WCW this month
Christie Lewis is one of those people you meet and you say to yourself, “now she’s going places.” However, I have to stand in line, so to speak, in making that observation as everyone I meet has already said that when her name comes up. Christie holds a lengthy title —Vice President of Nonprofit Capacity Building for the Community Foundation of Sarasota County’s Nonprofit Resource Center (NPRC).

You probably know the Community Foundation and its vital grant-making role in Sarasota funding nonprofits large and small. But it’s unique in having the Nonprofit Resource Center also under its roof. If you view the NPRC’s web site or take any of their various seminars or use their services, you’ll see how much the world of nonprofits has changed and how sophisticated they need to be to survive.

In the first year Christie was there the NPRC offered one workshop per month. By comparison, now 600 – 700 people from nonprofits in both Sarasota and Manatee Counties participate in some 70 programs annually. The NPRC offers a lots of services including board development counseling, consulting, a job bank, a lending library and leadership succession planning to the 1205 public charities registered with them.

Which brings us back to Christie who has been instrumental in getting the Nonprofit Resource Center to where it is today. She also learned no doubt from two very experienced leaders with the Community Foundation: Stewart Stearns and Wendy Hopkins.

Double your pleasure, double your fun...
It’s not a typo—West Coast Woman is indeed having two big events this month. Our annual Front Page luncheon takes place on Wednesday, May 14, at Michael’s on East. This is our biggest event of the year as we salute the women we’ve profiled and give away the proceeds to wonderful area causes.

Tickets are only available up to May 7 and must be prepaid, so make haste and call 954-3300 or put your check for $50 in the mail and send to: West Coast Woman, P.O. Box 819, Sarasota, FL 34230.

We’ll follow that up with another super networking event the next day on Thursday, May 15, at Gwiz Hands-on Science Museum in their beautiful atrium. Gwiz is at 1001 Boulevard of the Arts (the old Selby Library to you lifers) and across from the Hyatt. We’ll again have exhibitors, great food and fun and yes, it’s free — no membership dues, no pay-at-the-door stuff.

Please be sure to RSVP for the May 15 networking event by emailing wcwnewspaper@aol.com or by calling 954-3300. Plenty of fun, food, fellowship and giveaways at both events so come to both! I know I will…

Women in the news
Women in prominent positions are in the news. Dr. Sarah Pappas signs off at MCC at the end of June. Her successor is Dr. Lars Hafner who will be leaving his position as provost of St. Petersburg College to take on the challenge of succeeding such a popular and successful leader.

Is politics in Dr. Pappas’s future (that’s the scuttlebutt I heard) or is there something else TBA in her future? I seriously doubt she’ll be idle and I imagine she’s on everyone’s wish list for board membership.

Also in the news is the new Superintendent of Schools in Sarasota County, Lori White. She worked alongside Dr. Wilma Hamilton, a WCW profilee some years back, and has spent her entire career with the Sarasota school system.

I’d say welcome aboard, but that wouldn’t be accurate. Better to say good luck as she will face many budget issues until the economy improves.

In this issue:
This is the month we make the shift to the off-season…a time for the mundane: housekeeping and the sublime: vacation and new things: (technology, new events and marketing plans), while we play another round of hurricane dodgeball.

Next month we’ll have our Travel issue and in August we’ll again have our Education Report.

Technology happens…and that’s good
We’re setting up a database with the names and emails of those who have attended our events and we've also switched to an automatic e-mailer. This will make it easier for you to know when the next networking events as well as other WCW events are coming up.

So far we have had over 600 attendees at our four networking events so far and our membership database is approaching 1000. Thank you for making this inaugural season of networking events such a success. We have sold out all exhibit space at every event and have averaged over 100 attendees since we began back in November.

Look to bigger and better as we organize a set schedule of events with themes for fall and next year.

I look forward to seeing you May 14 and May 15!

Louise Bruderle
Editor and Publisher
wcwlmb@aol.com