President’s Message & Chapter Officers and Directors p. 1 • Firm Feature p. 2 • News & Notes p. 3 • Board/Business Meeting Digest p. 4

Oklahoma City Edition

May 2023 | Vol. 8, No.1Chartered May 25, 1959 February 2019

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Letter from the President

Dear EWI of Oklahoma City,

2019 is here and we are rocking and rolling!

The last section of our newsletter shares the new business discussed at our January Board meeting, however

there are a few key activities I’d like to note.

First, fundraising: Two member firms have been instrumental partners in lifting our fundraising efforts, EAN Holdings and Chapel Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Gardens. Starla Hesse representing EAN Holdings submitted a grant application to Enterprise’s Foundation on EWI OKC’s behalf, and funds will be awarded in April. Tracy Crook and Kaylee Wilson, representing Chapel Hill, have built a strong partnership with the NW OKC Rotary resulting in mutual support of each other’s organizations. Kaylee submitted a grant application to the Rotary on behalf of EWI OKC, and funds will be awarded at a luncheon on March 5. Last, EWI OKC was selected by stylish boutique Evereve to be a recipient of a Style Social fundraising event on Thursday, February 21. Additional details on our fundraising plans can be found on page 4 of this newsletter.

Second, membership: We are currently meeting our retention goal of member firms for the year. Many thanks to all of you for staying engaged and excited, and supporting the continued transformation of the organization. Speaking of excitement, we have already seen interest from more than a handful of ladies who would like to join EWI. Our goal is to welcome one new member firm each quarter. Our first fiscal quarter has passed us, but I believe we will add more dynamic ladies/organizations to our exceptional group very, very soon. Please continue to share the value of EWI OKC!

Last, special activities: There are two special activities planned in the next few months that are also noted on our calendar of events. Our April Program is going to be EWI’s 60th Birthday Bash with a ‘vintage theme.’ We are celebrating a month early, we just couldn’t wait! More details are on page 4 of our newsletter. Also, our June Program will be our first ‘open meeting’ and will feature consultant Linda Clark as speaker of the evening. As an open meeting our primary goal is to share the special benefits of EWI on a larger scale in hopes of reaching those we don’t typically reach and grow our organization. More details to come!

Christine LairdOklahoma City Chapter PresidentGreater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce

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2018-2019 Officers & DirectorsPresident

Christine Laird, Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce

Vice President/President-Elect

Jessica McCool, NFP

SecretaryMichelle Ferguson, Skyline on

Bricktown Canal, LLC

TreasurerDana Nursick, Benchmark Financial

Services, LLC

Membership Co-DirectorsNancy Pennell, First Maintenance Company & Rhonda Scoggin, NFP

Co-Sergeants-At-ArmsKelly Hamilton-Coyer, OGE Energy Corp. & Tracy Crook, Chapel Hill

Funeral Home & Memorial Gardens

Jan. & Feb. BirthdaysJanuary 15 – Angela Nemecek, Honorary MemberJanuary 26 – Judie Harris, Representative, Francis TuttleJanuary 29 – Blane Thompson, Executive, Colcord HotelFebruary 4 – Cathy Borjas, Sustaining MemberFebruary 15 – Debbie Harrigan, Honorary MemberFebruary 21 – Helen Reinheimer-Mercer, Representative, Jordan AdvertisingFebruary 27 – Sean Trauschke, Executive, OGE Energy Corporation

Happiest of birthdays to all!

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February Firm Feature: NFP

Innovation has become the operative word these days at NFP. Last summer, the insurance and benefits brokerage announced the creation of a $30 million venture fund to find innovative partnerships and technology investments in the HR, insurance and financial-services arenas.Similar efforts include the NFP Innovation Lab, which conducts ongoing market research for benchmarking purposes, and an Innovation Alley feature from the firm’s annual user conference. It has been rolled out across various regions with client symposiums or roundtables. NFP Oklahoma has leveraged these initiatives to bring unique solutions to their clients who are then able to make more informed decisions to manage and mitigate the cost of chronic disease states, increase employee engagement, help improve financial wellness, and become an employer of choice. Recognizing the importance of promoting innovation in their own community, NFP Oklahoma will be hosting an Innovation Summit in late April / early May which will focus on their investment in innovation and also featuring local businesses leading the charge here in OKC. While still in the early stages of development, this would include organizations like StitchCrew, WeGoLook, i2E, OK Innovate, and others.This initiative is being led by Jessica McCool, a consultant at NFP and Vice President of EWI Oklahoma. Recently named part of Employee Benefit Advisor’s 2019 class of Rising Stars in Advising, her passion for inspiring and enabling employers with the right solutions is evident. For more information about NFP visit us online at nfp.com or check out their podcast, Innovation Conversations with NFP on iTunes.

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News and Notes: EWI OKC Reading Rally and ASIST Scholarship UpdatesOn Tuesday, February 5 the Reading Rally committee had their first meeting to begin planning this spring’s event. Members of the 2019 Reading Rally committee are Julie Schmiedeskamp, Michelle Ferguson, Sierra Eberle and Chair Jessica McCool.

The committee began the process of selecting a school to be the beneficiary of this year’s event and discussed the different ways we can bless these kiddos!  However we don’t need to wait to start collecting books! LET’S START COLLECTING NOW! 

If you have any books or you know anyone who would like to contribute books to this year’s rally, please contact committee chair, Jessica McCool or one of the committee members and we’ll gladly coordinate the collection of those books!  Also, if you see any great deals or know of a good partner for book donations, please share!  We are looking for new or slightly used books for ages K-5th grade.  We will donate everything we collect to the school’s library.

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ASIST applications are open and the news has been shared by Corporate as well as on EWI OKC’s Facebook page. The 2019 ASIST Scholarship Committee is comprised of Judie Harris, Ramona Carey, Chantelle Olguin and Chair Kara Lorenz. The committee is currently focused on selecting judges to review this year’s applications. Scholarships awarded this year will total $10,000. The tiers of money awarded will be as follows:

3rd place: $2,000 2nd place: $3,000 1st place: $5,000

Honoring an EWI Executive: Dr. Tom FriedemannDr. Tom Friedemann, Superintendent/Francis Tuttle Technology Center and member of EWI, has received the Hall of Honor Award from the Northwest Chamber and has been inducted into the Chamber Hall of Honor.  The Hall of Honor award was established in 1954 and has been presented to recognize individuals who have dedicated the highest level of service to the community over many years. 

It is a career achievement presented for those deserving of state or national recognition and who have made a significant or substantial impact on the community.  Dr. Friedemann received this honor at the Northwest Chamber’s Evening of Accolades held January 31 at The Skirvin.

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Board Digest Oklahoma City Chapter: January 2019

The Board of Directors met on January 29, 2019 at the offices of Chapel Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Gardens at 8701 NW Expressway, Oklahoma City OK 73162.

New Business:• Jessica McCool gave an overview of the survey results from the January Program meeting at Rococo with guest speaker, Joe Acosta representing Toastmasters. Jessica reported that the overall results were positive with two comments submitted; one which was critical of the presenter’s group activity and the other complimenting the interaction of the group. • Non-Compete Language: Nancy Pennell led a discussion regarding non-compete and whether or not our chapter should do away with it or not, recognizing that corporate has already done away with the practice. The discussion creates layers of questions such as what constitutes the right to oppose if were to eliminate the non-compete, and all of the subsequent changes in policy that would need to occur. It was determined that this needs to be address as soon as possible, however due diligence needs to be done first. Kelly Hamilton will be reaching

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DATES TO NOTE

February 12, 2019 at 5:30PM at Rococo Northpark MallOur February Program Meeting features Rachel Pappy with Polston Tax presenting “How did we get here?

February 21, 2019 5PM -8PM at Evereve Classen CurveJoin us for a fun night of shopping in support of EWI OKC! 15% of sales from the evening will benefit our Business/Career/Development Program.

February 26, 2019 at 5:30PM at Chapel Hill Funeral Home & Memorial GardensFebruary Board Meeting

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out to the Houston chapter to see how they have structured their membership after eliminating the non-compete and bring that information back to the next board meeting for further discussion. We need to bring this before the chapter for a full vote, but we need all of the information and a clear plan before we can present it. • Formalizing Guest Invite Process & Firm Posting Process: Discussion tabled until the Non-Compete topic has been determined. • April Program: 60th Birthday Bash: Jessica McCool will be heading up the party planning for the EWIOKC Chapter’s 60th birthday bash. The board discussed options for a venue and decided that Jessica would partner with Michelle to reach out to Chip Fudge and see if his new venue would be an option, as this venue compliments her “vintage” theme nicely. We also discussed using Kam’s Kookery for the catering which we feel would be a more affordable choice than the catering we’ve used previously. The group also determined that a “Save the Date” would go out as soon as the event date and venue has been confirmed. We also discussed sending invitations to previous members and preferred vendors.ASIST Scholarship: Jessica gave an update on her conversation with Mary Mélon, President of Foundation for Oklahoma City Public Schools, as a follow up from the last board meeting. The topic was OKCPS requesting the OKC chapter of EWI allocating $2,500 in a scholarship directly to OKCPS to give to a teacher to allow them to pursue a bilingual program that assists them in getting their teaching degree. Mélon was agreeable to her applicants filling out a scholarship application however her preference was to have EWIOKC issue a check directly to OKCPS in the amount of $2,500 to present to the employee of their choosing. The board agreed that there could be finance policies surrounding this action and that Christine would contact the EWI Corporate Treasurer to confirm that this was something we are able to do before moving forward. We will continue the discussion at the February board meeting when we know what the policy is surrounding the distribution of scholarship funds in this capacity. • March Business Meeting: Christine Laird reviewed the procedures for preparing the reports for the upcoming March Business Meeting for those new members to the board. She stated that the report should include the information from the past five months and should be prepared to give an oral overview. • Fundraising Update: Christine Laird reported that a grant application has been submitted to the Enterprise Foundation by chapter rep Starla Hesse, in the amount of $1,500. This grant can be submitted on a semi-annual basis and can be increased incrementally. Grant dollars will be awarded in April, 2019. Laird also reported that we anticipate grant dollars from the OKC Rotary, to be announced at their upcoming luncheon, as well as funds from the recent Santa Project that our chapter participated

in last December. The board discussed the value of recognizing past donors by sending them a thank you note for their past donations. Christine then addressed the topic of the fundraising goal of $25k, which was established at the board retreat in late 2018. The group discussed whether or not this goal was too aggressive and if it should be a more conservative number. The conclusion among the group was to keep the goal at $25k and was to include the annual foundation disbursement of approximately $7,500 which makes the actual fundraising amount approximately $17,500. It was also concluded that in lieu of fundraising activities, the chapter opted to seek out different sources of grant monies and in doing so should allocate an appropriate amount of time and training to grant research and grant writing in order to seek out the most appropriate grants for our chapter.

Current Membership:

19Member Firms

29 Executives

19 Representatives

10 Sustaining

1 Life

The February Board Meeting will be Tuesday, February 26 at 5:30PM. The host is

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Chapel Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Gardens at 8701 NW Expressway, Oklahoma City OK 73162.

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