WPN Policies

2009 Featured Member Policy

This year WPN will be instating a new Featured Member Policy. There will be a Featured Member bucket at the name tag table at each breakfast meeting. If you are a WPN member in good standing and want to be a Featured Member, please drop your card in the bucket. Every month four names will be randomly drawn to be Featured Members the following month. Three additional names will also be randomly pulled to have just a marketing table at the back wall at the next  breakfast meeting. Your name will stay in the bucket for the opportunity to be chosen for a Featured Member spot until it is chosen.

Featured Members obligations:

• Provide a hi-resolution photo and bio for the newsletter (150 words or less)
• Provide a door prize for the breakfast meeting
• Put together and oversee a marketing table at the back wall for the breakfast meeting
• Sit at the President/Speaker table at the breakfast meeting
• Be ready to give a 60 second elevator speech on stage for the breakfast meeting
• Don’t forget to RVSP for the breakfast!

Marketing table obligations:

• Put together and oversee a marketing table at the back wall for the breakfast meeting

* Please make sure you can meet all the obligations before putting your card in the drawing
* It is only necessary to put your card in once, as you can only be a featured member one time in 2009

Who May Attend a WPN Meeting?

WPN meetings are open to women from age sixteen to one hundred sixteen!

Cell Phone/Pager Policy

We ask you to silence your cell phones and turn off pagers during our meetings. If yours rings, we reserve the right to collect a $5 fine, which will be donated to charity.

Table Networking

Table Networking is fun and easy. After breakfast, your Table Leader table will get things started, and then we go around the table. Each member and guest will have 1.5 minutes (90 seconds) to pass business cards or brochures, and to tell tablemates about their business. It’s a great place to practice your “elevator speech!” The bell will indicate the time for the next guest to begin. Please respect everyone’s time by ending your presentation when the bell rings. Following table networking is a five-minute follow-up period, when members and guests can obtain additional information, answer questions, or make plans to continue conversations after the meeting.

Member Announcements

WPN Members may make announcements at each meeting during table networking, or to the entire group which relate to their own businesses or non profit organizations they support. However, because of our limited time, we draw for 5 members to make announcements to the entire group. How do we define an announcement?

An announcement is:

• An event you are promoting
• A class or seminar you are offering
• A business open house or celebration you are having
• A limited-time special your business is offering
• Special recognition you or another member have received

An announcement is not:

• A general business promotion
• A general introduction of yourself or your business
• A personal announcement (but please submit these for website and newsletter publication!)

Handouts

We ask that you refrain from handing out business materials except during table networking. Members are welcome to leave brochures or fliers on the WPN Member Information Table. Please take any remaining materials with you when you leave.

Member Dues

WPN membership dues are only $55 for the first year, and $50 to renew. Your annual membership begins the first of the month after dues are paid. We’ll remind you a month before it’s time to renew. Renewals - One of the features of the WPN website is the ability to renew your membership online. One month before your membership expires, you will receive an e-mail from WPN reminding you to renew. As a courtesy, we will send you monthly reminders  or 3 months and allow you to renew at the current member price of $50. After this 3 month grace period, the cost to reactivate your membership will be $55, the new member fee.

Individual Memberships - With each new member entering into a yearly agreement with the Women’s Professional Network, the agreement states that each membership is an individual membership, not specific or tied into any corporation. Should the member change careers or affiliations within the duration of their annual membership, the membership will stay with the individual not with the member’s previous position or affiliation.

Guest Policy

We invite you to attend your first breakfast meeting at a reduced fee of $15. Your second breakfast as a guest is $18. After attending two meetings as a guest, we ask that you join in order to continue attending. Past members may attend once as a guest.

No Show/RSVP Policy

Because we must pay for every reservation, we ask you to cover your breakfast fee if you cannot attend after reserving for a meeting. Members and guests who cancel before the RSVP deadline (5 p.m. Friday before the meeting) will not be charged.

RSVP Online! - Sending in your RSVP via the WPN website is the quickest and easiest way to RSVP to upcoming meetings. Each month you receive an RSVP reminder e-mail, simply click on the “RSVP Online” link, enter your  information in the provided fields and you’re done! Please don’t “reply” to the RSVP e-mail, you won’t be entered into the electronic RSVP database and we may not have you on the check in list when you arrive to the meeting. Maintaining this accuracy insures our ability to accommodate everyone attending our morning breakfasts. We appreciate your help with this!

Spam/Mass e-mail and Telephone Solicitation Policy

The WPN Member Directory is provided to encourage networking and facilitate business transactions between members. It is not intended to provide emails and phone numbers for solicitation. WPN does not allow members or guests to send mass emails or to solicit members by telephone. Please respect this policy, and our members’ busy lives.

If you’d like to reach all of the membership, we encourage members to reserve a display table in the WPN Business Center, submit an announcement for the newsletter or website, or enter the Member Announcement drawing at the breakfast meeting

Featured Speaker Policy

WPN chooses its professional speakers from outside the WPN membership for two reasons: To bring fresh ideas and innovative topics from outside our membership for all to enjoy, and to not cause a conflict of interest between the members that wish to speak that may be in the same field as one another.