HNG meeting: Interview Workshop or Speaker TBD

Hello Everyone,

The agenda for this Friday's Hopkinton Networkers Group (HNG) meeting will be featured by either an Interview Workshop or a speaker. The speaker that was scheduled for this week had to cancel because she is in transition of moving to Schenectady, New York, so attempts are being made to get someone else, and if that fails then we will conduct an Interview Workshop. An update to this agenda will be sent in the next day or two if a speaker has become available. The facilitator for this week will be Ronaldo Lu. 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, we will conduct either an Interview Workshop or a speaker.

Interview Workshop

We have had an Interview Workshop in the past and it was always a lot of fun and a learning experience. Each person is both an interviewee and interviewer. We start off by someone is selected to be interviewed and selects an interview question from the bag/can of interview questions. The person is asked the question by the interviewer and his / her response is analyzed by the group with possible suggestions for a better response. The person selected to be interviewed now becomes the interviewer and selects someone to be interviewed, and the process is continued until everyone has a chance to conduct both roles.

Recap of HNG Meeting of March 20, 2015:

Our 142nd meeting had 27 people, this is seven more than the previous meeting; nine signed the New Member list. Gil Krispien was our facilitator. There were nine introduction speeches.

We had a speaker, Lisa Rosen, whose subject was, "Tips on Networking." This covered the following:
The goal is to UNDERSTAND what Networking is and how it is beneficial. The benefit is seeing directly how “strangers” can network amongst themselves. This addressed the WHO, What and Where components. Who should be networking? What is networking? And where should you network? Learned how to understand and start networking. The session covered tips and strategies on HOW to network smarter and develop a plan in order to obtain employment in today’s challenging environment.

This was an excellent presentation, and she will be coming back again for a similar subject or something different.

Schedule for HNG Meetings:

April 17, 2015 Lee-Ann Johnson TBD

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.net
William Lam wmlam508@yahoo.com
Ronaldo Lu ronaldo.lu@comcast.net