From the President's Desk: Welcome
by Marion E. Gold, IWPA President
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Welcome to fall and an exciting new season for IWPA! Providing service to our members is at the heart of our organization--and our 2002-03 lineup features lots of new opportunities for networking, professional education and advancement, and groundbreaking new programs.

To begin, we want to make it easier for everyone to get to our downtown Chicago meetings. So please see the item by PenPoints Editor Jill Moline, who is organizing a Carpooling Program that will link members and guests in the same areas.

Also in this issue of PenPoints, Membership Chair Linda Heacox describes IWPA's New Member Mentoring Program. What a wonderful way to get to know our new members and to make them feel an integral part of our terrific organization. Linda is also asking members to volunteer as "Greeters" during our meetings and special events. A great way to network and to make our guests feel welcome.

IWPA is also embarking on an IWPA Communications Ambassador Program designed to provide education/information opportunities to members and to foster cooperation between communications organizations. This is a call for volunteers to cover local events sponsored by other communications organizations and to write articles for PenPoints.

This is a Win-Win for You and for IWPA!
What's in it for You?

  1. You will have an opportunity to attend interesting events and to network with key contacts in the communications industry.
  2. IWPA will reimburse you up to $50 for the registration fee only.
  3. You will receive a byline and small author bio to run at the end of your article.
  4. Appropriate articles will be submitted to NFPW's Agenda for potential national circulation.

What's in it for IWPA and its Members?

  1. Increased visibility of IWPA to other organizations and members.
  2. More information provided to members to supplement our own informative meetings and events.
  3. Enhancement of PenPoints which will prompt potential members and supporters to sit up and take notice of the benefits to joining and supporting our organization and its newsletter.
  4. Increased visibility of the Illinois affiliate within NFPW.

Also on this year's agenda, IWPA is joining with the Association of Women Journalists (AWJ) and the Association for Education for Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) to sponsor a one-day event on "Stereotyping in the Media: Focus on Women and Minorities."

Working on this special event with your truly are IWPA Program Chair Peggy Grillot and Arrangement Manager Cecilia Green, AWJ President Sandra Guy, Business Reporter with the Sun-Times, and AWJ VP/Broadcast Lillian Williams, Director of Broadcast Journalism at Columbia College. Lillian also represents the AEJMC.

So save the date: February 15, 2003. You'll be receiving lots more information in the weeks to come about this important program.

Also on tap this year is an expansion of PenPoints. Your response to our newsletter has been so great, we are adding two issues a year. Starting this year, you can look forward to receiving a winter and summer issue of PenPoints in addition to the bimonthly issues. PenPoints Editor, Jill Moline also will continue doing our Annual Compendium in time for the 2003 Printers Row Book Fair.

Your response to our job announcement emails also has been overwhelmingly positive, so we will continue that service to members only. A special thanks to Cecilia Green for getting these "hot-off-the-press" announcements to us so quickly!

And last, but certainly not least, be sure to read about our September 28th luncheon meeting "Who's Buying What? Selling Your Writing to Web Sites." We'll also be installing our new officers, so bring yourself and a guest to start an exciting new IWPA season.

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Back to Sept. 2002 Issue | Back to Pen Points