As we close out 2014, the CLUB Board wanted to share our insights and thank you’s with our members for a fantastic year. 2014 was a foundational period for us. In 2013, we were in a constant state of learning, and in 2014, our processes and leadership solidified in an amazing way, allowing us to build upon our first year’s momentum and achieve even greater things, including the launch of our mentoring program and establishing our ‘segments’ to facilitate additional ways for our members to connect with each other.
While we heard from our members that they loved the 10 formal events and numerous informal connections the CLUB facilitated this year, much of the work and innovation that happened this year was behind the scenes – so we wanted to make sure you were aware of who has worked so hard to help make the CLUB what it is today. We are excited for what this leadership structure and growth will position us to achieve in 2015!
One of our initiatives for 2015 is to communicate more often with the full membership. While one or more of our Board members have attended every event this year, we do not always have the opportunity to talk with everyone. We would like to ensure that our members have insight into all the great events and opportunities offered by the CLUB, so please keep an eye out for a quarterly newsletter to keep you up to date.
In 2015 we are also excited to expand our mentoring program with the addition of Mentoring Circles, and also launch our Incubator and Community Advocacy programs. Keep reading for additional details.
Thank you to our 2014 Leaders, and welcome to our 2015 Leaders
Board
Our Board in 2014 began with three of our original founding Board members – Annie Rogaski, Kristiane Koontz and Julie Stephenson – and two new members who joined us in late 2013 – Karen Catlin and Diana Olin. After three years of service, Julie decided to step down, to focus efforts on a law firm she started with two other CLUB members (Annie and Judith Szepesi). Thank you, Julie, for your long-term contribution to building and leading the CLUB. In 2015, the CLUB will welcome Laraine McKinnon as the 5th member of the Board. We know the CLUB will continue to flourish with Laraine’s ideas and talents contributing to our Board. Welcome, Laraine.
Advisory Board
We continue to have a high-profile, amazing set of Advisory Board members. Two of our original Advisory Board members, Mona Sabet and Erin Rand, continue to provide us with fantastic strategic insights. In 2014, we added two other Advisory Board members – Angie Chang and Kim Le. Our Advisory Board provides laser-focused feedback that keeps us strategically on track and moving towards even greater things. Thank you, Mona, Erin, Angie, and Kim.
You can read more about our Board and Advisory Board here.
Programming Committee
By far our busiest committee, our Programming Committee created and planned monthly events throughout the year, building a playbook in the process to make future events much simpler to put on. They implemented a quarterly topic format that enabled members to dig deeply into each quarterly topic, but in a different way each month. Each quarter had a quarterly chair who ensured each month of the quarter built on the prior one. Each event had an event chair as well as volunteers to help plan the event and to pitch in at the event. Thank you to each of the Programming Committee members who worked incredibly hard to bring us high quality events and content. Thank you specifically to:
- Mindy Morton and Laraine McKinnon for their leadership of the committee
- Mindy Morton, Julia Cowles, and Judith Szepesi for their leadership as quarterly event chairs
- Kate Wilson, Beth Roemer, Holly Hogan, Laurie Charrington, Marina Feehan, Jennifer Lotz, Michelle Gillette, Mindy Morton, and Laraine McKinnon for their leadership as monthly event chairs
- Christine Pham for supporting our event marketing and online registration
We look forward to continuing our Programming excellence under the 2015 leadership of Kate Wilson and Jennifer Lotz. Kate and Jennifer have been active in the Programming Committee and have become veterans in executing events. Thank you Kate and Jennifer for taking on this important role.
Membership Committee
One of the most fun things about building the CLUB has been to read the applications of prospective members. Not only do we see an impressive group of leaders applying, but it is abundantly clear from each application how passionately we all care about finding a community of women to help us and whom we can help. The mission of the CLUB shines through in our members’ applications and we are so fortunate to continue to grow our membership with quality professionals who contribute to the vitality of our community. The membership committee is responsible for member acceptance, administration, recruiting and recognition. In 2014 we saw further growth in the size, engagement and diversity of our membership, across industries and career progression. Thank you specifically to:
- Joselle Deocampo for stepping up to lead the committee in 2014
- Joselle Deocampo and Pam Fulmer for leading our member recognition team and publishing 7 member spotlights in 2014
- Libby Moulton for leading our new member acceptance process twice per month
- Bing Xie for serving as our Membership Liaison for supporting our member administration and recruiting efforts
The membership committee has ambitious goals for 2015 under the continued leadership of Joselle Deocampo. Bing Xie will continue in 2015 as our Membership Liaison and Shannon Dahl will join the committee leadership as the Director of Member Recognition. Please email membership@theclubsv.org if you are interested in supporting the work of this important committee.
Real Estate / CLUBhouse Committee
In 2014, our Real Estate Committee took on a couple roles. In addition to helping to secure locations for monthly events, this committee explored the possibility of establishing the CLUBhouse. Thank you to Laura Majerus, Sarah Lambersky, and Hillary Barnhart for their great efforts researching the real estate issues, creating a survey to gather member input, and analyzing that input to help direct our 2015 efforts.
In 2015, we will structure our real estate tasks a bit differently. We will move the function of locating event space into the Programming Committee and we will create a new CLUBhouse Committee to help us establish our first CLUBhouse. Please email annie@theclubsv.org if you would like to join or lead our 2015 CLUBhouse Committee, which will help us make CLUB history.
Sponsorship Committee
One of our key 2015 initiatives – establishing our CLUBhouse – will depend heavily on sponsorship funding. Our 2014 leadership, Risa Beckwith and Katherine Maraschin, built a great foundation for sponsorship asks, by analyzing our value proposition so that we can more effectively show the value the CLUB brings to our sponsors. We’d like to express our gratitude to Box, Jones Day, Synopsys, Fenwick & West, Morgan Lewis and Google for hosting our events, and ServiceRocket, Wilmerhale, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and Procopio as well as several anonymous donors for contributions that enable us to serve our members. Thank you, Risa and Katherine, for creating the framework for our 2015 Sponsorship team.
We also measured the impact The CLUB is having on our members via a survey at our 2nd Anniversary Party. You can read about the impressive results in “The CLUB Effect.”
We are working on the 2015 leadership. Robin Patin will chair our technology industry sponsorship efforts and we are looking for chairs to lead our initiatives with other industries. If you are interested in joining the sponsorship committee or taking a leadership role, please email annie@theclubsv.org. Someone from the committee may reach out to you in 2015 to help explore sponsorship by your company. This is a HARD job – please be receptive to their asks and collectively we can make our CLUBhouse a reality.
Philanthropy Committee
Many of our members have expressed an interest in giving back. Our Philanthropy Committee has worked throughout 2014 to identify opportunities of interest to our members. While some exciting opportunities were identified, they also were quite labor intensive to get off the ground. In 2015, we will look to identify simpler opportunities that will have a local impact while giving CLUB members the chance to give back together – building our CLUB Community as well as helping to improve the communities we live in. Keep an eye out for opportunities posted on our Members-only website in 2015.
Thank you for our 2014 leadership – Sangeeta Tiwari and Bettina Weiss – and welcome to our 2015 leadership – Bettina Weiss and Rachael Meny.
New Chair of Community
We are excited to announce a new leadership role – Chair of Community – which will be filled in 2015 by Mindy Morton. This important role was created to facilitate communication, ideas, and coordination across committees, segments, affiliate organizations, and the Board. We are thrilled to have Mindy step into this role with her depth of experience with the Programming Committee and her participation in CLUB Segments.
Affiliates
Thank you to Laurie Charrington, our Affiliate Chair in 2014, who developed our Affiliate database and set the foundation for coordinating our efforts with those of our affiliates. If anyone is interested in continuing this work in 2015, please email info@theclubsv.org.
Segments
One of the most exciting initiatives we started in 2014 was creating segments (geographic, experience levels, and industries) that enabled smaller gatherings to explore issues of interest to that segment. Gatherings included walk and talks in SF and at the Stanford Dish, various breakfasts, lunches, a women in tech panel, an “art of the ask” speaker, a Breast Cancer Awareness walk, “Big Idea” brunches, and more. Thanks to our 2014 Segment Leaders for working with no roadmap and creating something amazing:
- Geographic
- SF/North Bay: Holly Hogan and Jaime Kitano
- Peninsula: Pam Colbert, Kimberly Culp, Mary Fuller
- South Bay: Marina Gruber and Karen Kaufman
- Industry
- Marketing: Laurie Kretchmar
- Finance: Laraine McKinnon
- Tech: Laura Fechete and Risa Beckwith
- Legal: Mindy Morton
- Experience Levels
- <10 years: Marina Gruber and Karen Kaufman
- 20+ years: Julia Cowles
In 2015, our segments will be known as “Communities” and will be led by Mindy Morton, in her role as Chair of Community. Thanks to the following members who will take on (or continue) these leadership roles:
- Geographic
- SF/North Bay: Holly Hogan, Jaime Kitano and Kathleen Bost
- Peninsula: TBD
- South Bay: Marina Gruber and Karen Kaufman
- East Bay: Krista Baughman
- Industry
- Tech: Laura Fechete
- Legal: Krista Baughman
- Marketing: TBD
- Finance: TBD
- Experience Levels
- Aspiring leaders (typically <10 years): Marina Gruber and Karen Kaufman
- Emerging leaders (typically 10-20 years): TBD
- Established leaders (typically 20+ years): TBD
If you are interested in leading any of the segments with TBD, please email info@theclubsv.org. This is a great, easy way to get some leadership experience.
Mentoring
In 2014, we launched The CLUB’s mentoring program. We held a kick-off event in March where we heard about the benefits and best practices of mentoring, and we’ve had monthly forum posts about mentoring discussion topics.
Moving into 2015, we’re excited to add to our mentoring options with the launch of a “Mentoring Circles” pilot for 8 members to meet monthly to jointly work on their career goals and how to best meet them.
Many thanks to the Mentoring Committee for their work to launch and expand this important program: Holly Hogan (chair), Michelle Garrison, Karen Kaufman, Katherine Maraschin, and Katherine Mendonca.
Incubator Program
In 2015, we are launching a new Incubator program – created by Laraine McKinnon – that will help members who have already established themselves as leaders create a more visible external profile as a leader. Thanks to our 2015 leaders of this program: Laraine McKinnon, Mindy Morton, and Kristi Royse.
Community Advocacy Program
In 2015, we are also launching an outward facing program, which will be driven by CLUB members and non-members, to identify best practices for building thriving work cultures, and highlighting companies who successfully do so. We have a great group of thought leaders already forming, who will be led by our 2015 Chair of Workplace Best Practices, Sally Applin. We have one open leadership position, for Quarterly Company Spotlight Chair. If you are interested in the future of work, and helping to recast our workplace cultures to be more inclusive of women leaders, and would like to join us, please email annie@theclubsv.org.
It’s not too late…
If you are not yet signed up to lead or participate in the above committees, please reach out to the 2015 leaders identified above, or fill out a survey here. Committee participation is a great way to get to know other CLUB members, build leadership skills, and get the most out of the CLUB.
We look forward to an exciting CLUB experience in 2015 – thank you all for being a part of our community!
The CLUB Board
Annie, Kristiane, Karen, Diana and Laraine
