President's Newsletter – February 2016
Dear Member,
I do hope you’ve all had a good start to 2016. I can’t believe it is February already but then again it has been a busy 1st month for CWN.
I was delighted to announce that Working Chance was selected as our Charity of the Year. What makes it even better is that Working Chance received over 50% of your votes and I have to admit mine was one of them! We aim not only to support this really worthwhile cause financially but also to help them engage with business and create opportunities for Working Chance women to get back into employment. We are putting our heads together with their CEO Jocelyn Hillman to come up with some meaningful recommendations. I will be in touch again shortly about how we can work together on this.
On 12th January we supported Fractio Vitri’s 2nd event since their launch last year. It was kindly hosted by RPC one of our Corporate Members. Elinor Dennehy, a seasoned HR Leader from GE coached around 45 ladies on how to get the most out of their annual reviews and have constructive dialogues regarding performance management. The feedback from the attendees was hugely positive.
Next up, we celebrated a healthy-ish start to the year with drinks at the London Capital Club on 14th January. As always there was a fabulous turn out of dynamic, vibrant and wonderful women. We were inspired by William Banks-Blaney, of WilliamVintage educating us on “Couture through the Ages”. William has been called the King of vintage by both Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. He donated a percentage of the proceeds he made selling copies of his book ‘25 Dresses’ on the night to our Charity of the Year. So all in all it was a fab night with mocktails, wine, canapes, interesting chat and the feel-good factor of supporting Working Chance.
As many of you know we have raised funds for our Charity of the Year by sponsoring the British 10K for a number of years. This year’s race is on 10th July and this is my serious call to all you runners out there who want to get fit and support our Charity of the Year. Once we have our team of volunteer runners, we will set up a sponsorship page – so look out for that. If you are interested in taking part and I for one am up for again this year – please email me president@citywomen.org
Finally we promised you a full calendar for the year and we have some really good events coming up and these include:
- Working Across Cultures with Allyson Stewart-Allen at Nomura TONIGHT
- Mindfulness in the Digital World with Professor Gianvito Lanzolla at Cass Business School on 8th March
- Leadership Myth Busters at EY on 20th April
Check out our website for registration and more details. We will also be having our ever popular Membership Breakfasts and Drinks – the dates are on our website and the first one on Wednesday, 24th February has already sold out. But don’t worry – you can still put your name down on the waitlist.
And finally, I wanted to give you the heads up that we’re continuing to partner with the 12th annual CBI supported First Women Awards. This year’s celebration takes place on 22nd June at the Lancaster Hotel, London. We encourage you to put forward your nominations across a range of categories. To find out more and to place your nominations, please visit:
http://firstwomen.co.uk/event/awards/
Look forward to seeing you at one of our events very soon.
Please do not hesitate to email me should you have any feedback or comments in general.
Very best wishes,
Sandy
Sandy Lucas
President
City Women Network