Crab Feed!

It was a sell-out event! Thanks to all who came out to raise money for scholarships and supporting Women in Construction!

December Meeting - Paint Night!

We had a great time attempting to paint reindeers!

November Meeting

Sprig Electric hosted at their Pre-Fab Facility. We learned about LEAN construction fundamentals, toured the facility and made a Pre-Fab electrical assembly. It was a great time!

October Meeting

“So She Slays” founders Chauncey and Heather are all about empowering women and write a blog that talks about “real” life. So what does “slay” mean? Urban Dictionary defines “slay” as: To kick butt, or to dominate. They invited us to explore what “slay” means to us. They shared raw, authentic stories about what they learned from their moms and life. They pointed to most accomplishments were through a support system. They encouraged us as women to offer a helping hand to other women we see struggling – women supporting women – my Slay seeing the Slay in others. They encouraged us to find how we Slay. Pick 3-4 words to invoke your inner slay.

We installed new member April from Abreu and Associates. Welcome, April!

September Meeting - Installation Dinner

President Donna Serrano shared the accomplishments of last year’s members. We grew our membership by 38%, we had great speakers, and fun events like Block Kids (who won Regional!) She personally thanked each member for her development as a Leader and for a memorable year.

Pat McDonald, CBT, CCA, CIT, presided over the Installation Ceremony. With the theme being “Denim and Diamonds”, she installed each new board member sharing why each member was committed to the organization and what they intend to bring to NAWIC. The following are the new Board Members: President: Shawna Alvarado, CBT, CIT; Vice President: Cynthia Castellano; Treasurer: Laura Grabar; Secretary: Kara Hermann; Board of Directors: Pat Machado, CIT, Alpana Shah, Judy Wagner, CIT, Melissa Cochran

The ceremony completed with A NAWIC tradition of passing of the gavel from the most senior past president to the new and incoming president. It was inspiring to see the past leadership that brought us to where we are today and Shawna stepping into the future, excited about the 2017-2018 NAWIC year.

August Meeting - Thank you Corporate Sponsors!

Pat MacDonald, CBT, CCA, CIT, a 25-year member, shared her story how her membership in NAWIC helped her grow as a leader. She has served on both local and national levels and her participation has enabled her to expand her company, STI Trucking. Thank you to our industry sponsors who make this growth possible for each of us!

A big shout out to our sponsors: Pentarisk Insurance Services, Daley’s Drywall, Lombardo Core Drilling, XL Construction, Accurate Firestop Insulation, Abbott, Strigham and Lynch, O’Donnell Plastering, STI Trucking

We also installed new member Elizabeth from Burke, Williams and Sorensen and Jamie from Biggie Crane and Rigging. Welcome!

June Meeting - PlanGrid's Tracy Young

Tracy Young, Co-Founder of PlanGrid, spoke about Diversity and Women. A couple key take-aways:
- When you look at all at all different industries over time, there is a lack of labor productivity in Construction. The lack of productivity is correlate to the percentage of money spent on investing in new technology. 
- Technology is changing how business is done. To illustrate this, Tracy showed a picture of plan storage 10 years ago and contrasted that to drawings now being stored electronically
- Diversity in teams is critical, both for women and other cultures. She showed a picture of a large construction crew, all white men. She said “Were not using all the brains in the world”.

We elected new officers and installed a new member Jennifer from Lombardo Diamond Core Drilling. Welcome!

May Meeting - Safety Panel

We had a great safety panel, thanks to all who participated! We discussed: 1) What is your EMR and how to keep it low along with the cause and effects. 2) Violence in the workplace and how to be aware and keep safe 3) Why are tailgate meetings important and tips to a great safety meeting.
We installed 3 NEW members - Welcome Rachel, Melissa and Dori from Teamwrkx Construction! We heard from two first timers who went to Forum and shared about their experience... very inspiring! Also, past National President and 25 year member Pat McDonald received her 25 year pin! Wow! Thanks to all for a great meeting!

April Birthday Dinner

Thanks to all who came out to help celebrate our Santa Clara Chapter's 52nd Anniversary! Brittni did a great job planning it, we had a blast playing Bingo and it was inspiring honoring all of our past Presidents who paved the way to making our Chapter great! Thanks to everyone's participation and leadership!

March 2017 Meeting

Thanks, Kathaleen, for the great presentation!

Thanks for joining us, SVCTE!

Kathaleen Miller, Vice-President at Bank of the West presented on “Credit Reports and Combatting Fraud”.  A few takeaways: The average time it takes for people to deal with fraud is 21 hours. Wow! That is a lot of time wasted. The most common form of fraud happens by Skimming, where a duplicate of the card is made. Do not carry your social security card with you, there is a lot someone can do with it. When shopping online, look for “https” – the “s” on the end signifies secure. Lastly, it is important to keep your virus protection up to date.

We welcomed guests from SVCTE (Silicon Valley Career Technical Education – formerly CCOC). They thanked us for the donation of the tools. The program is very encouraging to women in construction. The future looks bright!  http://www.metroed.net/svcte/