2010 Officer Elections & "Work/Life Balance, Fact or Fiction?" Five expert coaches share their perspective

October 21 - 8:30 am - 10:30 pm - 2010 Officer Elections & "Work/Life Balance, Fact or Fiction?" Five expert coaches share their perspective - West Loop's 565 W. Quincy Development - Q Room -The coaching panel will consist of: Bevin Lynch-Bevin Lynch Inc., Megan Walls-Conscious Connection, Pamela Duffy-New Lens On Life, Barb Heenan-Fresh Company Coaching and Consulting, Deborah Sakelaris-Rodas Coaching.

BONUS: Coaches are all offering one free coaching session to all meeting attendees!!! Don't miss this phenomenal event! Continental Breakfast will be served.

Members attendance at this election meeting is crucial so that we have required Quorum for voting.

Push Yourself to Accomplish!

Here is a great video that I want to share with all of you. It is worth the 6 minutes to watch it (I promise, watch all 6 minutes of it!). It is all about pushing yourself to accomplish what you never thought was possible. I believe we can do this with our chapter, and it starts with great people like you. Looking forward to getting to the end zone (have to watch the video to understand) with all of you in 2010 and beyond! A special thank you again to Matt Dollinger and Kit Mueller for facilitating today's 2010 Strategic Business Planning.

Lauren Mitrick, 2009 Chicago WCR President

Nov 18 Come out for wine tasting and holiday client gift ideas!

November 18 | 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm - Wine Tasting and Gift Ideas - Union Row | 600 W. 16th Street Chicago, IL 60616 | Give and You Shall Receive, Wine Tasting and Client Gift Ideas!

Register for this event and receive a discount!

Vendors Wanted! Become a sponsor for this holiday gift giving event and display your client gift ideas for purchase. Sponsorship/vendor table now only $99! For Vendor Sponsorship application, please click here.

Chicago WCR 2010 Strategic Business Planning Meeting

Today's Chicago WCR 2010 Strategic Business Planning Meeting was inspiring and motivating. Led by Matt Dollinger, performance coach from @Properties, and Kit Mueller, founder of Sparkt(http://sparkt.org/)and Chicago Reverb (http://chicagoreconnect.ning.com/, increasing membership growth and maintaining membership of the Chicago WCR Chapter long-term was discussed with an exciting sharing of ideas.

Matt Dollinger polled other local WCR chapters across the nation through Survey Monkey and shared his results.

What is WCR and what is its value was discussed. The top responses were:
-Networking & Support
-Resource
-Education
-Fun
-Recruitment Opportunity
-NATIONWIDE REFERRALS!
-$41,000/year on average MORE INCOME THAN NON-WCR MEMBERS!!!

Strategies discussed were stressing these features of Chicago WCR:
- WCR's Innovation
- WCR's Community
- WCR's Take Aways

Also discussed was meeting the business plan's objective for meetings by having the topics cover one of the 5 following performance management areas:

1) Negotiation & Strategies
2) Business Planning & Systems
3) Networking/Professional Creibility/Business Builder
4) Personal Performance Management
5) Cultural Awareness

Some specific goals created were to:

- Set a marketing schedule for events and stick to it

- Increase social responsibility beyond the current monthly donations to charity of partial event attendance fees

- Improve our web presence with innovation and relevance

- Improve our wow factor; develop raving fans (Michelle Bobart, Guaranteed Rate WCR volunteered for this piece)

- Market our Facebook, Twitter and Linked In pages, as well as our blog

- Improve name recognition

- Help male Realtors to know that men are welcome in organization

- Encourage cross-pollination of member career fields to improve networking and value

- Improve member welcome/orientation proceedures

- Poll membership and prospective membership by use of Survey Monkey re: relevant programs and value they wish to receive

- Get our event programming for first 6 months of 2010 out to membership and prospective membership NOW!

- Offer discounts as part of membership package

- Improve communication and demonstrate value of membership in Chicago WCR

- Network with other local WCR chapters nationwide (particularly the stronger chapters such as Tucson and San Antonio) for help, ideas and support

Design and Staging as Your Secret Weapon

September 16 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm - What the designers already know and haven’t told you; creative and practical expertise you need to know to stand out from the competition. This event will feature some of Chicago’s best, including Colette Rodon Hornof and Kelly Brown from Vesta, Zora Spahiya from Studio Stone Design, and Lisa Ewing from Ewing Design Group. Cocktails and hoers d’ovores will be served. Space is limited, act now and pre-register for a discount.

Follow the Money

July 15th - 8:30 am - 10:30 am - "Follow the Money - The Diversity of Tomorrow's Marketplace" featuring some of Chicago's top creative minds from numerous local Real Estate boards including: Nancy Suvarnamani from AREAA (Asian Real Estate Association of America), Joe Nery from NAHREP (National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals), Marki Lemons from DREB (Dearborn Real Estate Board), and Brain Bernardoni from CAR (Chicago Assocation of Realtors).

The Closet Cleanout

June 17th - 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm - The Closet Cleanout - Create a Collection in Your Closet with Julie Watson at p45 Boutique in Bucktown - Julie Watson is back by popular demand, but with a fresh new twist to help you "dress on a dime".