History / Mission Statement

So How Did the Idea get off the Ground?

It was born on the 6:17 A.M. train to Manhattan.  Four working women on
the commute decided to share a cab ride to the Wall Street area.  While
in the cab, we discussed the efforts our various firms have undertaken to
provide a platform for the advancement of women and how they have
worked.  Woven into the discussion was the balancing act required to
juggle a fast-paced career and the many other aspects of our lives:
children, multiple schedules and other responsibilities.  

We wondered aloud how many other women in our local community are
facing the similar challenges?  Wouldn't it be nice to have a forum to
meet, connect and network with each other?

From there, we started sending e-mails to the women we thought might
be interested and asked that they forward the e-mail to others they
thought would want to participate. We guessed that maybe there would be
about 20 women interested in participating.  Boy, did we underestimate!  
In just a little over one month, the list grew to over 130 interesting and
dynamic women, with 63 attending our first event on Oct 21st, 2003.  As
of March 2005, over 400 women have requested to be included on the
WWB's mailing list.

So What Is the Purpose of the Group?

The idea behind the Working Women of Bronxville Network is to create a
forum for working women and women seeking to re-enter or keep contact
with the workforce to connect and network about work, life in our local
community, and topics of mutual interest.

The philosophy of the “WWB” is captured in the following concepts:
Inclusion, Connection and Promotion.

Inclusion

The network is intended to include all working women and women who
are seeking to re-enter / re-connect to the workforce in our area.  It’s
meant to span the spectrum of age groups and women with and without
children.  Similarly, use of word “Bronxville” is intended in the widest
sense and meant to encompass neighboring towns and women who have
a connection to Bronxville either by living here, living near here, working
here, having friends here, having formerly lived here, having children with
friends here, etc.

Connection  

The idea behind this forum is to create a platform for women from our
local area to connect with another.  It’s true of many of us - - we've seen
each other on the train and in passing around town but haven’t had an
opportunity to meet and get to know each other.  Sometimes too, there’s
that awkwardness in recognizing someone but not quite having the right
entree to say hello and introduce oneself.      

Promotion

The idea of the Network is to provide a forum to promote the exchange
of ideas, insight into resources in our community, the exploration of topics
of mutual interest, the formation of support networks around specific
topics, and the creation of opportunities that come about through informal
channels - - i.e., networking.

So What’s the Format for Accomplishing This?  

General events on roughly a quarterly basis – typically for cocktails and
hors d’oeuvres, a 10 - 20 minute interactive speech or presentation on a
topic of mutual interest, and lots of time for mingling.  We aim to have
main events in a convenient location in Bronxville near the train station, so
it’s easy to get to and home from.  Given our busy lives, convenience is
key!

We plan to leverage the enormous talent base that we have and draw our
speaker / panel of speakers from within the group and, depending on the
topic, from outside as well.  Some of the categories that women have
expressed an interest in hearing about are: Business; Work-Life Balance;
Re-entering the Work Force & Changing Careers; Personal Financial
Management; Women’s Health; Child Rearing & Education, etc.

The participants list can be sorted in many ways - - for example by areas
of interest / profession - - allowing individuals to connect and meet with
others on specific topics of interest and organize smaller groups, such as
a play dates for children under 4, a focus group on starting your own
business, etc.   Over time, we hope to create a directory, which includes a
self-written bio on each person that can further facilitate folks contacting
and networking with one another.  

We are continuously updating and expanding this website (www.
wwbnetwork.com) and are hoping to be able to harness technology to
allow us to set up topic areas so folks can easily connect with one another
and create networks around topics of interest that are inclusive.

There are so many possibilities.  As the forum grows and evolves, our
intent is to develop an infrastructure that is agile and resourceful and can
add value in many different ways.  All ideas and thoughts on how we can
do this are welcome.  Obviously, our reach into the community will be
widened through assistance from those interested in volunteering to help
out on projects - - event coordination; data base management; web-site
enhancement; posting updates to the website; speaking at an event;
helping at an event; serving as a topic leader; etc.  Many of these involve
a very small or an one-off time commitment and will enable our platform to
keep women connected in an efficient manner.  So please, send in your
ideas and keep your eyes open for requests for help.
Working Women of Bronxville -- The WWB Network