The members of FWA know that it provides wonderful networking opportunities and so many types of training for and assistance in our business positions. However, we wanted to make sure that all FWA members know that FWA also provides each of them important and valuable international networking opportunities. FWA is a network member of The International Alliance for Women – and this means that all FWA members automatically receive and have access to all the benefits of TIAW:

• International connections with businesswomen, literally across the world, to increase your professional relationships or for personal growth and travel
  
  
• 34 businesswomen networks, representing 50,000 individual members in such far-flung and interesting cities and countries as:
  

- Nairobi, Kenya - Manila, The Philippines - Singapore - Wellington, New Zealand - All of Western Europe - Sofia, Bulgari - Gjakove, Kosovo - Three networks in Toronto, Canada - Panama City, Panama - Coquimbo, Chile - And cities throughout Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Colorado,    Washington D.C., New York and other U.S. cities



• Individual members located in Africa, Canada, the Caribbean, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Norway, Panama, the Philippines, Republic of Georgia, Singapore, United Kingdom, Ukraine, and United States.
  
  
• When you travel for business or pleasure, all these women are ready to welcome you to their countries and cities; you have a ready-made international network of business and community connections
  
  
• Access to TIAW’s website, including the members-only section with its connectivity: you can reach, or be reached by, all the TIAW networks and individual members
  
  
• TIAW’s electronic newsletter and notices -– you can receive your own e-mailed copies of either of these communications, to know of issues affecting your international network colleagues and women worldwide, and to learn of TIAW’s international conferences and its networks’ events.

TIAW’s members are leaders in their respective communities: executives, professionals and entrepreneurs, hailing from a variety of business, academia, government, and non-profit organizations. FWA was one of the vfounding network members in 1980, and has remained a strong and interested member and partner with TIAW. This gives you all the benefits listed above, plus discounted member-rates for all TIAW’s conferences (an international trip each year and its annual conference, in the Americas).

TIAW serves as a global umbrella organization that unites, supports and promotes professional women and their networks to work together, share resources and leverage ideas. The universal focus of TIAW is economic, without regard to culture, politics, race or religion. Thus, it runs programs devoted to improving the economic status of all women through economic empowerment and advancement. You can learn much from all these TIAW programs and the women who run them:

• The Microenterprise Development Program: last year TIAW funded 25 village banks to provide micro-lending for impoverished women in developing countries to start or expand micro-businesses and achieve self-sufficiency; several FWA members were involved in these efforts or in funding a bank
  
• The Women on Boards Initiative: motivates demand for qualified women to serve on for-profit and non-profit boards; educates members on issues of directors’ responsibilities and liabilities, board governance, operations and trends; and works with member associations on educational and placement activities
  
• The TIAW Entrepreneurship Initiative: seeking to enhance the lives of TIAW’s entrepreneurs by reducing their sense of isolation, improving their abilities, and increasing their business opportunities. The goal of the Entrepreneurship Initiative is to assist TIAW members in outperforming their competition and exceeding their prior growth rates.
  
• TIAW Daughters: prepares girls (ages 10-16) for financial independence through a proprietary mentoring program including one-on-one sessions, seminars, workshops and special events.

You have all this at your fingertips, at www.tiaw.org , and because you are an FWA and TIAW member, access to the members-only section. Contact lmezzettifwa@cmht.com for the members-only password, and find the backgrounds of and contact information for networks and members around the world. For a small payment, you can list your own 100-word professional or business profile in the TIAW Business Directory, giving yourself the opportunity to reach (or be reached by) our 50,000 international members, who are looking to network with you.

Take advantage of your membership in TIAW today!

Want more information? Contact Ellen J. Cahill ellen@cahillassoc.com or Lisa M. Mezzetti lmezzettifwa@cmht.com with your questions.