On Thursday night a large group of women descended upon Mill Valley. There were so many beautiful women arriving, the town couldn’t contain itself and erupted in excitement.

The reason for all the excitement was the A Band of Wives event happening at El Paseo restuarant.

  “A Band of Wives is not about being married to men. It is a sisterhood of women who are supportive of other women and are looking to connect with likeminded women.  We are helping women bring community back to their communities.”

As I was driving to the event the street literally was erupting in front of my eyes (and my car). I was a little nervous to drive by but ended up getting a great car wash (and photo) at no charge.

When I arrived to El Paseo I knew I was at the right place because I found the patio full of beautiful women.

Photo borrowed from A Band of Wives

I was happy to find familiar faces as soon as I walked in. My Tweeps were there!  I said hello to my tweep friends, made my way to the bar, had a glass of complimentary bubbly, then did I little mingling. Ran in to the authors (Sue Warhaftig and Beverly Butler) of the book, Meant to Be that we are currently reading for the Twitter Book Club, chatted it up with them for a bit and then like a magnet was drawn back to the corner where my Tweeps were. Guess what they were doing? They were in a huddle looking down at their phones! I joined them. I SO wish I had a picture! However, I did get a picture of our toes. We were acting like a bunch of 7th grade girl wallflowers with the difference that we were having a blast tweeting it up while chatting with each other.

So… we aren’t that bad, we did actually talk to some non-tweeting wives. How could we not? They were all so friendly.

At one point during the evening Christine Bronstein, the founder, got up to speak and tell us about a sister wife who is going through a very difficult time.  Here’s an excerpt* from the ABOW Facebook page with an example of how the wives actually do band together:

After the first El Paseo gathering I wrote “Oh what a night! There are simply no words to describe the high that comes with flittering, fluttering and floating amongst so many amazing wives who came from far and wide and mingled and laughed and ate and drank and were merry all around!”

This feeling, this merriment and excitement and support was still in full effect on this July night but tenfold as wives packed up the venue and enthusiastically reached out to each other in true ABOW spirit… but our gathering was also bittersweet as wives lived up to our ABOW name and indeed banded together for one of our own who needs help, wife Tika Hick.

Thank you Christine for the spur-of-the-moment fundraiser for Tika. If you don’t know the story, our wife Tika has been battling breast cancer with a new baby, is scheduled for a double mastectomy on July 20th and could really use our support in now tragically losing her husband (http://ow.ly/5G4Nn ). Please keep her in your prayers and if you want to help financially:

Attn: Matt Johnson
Bank of Marin
501 Sir Francis Drake Blvd
Suite 100
Greenbrae, CA 94904
Make payable to Hick/Potts Fund, Tika Hick or Bank of Marin and reference Tika

*Written by the fabulous Leila Radan who is the Director of Operations for A Band of Wives.

 

Here is another post about Tika from a fellow wife/Tweep @LisaKiftTherapy who posted Tika’s story on her blog.

After lots of love, tears, laughter, socializing and tasty appetizers (the little cups of Mac-n-Cheese were to die for!) the geeks, I mean Tweeps decided to go out to dinner at Piazza D’Angelos. The 4 of us (@pobutler, @alembic, @tamholland and me) plus one innocent woman we planned to convert (a non-tweeting friend) headed over to Piazza D’Angelos where we sat down at a lovely table and promptly pulled out our phones to check in via FourSquare. We were more interested in our phones than in what the waiter had to say. I think we annoyed him a bit. When we finally got around to looking at the menu we discovered Piazza D’Angelos now has a gluten free menu! However, it seems the waiter isn’t fully sold on this menu yet… when Dolores and I ordered the gluten free gnocchi his response was do you want that one or the REAL one. We wanted the gluten free one and got it! I imagine being a waiter in Marin must be trying on the patience with all the quirkiness in diets that Marinites come up with.

Our plan worked, my friend Dolores converted and is now tweeting! She just had to try it after sitting there with us for awhile watching us tweet and chat about tweets. She grasped the concept of how Twitter works faster than anyone I’ve ever taught! She’s a natural. Follow her here: @mizstarryeyed She and I put our phones down long enough to take this picture.

A special thank you to Leila Radan for being SO active on the social networking sites keeping me informed about the upcoming A Band of Wives events. To Christine Bronstein for creating this wonderful group. Tolan Florence for welcoming us into El Paseo. To my Tweeps for sitting in restaurants with me tweeting. And all the wonderful women who showed up!

I’m famous! Well not exactly… but I was mentioned in the Marin Magazine this month! Marin Magazine is our local magazine highlighting all things happening north of the Golden Gate Bridge (in Marin County).

Marin: have you read your February issue of Marin Magazine yet? Our TweetUps were mentioned in it! By the way, you are all invited to the TweetUp on 2/17 at Pacific Catch to celebrate the article (even if you’re not on Twitter stop by to say hi and meet all my Marin Twitter friends!) More info here: TweetUp

Here’s a photo of the article courtesy of Peggy Butler.

I’ve always been a advocate for goal setting. A few years ago, one of the goals I wrote down was to be in the Marin Magazine. It feels nice to cross this one off my list!

Come out and taste some delicious soups and desserts at Marin’s Soup and Dessert Challenge.

Mill Valley Community Center

Saturday, January 22, 2011

12-3pm

Restaurants and businesses will be offering their best and letting us be the judges.

Marin’s Soup and Dessert Challenge is a benefit for CIP Marin.

Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Bring the family, all ages welcome. Kids under 12 free!
More info here: http://cipmarin.org/pages/event/event/loving_spoonfuls.htm

Toastmasters can be for anyone, you don’t have to live in the Bay Area to go to a Toastmasters meeting. You can find Toastmasters meetings all over the world.

I’m a member of the San Rafael Dominican University Toastmasters group. I’m actually the VP of Public Relations.

I joined Toastmasters because I realized I was losing the art of verbal communication. I was spending so much time on my computer networking online with others that I was starting to lose my voice, literally. You know the saying, ‘if you don’t use it, you lose it’.

I joined Toastmasters because I wanted to get more comfortable with public speaking but I’ve learned there is so much more you can get out of Toastmasters. Since joining a year ago I’m more confident negotiating deals, I’m a better listener and I’m comfortable taking charge in group situations. I’m also quicker to think on my feet.

In the past while at dinner parties I’d often freeze up during interesting conversations. My mind would just go blank and I’d have nothing to contribute, until later that night after the party was over I’d think of all sorts of interesting and intelligent things to say. Since joining Toastmasters and regularly taking part in the activity called Table Topics I’ve found that I’m now able to “think on my feet” and participate in these conversations.

Our group meets every Tuesday from 12-1. We meet at Dominican University but the group is open to the public. Our members consist of students, teachers, faculty, staff and community members (like me). We are a very relaxed and fun group.  Our number one focus is on having fun. We welcome guests and new members! If you’d like to visit our group please stop by any Tuesday at 12.  Currently we are meeting in Guzman Hall, Room 201. Check our Website to confirm location, we occasionally change room locations.

For more information visit: Dominican Toastmasters
We’re also on Facebook and Twitter.

To find out about Toastmasters in your area visit the Toastmasters International Site.

PS. If you are thinking about joining Toastmasters but feeling a little intimidated… just do it! If you want to talk more about our group feel free to contact me directly. And if you are worried about the cost, it is very affordable. There is a one time $20 new-member fee, then $27 dues every six months. (pro-rated if you join in mid-term).

We had another TweetUp lunch at Thai Smile today (long story why we went to Thai Smile twice in a row but hey it’s good and cheap… $10 each).  I had the Pad See–ew Stir-fried flat-rice noodles with Chinese broccoli in garlic bean sauce. Yummy! (Thank you @WhatsCooking for the suggestion!)

Not sure what to call our group that is forming. The Twitter Ladies, The Women of Twitter, The Marin Mafia Mom’s & Co, Twitter Lunch Ladies and Occasional Man, People who Tweet & Like to Eat <– oh I like this one!

We had a new guest man today: Mike Wolpert. We met Mike thanks to FourSquare. Peggy & Hannah have been competing to be Mayor of Café Gratitude and for quite some time have been stealing the mayorship back and forth from each other and then out of nowhere last week this guy named Mike Wolpert steps in and takes over mayorship. The Marin Ladies of Twitter Who Tweet & Like to Eat while checking in at FourSquare were up in arms that their mayorship had been taken by this stranger! So we did what we do best and stalked him on Twitter.

So today the People Who Tweet & Like to Eat met at Thai Smile again but it was a semi-different crowd this time. We had @PoButler, @Fun_Master, @MomnTwins, @Sally_K, @WorkFromWithin, @DianeFischler, @WhatsCooking, @MikeWolpert and a non-Tweeting friend of Hannah & Peggy named Becky who @momntwins (Hannah) tricked in to coming (I think she is trying to convert her in to being a Twitter addict).  Becky was nice enough to take this photo of us!

The People Who Tweet & Like to Eat are planning to go to Pacific Catch in Corte Madera next Wednesday, 5/12 at 1:00pm. I heard the Pacific Catch in Corte Madera was the best location out of all the Pacific Catch’s around. If you are in the neighborhood please feel free to join us for lunch!

We had an informal mini TweetUp at Thai Smile in San Rafael today. A few weeks ago some of us started talking about Thai Smile on Twitter and decided we should have lunch there. Somehow that turned in to lunch for 11 or 12 not sure just know we were squished around a table for 8. J It’s all good! I love my Twitter friends.

This was a lunch full of Marin’s Powerful Women! I was honored to be sitting with all these fun and inspirational women! Look who came out to have lunch with us: Nancy of @ATOMsanRafel, Diane of @dianefischler, Lissa of @LissaRankin, Tara of @TaraFirmaFarms, Lisa of @LisaKiftTherapy, Peggy of @PoButler, Hannah of @momntwins, Cathy of @CurtisFinancial (who came all the way from the East Bay to join us), Marilyn of @Fun_Master, Michelle of @DrMichelleXO, if I forgot someone please shoot me now.

@SFDoug heard us talking about our plans on Twitter and asked if lunch was for women only. We said of course not and invited him. So Doug was the lucky guy who won the Player badge on FourSquare for checking in with 3 or more people of the opposite sex at the same time. Doug you owe us a drink for or something. Maybe at Rick’s Wine Cellar…

It was great fun! Thanks everyone for coming out! The food was delicious and affordable.

Here are some of our Thai smiles.

Where's Doug?

Hi, my name is Sally and I have a new obsession. It’s called FourSquare, the newest kid on the block in the social media neighborhood. Okay, maybe not the newest but one of the newer kids. It’s already been around for a year.

Next Friday, April 16th Pacific Catch in San Francisco is having a FourSquare Swarm Party!

I have to say I totally agree with @BrainMaker. I want to do a shout out to Pacific Catch because they really GET social networking and what it is all about.

A bunch of people who work at Pacific Catch tweet under various names: @pacificcatch, @PacCatchCOO, @PacCatchChef, @PabloEscolar, @Rob_Villa_PC, and I’m sure there are more.

This shout out is not because they are on Twitter, although I do send them kudos for being on Twitter but it is because they GET Twitter. They understand what it is about. They understand it is not just about shouting and broadcasting to the world. Pacific Catch understands Twitter is about building relationships, it’s about their community. Pacific Catch participates in the conversation. They connect with their community.

Pacific Catch also knows how to throw a party! They hosted 2 TweetUps this week: one in Marin and one in San Francisco. I was one of the lucky people to attend the Pacific Catch Marin TweetUp on Monday night. Pacific Catch was so generous with us, they kept bringing out tasty appetizers and I’m not talking about chips and salsa, they brought out things like Hawaiian Poke, Ceviche and Thai Coconut Shrimp!

I just wanted to say Thank You to Pacific Catch. You guys are awesome and I think I speak for all the Marin TweetUp crowd – we’d be happy to have a TweetUp at your business any day!

It’s not just Twitter Pacific Catch gets, they get the whole social networking thing. They even have a blog!

We are a silly group but we do appreciate businesses that get social media and we will support you!

Thank you Pacific Catch!

A special shout out to Chamin for all your support and always making us feel so welcome and to Amanda (aka @sexythinker) who I have a feeling has a lot to do with all of this.

How do you prefer to connect on Facebook? Do you like to keep your personal profile just for good friends and family or do you open it up for the world to see? Do you let complete strangers friend you on Facebook? How well does someone have to know you to be allowed in to the inner circle of your personal Facebook profile?

Say you meet someone at an in person business networking meeting, they then send you a Facebook friend request, what do you do? Do you accept, ignore or invite them to be a fan of your business fan page instead of being a friend on Facebook? If someone does this to you, how does it make you feel?

I’d like to start a discussion about this. I don’t think there is a right answer and I’m still deciding how I feel about it. I want to hear how you feel about it and what you think is the best practice for business owners.

I personally am pretty open with who I let in to my inner circle on my personal Facebook profile. At first it was weird for me when my clients and neighbors started friending me. I felt exposed, but then I thought about it and decided I don’t do anything I’m ashamed of so why not let my clients and neighbors be my friends on Facebook?

I know some people who only friend their very close friends and family and ask clients and others to connect via their fan page.

What do you think? I understand why someone wants to keep business and personal separate but when I’m the one who has been denied a friend request I have to admit I feel a little bit excluded.

In this day and age of social networking and being authentic is keeping business and personal separate really the best thing to do? Is anything really private anymore?

I figure if my clients don’t like my political views, the amount of time I spend on Facebook, the pictures of me from when I was 12 or hearing about the random things I do everyday… they either don’t have to work with me or don’t need to be my friend on Facebook, but if they want to be my friend and are interested in what I’m cooking for dinner then… why not let them be a part of my community?

Neighbors… well they are a whole other story… LOL if you are going to talk about a party or going out to dinner on Facebook make sure to invite ALL of your neighbors or expect messages saying things like: “thanks a lot for inviting me!”

If you are a business owner with a Facebook fan page, what do you do?

If you are someone that wants to connect with a business owner and they deny the friend request and ask you to be their fan instead, how does this make you feel? Do you want to be their fan still or does it kind of feel like “Let’s just be friends?” when someone says “Let’s just be fans”?

Please leave a comment and share your thoughts on this topic.

Thanks!

Sally

What is this Marin TweetUp thing I keep hearing about?

A TweetUp is a gathering of local Twitter users. It’s an opportunity to meet all your local virtual friends in person. Our TweetUps are fun, casual and totally relaxed. We meet at different restaurants throughout Marin. Anyone who is on Twitter is invited. If you have never come before I invite you to join us at one of the upcoming TweetUps. They’re lots of fun and a great networking opportunity.

It doesn’t matter if you Tweet every 5 minutes, once a day, once a month or just opened your account we’d still love to meet you. If you are not on Twitter but are curious about it, you are welcome to stop by the TweetUp and learn more about Twitter and why we all love it so much.

Anyone or any business can organize a TweetUp! All you do is decide you want to have one, pick a place and start inviting your friends. If you want me to tell all my friends just send me a message and I’ll probably announce it here on my blog.

When you arrive to the restaurant tell the hostess you are there for the TweetUp (if it is not obvious where we are). Grab a name tag and be sure to put your Twitter ID (handle, whatever you want to call it) and your real name on it. Some of us only know you by your Twitter name. For instance the other day everybody was talking to me about this fabulous woman named Suzanna and telling me they thought I knew her. I’m thinking, I don’t know Suzanna then when they started talking more about her I said, “Oh! Are you talking about @BrainMaker from Twitter?”. LOL I knew her by her Twitter name better than her real name.

Once you’ve got your name tag, order a drink if you want and then start introducing yourself to people or look for familiar Twitter names. It’s fun to meet the people behind the tweets.

I hope you can join us at the upcoming TweetUps!

PS. Restaurants: a TweetUp is a great way to get lots of exposure to your restaurant. Not only do you get 20-30 new customers you get those 20-30 people talking about your restaurant on Twitter to their thousands of friends! If you are a restaurant and would like us to consider organizing the next TweetUp at your place of business, please contact me. If you are a restaurant that knows you probably should be on Twitter but don’t have the time or are not sure how to get started, this is also something I can help you with.