Goals / New Year's Resolutions

Hello Everyone, 

Now that we are in the winter months, if the Hopkinton schools are cancelled on the day of our meeting then we do not meet; however, if there is a delay, then we do meet. Even if the schools are not closed, if the weather is bad, it is best to stay home then risk an accident.

The agenda for this Friday's Hopkinton Networkers Group (HNG) meeting will be featured by a slide presentation and a networking exercise. The facilitator for this week will be Gil Krispien. We will devote the first hour to the following agenda: Welcome, Landings, Announcements, New Member Intros, and Needs & Leads. Important Note: Please make a serious, concerted effort to arrive before 10:00 AM. We are going to start the meeting on time at 10:00 AM. In the second hour, Gil will show a number of slides showing the Hopkinton Networkers Group 2014 Summary, and this will be followed by a networking exercise of Goals / New Year's Resolutions.

Hopkinton Networkers Group 2014 Summary

This will be a brief slide show summarizing the significant statistics occurred during the 2014 year of the group. This will include attendance, total money collected, expenses, gifts to St. John's church, landings, HNG fund, and proposed gifts to St. John's for 2015.

Goals / New Year's Resolutions

The objective is to commit to two goals / New Year's Resolutions to be completed by February 6, 2015, which is the first HNG meeting in February. Since there are five weeks until the first meeting in February, it would be beneficial to list one goal / resolution for each week for a total of five, in the event there is difficulty achieving a goal then there are others to commit too. If you only list two, then you need to commit to those two.

As you enter the meeting, please pick up the sheet of paper on the table on which you can enter your goals, and there are examples listed on the sheet to help you. 

At our HNG meeting on February 6th, we will review the two committed goals, and if a goal was not achieved, we will want to know why. We will record these reasons and have a speaker to address these reasons on how to alleviate them at a future meeting.

Needless to say this will be a multi-purpose networking exercise, not only committing to achieve two goals, but also learning from others why goals were not achieved, and finally having a speaker to help and show us how to achieve goals in a timely manner. This is a small part of what networking is all about.

Recap of HNG Meeting of December 19, 2014:

Our 136th meeting had 23 people, this is eleven less than the previous meeting; one signed the New Member list. William Lam was our facilitator. There was one introduction speech. 

We had speaker, Grace Carcich, who talked about "How to Significantly Increase Your Energy During the Job Search."

It was a dynamic learning experience where each received many time–tested methods to increase his/her energy triple-fold. This interactive seminar assisted each in gaining more energy, thinking outside the box and adding some little known strategies to what is often a challenging time in our lives. She instructed us with tips on goal setting for 2015 and beyond.

This was followed by an Open Forum Discussion of various topics displayed on the whiteboard. One topic discussed was how to prepare for an interview.

Schedule for HNG Meetings:

January 2, 2015 Goals / New Year's Resolutions
January 16, 2015 Stephen Martins
February 6, 2014 Review of Goals / New Year's Resolutions of January 2, 2015

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: 
Sheri Ablaza sheriablaza@gmail.com 
Grace Carcich gracec814@gmail.com 
Emilia Gordon emiliagne@gmail.com 
Gil Krispien g.krispien@verizon.ne t 
William Lam wmlam508@yahoo.com 
Ronaldo Lu ronaldo.lu@comcast.net