"Understanding Your Training Options"

The agenda for this Friday's Hopkinton Networkers Group (HNG) meeting will be a talk led by Kevin Kopec. The facilitator for this week will be MaryLou Fish. We will devote the first hour, from 10 to 11 AM to the following agenda: Welcome, Landings, Announcements, New Member Intros, and Needs & Leads. Important Note: We are going to start the meeting on time at 10:00 AM. In the second hour, Kevin will give a presentation on "Understanding Your Training Options."

Understanding Your Training Options

Kevin will cover the following topics in a multi-slide presentation:
- Why is the Training so important?
- Choose Your Method of Training
- What to look for when choosing a Training Provider
- Ways to Fund Training
- New England - State Career Centers
- Self Fund
- Vendor Payment Plans
- Training Proposal – Get Started
- The Jargon working with Career Centers
- How Long Does it Take to get approved?

Kevin Kopec

Kevin Kopec is an accomplished career coach in the area of Project Management and process improvement. A career changer himself in the early 90’s he has been providing career guidance and training options with folks from all fields. In 1995 he relocated to Massachusetts and worked for Computer Science Corporation in Cambridge.

In 1998 he headed up Worcester Polytechnic adult continuing education classes and later in 2005 at New Horizons in Waltham. Since 2010, Kevin, in his capacity as Director of Consumer Training has been working with dislocated workers with the highly regarded programs at William George Associates in Burlington, MA focusing on Project Management and Process Improvement.

Recap of HNG Meeting of November 15, 2013:

Our 111th meeting of HNG had 48 people, this is 15 more than the previous meeting; 8 signed the New Member list. Ed Haddad was our facilitator. There were 7 introduction speeches.

We had a speaker Ed Yee who talked about "Tax Topics to Consider While in Transition." Here is what he covered:

- W2 vs 1099 EMPLOYMENT, benefits and implications
a. Estimated tax payments
b. Self-Employment tax
c. Benefits of Schedule C income
d. Trade-offs, employment (W2) v. project work (1099)
e. Record-keeping
f. 401K loans

- Tax things to consider while in transition
a. Not withholding from unemployment payments
b. Raiding retirement accounts
c. Job hunting expenses and education (what's deductible)

- Tax things to consider before the end of the tax year for 2013
a. Roth conversions
b. Planning capital gains
c. Timing income when possible
d. Estimate tax due to avoid penalties and interest
e. Key IRS filing dates for 2013 tax returns

- IRS penalties

Schedule for HNG Meetings:

December 20, 2013 Open Forum Discussion

General Information

The networking group meets in Hopkinton, at St. John the Evangelist Church parish hall. The meeting occurs, from 10 to 12 noon, and will meet the first and third Friday of the month. The parish hall has a capacity for 250 people and there is plenty of parking spaces in the parking lot and on the street. Around the perimeter of the parish hall are rooms to allow us to have focused network groups or for any other purpose we need. We chose the first and third Friday to allow everyone to attend the Acton Networking Group or any other networking group, if they wanted, on the Friday we do not meet.

We will maintain our close affiliation with Acton Networkers by using the same list-server to share information between the groups. Any e-mails specific to the Hopkinton Networking Group (HNG) will be indicated in the subject line either by "Hopkinton Networking Group" or "HNG"; this way anyone attending these meetings will know the e-mail is intended for them.

We will follow the following agenda items:
* Welcome
* Landings (with doughnuts)
* Announcements
* New member introductions
* Needs and Leads
* Speaker(s), Workshop, or Focus Group
* Cleanup

For those new members who give their introductions, this is what we would like to know:
* Name
* Skills and Value Statement
* Where have you been?
* Where are you going?
* Your title
* Your target companies
* Geography of search
* Name and e-mail address

If anyone wants to join our team, please let one of us know; we could always use the extra help and input for ideas.

Directions:
Take Rt. 495 North/South and get off Exit 21A. Go through three traffic lights. Colella's Supermarket is on the right at the third traffic light. The first street after the third traffic light is Church Street, take a right turn. The church is on the right. Go around to the left of the parking lot and go into the side entrance of the parish hall.

Depending upon where you live, perhaps you may want to use Mapquest for a more direct route. The address of the church is:
St. John the Evangelist
20 Church Street
Hopkinton, MA 01748

Regards,
Hopkinton Networkers Group (HNG) Coordinators:
MaryLou Fish marylouisefish@gmail.com
Ed Haddad ehaddadjr@verizon.net
Gil Krispien g.krispien@verizon.net
William Lam wmlam508@yahoo.com
Salpi Sarafian ssarafian@rcn.com
Laura Startzenbach laura.startzenbach@gmail.com