Instead, the group of 20 poised and pretty graduates of the John Robert Powers modeling school, in Denver, were goodwill ambassadors for the “Rush to the Rockies” celebration.

“It was so much fun,” says Kate Crowder, of Boulder. “We were busy two or three times a week, all summer long.”

Crowder joined the posse out of high school after taking some classes at the modeling school. The women sang and danced and did what she calls “corny routines” at rodeos. She also posed with actor Clint Walker and other celebrities and acted as one of the official greeters for incoming convention groups at the Union Pacific railroad station in Denver.

The posse members’ glamorous costumes included two or three variations, but Crowder’s outfit was a white Western-style blouse with pink sequins on the yoke, a short-fringed-pink-leather skirt, white cowboy boots, and a white cowboy hat. Accessories included the gun and holster, a star-shaped badge, and a pink neck scarf with black and white poodles.

In addition, each of the women was required to bring her own pink-tinted poodle on a sequined leash.
“I didn’t have a dog, so I borrowed a miniature poodle from a neighbor,” says Crowder. “I dyed him with food coloring in the bathtub, then washed it out later.”

No one seems to remember why the posse featured pink poodles, except that they were a fad of the 1950s. Poodle designs were appliquéd on skirts, and red-headed actress Lucille Ball was known for her “poodle” haircut. According to an advertisement in a New York newspaper, pink poodles even were rented to women “who only have a short time but want to make a lasting impression.”

Looking back at clippings and photos of the Pink Poodle Posse brings back good memories for Crowder.
“Just think,” she adds, “we even put Vaseline on our legs to make them shiny.”

— By Silvia Pettem
pettem@earthlink.net

What a year it’s been here at Women’s Magazine. Just keeping up with (more accurately: trying to) Boulder County’s women would keep even Boulder runner Ana Weir (last December’s cover gal) on her toes.
This year we’ve walked with you through spring cleaning your life — and your home. Learning to let go. Crazy women thrill-seekers. We explored — and stretched — the concepts of independence and the importance of slowing down. We hoped to remind you to be thankful for the little things. And now we’re here: another year, rocked.

Here are some of our favorite quotes from 2009:

January
“The trick to growth is not stepping out on a limb, but trusting the branch will materialize under your feet as you step into thin air.”
— Sylvia Pelcz-Larsen, Close Up

“Change your beliefs and you’ll change your thoughts. Change your thoughts and you’ll change your habits. Change your habits and your life opens to unlimited possibility.”
— Gail Lynne Goodwin, “Change: It’s an Inside Job”

February
“Start smiling at yourself inside. The way you’ve always dreamed a lover would smile at you. An inner smile that will make you feel like you felt with your first crush, or in those more ecstatic moments with art or nature or children or a husband.”
— Francine Juhasz, “Make Yourself Your Valentine”

“The difference between an average artist and a great one is being able to tell the difference between an accident and an answer.”
— Grant McMartin, “Make Your Own Luck”

“Serendipity happens to us all every day. The key to the frequency and importance is simple: Pay attention.”
— Gail Lynne Goodwin, “Be Inspired”

“Seek the balance between acknowledging moments of chance and moments of chance-to-do-something-more.”
— Kimberly Jonas, “Coincidences and Control”

March
“You cannot move forward until you release the anchors of your past. And in that, release is a great gift. It’s the first ingredient to evolution — as a woman and as a society.”
— Aimee Heckel, letter from the editor

“When you remember that you are the creator of your whole life and that nothing is ever wrong, you have an amazing advantage when it comes to creating the life of your dreams. Your life is your most magnificent work of art.”
— Sandi Zamurut, “Let Go and Love You”

“Moving forward in life is like bungee jumping — the first step is the only one that matters. We don’t have to know how to make a dream happen.”
— Gail Lynne Goodwin, “Letting Go of the ‘How’”

April
“Choose hope over fear. And if fear shows up, choose hope over fear, again.”
— Jodi Feinhor-Dennis, letter to the editor

“Boxing is a very existential sport. Just like life, it requires training. It requires discipline. It requires hard work. It requires courage. It can end at any moment.”
— Dave Gaudette, Men We Love

“Adversity can be turned to opportunity simply by adjusting our perception and attitude.”
— Gail Lynne Goodwin, “Deep Spring Cleaning”

May
“The best way to show you’re a survivor is to move your body.”
— Colleen Cannon, Women Acting Up

June
“We learn so much more from our mistakes than our successes.”
— Carol Frank, Close Up

“I tell you, the worst thing you can do is take someone for granted.”
— Karl Matz, “For the Long Haul”

July
“Defining independence by materialistic means makes you, in turn, dependent on those very means: on money, on your job, on your house — whatever it is that you use as a measuring stick for your independence, and, by extension, identity.”
— Aimee Heckel, letter from the editor

“A true independence woman lives the life of her heartfelt dreams, lives in constant gratitude and is in a constant state of giving and receiving in the beautiful world she has created.”
— Tara Page, Girl Talk

“There exists in every woman a hidden erotic creature, the center of aliveness, self-expression and sensuality.”
— Lisa Fasullo, “Don’t Kill Aphrodite”

August
“I can be connected and independent. I can be self-sufficient and yielding.”
— Dawn Beck, letter to the editor

“We heal when we rest.”
— Liz Canavan, “Simply You”

“How we move internally in how we move through life. If you know where all your bones are in space, you can carry out your intention more clearly in the world.”
— Erin Ferguson, “Don’t be a Martyr”

“You really have to love yourself before you can be in love with someone else or be in love with your career.”  — Heidi Ganahl, Close Up

“Everybody needs to know their bra size and what the federal dollars go to.”
— Joellen Raderstorf, Women Acting Up

September
“When I die, the only thing that will be left of my life is how I have affected the people around me, and thus the world.”
— Hollie Hirst, Girl Talk

“Anything that is true — pure to itself — is beautiful. Everybody finds babies so beautiful. That’s because they haven’t been clouded or made cynical; they are so pure in their joy.”
— Renu Kansal, “More than a Pretty Face”

October
“True freedom is free will. The chance to mess up, or rise up, and make your own crazy, fake-blood-splattered pathway through life.”
— Aimee Heckel, letter from the editor

“That’s the thing about transformation: It asks us to take a leap of faith, with a willingness to suspend the rational mind that thinks it knows the most logical steps to our goal.”
— Kimberly Jonas, “An Invitation to Transformation”

“Believe a man has a certain dignity he must uncover in himself, and help others do the same.”
— Diane Magliolo, “Five Women Who Light the Community”

“Little kids seem to know how to do all kinds of things we grownups forget.”
— Erika Stutzman, “The Learning Curve”

“There is a tender feel to birth and death — both a powerful reminder of the beauty of life and friendship in between.”
— Priscilla Dann-Courtney, “Radiating Friendship”

November
“Over time, as we feed that part of ourselves that is satisfied with what is, we stem the erosion that comes from our co-dependent relationship with the should have’s and must do’s in our lives. Our gratitude becomes the fuel that balances and sustains us, even during the busiest and most pressing of times.”
— Kimberly Jonas, “It All Adds Up”

“It’s a real commitment,” she says. “But you don’t think of it as a commitment. You think of it as great pleasure.”

Obviously, she adds, it must be something incredibly special to keep her interest and dedication for 43 years.
Now imagine something powerful enough to keep an ever-evolving group of women’s interest for 125 years. You would have the Boulder Fortnightly Club.

The Fortnightly Club of Boulder is the oldest women’s literary club in the state, and one of the oldest in the country, founded in 1884 by Mary Rippon, a “founding mother” of the University of Colorado in Boulder. Last month, the club celebrated its 125th anniversary.

“We are such a part of Boulder and have been for so long,” says Archibald, who is the longest active member of the 35-woman group. “We weave a thread through the history of Boulder.”

The city of Boulder itself was only 25 years old when Rippon, CU’s first female professor, began to feel restless and curious. She wanted to try something new.

She and a handful of friends decided to model a group after study clubs in Michigan. The purpose: to promote literary and scientific culture. Group members would research the topic of their choice and present their findings at tea parties every other Thursday, or every “fortnight.” Archibald says the topics can be anything that catches your interest.

Even though the research is purely for entertainment and isn’t published anywhere other than in a file in the local Carnegie library, members take their projects seriously. Papers can span 20-pluspages. Topics have included the history of justice; female pioneers of Colorado and the West; the history of the piano; patterns and shadows in nature; the Louvre museum in France; and female astronauts.

Other than the changing roles of women in society, the long-time members say not much has changed with the Fortnightly Club, says Kathy Raybin, the current president. Raybin joined in 1993.

“That’s the beauty of it. It doesn’t change. It’s always about papers and tea parties,” Raybin says. “If my mother had been in it, it would have been the same: a way for women who are mid-life to continue with their education, whose lives are otherwise focused on the home and the university.”

– By Aimee Heckel

You might have graduated high school with them or welcomed into town as your neighbors. Perhaps one of these women picked tomatoes for you from her garden or collected toys for your Christmas. These women have carpooled your kids, and they have tutored your daughters and sons.

Students, these women have raised money for your school and created fair-housing leases. They care about preparing your little ones for education and about their dance lessons on Tuesday afternoons. Boulder, they’ve preserved your buildings and the giving spirit of your people. These are the stories of women — our women — who have forgotten the word “no” and, consequently, the concept of selfishness in order to light the community of Boulder.

On Sept. 18, the Boulder Chamber presented the Women Who Light the Community awards to Sue Deans, Diane Magliolo, JoAnn Joselyn, Josie Heath and Beverly Sears; the latter two received lifetime achievement awards.

SUE DEANS
She began her journalism career in Boulder at the Daily Camera, and she retired from her journalism career in Boulder at the Daily Camera. After Sue Deans spent much of her 30 years in the industry informing Boulder citizens and protecting their democracy, she decided to slow down.

“I started volunteering for the first time really in my life,” says Deans, 61, of Boulder. “I think I got in to journalism because I wanted to make a difference in the world, and [volunteering] really is another way to do that. I enjoy that a lot — trying to achieve something that makes life better for somebody or helps save historic buildings or any one of a number of things.”

By slowing down, she really meant dedicating her time to multiple organizations’ boards and serving the people of Boulder once again.

Deans contributes her time to a plentiful “number of things” by offering her leadership skills to the Boulder History Museum, Historic Boulder, the Imagine! Foundation, the Boulder Rotary Club and the Dairy Center for the Arts.

Her life as a journalist gave her not only the confidence to meet other people and speak with authority and advocacy, but also the desire to encourage people to find solutions.

“People always hear about everything bad, and then they think there’s nothing I can do about that as one little person,” Deans says. “We tried to help them start thinking about solutions … I guess I that’s why I like working on these boards because that’s what they’re all about: finding solutions to the fact that the arts don’t have much funding or people with disabilities need help living on their own or whatever the problem might be.”

Richard Polk, who nominated Deans for the award, calls her an amazing person.

“That’s almost past cool,” he says. “I think it’s a great thing that our community recognizes these women who make these really unique contributions.”

JOANN JOSELYN
In 1961, JoAnn Joselyn graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder, a place that has since become her home, a place where she helped to unite the community under the cause of giving. Connie Takamine, who had recently met Joselyn at dinner function, decided to nominate her for a Women Who Light the Community award.
“I took a writing class this summer at CU, and we had to interview a person we thought was interesting,” Takamine says. “I found out (Joselyn) was the first women to get a degree in astrophysics from CU, and that she’s been in science and has broken a lot of ground for women.”

Joselyn, after receiving her undergraduate degree in engineering, pursued her doctorate in astrogeophysics — now known as astronomical and planetary sciences — and carries the honor as the first woman to do so. To other women interested pursuing the field of astrogeophysics, she recommends “not to listen to negativism.”

“I’m sure there were a lot of negative messages being transmitted to me … for some reason I didn’t hear them or I just didn’t listen. That’s what I attribute to my success,” Joselyn says. “I was really focused. Maybe that’s the word we need to use. Stay focused.”

After the completion of her master’s, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association hired her, and she worked for them until 1991 as a space scientist. She eventually was nominated for the prestigious position of secretary general for the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, an organization that seeks to promote geophysical sciences.

She was the first woman — and the first American — to hold that position.

Still, Joselyn argues her humanitarian-based experience was what taught her to be a successful secretary-general. She says her responsibilities included “ego-management.” It was a job of listening, of responding and of taking action, skills she found rooted in volunteering.

And those roots spread deep across Boulder. Joselyn has contributed her time and her leadership skills to Share-A-Gift Inc. since its start in the early 1970s. Share-A-Gift distributes toys to local children during the holidays. Last year more than 800 families in Boulder were helped.

“Now that I’m retired and my career is behind me, this is the way I find fulfillment,” Joselyn says.

JOSIE HEATH
Josie Heath, 72, of Boulder, began her experience with community leadership in fourth grade when she told her teacher she needed to leave school for the day — in order to return home to finish planning the neighborhood circus. Now, she is one of two being honored with the lifetime achievement award for philanthropic service.

After moving to Colorado with her husband and children in the 1970s, Heath immersed herself in the community and culture of Boulder. Seeing the need for proactive change, she plunged into the running for Colorado State Senate in 1976 and lost narrowly.

“The newspapers wrote about me that I was a nice person but that I only cared about women’s things,” Heath says. “And I remember thinking at that time ‘but, everything’s a women’s thing: housing, roads, transportation, health care, finances.’”

After the election, she taught at Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood and then spawned their Women’s Center. In 1978 under the Carter administration, Heath directed the ACTION program for the Rocky Mountain Center, which included philanthropic groups, such as the Peace Corp and AmeriCorps Vista.

Early in the 1980s, Boulder elected Heath as Boulder County Commissioner, the second woman to hold the position. As commissioner, Heath started the first county energy policy; the One for the Road program, which alleviated crowded jails by allowing prisoners to serve time by working on road crews; Project Self-Sufficiency; and the Senior Tax Work-off Program, which Heath is most proud of creating.

“It gave the county a new appreciation for the immense talents that seniors have,” Heath says.

Heath now commits her time and leadership to holding the title of president for The Community Foundation.
Since 1995, Heath says she helped increase the total of grants by $30 million, which the group awards to organizations in arts, education, civic, health and human services, and the environment. The foundation aims to create a “culture of giving” by activating the ideas of Boulder youth, nonprofits and private donors. It seeks to provide sustainable early childhood preparation for education.

“The Community Foundation is a transformational leader, and the potential for that drew me to the foundation. And it’s what keeps me here,” Heath says. “To be a real change agent, to be a catalyst for what’s right, I think is such an important role.”

Heath has already been inducted into Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, but now, in a way, Boulder has ushered her into their hall.

“There are few, if any other women in our community who have had the breadth of impact on local, state and national issues that Josie has had,” says Frances Draper, the executive director of the Boulder Economic Council and Heath’s nominator. “As you look at her many accomplishments, you see a path from the heart. She has always focused on how to make life better for those who are struggling or challenged and is one of the people who can really say, ‘I made a positive difference in the lives of many people.’”

DIANE MAGLIOLO
Diane Magliolo lives by one friend’s advice: “Believe a man has a certain dignity he must uncover in himself, and help others to do the same.”

Magliolo has fulfilled this idea during 30 years of working in the field of adult probation and community corrections; through volunteering as a chaplain at Boulder Community Hospital; as a victim advocate at the Boulder Police Department; and as a member of the Foothills Kiwanis Club.

Magliolo grew up in a small Texan town where her family instilled in her the drive to help others. As a child Magliolo proudly wore the Girl Scout green and the red and white of a candy striper, often visiting orphanages and nursing homes. Later in college she studied social work and volunteered in service groups on campus.

Working in the field of addiction and adult probations in Austin, Texas, Magliolo employed the start of a new drug treatment court where addicts could work with judiciary personnel to recover instead of serving jail time.

“Drug treatment courts are life changing, I think, for the practitioners, for the judges, and as well as for the clients,” Magliolo says.

Magliolo moved to Boulder seven years ago and now works at the Boulder County Addictions Recovery Center as an intake specialist, where she interacts with hundreds of people struggling with addictions.

“It’s been an incredible opportunity to meet people and to work with people in their ambivalence,” Magliolo says. “In that moment when they first come in the front door, they’re not sure if they want treatment yet.”

Three years ago Magliolo mirrored her Austin court by activating the Boulder County Integrated Treatment Court. The court offers alternative treatment measures for addicts by arranging biweekly meetings for the client and the judge. Before each court session the judge, the district attorney, the treatment personnel, the public defender, the defense attorney and the mental health professionals review the recovering addict’s progress.

From this court stemmed other Boulder treatment courts, such as the family treatment court, the juvenile treatment court and the DUI treatment court.

“People have an opportunity to really pull their lives together,” Magliolo says. “And we’re all affected. When people are successful, it’s not like we take credit for it. We’re just happy for people getting through this quagmire of addictions.”

Hope Steffens-Nett and Mary Schwietzer, both of Boulder, nominated Magliolo for the Women Who Light the Community award.

“Believing in people’s inherent goodness, Diane has learned that no matter how emotionally, physically and spiritually damaged persons are by alcohol or drugs, no matter how hopeless their lives seem to be, people want to change,” Steffens-Nett says.

BEVERLY SEARS
In Beverly Sears’ home, every cabinet is full, every drawer occupied and every section of bare wall space beautifully and purposefully decorated — in sync with how she lives her life.

During her years in Boulder, Spears filled her spaces with many volunteer outlets including the Audubon Society, the People’s Clinic, the Fortnightly Club, Special Transit, the Boulder City Council, Zonta, the Unitarian Universalist Church and the CU graduate school. Her dedication to humanitarianism and her lifetime achievement award comes as no surprise from a woman whose mother volunteered as the church organist and whose father jumpstarted a volunteer fireman faction.

“I think part of our whole upbringing was that it takes everyone serving one another to make the world work,” Sears says.

Her assortment of volunteer work may also have come from her talent to forget the word “no.”

“I’ve often said, ‘Yes’ to things I wasn’t so sure about how to do or what to do, but was very passionate about,” Sears says. “It turns out you always go through a sleepless time, but it feels so good when you see something good happen.”

Sears, influenced by a Pollyanna philosophy of kindness, also participated in the civil rights movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement, always trying to find the positive in her glad-game life.

Laura McCutchen, 59, of Bolder nominated Sears because she says Sears has consistently encouraged others while standing in the background, but deserved to be publicly acknowledged for making things happen in Boulder.

“She recognizes the contributions of other people and brings people together,” McCutchen says. “She plants seeds.”

After spending 48 years devoted to the people of Boulder, Sears attributes much of her ability for selflessness to the support of her family and her husband.

Through her experiences, Sears also discovered much about herself and about the character of humanity.

“I have a much broader perspective of the world and of people and the nature of human nature,” she says. “People really want to be appreciated and recognized and certainly loved. I’ve learned certainly that people can’t be treated as a commodity.”

When stepping outside to the backyard of Beverly Sears’ home, an assortment of tomatoes, of vegetables and multitudes of flowers overwhelm her patches of land. In her garden every plot of is bursting with growth and is full. Beverly Sears, a gardener of community.

— By Caroline Seib

I’ve spent my entire automobile life counting on mechanics and boyfriends to change my oil and tell me where that blue smoke was coming from. I’ve dreaded buying a car any time I’ve had to because I knew I had the mark of a sucker on me. I am afraid of my car. As much as I count on it to get me to work and the store and other states, I had no idea what lurked beneath the white metal exterior.

I have, however, claimed that I wanted to learn more about my car.

I’d wanted to know how to change the oil and for what purpose. I fear the day I’m stranded by the roadside because I don’t even know where my jack is, much less how to use it. And I was paralyzed by my inability to do anything about one pesky burned out headlight. It was long past time to take charge and understand exactly what was going on inside of my heavy machine.

Enter Club Workshop.

I stumbled upon the ad on Craigslist for “Auto Maintenance 101.” It might as well have boasted, “Stop being silly, Leah. Take the mystery out of this once and for all!”

Club Workshop is the brainchild of Steve Garran, who together with his wife, Laura, opened the 16,000-square-foot Denver space in September of 2008. An active hobbyist, Steve Garran quit his stressful IT job to follow a dream. That dream involves an auto bay with a lift; a woodworking shop; a metal working shop; and more.

“I realized there wasn’t a place like this where you could do it yourself,” Steve explains.

Laura interrupts, laughing, “You needed a bigger garage.”

This is certainly a bigger garage.

Mike Kiehl is my teacher today. The former repair shop owner grew tired of running his own place and decided to come to Club Workshop. He now spends his days helping members of the club with their projects and teaching classes to folks like me. The auto classes are always small — three to five members max — and today there are three of us total, all women seeking to know more about the machines we depend upon.

Mike puts a Subaru on the lift. Carefully we inspect the undercarriage and all the parts and pieces located there. We discuss why and when to rotate tires. We remove the oil from the car. Once the Subaru is back on land, we finish the oil change and soak in all there is to know about what rests beneath the hood.

Later, when I open my own Toyota I could effectively point out every belt, hose and tank. I can even tell you what they all do.

“I think it is empowering for women to know the basics,” Laura Garran told me in our first e-mail.
I couldn’t agree more. Next time I come back to Club Workshop, I think I’ll learn how to weld.

Click here to view the embedded video.

—By Leah M. Charney

But Woods’ Photoshop editing isn’t the only reason Vincent is glowing. She’s also six and a half months pregnant.

Photo by Iman Woods

“Up until the photo shoot I felt really big and fat,” says Vincent, 31, of Boulder. “During the photo shoot, I felt much more normal.”

It can be hard to feel beautiful when you’re carrying a watermelon at your waist. Like Vincent, many pregnant women feel huge, bloated, lethargic. Like a roly-poly.

But Woods, an artist living in Erie, works to make all women feels as beautiful as she sees them. One of her photography ventures, called Red Hot Mamas, makes pregnant women sexy pinups. Woods, 28, says every woman is as beautiful as a glamour model, and she enjoys showing women that side of themselves.

“The way I see women is the way loved ones see them,” Woods says. “We are trying to create a process that lets you lift that self-conscious self and embrace a woman that feels power in her beauty.”

And pinup art is the perfect medium for feeling sexy. We all struggle at times to feel beautiful, Woods says. But with pinup, you tap into a confident part of yourself.

“Part of being a pinup is totally embracing your beauty and acknowledging that you glow,” Woods says. “I tell every woman that they need to embrace their bodies and themselves right now — this moment.”

Woods says her photography sessions are like having a “girlfriend day.” At the beginning, the client has her hair and make-up done by professional stylists. During the shoot, Woods poses the models to show off what they love most about themselves. Once the photos are shot and edited, Woods has a “premiere” night where the models can see their shots on a “big screen” projector to music. The whole experience is a process of breaking down negative self-image.

Woods simulates the airbrush style of traditional pinup photos by highlighting and shadowing key parts of the face and body in Photoshop. The photos are celebratory of a woman’s beauty, Woods says, featuring shining skin and flawless locks.

Woods’ vintage art grew out of her own insecurities. When she started to gain weight in 2005, she searched for a way in which all women could feel beautiful. That’s when she discovered pinup. Now, she earns a living by making other women feel sexy.

Although she also takes photos of women who are not pregnant (and men), Woods says she enjoys Red Hot Mamas photo shoots the most.

“I hate to play favorites, but there is something about a belly that is just stunning,” Woods says. “This is a great way to really celebrate that part of you and that stage of your life.”

Vincent agrees. After the shoot, says she felt confident, sexy and proud to be a red hot mama. Now she can’t wait to show the photos to her children and grandchildren some day.

“It definitely helped me remember that this is a beautiful process,” Vincent says. “It made me feel proud to be pregnant.”

To learn more about Red Hot Mamas and the rest of Iman Woods’ photography, visit www.imanwoods.com.

— By Jessica Warnock

Here are some tips on what to do at the networking event — and after.

Make the connection
The real work takes place at the event. That’s where the action is. It’s also where many women stumble. When facing an unfamiliar environment, encountering new people and feeling uncertain about “how it will go,” it’s easy to forget your goals and planning.

Here’s a process to help you get out of your head and into the moment:

Get centered. Take a deep breath, review your goals and take time to get a “feel” for the room before diving in. Warm up with people you know. Then reach out to meet new people.
Choose your first contact. Look for people who are open, friendly, appear to have something in common with you or look more nervous than you feel!
Open the conversation. Start out light, neutral and complimentary. Ask open-ended questions that draw the other person out. Be sure to share things about yourself, but shift the conversation back to them as much as you can.
Listen for commonalities. Listen for clues about things, people or places you have in common. Finding commonalities is the foundation to building a friendship.
Build the connection. Explore those commonalities and build upon them. Aim away from sharing clichés to facts to opinions to personal values, as appropriate. Also listen for ways you can help that person, and ways they can help you.
Create a next step. Failing to follow up is one of the biggest (and most common) networking errors. If you like someone and want to progress the relationship to the next level, you have to take the initiative. Invite them for coffee, lunch or another event. Suggest sending them an article you think they’d find interesting. Offer to introduce them to someone else who might help them professionally or personally.

Take the next step
As you think about those languishing stacks of business cards on your desk, you know it takes intention, focus and effort to follow up after a networking event. Regardless of how well you connected with someone, don’t assume that they will contact you. Instead, build blocks of follow-up time into your schedule before you go to an event. Then use that time to return calls, invite people to lunch, send them that article or make that introduction.

By following these five principles, you take charge of your networking experience and control the outcome in a way that’s comfortable, natural — and even enjoyable.

— By Sue Brundege
Brundege is a Boulder-based coach, mentor and communication expert with Self Made Self. Contact her at sue@selfmadeself.com or 303-499-2026.