The FWIT News From the Communications Chair, Laura Rodgers VOLUME 1, ISSUE 4 JANUARY, 2010 MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT JULIE BEDSON Julie is a busy girl these days. She babysits her grandson, Connor, a couple days a week and she works at H&R Block the others. This is peak season for H&R Block right now. I hope you all do not mind, but I thought we would give Julie a respite from preparing a message this month. A lot of you will be able to visit with her in the next couple weeks as she has plans to visit the Llano Estacado Group on February 9 th and the Hill Country Group on February 25 th. Please keep Julie in your thoughts as she travels to these groups and delivers her presentation. FWIT OBJECTIVES AND PURPOSES To bring together women in the financial services industry for the exchange of ideas, experiences and interests. To further the meaningful professions or careers of its members and women in general. To encourage women to choose financial services as a career and to advance the career opportunities for all women in the financial services industry. To serve as an advocate of, and to promote improvements in the professional development, leadership skills, education and training of women in the financial services industry. MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION Become a member of one of the newest and fastest growing organizations for professional women in the financial industry in Texas. How do I become a member of Financial Women in Texas? It s easy as 1-2-3! 1. Contact a member for a Membership Application 2. Mail it in, along with the low fee of $50.00 to the address on the application 3. Get involved and enjoy! If you have questions about becoming a member, contact Membership Chair Janet Dirba at janet.dirba@wallisbank.com or 713-935-3766.
FWIT LEADERSHIP ROSTER Julie Bedson, President jbedson@sbcglobal.net Deborah Parrish, Secretary/Conference Co- Chair parrishd@lonestarnationalbank.com Cheryl Linder, Conference Co-Chair/Nominating Chair clinder@newfirst.com Janet Dirba, Membership Chair janet.dirba@wallisbank.com Anita Werner, Technology Chair awerner@botw-ep.com Melody Klein, Recognitions & Scholarships Chair melody.klein@abtexasna.com Deb Ramsey, East Texas Group President dramsey@morriscountybank.com Eileen Meyer, Hill Country Group President eileenm@abtexasna.com Anita Werner, Paso Del Norte Group President awerner@botw-ep.com Lynda Huffaker, Vice President lhuffaker@citybanktexas.com Brenda Beaty, Treasurer brendab@ptcocpa.com Tammy Gibbons, Conference Chair tgibbons@springhillbank.com Anna Beth Denny, Bylaws Chair abdenny@verizon.net Teresa Coleman, Education & Training Chair teresa.coleman@wellsfargo.com Laura Rodgers, Communications Chair lrodgers@springhillbank.com Bonnie Orsak, Gulf Coast President bonnie@wallisbank.com Lynda Huffaker, Llano Estacado Group President lhuffaker@citybanktexas.com Anna Beth Denny, Virtual Members Representative abdenny@verizon.net FWIT LOGO CONTEST The Deadline Has Come and Gone! I hope all of you that wanted to submit a logo entry, got it in! The ballots have been emailed to members - deadline for your vote is February 15 th. So get your votes in! We are all excited about the official unveiling of the winning logo at our Annual Conference being held in Austin, April 16-18 th. Good luck to all the entrants!
FWIT ANNUAL CONFERENCE Can you believe it is only 71 days until the Financial Women in Texas Annual Conference in Austin is here! The Conference Committee has been working very hard since September planning this conference. Conference dates are April 15-18 th 2010. You should have all received the Save the Date email and hopefully have marked your calendars to join us for this exciting time in the life of FWIT. As your conference chair I would like to thank my two co-chairs, Cheryl Linder and Deborah Parrish, and the rest of the committee for helping us plan this conference. We have contracted with the Marriott Austin South as the venue for our conference and have arranged to have many great speakers with very timely topics. Some of the speakers are John Grubbs, GCI Training; Mary Lange, IBAT; Karen Neeley, CoxSmith; Kristine Arlitt, Attorney at Law; and Cindy Harper with the Hill Country Group. There are opportunities to apply for scholarships to help with your registration for conference and we have great deals on the room prices at $104 to help keep the costs of conference down. We hope to have many members attend as we come together for the Annual FWIT Conference! I hope to see you in Austin and maybe I ll see you somewhere on 6 th Street as we celebrate FWIT, meet up with old friends and make new friends, and begin the challenge of Building the Pathway to a Brighter Tomorrow. Watch for your registration materials to arrive in your email box very soon! Tammy Gibbons Conference Chair FWIT CONFERENCE SCHOLARSHIPS The FWIT Association will be awarding four (4) scholarships to cover the cost of conference registration for the 2010 Association Conference to be held in Austin from April 16 18, 2010. All FWIT members in good standing are eligible to apply. If you received this e-mail and are not currently a member, you can sign up to be a member today! The 2010 Scholarship Application was originally sent by e-mail on January 6, 2010. If you did not receive the scholarship application and would like a copy, please send an e-mail to melody.klein@abtexasna.com and one will be forwarded to you immediately. Complete your application and return it by e-mail or US mail as indicated on the instructions attached to the application form. The deadline for receipt of your scholarship application is February 28, 2010. An outside committee will judge applications received by the deadline and notification will be sent by e-mail by March 8, 2010. Only three completed applications have been received to date so your odds are very good! Why wait? Complete your scholarship application today!
GROUP NEWS AND CALENDARS East Texas Group Proposed Calendar Longview, Mt. Pleasant and surrounding area All meetings are held at 6:00 p.m. on the 2 nd Thursday, every other month, unless otherwise indicated. Date Location Program 3-11-10 TBA Area Meet & Greet 4-16 thru 18 Austin Texas Annual Conference 5-13-10 Longview /Mt. Pleasant Identity Theft 7-8-10 Longview Installation of new officers Security/Personal and Bank Security Hill Country Proposed Calendar Fredericksburg, Kerrville and surrounding area Date Location Program 2-25-10 Kerrville Julie Bedson, FWIT Texas President Topics related to FWIT 3-25-10 Fredericksburg Sheila Sattler 4-22-10 Fredericksburg Cindy Harper 4-24-10 Fredericksburg Annual Golf Tournament Llano Estacado Proposed Calendar Lubbock and surrounding area All meetings are held at 6 p.m.at the Hillcrest Country Club in Lubbock on the 2 nd Tuesday of every month. Date Location Program 2-09-10 see time and place above Julie Bedson, FWIT Texas President Topics related to FWIT 3-09-10 see time and place above Beth Pratt, past editor of Lubbock Avalanche Journal Changing Your World 4-16 thru 18 Austin, TX Annual Conference
Paso Del Norte Proposed Calendar (all lunch meetings except May 13, 2010) El Paso and surrounding area Date Location Program 3-11-10 Jaxon s on Airway Law Enforcement Update on Fraud & Scams Lunch meeting 11:30 a.m. 1 p.m. 4-16 thru 18 Austin Location TBA FWIT Annual Conference 5-13-10 Federal Reserve Bank-Downtown Executive Night Installation of Officers and Dinner meeting 6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Inspirational Speaker TBA Gulf Coast Group Proposed Calendar Austin, Fort Bend, Harris, & Wharton Counties or the communities west/southwest of Houston Date Location Program 1-20-10 Richmond, Texas Charles Cooper, Commissioner Dept. of Banking Pecan Grove Plantation The Importance of Women in Banking Country Club Social 5:30p.m., Dinner 6:00 p.m. This is their Round-up and Membership Drive ASSOCIATION LIBRARY FWIT has a library consisting of a variety of cassettes, books, group programs, workbooks to teach from and some books from the Crisp Fifty- Minutes series. These items are for our member s use free of charge. The only fee incurred is the return postage. They are excellent tools to use in your group meetings or for personal growth. For a full library listing or to request an item, please contact Teresa Coleman at teresa.coleman@wellsfargo.net or 210-856-5179. WHERE YOU CAN FIND FWIT Check is out at www.fwitexas.org. There are still some additions to make but we are out there for people to see. Also, you can find us on the IBAT website at www.ibat.org. Go to the Membership tab and click on Texas Regional Groups. Scroll down to Financial Women in Texas, Inc. This is just one of the ways IBAT has shown their ongoing support of our new endeavor. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION This newsletter was sent to you in order to provide you with the latest information on FWIT from around the state. If you have information to contribute, please send it via email to Laura Rodgers at lrodgers@springhillbank.com.