Kara Morgan - Speakers on July 21, 2020

Kara Morgan is the CEO of Venice MainStreet. She uses dynamic community connections and high-level strategic oversight, plus over 15 years of experience in nonprofit management and development to tackled large projects, such as capital growth campaigns and federal grants to navigating everyday challenges, like building awareness and visitor engagement.

Kara is originally from Wisconsin. She became a Venice resident in 2015 and has lived in Sarasota County since 2007. She holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Education and Youth Studies, and Art History, from Beloit College and a Master of Arts degree from John Hopkins University. Locally, she most recently served as Director of Development of Art Center Sarasota and previously Deputy Director of Historic Spanish Point for seven years.

In her role for Venice Kara finds, “MainStreet is an asset to residents and visitors of historic downtown Venice. It offers collaborations and connections for business, cultural organizations, local government, and individuals.”

Morgan resides in Venice with her husband and son. She enjoys cooking for family and friends utilizing ingredients from the local farmers market, visiting museums as an avid history lover, and spending time outdoors at the beach or in the beautiful parks.

BPWEV meets every third Tuesday of each month at the Plantation Golf and Country Club. The public is invited to all meetings. Dinner is $23.00 and reservations are necessary. For more information go to: www.bpwev.org

The mission of BPWEV is: To achieve equity for all women through Advocacy, Education and Information. BPW celebrated its 100th birthday in 2019. The organization strongly believes in "Women Helping Women".

CANCELLED: BPWEV Golf Tournament - Saturday, April 25, 2020

Due to COVID-19 we have decided to cancel the BPW Golf Tournament. We hope to reschedule it for a future date soon.

Course: Plantation Golf & Country Club - Bobcat Course
4 Player Scramble with a Shotgun Start

Cost:
$115 Single Player Sign Up (includes all fees & buffet lunch)
$400 When Signing Up As A Foursome (includes all fees & buffet lunch)
$30 Non Golfers (lunch only)

Time:
Registration 7:15AM - Plays start at 8:30AM

Prizes:
Hole 3 - Closest to the Pin (Men and Women)
Hole 15 - Closest to the Pin (Men and Women)

Sponsorship Opportunities:
Have your business name listed and displayed on signs at tee or greens.
Green Sponsors $100
Tee Sponsors $75
Business In-Kind Sponsors (Any Amount or Goods Provided)

The Business and Professional Women of Englewood and Venice is a local 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to help empower women and the people they care about through education and advocacy.

Every year, the members of BPW/EV provide scholarships to deserving adult women wishing to return to school. Our members are committed to enriching the lives of local women by providing a financial opportunity to advance their employment opportunities for individual development and growth.

BPWEV will be holding a golf tournament fundraising event on Saturday, April 25, 2020 beginning at 8:30am at Plantation Golf & Country Club, 500 Rockley Blvd., Venice, FL. This is the perfect opportunity for your business/organization to show your commitment to the professional development of women at large by becoming involved as a sponsor of this event. There are opportunities described on the attached flier. Your sponsorship will bring visibility to your business/organization as you will be recognized throughout the event.

We hope you will support our efforts by sponsoring this event. Checks should be made payable to BPWEV and mailed to Morina Chmielak, 4382 Via Del Villetti Dr. Venice, FL 34293 and must be received no later than April 4, 2020. For more information and question, you may call Morina at (941) 497-1133.

Golf Tournament Committee

Morina Chmielak, Irene Slattery and Esther Bird

The Business and Professional Women of Englewood and Venice (BPWEV) is a local non-profit organiznation whose mission is to help empower women through education, information and advocacy.

Every year, the members of BPWEV provide scholarships to deserving adult women living in either Sarasota or Charlotte County. Our members are committed to enriching the lives of local women by providing a financial opportunity to advance their education for better employment opportunities and individual development and growth.

BPWEV will be holding a golf tournament fundraising event on Saturday, April 25, 2020 at 8:30 a.m. at Plantation Golf and Country Club, 500 Rockley Blvd., Venice, FL.

This is a perfect opportunity for your business/organization to show your commitment to the professional development of women in our community by becoming involved as a sponsor of this event. Your sponsorship will bring visibility to your business/organization as you will be recognized throughout the event.

For all information to become a sponsor please go to BPWEV Golf Tournament page.

2020 BPW Adult Learner Scholarships

Adult Learner Scholarship Available for Women Residing in Sarasota or Charlotte County

The Business and Professional Women of Englewood and Venice (BPWEV) are offering Adult Learner Scholarships in the amount of $1,000.00 each! Female applicants should be from the Englewood/Venice area, residing either in Sarasota or Charlotte County. Adult Lerners are those women pursuing advanced education or retraining in college or vocational schools. BPWEV scholarship applications and instructions and contact information are accessible online at www.bpwev.org.

BPWEV also is engaged in the national program “Joining Forces with Women Veterans and Military Spouses”. The program provides resources and online connections to the veterans and military wives to assist in their successfully obtaining meaningful employment and a career of their interest. BPWEV encourages Women Veterans and Military Spouses to apply.

The deadline for mailing applications is June 30, 2020.

March is Women's History Month

Syd Gibson, President

The celebratory month had its beginnings on February 28, 1909 as a socialist and labor movement in New York City. It honored the one year anniversary of the garment worker's strikes in New York that took place when thousands of women marched for economic rights through lower Manhattan to Union Square. Women's Day grew into an international observance spreading through Europe on the heels of socialism.

Women set about revising the school curriculum in Sonoma County, California to maintain balance on the contributions of women in America in the 1970's. A Women's History Week was created in 1978 around International Women's Day on March 8, 1975 marked by the United Nations.

Gerda Lerner chaired the Institute at the time of the conference at Sarah Lawrence College in 1979. Organizers lobbied Congress and President Jimmy Carter proclaimed the first national Women's History Week for March 2-8, 1980.

In 1987, congress passed a proclamation establishing Women's History Month. Now, Presidents pass annual proclamations announcing Women's History Month with a different theme each year.

For 2020, the theme is Valiant Women of the Vote. Let us all celebrate women who have fought for our right to vote.

ERA Talking Points

Cynthia Fredricks, Public Policy Chair

The Winter 2019 edition of The Florida Business Woman Public Policy Committee report included ERA Talking Points. The article talked about why we need the ERA. Listed below are just some of the points covered.

Without the ERA, the U.S. Constitution does not explicitly guarantee that the rights it protects are held equally by all citizens without regard to sex.

The ERA would provide a clearer judicial standard for deciding cases of sex discrimination. Not every state in the U.S. has ratified the ERA and therefore, federal and state courts are inconsistent in their rulings regarding claims of sexual discrimination.

The ERA would provide a strong legal defense against a rollback of the significant advances in women's rights that have been achieved since the mid-20th century.

The ERA would improve the United States standing in the world community with respect to human rights. The governing documents of many other countries affirm legal gender equality, however imperfect the global implementation of that ideal may be.

For more information, visit the Alice Paul Institute at www.equalrightsamendement.org.

Jewels of Business Women's Workshop

Esther Bird

We have started our planning for an all day workshop called "Jewels of Business". Members who have agreed to serve on this committee are: Morina Chmielak, Sue Hogrefe, Karen Helmick, Cyndi Fredricks, and our newest member, Jennifer Mechling. I will be the committee chair. If any other members would like to help, call me (315-440-6814) and we will certainly welcome your assistance.

We are currently collecting opinions via a survey of potential topics for the event. Via email we have asked all members to complete the survey and to either email the response to me (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or bring it to the March 17 dinner meeting.

Once we determine the most popular topics, we will begin searching for speakers. Whenever possible, we will use our members to do the presentations. The event will run from 8:30 am with registration and breakfast served, followed in the morning with three presentations, lunch will be served and the afternoon will also be filled with three interesting presentations.

Once the location and date are determined we will be informing members and asking that each member plan to attend, consider sponsoring the event, donate items for raffle held during the event, and invite other women to attend.

In December of 2018 we did a similar workshop called "Hats Off to Women". We profited approximately $1600 from that event. This allowed us to provide one additional scholarship in 2019 for a total of four. We are hoping to exceed that amount and possibly increase the number of scholarship recipients to five. All proceeds will go into our scholarship fund.