Woman to woman: Perryville Chamber has successful Women's Network; Cape Chamber group in the works

For the past 10 years, the Perryville Area Chamber of Commerce has hosted a Women's Network to help members grow personally and professionally.

Amanda Winschel, the chamber's director, says the program began as a way for area businesswomen to share contacts and help each other make important connections they might not find otherwise.

"I think that when our Women's Network formed, the foundation that was laid was very well done, and that's what has allowed us to continue growing," Winschel says.

The group meets at noon on the second Wednesday of each month, where lunch is served and a program is delivered.

To date, the group has 56 members from the local business community who are constantly working to move things forward.

Kim Voelker talks with a group during the annual membership drive kick-off event for the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce.Glenn Landberg

One of the most recent efforts is the inaugural Xquisite Women's Leadership Conference scheduled for June 9 and 10 at the new Robinson Construction event center in Perryville, Missouri.

Delivering the keynote address is Kim Becking, a nationally known author and motivational speaker from Columbia, Missouri, who will talk about her book, "Nordie's at Noon -- the Personal Stories of Four Women Too Young for Breast Cancer."

Other speakers will include Heather Heuman, owner of Sweet Tea Social Marketing in South Carolina, whose topic will be "Train Your Leadership Team on Effective Social Selling Strategies," and Jennifer Hendrickson, owner of Hendrickson Business Advisors in Cape Girardeau, who plans to address "Communicating Across Generations."

The event is open to anyone who has a chamber membership in Perryville or surrounding areas for $79. The cost for non-chamber members is $99.

For more information, call (573) 547-6062.

Kim Voelker talks with a group during the annual membership drive kick-off event for the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce.Glenn Landberg

'A LONG TIME COMING'

Kim Voelker, membership development specialist at the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce, has been working to create a similar women's group called the Cape Chamber Women's Network.

"This is something that we have been envisioning for some time," she says.

The idea is to provide a support system for women in the business community that will include mentoring and leadership development activities in addition to referrals and other leads.

At the time of this writing, no events had taken place for the group beyond behind-the-scenes planning sessions, but the idea is to hold a quarterly speakers' series in the first year, along with various mixer events for networking.

Voelker and other chamber representatives recently hosted a booth at the Power of Women luncheon and expo at Southeast Missouri State University to begin getting the word out about the new group.

There, people who stopped by to inquire seemed enthusiastic about the idea.

"We heard, 'Wow, this is a long time coming,' or, 'We really need something like this,'" Voelker says.

Although the Cape Girardeau area has several advocacy organizations devoted to women's issues, the chamber's new group is more for leadership development.

"Our goal is not to overlap what we offer," Voelker says.

Instead, the group's goal is to help women become more comfortable in networking and public speaking situations. It also will serve as a way to get them more involved in the community.