Mark Your Calendar to Celebrate Illinois Business Women and Make Your Voice Heard

Exciting news. On February 8th, NAWBO Chicago, NAWBO Central Illinois and NAWBO Springfield will come together in the Illinois capitol in honor of the Springfield chapter’s 20th anniversary. The Governor has proclaimed February 8 as a day to recognize the power of Illinois women business owners. Together, Illinois NAWBO members will voice their concerns at the State Capitol about taxation, procurement, and healthcare insurance. There will be a Rotunda Rally and a legislator’s lunch at Inn@835.

Here's the draft agenda:

9:00 a.m. RALLY ON THE ROTUNDA

10:00 a.m. VARIOUS SCHEDULED APPOINTMENTS WITH LEGISLATORS

11:30 a.m. SITDOWN LUNCHEON COMMENCES AT INN@835

12:15 p.m. WELCOME AND CELEBRATION - Comments by Mary Croft, President of the Springfield NAWBO Chapter.

12:20 p.m. ILLINOIS WOMEN BUSINESS OWNERS – OUR ISSUES (CAROL KUC, National NAWBO President and owner of Complete Conference Coordinators)

12:35 p.m. RECOGNIZING THE POWER OF WOMEN BUSINESS OWNERS – COMMENTS BY A POWERFUL ILLINOIS LEGISLATOR (CONFIRMED: FRANK WATSON).

12:55 p.m. CLOSING REMARKS BY A POWERFUL WOMAN LEGISLATOR (TO BE INVITED: BARBARA CURRIE)

1:10 p.m. CLOSING REMARKS BY NAWBO CHAPTER PRESIDENTS

1:15 p.m. Q&A

1:30 p.m. ADJOURN

For more information or reservations, email NAWBOSPI2806@aol.com.

You can do something similar in your capitol!

Make a difference. Make it happen.

So You Want to Run for Office

Each month I write a column for RichmondWOMAN magazine called Government Matters. This month the magazine goes from print to ezine. The new edition just hit the electronic news stand. My column this month is titled, "So You Want to Run for Office: 5 Questions Every Woman Must Ask Herself Before She Runs for Office."
Find out about the rule of 75, the torque factor, and the "buy me, buy me" test ... all important considerations for any woman thinking about elective office.

And, do think seriously about running. Women business owners make winning candidates at all levels of government. Think Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Congresswoman Melissa Bean among others.

You can be a part of moving us from followers to leaders. Women who run can and do win!

Claire

An Experiment

The purpose of this blog is to create a forum for exchanging ideas and information about public policy issues of interest to women business owners and about ways women business owners can become more engaged in public policy at all levels of government, state, local and federal.

As the principal author, I will be guiding the development of the blog and moderating the commentary. I'll be adding other women business owners to the blogging team who are active in the National Association of Women Business Owners Public Policy Council and Forum ... allowing them to post items directly.

All are welcome to post comments to the blog. You'll have to register to do so. The blog will not accept anonymous posts. If you are reticent to register under your own name, you can create a blogger identity and use that. Using a consistent identity (real or created) will allow readers to track a person's point of view based on their blogger name.

The purpose of the blog is to discuss ways in which women business owners can build their capacity to participate in the political process, and to discuss substantive business issues of interest to women business owners.

This blog is not the place for partisan debates or for discussion of other than business issues.

I look forward to seeing how this blog unfolds. If you'd like to see an example of the kind of blog that I hope that this blog will become, take a look at Bacon's Rebellion. Jim Bacon has developed a blog about Virginia politics that is always interesting (to us public policy wonks) but never juvenile or uncivil.

Let me know what you think.

Claire Guthrie Gastanaga
NAWBO VP Public Policy 2005-06