WiMCO Alignment Meeting Recap

7×24 Exchange recently launched a new, biannual meeting series to help Chapters coordinate and plan activities around the Women in Mission Critical Operations communities. Dubbed WAM – for WiMCO Alignment Meetings – this spring’s session took place via Zoom on Wednesday, April 28.

The concept of WAM stemmed from a similar meeting held in the fall of 2020. That first meeting went so well that the organization decided to continue them on a regular basis.

WAM’s Moderator Cara Toneys, Facilities Director at Google, opened the meeting, welcomed participants, and set the stage for the rest of the session. Moderator and Director of Marketing at Bureau Veritas Primary Integration Lillian Rivera continued by providing tips on how to start a WiMCO community. This includes contacting the Chapter Board, forming a committee, and planning a kick-off meeting.

With those basics provided, Lillian introduced the day’s guest speakers, Marybeth Bunker, Senior Business Development Manager for Swanson Rink and Karen Petersburg, Design Manager for Digital Realty. By design, all WAMs include guest presenters from the 7×24 Exchange Chapters who share their ideas and best practices with attendees.

Representing the Arizona and Washington DC Chapters respectively, Marybeth and Karen shared the background of their WiMCO communties. They discussed some of the key ingredients of holding successful WiMCO events, despite the pandemic.

The key takeaways include:

• Create regularly scheduled events to discuss relevant topics (e.g., Monthly Wake Up with WiMCO events, Sip-n-Chat virtual sessions, etc.)
• Get Board and local Chapter buy-in. It’s a worthwhile investment, but it is an investment intended to grow the Chapter.
• Ensure the events are relevant, inclusive, and supportive. WiMCO is not intended to be exclusive just to women. The content should be applicable to all participants, including men (e.g., supporting each other sessions, male advocacy sessions, etc.).
• Invite people from other Chapters to participate. Since the events are virtual, there are no geographic restrictions.
• Provide incentives for attending (e.g., coupons or gift cards for Uber Eats, Starbucks, etc.). Keep the sessions fun to help combat “Zoom fatigue.”
• Consider goals and keep metrics to show the impact of WiMCO activities on the Chapter (e.g., number of new members added as a result, who are some new audiences to reach, etc.)

Following the discussion, Juli Ierulli, eCommerce Operations and Customer Care Manager and Vice President,7×24 Exchange International, set up topics for 40-minute breakout sessions. Attendees were divided into small breakout rooms where they got to network a bit while extending the conversation.

The attendees were welcomed back to the main session by Cara, who turned it over to Juli to close out the session. Juli invited participants to attend the 2021 Spring Conference in San Antonio, TX where the Conference Keynote presenter is Shannon Huffman Polson, one of the first U.S. Army Women Apache Helicopter Captains and Pilots and Author of North of Hope and The Grit Factor.

Before closing the session, Juli shared the WiMCO calendar, web pages, and contact information.

The next WAM will take place on November 10, 2021 at 2:30 pm Eastern. Be sure to save the date!