The first time ever in CREW Boston history, the annual meeting was held virtually with astounding success. With over 220 participants, we kicked off the annual meeting with a farewell address from 2019-2020 Chapter President, Jill Sharif. Jill recapped the CREW Boston year and thanked our sponsors who have helped support the organization and the mission. Four new board members were officially voted in for a three year term: Abigail Day, Rachael Diharce, Shelly Gouin, and Amy Korte, We also thanked the five board members for their leadership and service who were ending their board term this year: Erin Channel, Pam Messenger, Barbara Oddo, Julie Schultz, and Lisa Strope. Jill then introduced Laura Gregoriadis as the 2020-2021 Chapter President and Laura provided her goals for the Chapter in the coming year and also announced President-Elect, Kerry Hawkins.
Laura welcomed back guest speaker Alison Levine, who was our annual meeting speaker in 2019. Alison helped provide guidance and support as our audience continues to tackle the COVID pandemic that has affected everyone personally and professionally. Her experience crossing the Antarctica brought out advice on leadership, overcoming challenges, and working as a team. Here are a few takeaways from Alison Levine:
- As a team, solutions need to be found to get to the end goal
- Focus on bringing out the best of yourself or your team members
- Help lighten someone’s “load” - help ways to compensate a team member’s weakness versus overcome
- Your weaknesses does not determine your value
- Sometimes what we give may have tremendous value for another person
- Work and highlight your strengths than comparing and competing with other people’s strengths
- Being you is your superpower