Breaking Even

The California Women's Conference: It's On Video

Welcome to my week-long women's series. It's no secret that one issue that I'm passionate about is female empowerment. I used to answer a domestic violence hotline, coach cheerleading, lead a girls technology club in my local middle school, and met with a monthly girls book club. I'm currently on the board of our county's domestic violence program and doing some writing for the Maine Women's Fund. My point is it's certainly been a common thread in my life no matter where I am or what I'm doing.

So this week, it's about the ladies, and of course money (as usual). Enjoy!

Last week, 14,000 women gathered for California's Women's Conference which was organized by Maria Shriver, first woman of California.

There were some great speakers on hand discussing their views on women's issues (which are really everyone issues but you understand what I'm saying) as well as the role of women in the future of America and the world. It was a pretty inspiring lineup which included Bono (keynote), Warrent Buffet (talking the economy as well as putting a sexistly pandering Chris Matthews politely in his place), Jennifer Lopez (talking with young girls about body image), Oprah (duh) and lots of other gifted speakers and accomplished women.

While it certainly would have been cool to be there, the great news is they have a great online presence.

Click here to get streaming video of the different speaker sessions (and not just two minute clips from Youtube here, actual hours of video).

You can also get more involved by keeping up with their blog and discussion board at the California Women's Conference's official website.

I'm thinking of this time listening as a combination motivational pep talk and professional development session. Hope you do too!

Making The Most Of My Vacation...With Job Interviews

I decided to take the evening to research my upcoming vacation, but not for the reasons you might think.

I'm attempting to schedule a few informational interviews with communications and public relations companies in the Las Vegas area. Why crowd my vacation with business?

1) The more companies I meet and learn about, the easier it will be to know the kind of companies I want to work for. Everything from work environment to corporate values I can learn about by experiencing a diverse group of businesses.

2) I can exchange ideas with the people I meet with, possibily improving both of our businesses. A meeting may result in a contact or a collaboration or even just some great conversation.

3) It's something productive to do during the days I would otherwise be spending sitting at a pool. (I like to relax, don't get me wrong, but after a few days I'm kind of done with the whole doing nothing thing.)

4) It's always good to have a chance to practice job interview skills: asking thoughtful questions, listening effectively, presenting yourself professionally. An informational interview means nothing to lose and lots to learn.

5) Depending on how my scheduling goes, an interview could make my whole trip to Vegas a tax writeoff.

So I've sent a few emails tonight and will send a few more tomorrow. I also thought it would be fun to interview some Las Vegas based bloggers so if you know any (or are a Vegas blogger yourself), let me know. In true Breaking Even style this is going to be a fun vacation to be tourist-y and learn something.

At School Savings Accounts and Tin Lunchboxes: Relics of The 1980s

Sean and I spent a lot of hours in a car together this weekend which got us to talking. He mentioned something I had never heard of before, what his school called a Passkey account.

This is how it worked paraphrasing Sean. Each kid had a Passkey account, a savings account at school, which was for their college education. Once a week, they had to bring in some money from their parents to deposit into the account. The rich kids brough $5 or $10. Most kids brought $2 or $3. A few kids couldn't afford to bring any money in. "You didn't want to be the poor kid. Ever." The teacher recorded the amounts and deposited the money for the kids. Ideally at the end of their schooling, the kids would have some money (maybe a couple thousand) to at least start college with. The program died after a couple years.

I found this story fascinating. As someone who's worked in schools, I marveled at the amount of control teachers were given in that situation. (You can't even give some kids a B now without their parent(s) jumping down your throat.) Also the idea of saving money being part of pop culture I find so interesting.

A Google search on Passkey accounts came up with all kinds of irrelavent results online. A search for school savings accounts came up with a question at Wikianswers from someone wanting to know about a savings account at a grammar school in the 1930s. Had this been going on longer then the 1980s? Otherwise I've got nothing but a story from Sean and agreement from his brother.

The pros of the at school savings account are clear. Building a culture of saving for one. Sean said you had to bring some money in to look cool, though he did know some kids who would get $3 from their parents and deposit $2. And I'm all about reinforcing the idea of college at a young age.

But the big con far outweighs the pros. The poor kids got to be reminded every week that they were poor. Like Sean said, "They all knew they weren't going to college."

So how to build a culture of savings in schools? It's not clear to me, but maybe it is to you. Also, have you ever had one of these kind of accounts at your school? I'd love some more first hand info on this one.

Getting Up In My Business

SMBIZ4ME Governor's Regional Business Conference Was Interesting, Worth A Day Off

I took the day off work Wednesday to attend the SMBIZ4ME Conference for a few reasons: 1) It was only a half hour's drive away. 2) I heard it was going to be good from a few people. and 3) It only cost $25 and one day off to attend. As someone who has already heavily invested in my brain but knows little about business, I figured the price and the opportunity to network with people in the area would be invaluable. It was.

The vendors set up over breakfast and gave me something to do when I first walked in and was getting my bearings. (I can be social; I just sometimes need to ease into it). I made a few good connections with some Maine publications that were at least theoretically interested in my writing as well as met the guy behind Mainecreates.com. Mainecreates is a social networking site for Mainers involved in the creative economy. (I got on the site to set up a profile when I got home but I see I will be charged for it after a year, which I'm not really down with. But it is a good idea so I set up my own account there.)

In my first seminar, I met Melanie Brooks, who just got hired at MaineBusiness.com. It's a division of MaineToday (another newspaper) but it's focused on business content. She's a blogger, I'm a blogger. She suggested I crosspost on their site. So I'm trying that out to see if that'll be a good use of energy. (Really I want to end up as one of their featured bloggers, I'm competitive like that.) Melanie was fun, energetic, and into blogging; she seems like the kind of person I'd hang out with if I lived closer to Portland, though though the blogosphere can at least be a virtual friend.

All this happened in the first two hours. Did I mention there was all the free coffee I could drink and croissants I could eat? (Out of restraint, I had one croissant, ladies and gentlemen, with an apple chaser).

Meeting a lot of people who are all either thinking about or running their own businesses and having to give my "elevator speech" about my blogging consulting/web content creation business allowed me to not only realize that I actually did have a good, original idea but that I do really believe that I can do it.

As with any event of this nature, there is some golf clapping, boring speech listening, corporate sponsors to thank profusely, and a couple snotty people but that was all minor. (One PR woman in my last seminar seemed ridiculously jealous of me and conducted herself in such a way that I wondered, is she actually a PR person?)

Overall though, I met some wonderful people and got some great ideas. I left feeling energized, even though being nice and civil to people you barely know all day can be fairly exhausting.

Have you had a rockin' professional development day recently?