Women’s Executive Club

If there were topics to help you with your business and networking, etc… (insert ideas here…), would you be interested? It is a new idea being tossed around. Members sharing with members…….

We of WEC are always striving to improve the lives of our members. All of us have so much knowledge other members could benefit from learning.

More will be discussed as time progresses. Members, please comment if you so wish. Your thoughts on this idea will be taken into consideration for interest, in the possibility of making this happen.

Thanks for reading this post. Your attention is appreciated.

*Casual attire is fine. *No flip flops or open backed shoes. *Husbands and significant others welcome.

Casa Salsa Dance Studio 1317 East Commercial Blvd. Oakland Park, FL. 33334 *Class starts @ 8:15pm. *Arrive by 8pm.

*Instructor Ashley Seijo and her partner will be instructing the class. *

Event cost is 12.50 per person. Click the reservations tab in the WEC website. Scroll down for the Special Events Reservations section. Click the arrow in this section to see the “Salsa Lesson”.  Enter attendee name and click “Add to Cart”. This will take you to the Pay Pal website, where you can pay online for the class. Dr. Karen Rowe, treasurer, will email Susan when you rsvp/pay via Pay Pal, so we keep a headcount, as space is limited. We have to prepay for the class, so need to collect in advance. Thanks for your cooperation and understanding.

WEC clearly communicates its diversity, the specialty skills of its members, commitment to community projects, and primary focus on relationship building. I am privileged to be part of your group and look forward to the friendships I will develop.

I am the owner of ChemWare, Inc., located in Raleigh, NC, with business throughout the U.S. ChemWare develops, markets, and sells a laboratory information management system. Its customers include large laboratories specializing in water quality (government water districts and sanitation facilities), public health (state labs and Washington, DC), and environmental testing (contaminants in soil and water). In November, 2009, Triangle Business Journal recognized ChemWare as one of the “Fast 50”—the fastest growing private companies in the Research Triangle Park, NC area.

Both work-related duties and long-time friends initially enticed me to Fort Lauderdale. My husband Bill is central in my life. He travels widely for his Masonic activities. We enjoy tennis, pinochle, and gourmet cooking, along with the many cultural events of the city. We are blessed with four children and seven grandchildren that also keep us busy.

Originally from Indiana, I lived in Nashville, TN, for 30 years before moving to Ft Lauderdale last June. Prior to my move to Florida, I managed physician practices of varying specialties, and was a billing manager for a physician billing service. I still maintain my certification as a Certified Professional Coder. After relocating to Ft Lauderdale to be with my husband, Gerald Adams, I made a career change and am now the business manager for his law firm.

Jerry and I have a blended family of four daughters and nine grandchildren. Staying in touch with our family is priority, and we travel to Austin, Atlanta, and Nashville on a regular basis. We also enjoy listening to live music, visiting the Keys, and playing pinochle.

Gerald Adams & Associates is a law firm emphasizing protecting men’s rights in Family Law. Men are often overlooked in the court system when it comes to spending time with their children, and being involved in the everyday decisions that affect their children’s lives. Many of our first contacts with clients come from their current wife/significant other. These women have bonded with the man’s child from another relationship, and suddenly the child’s mother is withholding visitation privileges. Gerald Adams & Associates can help men stay involved in their children’s lives, modify child support payments when their financial situation changes, and guide men through the emotional turmoil of a divorce.

Offices in Ft Lauderdale, Miami, Boca Raton and Palm Beach County

Website: Adamslaw4men.com

Email: ila@adamslaw4men.com

Ana Milena was born in Santa Marta, Colombia and raised in the city of Barranquilla where she went to an American School until she got her High School diploma. Then she went on to Javeriana University in Bogota, the capital, to pursue her Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineer. As a professional she has worked with some private companies, but she has dedicated most of her time working in government entities. She worked with the Department of Energy and in the Department of Agriculture, as well as other Colombian Mining Companies. After more than 15 years of experience in these different entities, she became a consultant to the United Nations Development Program in Colombia, ultimately working for the Colombian President’s Office of International Cooperation, just before deciding to move to Florida.

Has been married to Gustavo Daza for 34 years and they have 3 sons and 4 grandchildren. Before her Bachelor’s degree, she lived in Plantation, Florida for about 4 years, while her husband was stationed with an official task from the government of Colombia. At that time she gave birth to her 2^nd child who after almost 20 years in Colombia, decided to come back to his native country and live here. Later on her oldest son, a physician from her same university, decided to get certified in the United States. He got his certification and went to Columbia University to get his Internal Medicine specialization and also gave his mom her first grand daughter.

After Ana decided to move to Florida, she worked in Port Saint Lucie for a year and then, after the construction collapse, decided to buy a services franchise and move to South Florida.

Now, Ana is the proud owner of Servpro of Sunrise, a female and minority owned company offering cleanup and restoration services. Together with her husband Gustavo, she successfully runs her business, doing mostly water and fire damage restoration, mold remediation and carpet and upholstery cleaning in the South Florida community.

2010 March Newsletter

Note: The Calendar of Events now has its own page.  Click on Calendar in the Top Menu.

CONTENTS

• March Membership Luncheon
• From the President
• New Member Bios: Ila Bennett, Sharyn Brunk and Ana Milena Diazgranados
• Grapevine: News and Notes about WEC Members
• WEC Member Spotlight
• Book Club
• Cannon Circle
• GEM
• WEC Table and Reservation Policies
• Closing Thought
• WEC Board of Directors
• Luncheon Dates
• Membership Attendance

MARCH membership Luncheon: welcome new members and guests!

Date: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 (Happy St. Patrick’s Day!)
Time: 11:30 Networking
12:00 Luncheon

Place: Tower Club, 28th floor
One Financial Plaza in the Regions Bank Building
Click here for directions

Program Speaker: Michelle Oka Doner, Artist/Designer

Guest Cost: FREE!! Guests must RSVP in advance.

Menu:

Chicken Piccata with White Wine and Caper Sauce
or
Asian Shrimp Salad

Save room for dessert:  Chocolate Mousse

RSVP to:

Please RSVP (including your menu choice) to rsvp@wecftl.com
We appreciate your RSVPs! To assist Suzie administratively, please put “WEC Lunch” in the subject line.

Quote:

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.  ~Anne Bradstreet

Guest Speaker

Michele Oka Doner

Michele Oka Doner is one of today’s foremost artist-designers, whose prodigious career spans four decades. The breadth of her artistic production encompasses sculpture, furniture, jewelry, public art, and functional objects.

Oka Doner is well known for her numerous public art installations, including “A Walk on the Beach,” at The Miami International Airport (1995-2008) which features nearly a mile of dark terrazzo inlaid with bronze and mother of pearl. Recent work includes collections with Christofle and Steuben Glass as well as public art projects at Rutgers University, the Ocean County Library, both in New Jersey, and the University of South Florida in Sarasota.

Michele Oka Doner’s sculpture and functional objects have been acquired by several prestigious museums, among them The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Musée dés Arts Dècoratifs at the Louvrè, the Virginia Museum of fine Arts, and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Among her many publications are two monographs: Natural Seduction published by Hudson Hills Press (2003) examines the broad scope of Oka Doner’s work; and Workbook published by Oka Press (2004), which focuses on blueprints of thousands of cast bronzes for her public projects.

Artist’s Website: www.micheleokadoner.com

From the President

Hi Ladies,

I’ve been getting asked quite a bit about how my year as president is going. One word: fantastic. I can’t say enough about the great job the board is doing which makes my job so much easier. This is such a fun group—no matter what the activity, we always have a good time.

Speaking of good times, thanks to Dee Moustakas, Bonnie Unsworth and Diane Hickey for co-hosting the February Cannon Circle. We ate delicious food, some of which, unbeknownst to us, contained creative ingredients. We had chocolate with salt and chocolate cake with sauerkraut. Later, we broke into groups and tried to come up with creative slogans for products using our own ideas or slogans from old commercials. We’ll never look at thongs or ky jelly the same way!

J.R. Steele was our February speaker and she discussed how to give a better speech and how not to get nervous. Liz Mendel showed us how we could travel the world in her business showcase—thanks to Chris Guld for sharing so many pictures. We’ll miss both Chris and Edie Hoppe both of whom are going back on the road.

Our upcoming March meeting is our annual membership meeting. We’re looking forward to a great crowd…in fact, we’ll be in the main dining room instead of our normal room. Artist Michele Oker Doner is our speaker.

Don’t forget to sign up for our April salsa dancing class!

Jenny Kelly

NEW MEMBER BIOS: Ila Bennett, Sharyn Brunk and Ana Milena Diazgranados

Read all about Ila’s biography in our new WEC blog! Feel free to comment on her member profile and personally welcome her to WEC! Click here to read more…

Read all about Sharyn’s biography in our new WEC blog! Feel free to comment on her member profile and personally welcome her to WEC! Click here to read more…

Read all about Ana’s biography in our new WEC blog! Feel free to comment on her member profile and personally welcome her to WEC! Click here to read more…

The Executive Grapevine: News and Notes About WEC Members

Click on the link to read all the great news about WEC members.  This is the best part of the newsletter … don’t miss it.  Click now!
Read all about the exciting adventures of our WEC members in our new blog! Feel free to comment on any post that strikes your fancy!

Read the Grapevine, news and notes about our members…

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WEC MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

At last month’s luncheon, we started a new WEC tradition. We collected the business cards of all the members for a drawing at the end of the meeting.  The winner gets to put a profile on the newsletter for the month.  We will be doing this each luncheon. The winner this month is our very own…Geri Trodick.

Click here to learn more about Geri Trodick…

Book Club

We welcome all members to join us for our next Book Club meeting  scheduled for 6:30pm, Monday, April 19, as we will be reading "Daring Chloe" by Laura Jensen Walker. The group will meet at Joni Rosenthal’s home. Those attending are asked to bring a dish to share and she will provide beverages.  If you are coming, please RSVP to Joni Rosenthal at jlovinly@aol.com.

A special thank you to Edie Hoppe who hosted the last book club gathering. For those of you who did not attend, here are some pictures showing all the fun you missed!

From the Back Cover of “Daring Chloe”:

When Chloe Adams’ fiance dumps her—the night before their wedding—two girlfriends from her book group decide a little adventure is in order for the three of them. After all, why let a perfectly good honeymoon cruise go to waste? Adventure? Chloe Adams? No way! Chloe’s lived in one town her whole life. The closest she’s ever gotten to actual adventures is reading about them. But her girlfriends won’t take no for an answer. One good adventure calls for another as Chloe’s friends try to coax her out of her post-dumping funk, and soon she finds herself living out the adventures in her book club’s latest selections. Hiking. Sailing. River rafting. Traveling to new places and eating exotic food. The play-it-safe Chloe begins to blossom into a new, daring Chloe. A Chloe who just might be ready to take on her biggest adventure of all … Laura Jensen Walker has a knack for quirky heroines and real-life humor. In Chloe, she’s created another memorable character who will live on in readers’ hearts.

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All WEC members are invited to become “bookies”, where women meet in each other’s homes once a month to share in the love of books. Please contact Emily Rushin at wisemily@bellsouth.net or Deb McLaughlin at dmclaughlin@duncancenter.org for more information about WEC’s monthly book club meetings.

Cannon Circle

Along with the monthly luncheons, members also get together in a more informal atmosphere during the year. These evening socials are called “Cannon Circles” and are hosted at members’ homes or businesses.  The Cannon Circle is named for Past President Shirley Cannon who was known for her gracious and uplifting spirit.

The next Cannon Circle will be held on March 31st at the Fort Lauderdale Yacht Club and will be co-hosted by Martha Lord and Maggie Smith.

The last Cannon Circle was held at Dee Moustakas’ home on February 23rd, and was co-hosted by Diane Hickey and Bonnie Unsworth.

For those of you not able to attend, here is a brief recap by Dee Moustakas of all that was missed!

As advertised, February’s Cannon Circle was creative! Hosts Diane Hickey, Dee Moustakas and Bonnie Unsworth tagged each person as she arrived with one of five different colored stars. There was a centerpiece (created by Diane) with company logos and pictures of all three women jumping “outside the box”. And three of the foods served had “creative” ingredients.

After everyone had a chance to sample the food, we gathered in a circle to see who could guess what the “creative” ingredients were. Pat McCarthy guessed the chunks of dark chocolate in bowls scattered around the room were infused with sea salt. Carol Metevier and Edie Hoppe almost simultaneously shouted out that the endive appetizer was topped with a balsamic glaze. And after much guessing and a clue, Ila Bennett asked if the German chocolate cake (hang onto your hat for this one) was made with sauerkraut. It was! There were lots of “icks” from the group including from those with barely a crumb left on their dessert plates.

Then, everyone was asked to break into teams according to the color of her star. The teams were given the name of a product and told they had 15 minutes to create a headline(s). As they say in the advertising world, sex sells! So, of course, the products chosen were a bit risqué. Once the deadline passed, each team leader read her team’s ideas aloud. The headlines were clever, funny and some made us blush (which is why we can’t publish them). But, boy did we have fun!

There were several requests for the appetizer and cake recipes, so here they are:

German Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

2/3 cup butter

1 1/3 cups white sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cups water

2/3 cup drained and chopped sauerkraut (creative ingredient)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8-inch pans, round or square.

Thoroughly cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

Sift together cocoa, flour, baking powder, soda, and salt, and add alternately with water to egg mixture. Stir in the sauerkraut. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick comes out clean. Frost with your favorite chocolate or white frosting.

Blue Cheese on Endive Appetizer

Ingredients

4 ounces premium blue cheese , 3 slices (about 2 ounces) prosciutto ham (optional), 8–10 fresh basil leaves (rinsed), 36 Belgian endive leaves (2–3 heads, rinsed) , 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, 2 tablespoons balsamic glaze (creative ingredient) . Alternate topping: Deli Tarragon Chicken Salad.

Directions

Crumble cheese coarsely. Stack prosciutto slices; cut into thin strips.

Cut basil into thin strips (2 tablespoons). Trim and discard root end of endive to separate leaves. All may be chilled until ready to prepare.

Arrange 36 endive leaves on serving platter. Top each with cheese, prosciutto, walnuts and basil; drizzle lightly with glaze. Serve.

Chicken Salad on Endive: Prepare endive leaves as noted above. Top with chicken salad. Or make some with each filling.

Note: Prep: 25 minutes (makes 36)

GEMS: "Greet, Eat, Meet"

Forty-one WEC members enjoyed each other’s company in smaller groups at a variety of restaurants around Broward County during the months of January and February.  We have 11 table hostesses each with 6 to 7 members assigned every cycle.  The email for the March/April gatherings were sent to your mailboxes the first week in March. Several of our members were able to participate in a GEM function other than the one they had been assigned to due to a "central luncheon info depot" devised by Susan Kingsley. We will continue to offer this option during March and April.  If you are not signed up for the GEM luncheons or need other information related to them, please contact Liz Mendel, GEM Coordinator at dolphintravelinc@aol.com or at her office, Dolphin Travel Inc., 954-351-2002.

This is a great opportunity to get to know each other on a more personal level.

WEC Table and Reservation Policies

We have several club policies which we need to remind everyone:

Regarding items on the tables at the luncheons, the only things permitted are: official club business such as flyers about social events, items from the speaker, and items from the member doing the business showcase. Thank you for your cooperation.

RSVP to luncheons…Any member who fails to cancel a luncheon reservation within 48 hours or who fails to attend a reserved luncheon, will be billed at the current rate by VP of Finance. Each member will be entitled to one courtesy “no-show” per club year.

Closing Thought

Spring has returned.  The Earth is like a child that knows poems.  ~Rainer Maria Rilke

WEC Board of Directors

President
Jenny Kelly,
Ritter’s Printing

Past President
Vanessa Koutalidis
Island City Chiropractic
Ambassador Committee
Canon Circles
Business Showcases

President Elect/
VP Membership
Jan Bullard,
JP Financial Services Membership Committee
Membership Luncheon
Directory
Webmaster

VP Corporate Records
Diana Fairbanks
Coldwell Banker Agent
Corporate Records
Historian
By-Laws Committee

VP Finance
Karen Rowe
Fort Lauderdale Acupuncture, Inc.Budget
Dues collection

VP Community Involvement
Chadia Meroueh
Auto Tech and BodyMentorship (FX) Program
Women Empowering Women (WEW)
Community Outreach
Public Relations

VP Internal Involvement
Pam Morgan
Body Centered Psychotherapy
Programs Committee
Greetings Committee
Newsletter, Book Club

VP Events
Susan Kingsley
www.susankingsley.biz
Social Committee
Fun raiser or Fund raiser
GEM Events

Luncheon Dates

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Membership Attendance

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