Vail Valley Business Women celebrated the holidays with a wonderful evening of networking at its annual Holiday Soirée on Wednesday, December 14. Hosted at the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek, the event included appetizers, holiday cocktails, a silent auction, PowerTicket drawing, and a toy drive. While VVBW’s monthly events offer networking, professional development and social opportunities for local business women, the Soirée is a special evening to support the Vail Valley community.

The silent auction and PowerTicket supports VVBW’s college scholarship program, which began in 2012. VVBW annually awards college scholarships to female Eagle County high school graduates planning to attend two or four-year institutions in the field of business. One hundred percent of the group’s fundraising provides college scholarships, and in 2017, two local students each will receive $4,000 college scholarships.

“We calculate that VVBW raised approximately $5,000 at the Soirée, and more funds may follow” said VVBW President Lori Gleason. “We’re thrilled that we raised such a great amount in one evening.”

Attendees were asked to bring new, unwrapped toys for a holiday toy drive for the Bright Future Foundation, an Eagle County nonprofit organization empowering Eagle County families and individuals who are affected by domestic violence and sexual abuse. The toys are gifts for children served by Bright Future’s programs.

“We have families staying at our Freedom Ranch Safehouse and in transitional housing who are healing from violence,” said Bright Future Foundation Executive Director Sheri Mintz. “The toys help brighten the holidays for these children, and we are grateful for the support of VVBW members and guests.

Attendees of VVBW’s October event at the Beaver Creek Chophouse were treated to an engaging evening of professional development with Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor. Hollie’s talk, titled #BeAwesome in Brand Storytelling, shared tips on creating an effective online brand presence.  Hollie’s advice included being consistent with your posts and sharing updates that your audience will like. While it’s great to have followers engaged with your posts, you should be intentional about liking, commenting on and sharing of posts made by your followers. The three main takeaways from the evening’s presentation are as follows…

Build Like, Know and Trust:
1) Be consistent with your posts
2) Engage with your audience (Like, Comment and Share)
3) Share updates that your audience would find valuable

What are the newest trends in storytelling?
1) Putting YOU in your branded images
2) Learn and use Live Video, a new Facebook option
3) Use tools like Canva.com and Hootsuite.com to make things easier

Put actions in your calendar:
1) Schedule time to build your updates
2) Pick a time of day to check for engagement on your posts
3) Be intentional about liking, commenting on and sharing of others’ posts

Thank you to Hollie Clere for sharing her knowledge and expertise, and to Beaver Creek Chophouse for hosting this wonderful evening.  Looking for more advice to #BeAwesome in Brand Storytelling?  Contact Hollie at her website, thesocialmediaadvisor.com.

Visit VVBW’s events calendar to be in the know of upcoming professional development and networking events!

Dear Friends,

Most importantly, if you’re not familiar with the Vail Valley Business Women, first let me introduce us.

Our MISSION: The Vail Valley Business Women is dedicated to the advancement and future growth of professional women in the Vail Valley.

Our OBJECTIVES:

• Educational programming and speakers
• Exchange business ideas
• Forum for Networking
• Expose membership to valley-wide business opportunities
• Provide scholarships for professional women and female youth
• Community involvement
• Mentorship opportunities
• Volunteer opportunities

Our VALUES:   Camaraderie  |  Dynamic |  Education  |  Intention  |  Support

When those who are new to Vail Valley Business Women learn all that the organization accomplishes, they are invariably impressed. Conducting a professional not-for-profit on volunteers alone is no easy task. To fully grasp just how robust VVBW is, one must understand the many powerful partnerships that enrich, propel and strengthen our members and scholarship recipients. While numbers alone don’t tell the story, they are worth considering. We have 710 ladies in our database and 34 industries represented, while delivering 6 keynote speakers, 2 facilitated networking, 2 social and 2 special events, including a our annual fundraiser per fiscal year.

Highlights of the 2015-2106 Fiscal Year

• Scholarships: We raised $6,000 for scholarships and five $1,000 scholarships were allocated in cooperation with the Youth Foundation’s Community Scholarship Collaborative. The giving goes toward college scholarships for six high school graduating women within the Eagle County School District. All plan to attend two or four-year institutions of higher education in the field of business. This year’s highlight for me was seeing Kassie Heiner, the daughter of former VVBW Board Member, Julie Norberg, receive a scholarship - now that’s our mission in action! In 2016-17 due to revised application requirements, we will now strive to raise $8,000 to award two $4k scholarship to two deserving candidates over 4-year period.

• Web Site, Events and Membership: I am thrilled to announce today’s launch of our NEW web site! After many years of disjointed operations, we’ve embraced technology and now have a fully integrated system for the web site membership & event registration, emails and document storage. A special thanks to our My Sales Butler and Callosum making this happen.

• Membership: We increased the generational segmentation of VVBW membership and guest population. “I have always admired the depth of knowledge and historical information, of Vail Valley retirees and second homeowners hold. Seeking to tap into this goldmine, VVBW reached out and welcomed these ladies into our sphere with great success. Professionally employed currently or in the past, we honor intelligence and are grateful for a desire to pass on a Vail Valley legacy. Secondly, based on our new technology integration we have transitioned to a rolling membership - meaning you can join us at any time and be active for a full-year.

• Financial:

• Administration: The transition from fiscal 2016 to 2017 occurs with a succession of 5 out of 9 roles. While this is significant, I am excited and confident with a strong advisor base from the outbound board who have wrapped up their terms in stellar fashion. Per usual, we will remain heavily reliant on our volunteer committees to support the board in special task forces.

Every year our volunteers, committee members, and board of directors invest more than 2200 hours for the organization to accomplish such tasks as just mentioned. Unlike many not-for-profits, VVBW’s volunteer board of directors is solely skill-based, and desire to learn, versus a monetary obligation. Needless to say, it’s a great stepping stone to tee up for larger leadership roles anywhere and everywhere.

Why are these volunteers willing to donate their time, effort and heart? Most importantly, they share our missions and values. They are eager to create a living legacy for Vail Valley’s female leadership pool. With ongoing investment from you, and opportunities from our partners, for 39 years now, we continually evolve and change the face of Vail Valley leadership.

Speaking of leadership, I’m honored to present the new 2016-2017 board and hand over the reigns. Please join me in welcoming them:

• President: Lori Gleason
• Vice President: Melissa Decker
• Treasurer: Stacey Allen
• Director of Programming: Tricia Swenson
• Membership Director: Laura Waniuk
• Director of Marketing and PR: Mel McKinney
• Member at Large: Karen Perez
• Secretary: Jessica Woods  
• Past President: Clare Hefferren

Website: http://vvbw.org/

With much gratitude,
Clare J. Hefferren

Using the blog gadget, you can add a blog to your Wild Apricot site to provide timely updates and information to your membership.

By using Recent blog posts, you can display a list of the most recent blog posts, with links to the full posts. The list will include the date of each post and the name of the poster – with the name linking to their profile if available.

For instructions on inserting, moving, and deleting gadgets, see Gadgets.

You can create as many different blogs as you wish. You can limit access to a blog by placing it on a restricted page. If you make the page public, you can still use the blog gadget settings to control functionality for visitors and members.

You can read more about setting up blogs on our Blog help page.

If you are looking on more information on how to use blog, you can find it here.

This is another sample blog entry. Depending on your readers' access permissions, they can comment on your posts, and reply to comments.

You can learn more about setting up blog pages on our Blog help page.