SCORE Fundraising Event

I had a great time at the SCORE of Hawaii fundraiser last night. SCORE, for those of you who don't know, is a nationwide, non-profit, organization that offers free counseling to small businesses and startups. I'm a volunteer, but I'm not doing counseling yet. I'm working on the Volunteer Operations Committee, working on improving the training of new volunteers and developing some informational materials for potential recruits.

The event was an informal networking get-together, co-sponsored by several organizations. Thanks to the hosts and sponsors; Social Wahines (wahine is the Hawaiian word for woman, or women), a women's professional networking organization, Pacific Edge magazine, and Accents Gallery. I met several interesting people and visited with some colleagues. I enjoy networking events and meeting people, though I haven't always been comfortable in these situations. I've learned how to socialize from my APICS buddy's, Frank and Ken primarily. Frank is the master. I once left him alone for about 2 minutes, and when I got back to the table (we had dinner and a beer) he was deep in conversation with the people at the next table, like he'd known them for twenty years. I've still got a lot to learn.

When at an event, never pass up the chance to introduce yourself to whoever is standing next to you. I said hello to the woman standing next to me at one point, and it turns out (this is such a small island) that she works with one gentleman I know and the husband of another woman I know.

Here's a picture of me and Keith, another SCORE volunteer, at last night's event. Thanks to Thi at the harris consultancy (no capitalization on purpose) for the photo. She did a great job of acting as photographer and was also very interesting to talk with.

(that's me on the left)