Dear Friends, Colleagues, Members:

We would like to welcome you all back as WICT members and share with you some exciting new initiatives planned for 2010. All of our events this year follow our 2010 theme of “Empower Yourself, Inspire Others.”

We kicked off our 2010 season, with a Meet and Connect/Speed Networking Event on February 8^th, held at DiBruno Brothers. WICT members got to network with ten different senior leaders in different areas of the Cable industry for seven minute intervals.

This year, the Greater Philadelphia chapter is kicking off a Scholarship Program to send awarded recipients to certain WICT national events, free passes to WICT Greater Philadelphia events and the opportunity to participate in one-on-one career coaching sessions.  The Scholarship Fund cannot be made possible without the generous support of our Sponsors.  Additional information about the Scholarship Program will be made available at www.wictphiladelphia.org or you may contact Carol Ann Sweeney (CarolAnn_Sweeney@cable.comcast.com) for more information.  We thank all of our Sponsors for their continued support of WICT Greater Philadelphia and our mission to advance the careers of women in the Cable Telecommunications industry.

The 2010 Mentoring Program will commence in the spring and we strongly encourage more of you to apply for this program as mentors and mentees.  In 2009, the Mentoring Program offered approximately 60 matches between members and mentors, whom are prominent leaders in the industry.  The nine-month program will be managed by Toni Seaberry (Antoinette_Seaberry@comcast.com) this year along with Shannon Cassidy (www.bridgebetween.org) who has been our Mentoring Advisor over the last several years.  The value of this program to both the mentees and mentors is immeasurable and has made tremendous impact to the lives and careers of the participants.

In 2009, the chapter launched Networking On Demand, which paired members on a monthly basis to meet on their own terms for networking purposes.  We will continue this free program to our members and invite more of you to participate in this program (www.wictphiladelphia.org/NetworkingOnDemand).

Our chapter is comprised of approximately 850 members across the Greater Philadelphia region and beyond.  We would love to hear from you on how we can better serve you in 2010.  Thank you to those who attended the Meet and Connect event on February 8^th and hope to see you at the next event. Please check out our website for the most up-to-date event information.

Best regards,

Kristina Chang & Jill Isherwood

Co-Presidents, WICT Greater Philadelphia