hand and my education and experience certainly speak to that. I was a dancer with the Royal Academy of Dance for 16 years studying classical ballet and I was a student of theater for 8 years. My academic career has always been a strong focus but it’s always been balanced with my passion and pursuit for the arts.

As a theatre student, I attended the Center for the Arts and once I came of age, as they say, I auditioned for New World School of the Arts. Much to my surprise, I received an acceptance letter and joined one of the most prominent conservatories in the country. When it was time for college, I struggled with the decision of pursuing my passion for art or my drive for a lucrative career. My decision led me to the University of Florida in the pursuit of Advertising and Business. As a Florida Scholar, I completed a Bachelors of Science in Communications and a minor in Business Administration with a focus on marketing.

My career is one which satisfies both my pursuit of academia and the arts. I am a recruiter specializing in the placement of advertising and marketing professionals and I’ve been doing so for the past 6 years. I am always focused on learning and it is my mission to understand every aspect of the advertising and marketing realm. I sit on the Board of Directors for the Advertising Federation of Greater Miami and I am an active member of the American Institute of Graphic Artists and the American Marketing Association.

I look forward to sharing more about me and getting to know each of you.

Thank you, Raquel Rodriguez Cunningham

We Mean Business

Members be sure and bring your business cards to the luncheons. Each month, the member whose business card is selected gets to be profiled in the newsletter. What a great way to get your business information out to the other members!

Virginia Forster As Senior Manager of Corporate Real Estate for Spherion, I head the department responsible for close to 300 leased locations in the U.S. housed in 1.3 million s.f. of space. My staff of nine does field need assessments, market research, space tours, architectural design of new space, negotiation of leases, construction management, and coordination of furniture purchases and technology installations. In addition we also coordinate disposal of excess assets, sublease of excess space, renovations, consolidations of operations, downsizing and expansions. In addition, I also manage the Facilities Department which is responsible for the 125,000 s.f. corporate headquarters, which Spherion owns here in Ft. Lauderdale.

Spherion - which is the re-named result of the acquisition of Norrell Staffing by Interim Personnel - got it's start in Chicago around the turn of the century, by providing day laborers. It has since expanded to the role of an international staffing company, acquiring many large and small staffing firms over the years . Spherion staffs all types of requirements from large groups of blue collar workers to assist with a Wal-Mart inventory, to finding just the right high-end executive to fill a permanent position. In addition, Spherion has a number of major call centers - which it also fully staffs - and an outsourcing service for the remarketing of laid-off executives planning to re-enter the workforce. Spherion truly provides convenient "one stop shopping" for all of our clients' temporary and permanent staffing needs.

Deborah Lynne Shane is an award winning performer, writer, producer and director. Her background includes work in all areas of radio, television, theatre and film. She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards such as Who’s Who In American Women, Who’s Who In Entertainment, International Who’s Who of Women, American Women in Radio & Television, Key to the City of Miami Beach, Community Leaders & Noteworthy Americans, Chicago Women in Broadcasting, etc, etc.

While at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, Debbie was one of the few women disc jockeys on radio in the area. She hosted a daily show, doubling as her own technical engineer for WRBU. She also assisted as audio engineer for a local televisions station. Debbie transferred to the University of Miami and pledged Dela Zeta where she was very active in the Beta Na chapter. As a student she also worked at T.V. WPLG, the Miami affiliate of ABC. As assistant producer and director to the children’s show “Learning Ladder”, which is now the acclaimed nationally syndicated “Arthur & Co”. And as assistant programming director for radio WTNZ, she helped move the station from the bottom of the rating chart to the #2 station in Miami.

Deborah is Vice President of Associated Leasing International Corp. A diversified financial organization which does business domestically as well as internationally. Besides handling financial accounts, Debbie is a Certified Travel Counselor and Professional Meeting Planner providing award-winning service in the areas of cruise travel, tours, fundraising events, seminars, family reunions and corporate meetings.

BETSY GRANT reinvented:

Betsy just sold a floral retail store which she owned and ran for twenty-two years. SO NOW WHAT?

I’m ready to plan your parties from just flowers to every little thing. What is great is that I can devote all my energies to your event, therefore, ensuring that every detail will be attended to with impeccable timing, exceptional service and a bright smile.

I’m great with tropical plants, but will paint beautiful pictures with any type of bloom that you fancy. Gourmet and gift baskets are my favorites. Each gift basket is put together with superb products and beautiful wrap that creates that Bling-Bling look.

As a former teacher with a degree in recreation, I will be teaching classes in design and holiday based decorations. I have the ability of unlocking your creative side. Using my depth of knowledge and an easy method of show and tell, I am able to transmit my love of flowers, decorating and crafts that you will be creating and enjoying.

You will experience what I know, “Never Under Estimate the Power of the Flower”

WEC Book Club:

In 2002, members of WEC who had a common desire for reading and discussions formed the WEC Book Club. The book for discussion is select by the majority and the gathering is held in a member’s home (munchies are always welcome). The meeting schedule varies according to the book and other circumstances. All members are welcome to participate.

Join the next book club meeting.on Monday, November 29th, 6:30pm at Geri Trodick’s home. The book chosen to read is “House of Sand and Fog” by Andre DubusI. It has been on the Oprah book club selection and was recommended by several people.

This is another fun way to get to know some of the WEC members. Our discussions are very interesting and FUN. Everyone brings a side dish and I’ll provide the wine.

Geri Trodick

Cannon Circle

For new members, Cannon Circles are hosted at members’ homes and provide a more informal atmosphere for us to get to know each other. Please contact Leigh Nickel at 954-423-0006 if you would like to host a Cannon Circle.

The Cannon Circle is named for Past President Shirley Cannon who was known for her gracious and uplifting spirit.

The November Cannon Circle gathering requires the following passport.

Dear Bearer:
Your application for Passport to enter Dade County has been approved. Celebrate with your friends at Cannon Circle, Wednesday, November 10th. Details outlined in attached passport…click here.

GEM “Greet Eat Meet” Program

Formed in November 2002, members of WEC who choose to get together for an informal meeting are selected at random in small groups to greet, eat and meet. A Lead person is selected to set a time and place for breakfast, lunch, dinner or what ever. This is a great opportunity to get to know each other on a more personal level. It is great fun!

The GEM Team has been formed to assist with this program. The committee members are Joann Alderman, Marshia Durham, Christy Lambertus, Gayle Metcalf, and Joni Rosenthal.

The Executive Grapevine: news and notes about WEC members. (send them email by clicking on their name)

Carolyn Ernest-Jones
It has been a very busy summer for us. It was decided that Graham would move his office up to Jupiter. We bought a lovely house in Palm City (next to Stuart, Martin County) and sold our Coral Spring house at the end of June. I had to rush off to London as my mother had an operation and was in ICU. I returned on 25th and we moved on the 30th July! 5 weeks later, Frances arrived and then I left immediately to go back to England to see Mom who was still in hospital and then go and prepare for our daughter Rosie's wedding in Suffolk - near Cambridge. It was a beautiful English country wedding - and if you want to check the photos out you can see them on jamesdavidson.co.uk - they are very natural - and might remind you of a scene from "Four weddings and a funeral".

I am still a member of WEC and look forward to seeing everyone soon. We were fortunate enough to have little damage from both Frances and Jeanne as they came ashore about 6 miles from the house! PS Mom still in hospital but doing better.

Ann Meacham My daughter, Laura, was married in St. Augustine, Florida on October 2nd to Cameron Stewart. The whole affair was outdoors along the Intracoastal under beautiful live oak trees . . . exactly one week after Jeanne came through . . . and was under water during Frances!! Cameron is British and his family was supposed to fly into Orlando from London the day Jeanne roared across the state. They were all pretty nervous. The day of the wedding was clear, sunny and Florida hot. We all loved it!! Laura and her husband will live in Jacksonville.

Emily Rushin's birthday present to herself was a trip to France. She spent a few days in Paris, then flew to Bordeaux on the southwest coast and drove about 200 miles east to a tiny village where she had rented a two-hundred year old farmhouse. "It was made of the local, honey-colored stone on four acres - with cows in the back yard. Perfect!" she said. Lisa Lee met Emily at Charles de Gaulle airport and came to visit for four days. They drove through small medieval villages in the Dordogne Valley and dined very well on the region's famed gourmet foods.

" It's great to go to the local open-air markets and buy bread, cheeses, foie gras, vegetables, spices. I want to return," Emily said.

Joni Rosenthal: Just a note to share that the Golden Glow, the 50th anniversary of my church, Unity of Fort Lauderdale was a tremendous success. It was held at ArtServe on Saturday, October 23rd. Mayor Jim Naugle presented a Proclamation. It was neat that he took the time to do this for this celebration.

I was the Co-Chair of this event. It went on without a hitch. We used a fairly new caterer called The Chef’s Table. The food was out of this world. A great time was experienced by all!

Marilynn Obrig, a broker associate of Intercoastal Realty in Fort Lauderdale and a Master Brokers Forum board member was quoted in the Daily Business Review in October. The article addressed the ultra-luxury sales (10 million-plus homes) abound in South Florida.

Jan Herard recently had back surgery. We wish her a speedy recovery!!

GREAT QUOTES BY GREAT LADIES

• Inside every older person is a younger person -- wondering what the hell happened.
  -Cora Harvey Armstrong-
• The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy. Helen Hayes (at 73)-
• I refuse to think of them as chin hairs. I think of them as stray eyebrows. -Janette Barber-
• Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse. -Lily Tomlin-
• A male gynecologist is like an auto mechanic who never owned a car. Carrie Snow-
• Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry with your girlfriends. -Laurie Kuslansky-
• My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being, hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint. -Erma Bombeck-
• Old age ain't no place for sissies. -Bette Davis-
• A man's got to do what a man's got to do. A woman must do what he can't. -Rhonda Hansome-

PEOPLE MAY NOT REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT 'YOU DID, OR WHAT YOU SAID”, BUT THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.

Thanksgiving Message

If you woke up this morning
with more health than illness,
you are more blessed than the
million who won't survive the week.

If you have never experienced
the danger of battle,
the loneliness of imprisonment,
the agony of torture or
the pangs of starvation,
you are ahead of 20 million people
around the world.

If you attend a church meeting
without fear of harassment,
arrest, torture, or death,
you are more blessed than almost
three billion people in the world.

If you have food in your refrigerator,
clothes on your back, a roof over
your head and a place to sleep,
you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank,
in your wallet, and spare change
in a dish someplace, you are among
the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If you hold up your head with a smile
on your face and are truly thankful,
you are blessed because the majority can,
but most do not.

If you can read this message,
you are more blessed than over
two billion people in the world
who cannot read anything at all.

You are so blessed in ways
you may never even know.

Click the turkey for Turkey Jokes

WEC Board of Directors
2004-2005

President
Dee Moustakas

Past President
Leigh Nickel

President Elect
Ronnie Karlin

VP Finance -
Jacqueline Powell

VP Corporate Records -
Emily Rushin

VP Internal Involvement
Vivien Godfrey

VP Community Involvement -
Joni Rosenthal

VP Membership -
Marilynn Obrig

All contact information is available for WEC members on our Members Only website. If you are a member and you don't have a name and password, you can contact Chris Guld for more information.

Upcoming Luncheons

Tuesday, November 16
Friday December 17 (Westin Hotel)
Friday, January 14
Tuesday, February 15
Tuesday, March 15
Tuesday, April 19
Friday, May 13
Thursday, June 16

Membership Attendance:
The membership requirement is to attend a minimum of five (5) meetings every year in order to maintain regular membership. This is calculated on a fiscal year basis (i.e. August-June, not calendar year).

Upcoming Board Meetings

at the Tower Club

Friday, December 3
Friday, January 7
Friday, February 4
Friday, March 4
Friday, April 1
Friday, May 6
Friday, June 3