Don’t miss out on the hottest networking event of the year sponsored by the Metropolitan Club !
Whether you are building your business, seeking knowledge sharing, mentoring, career management, or other….Networking is the key to success! Engaging with like-minded business professionals is critical to obtaining your goals!
SpeedNetworking.com, the leading company in business match making services is hosting a special event at the Metropolitan Club. Utilizing its proprietary matching softare and power algorithms you’ll experience being paired up with the best possible connections from the participating attendees. Moreover, the Founder of SpeedNetworking.com, Michael Slater is a former Board of Governor of the Metropolitan Club and will be the Facilitator for the evening..
If you have had enough of attending traditional mixers and wishing you attended an event in which you can pre-select the types of people you are looking to meet than this event is just for you!
Participants have the luxury of pre-qualifying what types of people they want to meet by filling out a brief online profile about themselves and who they want to meet. When you attend this event you will be provided a customized schedule (based off your networking selections) of meetings in which you will meet up to 10 new people for 5 minutes each.
ADVANTAGES OF SPEED NETWORKING EVENTS
Take the guess work out of finding the “right” contacts
Guaranteed method of meeting new people
Non-intrusive or awkward feelings of meeting new people
Identify new business alliances, synergies, career opportunities and more
Attend a fun, organized and well structured event where you will meet many people within your target market in 2 hour
HOW IT WORKS?
After completion of payment you will receive instructions on completeing your networking profile online. This process should take approximately 5 minutes or less. When you arrive at the event you will be provided your customized schedule of meetings. Your SpeedNetworking.com host for the evening will provide you all the details for the evening and manage the time for each round.
CAUTION: These events are highly energetic, fast moving,
Cost: $20.00 – includes two drink tickets and appetizers
THE FINE PRINT!
Pre Registration Is Required
After payment you will be directed to the page to begin your creating your networking profile. Please take a few minutes to complete your profile. Your first step will be to create your login and then begin the registration and then you will be provided step by step instructions to create your profile and match making selections. You will also receive an email that will provide you the registration link so you can go back to the registration page at a later date to update your profile.
When you arrive at the event you will be presented with your customized business matchmaking schedule for the evening.
There is a 48 hour cancellation notice. If you do not provide a 48 hour notice of cancellation prior to the time and date of this event we will be unable to refund your payment for this event.
The West Ridge Chamber of Commerce has announced the selection of Edin Seferovic as its new Executive Director. Edin will fill the vacancy that Barb Singal left when she stepped down this past fall to focus on her business consultancy, Ease the Day. The selection was made after a search and selection process that was conducted by the Chamber board of directors, which I am honored to serve on. Barb continues to serve on the board of directors of the Jewish Community Council of West Rogers Park and her insight, perspective and contributions have made a substantial impact on our neighborhood.
Edin’s background includes having run his own market entry consultancy, which focuses on establishing investments and trade between the United States and Southeast Europe. He spent five years as Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Montenegro, where he developed that organization into the largest and most influential foreign business association in Montenegro. Prior to moving to Montenegro he was Director of Marketing and Business Development for Prairie Management & Development, a Chicago-based real estate holding company. His resume also includes time as an Aide to Alderman Mary Ann Smith of Chicago’s 48th Ward.
Since his hire, Edin and I have met several times and have continued working on several projects that are of shared interest to the Chamber of Commerce and JCCWRP.
Welcome aboard, Edin! We look forward to working with you.
The Mayor, Clerk and Trustees of the Village of Skokie join with other active members of the Skokie Caucus Party to discuss the past 3 years since the last election and look ahead.
Local, regional and national legislators talked about the state of mental health care Friday Feb. 10, 2017 at a forum sponsored by Turning Point Behavioral Health Care Center held at the Skokie Public Library. (Mike Isaacs / Pioneer Press)
Last week marked the 16th annual town hall meeting in Skokie on mental health care, a gathering sponsored by Turning Point Behavioral Health Care Center, which is a nonprofit outpatient provider serving Skokie, Morton Grove, Niles, Lincolnwood and Evanston.
For the first time, organizers said, the main auditorium in the Skokie Public Library was filled and an overflow crowd watched the Feb. 10 event by television in an adjacent room. Organizers said 230 people — mostly those who work in the health care field and community leaders — attended, more than double the count from last year.
“Each year at our town hall meeting, we welcome our community to this important discussion about mental health services and the political and economic factors that impact us all,” said Point CEO Ann Fisher Raney.
During the last few years, panelists have painted an especially bleak picture as they say critical funding for mental health services have been jeopardized by fiscal uncertainty and state and federal political tumult.
Turning Point CFO Marsha Hahn, who moderated the town hall, said that Turning Point had to decrease psychiatric services because of grants that failed to come through. Her comments came after it was mentioned that Lake County has a wait list of two to eight months for psychiatric services, depending on the site.
State Rep. Laura Fine, D-Glenview, said she serves as vice chair of the first mental health committee created in the Illinois House and promised to address this issue.
“We need to help our providers,” Fine said. “What’s very frightening to me about the pressures we’re putting on our not-for-profits is that we’re adding one more job to the list of things to do…We’re saying, ‘please perform these services but we’re going to use the money to pay something else right now and maybe we’ll get to you later.’ And that’s not fair.”
State Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, called Springfield “a mess,” but he said he and state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, will oversee a project that focuses on mental health.
“(We) are about to undertake an entire look at the mental health system in the state of Illinois,” Lang said. “We are going to dismantle piece by piece and bolt by bolt and take a very long time to do it, but when we’re finished we’re going to have a better and more supportive health system in the state of Illinois.”
Leslie Combs, district director for U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-9th District, said the congresswoman is committed to trying to protect the Affordable Care Act, which the president and other Republicans have said they want to repeal.
“Before the ACA was passed,” Combs said, “people died because they didn’t have insurance and that’s what will happen here.”
Combs acknowledged that there are elements of the act that need fixing, but, she said, the law should not be taken away.
“Mental health service costs could grow exponentially,” she said. “It would take away access to preventative treatment and create barriers for access for those most vulnerable who are also, as we know, disproportionately effected by mental health illness and substance abuse issues.”
Gov. Bruce Rauner was invited to the town hall meeting, organizers said, but he did not appear.
Some in the audience raised concerns that veterans with green cards are being deported after arrests related to mental health issues.
Combs said Schakowsky supports federal laws that prevent those who fought for this country from being deported.
“As a nation, we should be protecting those who we made promises to and who protected us and put their lives on the line,” added Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin, D-13th District. “I think the thing to do is to just keep talking about it…You have to keep reminding us at every place where there’s a discussion that there is this group of people who have a unique bond to this country because of their service.”
February is African American History Month. This important annual commemoration of civil liberties was officially recognized by the US government in 1976 during the Bicentennial celebration. The purpose of the month, according to then President Gerald Ford, is to urge Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
Members of Chicago’s Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities gathered in solidarity against hate on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at Chicago Loop Synagogue, which was vandalized earlier in the week. (Photo by Robert F. Kusel)
Some 1,000 Chicagoans of all faiths gathered Wednesday afternoon for an event titled “Love Thy Neighbor: An Interfaith Gathering Against Hate” at Chicago Loop Synagogue.
Sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish United Fund, the event featured stirring words against intolerance and for unity from Jewish, Muslim, and Christian faith and community leaders.
The synagogue was the target of vandalism early Saturday morning, Feb. 4, when an attacker smashed a front window and placed swastika stickers on the building. It was the first such attack on the synagogue, which opened in 1959. A hate crime investigation led to the Tuesday morning arrest of Stuart Wright, 31.
Also last week, the Lake County JCC received a bomb threat and anti-Semitic vandalism was reported at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.
Concerned citizens and organizations from many faiths offered support to the Loop Synagogue, including Muslim women and children who sent notes and flowers.
“By coming together, we are reaffirming the best of what our country and our city is about,” said Emily Sweet, executive director of JCRC, who welcomed attendees at the interfaith gathering. She called on Chicagoans to “stand together, not just in response to one crime, but during all the days to come, reaffirming our commitment to the tenet that unites all of our faiths: Love thy neighbor.”
Chicago Loop Synagogue President Lee Zoldan recalled the 1 a.m. phone call she received regarding the vandalism. As she stood in the winter night with her husband, looking at the damage, she said, “We felt very alone. But we were not alone.” She explained that, from that day to this, her job has consisted mostly of saying “thank you” to hundreds of cards, calls, and donations. “One single act of hate led to hundreds of acts of love,” she said.
JUF/Jewish Federation President Dr. Steven B. Nasatir noted that the support from Christians and Muslims at the event mirrored JUF’s commitment to helping others, from the victims in Aleppo to the Federation’s leadership of the Illinois Refugee Social Service Consortium, which over the course of 40 years has “rescued over 125,000 victims of war and persecution of all faiths and nationalities.” He said these efforts emerged from the Jewish belief in “the absolute dignity and sanctity of every person.”
While religious hatred is old, Nasatir said, the level of hate crimes now occurring is “new and alarming. An FBI report released in November 2016 showed 5,818 hate crimes occurred in 2015, up about 6 percent over the previous year. Anti-Muslim hate crimes rose by 67 percent; Jews, just 1.7 percent of the population, are the target of more than 50 percent of all religious hate crimes.” His response: “Let the word go out from this assembly that we stand together to say ‘No!’ to all forms of hate. Let there be no light between us, save the light of liberty.” ( Read Nasatir’s complete remarks during the program. )
Bishop Sally Dyck of the United Methodist Church warned against the “temptation to go numb” felt by many due to “the outrages that erupt on a daily basis.” She spoke of the community as a unified “body” or “fabric” of neighbors. She said that she came to the gathering “to speak, to pray, and to stand with” the Jewish community in the “hope for shalom.” Dyck read a brief poem about the world — “Where does it hurt? Everywhere” — and said people must unite for “Shalom, everywhere.”
Jenan Mohajir, international programs specialist of the Interfaith Youth Core, told her Muslim parents’ immigration story. She said that she, too, raises her children with positive messages, even as one child asked about the synagogue vandal, “Will he break our window, too?”
To help her children cope, Mohajir had her children write messages of solidarity and buy flowers, then brought them to the synagogue on Sunday morning. “We have to be both vulnerable and vigilant,” she said. “My Islam is filled with love and hope. We leave no room for despair.”
Pastor Chris Harris of Bronzeville’s Bright Star Church recalled the Civil Rights movement, and urged the crowd to “say nothing about violence and hatred until we do something about them.” He recalled a recent news story about New Yorkers using hand sanitizer to scrub swastikas off the subway, responding, “What we need is heart sanitizer, to wipe away hatred and bigotry.”
Harris gave three instructions for dealing with challenges to community solidarity: Show up, step up, and speak up; he concluded with three more guidelines: Be connected, be concerned, and be compassionate. These actions engage the head, hand, and heart, he said.
Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III of Trinity United Church of Christ also spoke of the Civil Rights movement, saying that his father had marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and like them, “prayed with his feet.” He explained how jazz music was an amalgam of sounds and instruments from many places that still harmonized, while ensuring that “every instrument has a right to solo.” In this way, he said, “jazz taught America democracy.” He encouraged the attendees to “write, on the blank pages of history … a new song.”
Rabbi Michael Siegel, senior rabbi at Anshe Emet Synagogue, then led the assembly in prayer. He praised God for “believing in the power of holiness in us — despite our flaws.” He said that the light to dispel darkness comes from “acts of kindness … the power of love.” Explaining that the directive, “Love thy neighbor,” the event’s theme, was from the Torah, he asked God’s help to “meet hatred with love and unity” and “to find peace in the midst of upheaval.” Siegel concluded by leading participants in the singing of ” Oseh Shalom” (Establish Peace).”
JCRC Chairman David T. Brown closed the gathering. “I grew up in a world of ‘Never Again,’ in which the depravity of the 1930s and 1940s could never be replicated,” he said, “But our work is not done. We must continue to stand up for what is right.”
Brown said the day’s turnout gave him hope: “Look at this outpouring of community. We must continue to build bridges. This is only the beginning.”
Letters of support from Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, both out of town, were in the event’s program, as was a poem written by Chicago-area Jewish, Muslim, and Catholic fourth-graders participating in Poetry Pals, an organization that uses creative expression to promote understanding and peace in a multi-faith society. Poetry Pals received a two-year JUF Breakthrough Fund grant that will help the program expand its reach to middle and high schools, and create a curriculum that can be replicated in other cities.
Illinois First Lady Diana Rauner was in attendance at the event, as were Illinois Congressman Mike Quigley, Aldermen Michelle Smith, Debra Silverstein, and Ameya Pawar, as well as others representing the City of Chicago and Cook County. Also present were: Holocaust survivor Fritzie Fritzshall, president of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center; Consul General of Israel to the Midwest Aviv Ezra; Michael H. Zaransky, chairman of the JUF Board of Directors; and representatives of other groups.
Attendees received buttons with the event’s theme, “Love Thy Neighbor,” in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. As Brown explained, “This is our clarion call. This is what our Chicago community believes in. And this is the sentiment we want to share far and wide.”
Moe Vela says he wears many hats — among them former White House official, Hispanic leader, author of “Little Secret Big Dreams,” motivational speaker, business leader and lawyer. According to his book, Vela became the first Hispanic American and first gay American to serve two senior executive roles in the White House. He recently visited Pharmore Drugs in Skokie.
Q: What were some of your roles at the White House?
A; I served during the Clinton administration as chief financial officer and senior adviser on Latino affairs in the office of Vice President Al Gore, and later during the Obama administration as director of administration for Joe Biden, the vice president of the United States.
Q: Where did you grow up?
A: I grew up in the southern tip of Texas in a little town called Harlingen on the Mexican border.
Q: What was growing up in your hometown like?
A: I grew up Latino Catholic, son of a pioneer family. Going to Mass, my priest was telling me I couldn’t be who I knew I was. I knew I had a little secret since I was 4 years old. I knew I was gay.
Q: What is your book about?
A: My book is not about being gay. My book is about believing in yourself and persevering and understanding that every one of us, regardless of who we love, regardless of who we are, regardless of our religion, our culture, our heritage, that every one of us is worthy of our place at the table of life. That is the crux of the book.
Q: How did you get to Washington and play such an instrumental role?
A: I was working for a private corporation in Austin, Texas and one of my colleagues in passing said a friend is looking for talented people to go to Washington and work with her in the Clinton administration.
Q: What was your work with the Clinton administration?
A: I started at the Department of Agriculture of all places. Three years into the administration, we’re sitting in a bar and a dear friend of mine said in passing Al Gore’s office is looking for some help for six months. ‘We’re looking for a lawyer type,’ the friend said. I said, ‘I’m a lawyer type.’
Q: How did you serve the vice president?
A: I was asked to audit all the files and folders because (the office) was behind in some payments. It was 1995 but they knew (Gore) was going to run even then so they knew they couldn’t owe money.
Q: Where did you move from there?
A: Six months later, when my term was up and I turned in a report, I was called in to meet the vice president because he wanted to thank me. I get goose bumps right now even remembering that. It was such an affirming moment. He said he wasn’t here to just thank me but to ask me to be his next CFO and senior adviser on Latina affairs and LGBT matters.
Q: What is the key to being a good public speaker?
A: Always speak from your heart. If you keep it real, and you’re open, and you’re genuine, and you truly, truly love, I don’t care what anybody tells you, you’ll succeed. There’s two keys — genuine authenticity and humor. If you make somebody laugh, at that moment you actually love each other.
